Mike Gianella Wins the Week, but Zola and LaMont Shore Up Their Leads.

It’s never a bad thing to win a week in Tout Daily by Draft Kings, but winning the week and still being 50 some odd points out of the money–headed into the Period’s last week–describes Mike Gianella’s situation.

Gianella edged Andrea LaMont and Todd Zola on the week. You can see his roster at left, including two first-rate pitchers.

The problem is that Zola and LaMont were No. 1 and No. 3 after two weeks in the period. While Gianella gained a bit on them, a small bit, they gained on all the other teams in the hunt, namely Steve Gardner and Howard Bender.

Are Zola and LaMont locks? Far from it. It’s too easy in this game to have one’s pitchers go awry and suffer a devastating week to declare winners for Period 4, but if it is isn’t Zola and LaMont for the tickets, it will be because they failed.

Tout Daily Picks for Friday Night, Todd Zola Leads Edition

After two weeks in Period 4, Todd Zola has 31 point lead over Andrea LaMont and a bunch of other touts who are right behind her. That is a nice lead, but hardly an insurmountable one.

You can see the leaderboard here.

Tonight’s Tout Picks:

TODD ZOLA

PITCHER Chris Sale ($13,400): Lock it in, figure out the rest

HITTER Bradley Zimmer ($3,800): Not a huge bargain, but still well worth the cost. Zimmer’s been hitting leadoff lately,a nice spot to be facing Marco Estrada, whose been quite generous with hits and homers this season.

LAWR MICHAELS

Chris Sale ($13,400): I like Sale versus an Angels team that ranks 28th in the Majors in OPS against southpaws (.668).

Jabari Blash ($3,200): Blash has hit in each of his last five games and gets to face the Shark, who has pretty good peripherals, but not much else.

PHIL HERTZ

Ian Kennedy ($8,100) and Bryce Harper ($5,500) are my picks.

TIM HEANEY

Aaron Nola ($8,400, vs. MIL): The Brewers have been mighty at the plate all year but strike out aplenty, and Nola is finding his peak form.

Josh Bell ($3,900 at COL): With the clash at Coors Field, Rockies and Pirates hitters will flow throughout many lineups, but this could be the best value. The switch hitter has smashed 12 of his homers against righties, and for as good as Jeff Hoffman has been, his home starts still put him at risk.

 

The Week In Transaction Analysis: 7/18/17

I didn’t write a piece this week for the Mastersball H2H transaction roundup, because there were only two purchases, but Todd Zola and his band of merry men take a look at all five Tout leagues. Read it here.

Mike Gianella made a big splash for Jose Quintana in Tout Wars NL, and has so far lived to tell about it and other transactions this week. Read his article here.

Todd Zola takes the lead in Period 4 Tout Daily!

Week 1 of Period 4 of Tout Daily was a nailbiter, with Andrea LaMont squeezing out a tiny lead. Week 2 couldn’t have been more different. Todd Zola racked up the points and one the period by 23 points over Phil Hertz.

Zola’s team was powered by Charlie Morton, Josh Bell, Robinson Cano and Bryce Harper. Here is his team (click the image to make it larger):

Zola’s big win puts him atop the Period 4 leaderboard, well ahead of Hertz, Lamont, Derek Carty and Howard Bender, who may all be fighting for the second-place ticket to the finals on September 1. See the Leaderboard here.

Zola, Carty and Bender already have one ticket each to the finals. An extra ticket goes to the team with the most overall points at the end of the 20 week season. So far, Carty leads Bender by 36 points in that race.

The Tout will line up this coming Friday for Week 3 of the four-week Period 4.

Friday Tout Daily Preview for July 14, 2017.

Andrea LaMont is in the lead, but not by much. The Touts are getting their Period 4 Week 2 entries in for the 2017 Tout Daily championship. Here is the leaderboard.

Some are sharing their picks with us.

PHIL HERTZ

James Paxton at home and Bryce Harper at GAB.

JEFF BOGGIS

Top Hitter – Matt Carpenter (1B-$3,800) St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates

Top Pitcher – Jacob deGrom (SP-$11,800) New York Mets vs. Colorado Rockies

LAWR MICHAELS

Jacob Faria ($8200): Crapshoot on the next Tampa future ace facing the Angels, who do indeed like to swing the bats. Faria has 37 whiffs over 38.1 frames.

Whit Merrifield ($4300): It has taken a bit for Merrifield to own second, but he has 13 hits over his last ten games and goes up against Southpaw Martin Perez for the day.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Top Pitchers…going on the inexpensive side with R. A. Dickey at home against AZ, hoping the knuckler will be dancing around in the hot humid weather, and Charlie Morton at home in Houston to shut down the Twins.

Top hitters…with the $ savings on pitching I’m able to put an All-star lineup out there tonight; Buster Posey, Anthony Rizzo, Jose Alltuve, Machado, Lindor, Harper and Judge.  Sleeper pick is Alex Presley.  While this strategy has not worked very well the last couple weeks, I’m sticking with it…tonight might be the night!
TIM HEANEY

Jose Berrios ($7,300 at HOU): I’ll go with the contrarian play against the hot offense to try winning a tournament format.

Avisail Garcia ($3,500 vs. SEA): Similar theme here. Not many people will pick against James Paxton, but I’ll roll with Garcia, who holds a .427 wOBA against southpaws during his breakout year.

GENE McCAFFREY

Pitcher – No such thing as a sure thing but Jacob deGrom at home is always a good bet.

Hitter – It’s about time for Robinson Cano to start feasting; James Shields should provide the meatballs.

Andrea LaMont takes Period 4 Tout Daily Lead!

Andrea LaMont won the first week of Tout Daily Period 4 by the slimmest of margins, riding a fine start by Zach Greinke and big nights from some stud hitters, including Freddie Freeman, Francisco Lindor, Giancarlo Stanton, and Roughned Odor.

Still, she topped Howard Bender (James Paxton, Lindor, Nolan Arenado and Seth Smith) by 1.4 points; Steve Gardner (Dan Straily, Jesus Aguilar, DJ LeMahieu, Arenado, and Nelson Cruz) by 4.1 points and Derek Carty (Paxton, Jason Kipnis, Lindor, Arenado, and Michael Brantley) by 9.05.

Todd Zola finished fifth for the the week, and is one of three Top 5 finishers this week who already have tickets to the finals. The others are Howard Bender and Derek Carty.

You can see the whole leaderboard here.

The Touts will gather next Friday, July 14, for Week 2 of Period 4. See you then!

It’s Friday. Must be Tout Daily Picks!

Period 4 of Tout Daily by Draft Kings starts tonight. All teams start fresh. The top 2 finishers after four weeks will win tickets to the finals on September 1.

Here are their picks:

PHIL HERTZ

I’m recommending James Paxton at home against the A’s and Jose Abreu at Coors.

JEFF BOGGIS @JeffBoggis

Max Scherzer (WAS) $13,200 vs. Atlanta Braves – The highest salaried pitcher tonight, but I can build a team around him. He is money for 10+ K’s and 7-8 innings pitched. He faces a mediocre Atlanta Braves team at home tonight. Roster Max Scherzer tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 4, week 1 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

Aaron Judge (NYY) $5,600 vs. Milwaukee Brewers – He is coming off back to back home run games on 7/4 and 7/5, and is well rested after the Yankees had the day off yesterday. I like the matchup against Junior Guerra and his 4.93 ERA and 1.60 WHIP. Roster Aaron Judge tonight if you want to beat Lawr Michaels in period 4, week 1 of our Tout Wars DFS contest! #BeatLawr

GENE MCCAFFREY

Pitcher – James Paxton has been erratic since his return but is in a great matchup at home against the strikeout-prone A’s, and reasonably priced.

Hitter – Wilson Ramos has picked up right where he left off in 2016, which was a 1.008 OPS vs. lefties.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

Top Pitchers…Going out on a limb and taking R.A. Dickey at Washington and against Max Scherzer.  I might the only tout taken him tonight.  Dickey has pitched well the last three times out, and if the knuckler is dancing in Washington, he might just win.  Also taken Carlos Martinez, who would like to make up for his last horrific start and pitch a gem heading into the All Star game…but a tough match-up against DeGrom!

Top Hitters…the Dickey selection saved me the dollars to afford Gary Sanchez, Paul Goldschmidt, Jose Altuve and Nolan Arenado, an all star infield and great lineup for any fantasy team, but it always doesn’t work out in Daily!  We’ll see!

RICK WOLF

Cole Hamels —  Hamels is coming off his best start of the season, and faces an Angels team in which he has recorded five of six quality starts with a 2.93 lifetime ERA against.  That includes one run off four hits vs them back in April.

Daniel Murphy— Murphy is 4-6 with two homers lifetime vs Dickey.  Murphy is keeping pace with his career high .347 average last season by hitting .340 so far this year.  Six of his eleven hits vs the Braves this year have gone for extra bases.

The Tout Daily Period Three Winner is Jeff Boggis!

I know, you weren’t expecting that. Boggis started the final week down the leaderboard, but a first place finish for the week catapulted him into first. (click the image to see his team.)

Third week leader, Jeff Erickson, managed to hold onto to second place, for the second ticket from period three.

Boggis scored big with the popular and expensive Jacob deGrom, and outliers Logan Forsythe and Brandon Belt.

Vlad Sedler managed to finish third for the period without a single Top Five finish in the four weeks. That is either greatness or frustrating.

After three periods, tickets are held by Derek Carty, Todd Zola, Howard Bender, Lenny Melnick, Boggis and Erickson.

The top scorer for the entire season will also win a ticket to the finals. Right now, that’s Derek Carty, but there are still eight weeks to go.

If you’re moved to try out Draft Kings, who are hosting Tout Daily this year, they have a special offer for new signups. Deposit $5 and gain free entry to a $3 contest. Click here to for more details and how to sign up.