Touts Daily Ups! Who Are They Rostering? June 17 Edition.

Tim Heaney has won the first two weeks of Period 3 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com. Touts across the country have adopted the #anyonebutheaney hashtag, hoping to make up ground in this crucial week.

You can see the leaderboard here.

The Top 3 finishers in each period win a golden ticket to the August 26 finals.

Who are the Touts taking to take on Heaney tonight?

Phil Hertz is recommending Matt Shoemaker ($5,900 @ Oakland) and Yoenis Cespedes ($5,500 vs. Atlanta) tonight.

Jeff Boggis:

Matt Harvey ($8,200 vs. Atlanta) When I evaluate pitchers in DFS formats, I have three criteria. I want to roster a pitcher that is trending in the right direction as far as his performance. I also look at the best matchups in regard to the pitcher obtaining a win. Finally, I look at pitchers that have high strikeout rates. Matt Harvey meets all 3 criteria. He’s been pitching much better as of late with 3 consecutive quality starts. He has a great matchup tonight at home against the Atlanta Braves. And in his last 3 starts, Harvey is averaging almost 6 strikeouts per game.

Chris Davis ($6,400 vs. Toronto) I am rostering Chris Davis tonight based on his favorable matchup tonight against Aaron Sanchez. Lifetime, Chris Davis is batting .600 (6/10) with 3 home runs, 4 RBIs, and an on base percentage of .692.

Lawr Michaels:

Matt Shoemaker ($5,900 @ Oakland), who has resurrected himself with five straight quality starts, facing the injured and offensively anemic Athletics (it pains me to say this).

The last cycles I have been trying to milk—although in all honesty, unsuccessfully—the low-end pitchers by stacking my outfield with some big sticks, and the truth his, my hitters have indeed come through all over. That means Kole Calhoun ($5100 @ Oakland) facing Kendall Graveman seems too good to pass up, while Michael Conforto ($5000 vs. Atlanta) against the Braves John Gant (0-1, 5.62, 1.75 WHIP) similarly seems like potential fun.

On the low end, second sacker Whit Merrifield ($3500 vs. Detroit) has hit safely in nine of his last ten games and is hitting .344-2-4  this past week, so I am hoping the Royals new keystone man will keep it up for at least another day.

Mike Gianella:

Josh Donaldson ($6,600 @ Baltimore) With a relatively weak pitching slate tonight (and with my BFF Jake Arrieta unavailable because he’s pitching this afternoon), I decided to cut against the rain and go with cheap pitching and a hitter-heavy lineup. Donaldson leads the group with a tasty match-up against Mike Wright in hitter-friendly Camden Yards.

Robbie Ray ($6,000 @ Philadelphia) I’m not a big Ray believer, but the Phillies have been absolutely dreadful against southpaws this year and Ray is coming off of an impressive start against the Marlins. Only the Braves have a worse wOBA against lefties in 2016.

Scott Swanay:

Julio Urias ($5,400 vs Milwaukee) The Brewers strike out a lot, and if the Dodgers’ braintrust decides to let him throw more than 80 pitches tonight, he may even have a shot at a win!

Jaff Decker ($1,600 vs. San Francisco) Low-cost option who has some power, has some speed, and bats left-handed, which should be enough to earn him the start against Jeff Samardzija.

Charlie Wiegert

Matt Harvey ($8,200 vs. Atlanta) has been hot, and the Mets got some bats back, so he should get a win tonight against ATL, and 7-10 k’s.

Going with a couple hot hitters hoping they continue: Victor Martinez ($4,800 @ Kansas City), Kyle Seager ($5,700 @ Boston), Carlos Gomez ($4,700 vs. Cincinnati) and Will Myers ($4,300 vs Washington). If they all hit HR’s, I should have a good night.

Gene McCaffrey

Few look as good as Michael Fulmer ($6,500 @ Kansas City) these days, against a weakened KC attack.

Watch Pete O’Brien ($2,100 @ Philadelphia) strike out three times and hit a 450-foot home run.

Brian Walton

What is not to like about Joe Ross ($7,600 @ San Diego) and the first-place Nationals invading PETCO Park to take on the last-place Padres? At $7600, Ross is just the eighth most expensive pitcher of the day, performs especially well against right-handed heavy lineups and has three very strong outings in his last four.

I watched Jose Altuve ($6000 vs Cincinnati) go 3-for-7 in the Astros’ just-completed series at St. Louis and it is no fluke. The second baseman has multiple hits in seven of his last 10 games and feasts on lefties, such as very hittable Reds starter John Lamb, who gets the road start Friday night.

Tim Heaney

Matt Shoemaker ($5,900 @ Oakland) Love that he’s still this cheap after his recent ace-like run. Fly-ball concerns hardly exist when he visits spacious Oakland.

Pete O’Brien ($2,100 @ Philadelphia) Really hope no one notices this light-tower power hitter is still listed as catcher and is facing a southpaw. Oh, wait, they publish these tips, right? Zoinks.

Tout Wars June 13 FAAB Report Reports!

The fellas over at Mastersball survey the week’s moves in five leagues, and live to tell about it. Big purchases? Tim Anderson, Danny Duffy, Carlos Estevez, James Paxton, Matt Garza, Daniel Mengden, Zack Godley. Plus a Tout AL blockbuster trade involving first division teams. Teams are making their moves.

Mike Gianella covers Tout AL and Tout NL moves, with some commentary about mixed pricing, too, over at Baseball Prospectus.

Heaney-ous! Tim Wins Tout Daily Again!

timheaneyLast week Tim Heaney had to be content to tie for first in Tout Daily by RTSports.com with Rick Wolf. This week Tim has the winner’s circle to himself.

At 11pm ET last night, the leaderboard looked totally different than the final results. Clayton Kershaw was just getting started pitching in San Francisco, and the top of Tout Daily standings for the day was filled with teams whose two pitchers were done for the night. But as Kershaw pitched, things changed.

By night’s end, eight of the top 10 teams had Kershaw on their roster, including Heaney. Only Gene McCaffrey, in third place, and Phil Hertz, in ninth, were Kershawless.

Screenshot 2016-06-11 07.07.49Heaney paired Kershaw with Jason Hammel, who had an off night against the Braves, but Tim managed to also roster Dae-Ho Lee and Wil Myers, the night’s two big hitters. He also received solid performances from Nolan Arenado, Adam Duvall and Marcell Ozuna.

Tristan Cockcroft finished second, pairing Kershaw with Matt Harvey, who had a fine night but was unable to gain the all important Win. Cockcroft also rostered Lee, and got a nice night from Melvin Upton.

Gene McCaffrey, notably, did not roster Kershaw. But his Stephen Strasburg was the third biggest earner among pitchers last night, and Matt Andriese earned the win and 11.33 points in his improbably win-laden streak so far this year.

Pitchers on Top 10 teams for the night were Kershaw, Harvey, Andriese, Hammel, Junior Guerra, Chris Sale, and Steven Wright (the second biggest earning pitcher on the night). Kershaw was owned by 44 percent of RTSports teams.

With two first place finishes in the first two weeks of Period Three of Tout Daily, Heaney has a solid lead over Glenn Colton and Tristan Cockcroft. You can see the whole leaderboard here. The top three finishers after four weeks will earn tickets to the August 26th Finals.

Thus far, Patrick Davitt, Jason Collette, Brian Walton, Patrick Mayo, Jeff Erickson and Rob Leibowitz have earned tickets to the finals.

The Touts play DFS together every Friday, and leave tips here at toutwars.com Friday afternoon for that evening’s plays.

You can play RTSports.com daily fantasy baseball every day, for prizes or for fun.

 

Touts Pick Tonights RTSports.com’s Tout Daily Winners!

As we ease into the second week of period three of Tout Daily by RTSports.com, Rick Wolf and Tim Heaney share the lead in the four-week contest. The whole leaderboard is here.

You can follow tonight’s action at RTSports.com/tout-wars, and join in to make a little paid or free action of your own.

We asked the Touts who they were picking in tonight’s slate. Here’s what they told us:

Phil Hertz said, “I’m going with Stephen Strasburg ($9,200 vs. Philadelphia) against a struggling Phillies club and Cameron Maybin ($4,200 @ NY Yankees) who’s hitting .400 this month.”

Brian Walton:

Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta) has burned me so many times in the second halves of seasons that I tend to avoid him all of the time. But the Cubs righty is pitching well, having allowed just six hits with 13 strikeouts over his last three starts, totaling 16 1/3 innings. There should be more of the same coming against the Braves tonight. Hammel is just the 14th-most expensive hurler.

Off to an ice-cold start to the season, the Yankees’ Brett Gardner ($4,900 vs. Detroit) has raised his average 50 points in the first nine days of June, from .211 to .261. That stretch includes a seven-game hitting streak, with five multi-hit games, including three hits on both Wednesday and Thursday.

Mike Gianella:

Top Pitcher: Clayton Kershaw ($9,900 @ San Francisco). It’s a strong pitching slate today, and there are several ways you could shave a little money off on the pitching side to attempt to make hay with the hitters. This is also what is called overthinking it. Kershaw is money in the bank and should be the anchor of everyone’s staff in nearly every case.

Top Hitter: Jay Bruce ($5,200 vs. Oakland). Bruce has been terrific this year, and gets a nice match-up at home against a pitcher in Sonny Gray who has struggled this year and is coming off of injury.

Jeff Boggis: 

Top Pitcher – Clayton Kershaw ($9,900 @ San Francisco) There are a lot of great options tonight for starting pitchers and varying salary levels. And I know that rostering the top salaried pitcher does not necessarily guarantee positive results as even Clayton Kershaw can have a bad outing. But when it comes to played Daily Fantasy Sports, I play the percentages, and the percentages say that the top pitchers are going to put up fantasy points for your team more often than not. This is why I am rostering Clayton Kershaw tonight. There is no surprise that Clayton Kershaw is the most expensive starting pitcher in tonight’s contest at $9,900, but you can roster Kershaw tonight and still have the ability to build a decent team around him. If we do a deeper dive into Kershaw’s pitching stats, he has lived up to expectations. Over his last 7 starts, Kershaw is 6-0 and is averaging 7.9 innings pitched, 23.9 outs, 0.7 earned runs, 9.9 strikeouts, and 20.9 fantasy points per game. Over this time period, he has a 0.81 ERA and holding opponents to a .146 batting average. Tonight, he travels to San Francisco to face Johnny Cueto. Johnny Cueto is going on 6 days of rest, but the stats are not in his favor. On 6 days of rest, Cueto is 4-9 with a 3.01 ERA in 34 starts.

Top Hitter – Wil Myers ($4,300 @ Colorado)

Top Team to Stack – Chicago Cubs – Anthony Rizzo ($6,500 @ Atlanta) and Kris Bryant ($6,300 @ Atlanta)

When selecting my hitters in daily fantasy sports, I typically play the matchups and roster hitters that are facing bad pitchers. I use their roster salary as a key to determine the good from the bad pitchers on any given night. This works great when stacking. It’s not often that we have the opportunity to roster any players on the Chicago Cubs as they typically play in the afternoon, but they are on the road this evening in Atlanta, and have a great matchup against Bud Norris who has a 5.28 ERA and 1.61 WHIP. My top Chicago Cubs players to stack tonight are Anthony Rizzo at $6,500 and Kris Bryant at $6,300.

I also like Wil Myers who qualifies as an Outfielder on RT Sports tonight. In the past 5 games, Myers has hit four home runs and is a value play at $4,300. He is on the road at player-friendly Coors Field in Colorado and is facing Jon Gray, who is sporting a 5.33 ERA, but has won four out of his last five starts.

Gene McCaffrey:

Pitcher: Stephen Strasburg ($9,200 vs. Philadelphia) at home against the punchless Phillies.

Hitter: Wil Myers ($4,300 @ Colorado) in Coors should put up some points at a discount price.

Tim Heaney:

Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta): I’ll keep picking on the worst team OPS with an ace-like arm — especially with the price so jaw-droppingly low.

Adam Duvall ($4,600 vs. Oakland): Despite his recent bounceback, Sonny Gray visiting Great American Ball Park looks like a winning pitching machine to me.

Charlie Wiegert:

Top Pitcher…No, not a top pitcher on my squad tonight, taking two long shots, Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta) to rack up Ks and a win vs ATL, and Ian Kennedy ($5,300 @ White Sox) to do the same at home against CWS. I wouldn’t recommend either pitcher, but they could pull off 15-20 points each tonight!

Top Hitters…with the $ saving on my pitchers, I’m taking Miguel Cabrera ($6,500 @ NY Yankees), Jose Altuve ($6,000 @ Tampa Bay) and Mookie Betts ($6,500 @ Minnesota) to click. Riding a hot Wil Myers ($4,300 @ Colorado) at COL, and my sleeper is Kelly Johnson ($2,400 @ Milwaukee), back with the Mets, hoping he takes Junior Guerra deep in MIL tonight.

Lawr Michaels says, “Ugh. I like Lance McCullers ($7,700 @ Tampa Bay) and Bryce Harper ($6,600 vs Philadelphia) and Bobby Wilson ($2,300 @ Seattle) today.

Ray Murphy:

– If you believe Matt Harvey ($8,200 @ Milwaukee) is back, tonight might be the last night to get him at a sub-ace price.
– Meanwhile, Mike Pelfrey ventures into Yankee Stadium. All Yanks bats, especially the lefties, are in play. I like Carlos Beltran ($4,400 vs. Detroit) to find the short porch.
Scott Swanay:
Pitcher –Jason Hammel ($6,900 @ Atlanta).  It’s tempting to shell out for a Kershaw or a Strasburg, but Hammel has been surprisingly effective this season (even if he is arguably only the fourth best pitcher in the Cubs’ rotation).  Meanwhile the Braves’ offense has been unsurprisingly ineffective this season.
Hitter –Carlos Beltran ($4,400 vs. Detroit).  He’s coming off a great series vs. the Angels, and he gets to take batting practice against Mike Pelfrey.  Wear a hardhat if you’re going to the game and sitting in the upper deck in right field.
Jeff Erickson

Pitcher – I went with Ian Kennedy ($5,300 @ White Sox) to pair with Kershaw. At $5,300 he’s a decent strikeout producer against a White Sox lineup that doesn’t scare me, and he allows me to buy some decent hitters.

 Hitter – Cubs hitters against Bud Norris seems to be a pretty good matchup, so I’ve fit in Dexter Fowler ($4,900 @ Atlanta) and Jason Heyward ($4,900 @ Atlanta) to key my outfield.

Hershey and Zimmerman Continue to Open Head 2 Head Leads!

Screenshot 2016-06-06 09.03.09Tout Wars Head 2 Head standings are in for the week ending June 5, and Brent Hershey and Jeff Zimmerman each went 4-2 for the week, increasing their leads over an increasingly jumbled middle-of-the-pack.

You can check out all the action and see this week’s matchups at onRoto.com.

Scoring rules: Each week teams face off with six wins/losses at stake in 10 categories. The team that wins the most hitting categories earns two wins, the team that wins the most pitching categories earns two wins, and the team that wins the most overall categories earns two wins. Ties split the two wins one and one.

Fit To Be Tied! Rick Wolf and Tim Heaney Deadlocked After Week 1 of Tout Daily 3.

Screenshot 2016-06-04 10.44.33Both Tim Heaney and Rick Wolf started with Noah Syndergaard and Drew Pomeranz as their pitchers. Nothing surprising there. Pomeranz was owned by 25 percent of RTSports.com’s daily fantasy players yesterday, and Syndergaard was owned by a whopping 69 percent, despite being the day’s most expensive pitcher.

Heaney then added Eugenio Suarez, Jonathan Villar, Ian Kinsler and David Ortiz to build his point total to 74 points. Heaney, notably, had two players (Jose Lobaton and Curtis Granderson) who scored zero points last night.

Screenshot 2016-06-04 10.44.43Wolf also rostered Ortiz and Villar, and got solid games from Stephen Vogt and Jose Ramirez. All his hitters scored points, and thus he climbed to 74 points, deadlocked with Heaney.

The two will share the lead for Period 3 of the Tout Daily by RTSports.com contest. The top 3 teams after the four-week period will win golden tickets to the August 26th final, the winner of which will be crowned Tout Wars Daily champion for 2016.

The only other pitchers to lead their teams into the Top 10 were Kenta Maeda, Danny Salazar (the day’s leading scorer), and Vincent Velazquez (who only scored 8.33 points).

Curiously, Mike Gianella and Todd Zola tied for seventh last night, with 66 points. Both rostered Pomeranz and Syndergaard, but shared no other players.

Look for DFS picks next Friday here at toutwars.com, but you can play DFS for prizes or fun at RTSports.com every day.

 

 

Tout Daily: We’re All Tied, Until Tonight. Touts Pick!

A new four-week period begins tonight in Tout Daily by RTSports.com. Four one night contests on June 3, 10, 17, and 24. Top three cumulative scores for the four nights win golden tickets to the 15 entry finals on August 26. The winner that night is Tout Daily 2016 champion!

Who are the touts picking tonight?

Jeff Boggis:

My top pitcher is Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 @ Miami) “Thor” was ejected from his last start on Saturday, with only 2.1 innings pitched, but he will redeem his DFS owners tonight. Syndergaard has only allowed more than three runs 1 time in 10 starts this season.

My top hitter is Starling Marte ($5,800 vs LA Angels) Marte is batting .338/.377/.490 with 3 home runs and 18 RBIs against right-handed pitching this season. He faces right handed pitcher Jered “Subway” Weaver, who sports a 5.40 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.

Charlie Wiegert:

Adam Wainwright ($7,400 vs San Francisco).  Probably not the best reason, but I’m going to the game and it gives me something to root for.  And nothing else has worked yet this year, so why not!?!  Chris Tillman ($6,200 vs NY Yankees) has been hot, and the Orioles bats, going for the win and some K’d vs Yankees.

Matt Carpenter ($5,600 vs San Francisco) and Aledmys Diaz ($3,900 vs San Francisco) see above!  Hot bats in Betts and Ortiz, Long shots Tucker Barnhart (hoping he goes deep vs Gonzalez), JD Martinez (is one of those 2 HR games coming tonight?, and Robbie Grossman (at $2k, only needs a couple points to be worthwhile!)

Phil Hertz picks Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 @ Miami) and Kevin Plawecki ($1,900 vs Miami). 

Ray Murphy:

Drew Pomeranz ($5600 vs Colorado) at Petco, against the Rockies, for a minimum price…. too good to pass up. He’ll be one of my pitchers tonight.

Meanwhile, Jered Weaver has lost the ability to get anyone out, but especially lefty hitters. So I’ll be running Gregory Polanco ($5300 vs LA Angels) tonight.

Brian Walton:

While many load up on either Thor ($9300) at the Marlins or Johnny Cueto ($9200) at St. Louis or even both, I like a pair of bargain picks even better. Kenta Maeda ($7,500 vs Atlanta) of the Dodgers, faces the woeful Braves offense at home, and he of the rebuilt elbow, Yu Darvish ($7,900 vs Seattle), is also at home against Seattle. A bonus is that neither Dallas nor LA are rain-threatened areas Friday night.

I watched Jonathan Lucroy ($5,100 @ Philadelphia) in Milwaukee’s just-completed series against St. Louis and he looks confident at the plate. It is for good reason as the catcher is 11-for-21 over his last six games, including three home runs and 11 RBI. Lucroy draws Vince Velazquez in Philly Friday evening.

Howard Bender:

Chris Tillman ($6,200 vs NY Yankees) He’s taken a major step forward this season and he’s handling right-handed hitting much better than he has in years past. He already held these Yankees to one run over seven innings earlier this season and in the nine starts prior to that, he’s maintained a solid 3.34 ERA, and that’s when righties used to tee off on him.

Jose Bautista ($6,200 @ Boston) I never rely too heavily on BvP numbers, but Joey Bats always seems to go off on David Price. We’re talking about a 1.167 OPS with six home runs, 14 RBI and seven walks over 64 plate appearances. That’s a pretty good sample size to convince you he’s worth the investment.

Tim Heaney:

SP Drew Pomeranz ($5,600 vs. Colorado) 1.02 home ERA so far, plus Rockies are smoother matchup as a visitor. The lefty’s price somehow remains a huge bargain.

3B Eugenio Suarez ($4,700 vs Washington) A trip to Coors Field woke him up from his brief nap. Vs. LHP this year: .306-4-11 in only 49 AB. And 7 of his 12 HR have come at home.

Scott Swanay:

Gio Gonzalez ($7,100 at Cincinnati) – striking out almost a batter an inning and facing a Reds team that possesses some power, but also has a low OBP and strikes out a lot.

Brad Miller ($3,800 @ Minnesota) – we may not get many more opportunities to stream against Ricky Nolasco, so I’ll take advantage of them while we still can.

Jeff Erickson:

One of the challenges of playing the Friday game is that there are so many choices to select your pitchers from, that it frequently is an overload situation. That’s the case tonight – I see 7-to-8 worthy options. As a result, with one of my two pitcher slots in this contest, I’m going to pay up for Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 @ Miami), thinking that maybe he might be lesser owned than usual, hoping my competitors are looking to save a little off the top. I’m using Vincent Velasquez with my other spot, though I’m keeping open the option to pay down for Drew Pomeranz instead if I want to make a last minute hitter upgrade somewhere.

Paying up for (Miguel Cabrera ($6,500 vs White Sox), who seems locked in yet under the radar because the Red Sox are so darn hot, and George Springer against Jesse Hahn, then filling in for bargains elsewhere.

Mike Gianella picks Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 @ Miami) and Mookie Betts (6,500 vs Toronto).

Who Is Winning Tout? June 1 Edition.

With nearly a third of the baseball season in the books, as it were, Tout Wars pennant races are starting to come into focus. (click the links in the right nav to see today’s standings in each league.)

In Tout Wars AL: Larry Schechter is working on a sequel to his book, Winning Fantasy Baseball, with a 23 point lead over Lawr Michaels. His secret? Across the board excellence, including brilliant pitching from Mat Latos.

In Tout Wars NL: A month ago, Todd Zola, Andy Behrens, and Phil Hertz (in that order) were within a few points of each other, well ahead of the pack. In the past month the best teams have belonged to Scott Wilderman and Steve Gardner, but the top three (with less of a cushion), are Phil Hertz, Todd Zola, and Andy Behrens (in that order).

In Tout Wars Mix Auction: Bret Sayre, a league rookie, climbed up from fourth place to first in the past month, getting a ton of power across the board. As he was a month ago, Scott Pianowski sits in second, 11 points off the pace, with Joe Pisapia just behind.

In Tout Wars Mix Draft: Last year Rudy Gamble finished second in the draft league, while Rick Wilton finished last, with one of the most horrible fantasy baseball seasons imaginable. Dealt new hands this year, Gamble sits in first place on June 1, nine points ahead of Wilton, who looks relieved to be out of the cellar. Anthony Perri and Craig Mish are lurking behind him.

In Tout Wars H2H: in the first year of Tout H2H no one knew how it would play, but now we do. The answer is all Brent Hershey’s way. Brent has posted a 34-8 record thus far. Jeff Zimmerman is keeping him honest, with a 28-14 record. The two played each other in Game 3 and tied.