Point/counterpoint and lots of opinions about this week’s FAAB pickups in the five Tout Wars Leagues, from Mastersball.
Mike Gianella takes a whistle-stop tour through Tout AL and NL FAAB transactions this week, with a sidetrack to LABR mixed. Welcome to the five and dime, Pat Dean! Pat Dean!
Jason Collette endured Adam Conley’s short stint for Miami and rode on the strong arm of Michael Fulmer, the strong back of Josh Donaldson, and the strong legs of Jonathan Villar to not only win the final week of Period 2 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com, but also earned him a golden ticket to the August 26 finals.
Collette also received big games from Justin Smoak and Marcel Ozuna to cap his big week.
But the big story of the week was Patrick Davitt, who finished in the Top 10 for the fourth time in Period 2, the first Tout Daily player to ever do so. No player had previously achieved four top-10 performances in one four-week period last year or this.
Tied for first heading into the final week, Davitt’s performance carried him to first place, all alone, in Period 2, and earned him a golden ticket to the Tout Daily finals.
Davitt’s finish is all the more notable for he rostered not only Adam Conley, but the equally beleaguered Robbie Ray last night. But Jonathan Villar’s legs and strong nights from Ian Kinsler, Brandon Drury, Ryan Braun and Franklin Gutierrez saved the day for the champ.
Jeff Erickson finished behind not only Jason Collette on the night, but also Scott Swanay and Jeff Mans, but his 60 point night and second consecutive Top 10 finish was enough earn him third place for the period, and a golden ticket to the finals.
He rostered the two top and most expensive pitchers for the night, Felix Hernandez and Max Scherzer, both of whom flopped, but was picked up by the popular choice Villar, as well as Ryan Braun and Franklin Gutierrez, but also received big nights from Jonathan Lucroy and Jose Ramirez.
It was a night for the hitters. Only four of the Top 10 finishing team’s pitchers earned 10 or more points: Michael Fulmer, Matt Shoemaker, Masahiro Tanaka and Jacob DeGrom. The other pitchers rostered by Top 10 teams were Adam Conley, Robbie Ray, Trevor Bauer, Max Scherzer, Felix Hernandez, and Mike Wright.
Just missing the Top 3 for the period were Jeff Boggis, Scott Swanay and Michael Beller. You can see the whole leaderboard here.
Join us next Friday as all the Touts start even for Period 3 of of the five periods to determine 15 finalists for Tout Daily by RTSports.com.
And head over to RTSports.com any day for daily fantasy baseball contests for free or for prizes.
For every winner there is a loser, but as we enter the final week of period two of the Tout Daily championship being run by RTSports.com, Patrick Davitt and Adam Ronis share first place. Not that either is safe.
Within 15 points sit Steve Gardner, Michael Beller, Ron Shandler, Mike Gianella, Scott Engel, Tom Kessenich, Bret Sayre, and Scott Pianowski, all of whom have a fair shot at finishing in the Top 3 for the past four weeks in tonight’s contest. The leaderboard is here.
You can watch tonight’s event here, and join your own game for free or for prize money if you’d like.
Some of the Touts have sent in their favorite picks for tonight. Here they are.
Phil Hertz is taking Robbie Ray ($6,000 vs San Diego) and Buster Posey ($5,600 @ Colorado) tonight.
Gene McCaffrey says that Jacob deGrom ($8,700 vs LA Dodgers) carries risk but plenty of reward too, at a reasonable price, while Jarrett Parker ($2,900 @ Colorado) has power and is cheap in Coors, ’nuff said.
Brian Walton writes:
My top pitching pick is an easy one – Felix Hernandez ($8,800 vs Minnesota) against the Twins at home. Not only is King Felix off to a great beginning in 2016, he has dominated Minnesota over his career. His 1.93 ERA against them in 17 starts is his best mark versus any American League squad.
On offense, my recommendation is David Ortiz ($5,600 vs Toronto). Big Papi has been red-hot over his last five games, with 11 hits in 19 at-bats, including two home runs and 11 RBI. In limited career action against Toronto’s Aaron Sanchez, Ortiz is 4-for-8.
Lawr Michaels thinks:
There are some interesting pitching choices, and I have to default to Felix Hernandez ($8,800 vs Minnesota) against the Twins and their 335 whiffs (third worst in MLB) coupled with Adam Conley ($6100 @ Atlanta) facing the Braves who draw the most whiffs against Southpaws.
For hitters, as much as I try to align with the Athletics, rookie Sean Manaea faces the team and so I like Nick Castellanos ($4300 @ Oakland) and Victor Martinez ($4800 @ Oakland) to have the advantage.
Mike Gianella weighs in:
Top Hitter: Carlos Gonzalez ($6,100 vs San Francisco). He’s picked it up the last few games and while Matt Cain has been better of late, he’s a fly ball pitcher at Coors. Hopefully this is the beginning of a big streak for Cargo like he went on last year beginning in early June.
Top Pitcher: Max Scherzer ($9,800 vs St. Louis). The Cards are a tough assignment for any pitcher but when Max is on he can carry a DFS lineup all by himself. I’m willing to shell out the cash and take the moderate risk that he’s elite Scherzer tonight.
Jeff Boggis has some thoughts:
Top Starting Pitcher: Max Scherzer ($9,800 vs St. Louis) Scherzer is the highest salaried pitcher on RT Sports tonight, but this is not the week to get cute with starting pitchers. Since giving up 7 earned runs back on May 5th, Scherzer has returned to pitching like Mad Max. In his last 3 starts, Scherzer has averaged 2 earned runs, over 12 strikeouts, and a 0.79 WHIP. He has won 2 out of his last 3 games pitched. The matchup is not a favorable one as he faces St. Louis tonight, but he does own a career .229 batting average versus their starting lineup. Back on May 1st, Scherzer faced the Cardinals on the road a picked up the win while striking out 9, yielding only 4 hits and 0 earned runs.
Value Pick – Robbie Ray (SP-COL) $6,800 at home vs. San Diego
Top Hitter: Josh Donaldson ($6,600 vs Boston) You may ask, why would anyone want to pay up and start Josh Donaldson tonight as he is tied for the 2nd highest starting salary at $6,600? Well, I have two words for you: Joe Kelly. Donaldson is at home tonight and facing Boston Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly. For his career versus Joe Kelly, Donaldson is 9-17 with 1 home run and 6 RBIs. Need another reason to start Donaldson? If you take a closer look at his batting average splits, he is batting .278 at home versus .214 on the road.
Value Pick – Jackie Bradley (OF-BOS) $4,200 at Toronto – He should be pressing less now that his 29 game hitting streak came to an end last night, mostly because fellow Tout War manager Howard Bender jinxed Bradley by taking him in his DFS contest.
Tim Heaney writes:
Not only do Mastersball writers write about the week’s moves in five leagues, but Todd Zola takes a look at the standings and how much money each team has spent.
Mike Gianella cracks wise and witty on the week’s moves in Tout AL and NL, plus LABR mixed at Baseball Prospectus.
It was the late games that brought the noise for Michael Beller last night, who made a late surge with a Melvin Upton walk off homer, to jump past Tom Kessenich and take the Week 3 Period Tout Daily by RTSports.com game.
Both Beller and Kessenich had rostered Jake Arrieta, whose late win in San Francisco supported the top four finishers last night. But only one of those teams had Melvin Upton, taken by two percent of RTSports.com teams last night, whose final swing in the game’s final game was good for seven points and a slim victory on the night.
Upton didn’t do it alone for Beller. Big nights from Kris Bryant and Marcell Ozuna, both on two percent of squads, and Francisco Lindor, on 11 percent, carried him up the standings before the final blow.
Beller won despite rostering Matt Andriese, who won his game versus Detroit last night, but was the only starter on a Top 10 team not to score double-digit points.
Late in the evening Kessenich had to be feeling good. He had a three point lead on the second place team and both had Jake Arrieta, up 9-1 in the eighth inning, on his team. Alas.
The strength of TK’s team was Steven Matz, whose $7,300 price tag reflected concerns about his arm, which he promptly dispelled, pleasing the 39 percent of owners who’d taken a chance on him.
Kessenich’s team was rounded out by popular picks Chris Herrmann (ultra cheap at $1,900) and Aledmys Diaz (who leads the major leagues in OPS this year), and the rarer selection, Carlos Santana.
Top 10 pitchers for the week were Matt Andriese (improbably), Jake Arrieta, Steven Matz, Aaron Nola (picked by 51 percent of teams), Aaron Sanchez (why was he only $6,100?), Tanner Roark (another cheapie), and Gerrit Cole (who scored 10 points despite striking out zero hitters on the night).
All the action jumbled the Period 2 standings heading into the final week.
Patrick Davitt and Adam Ronis are tied for first, with Steve Gardner just five points behind. Other teams in the hunt are Michael Beller, Ron Shandler and Mike Gianella, with a bunch of teams right behind them. You can see the whole leaderboard right here.
The top three finishers after next week’s game will receive golden tickets to the finals, to be played August 26th to crown this year’s Tout Daily champion.
To learn more about RTSports.com’s daily fantasy games, and to play for free or for dough, visit RTSports.com.
Ron Shandler is in the lead at the turn, as we head into the third week of Period 2 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com. But he has Adam Ronis, Scott Engel and Patrick Davitt close behind him, and with two weeks remaining lots can change.
You can follow tonight’s action at RTSports.com/Tout-Wars, and while you’re there make some paid or free action of your own.
We asked the Touts who they would likely be playing tonight, and why. Here’s what they had to say:
Jeff Boggis said a lot!
Top Pitcher: Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) and Jose Quintana ($7,800 vs. Kansas City. Jake Arrieta is the obvious choice tonight for starting pitchers, but comes at a very steep price at $9,800. My strategy this week is to save some money on starting pitching and go with the value play of Aaron Nola at $6,900. Aaron Nola takes on an Atlanta Braves offense at home tonight. The Atlanta Braves team batting average of .235, ranking them 24th out of 30 MLB teams. Atlanta is dead last in slugging percentage at .318 and OPS at .616. Aaron Nola has a WHIP of 0.85, ranking him 4th overall in the major leagues for starting pitchers. As my 2nd starting pitcher tonight, I am starting Jose Quintana (SP-CWS) $7,800. Jose Quintana ranks 2nd overall in the major leagues with an ERA of 1.54. Quintana ranks tied for 7th overall in the major leagues in WHIP with 0.99. Jose Quintana is at home tonight against Kansas City. In his last 7 starts, Quintana has pitched at least 6 innings and has not given up more than 2 earned runs in any of his 8 starts this season.
Top Low Cost Pitcher – Matt Andriese ($3,700 @ Detroit)
Top Hitter: Danny Valencia ($4,300 vs. NY Yankees). Until Valencia cools off, you have to ride the hot hand. Over the past week, Valencia is the top ranked hitter in fantasy with 8 runs scored, 6 home runs, 11 RBIs, and a batting average of .444. He has a base hit in 8 of his last 9 games started. He faces C.C.’s Pizza Sabathia who is coming off the disabled list tonight to start against Oakland. Sabathia has an ERA of 3.81 and a high WHIP at 1.55.
Top Low Cost Hitter – Alex Avila ($2,900 vs. Kansas City)
Phil Hertz writes: “I’m recommending Gerrit Cole ($9,200 vs. Colorado) as pitcher, and some outfielder on the Angels, whose name escapes me. Oh right, Flounder, or is it Trout ($6,700 vs. Baltimore).
Howard Bender has some ideas:
Top Hitter: Anthony Rizzo ($6,600 @ San Francisco) It’s a must to pay up for Rizzo tonight. An absolute must. Jake Peavy is a punching bag for lefties who are posting a .464 wOBA against him and Rizzo is sitting on a .302/.416/.556 slash line for May with an INSANE 1.334 OPS versus righties while he’s on the road.
Top Pitcher: Scott Kazmir ($7,300 @ San Diego) I rarely like to use Kazmir. Almost never, in fact. But facing the Padres is almost like a gift at this point. The Friars have a below-average .306 wOBA with a 26-percent strikeout rate against lefties and they’ve posted just a .236 wOBA over the last seven days. DO I even need to point out that they rank dead last in offense at home too?
Lawr Michaels likes Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) facing the Braves (who doesn’t?) and loves Michael Conforto ($5200 vs Milwaukee) going against leaky Wily Peralta and his 7.03 ERA.
Scott Swanay reports:
I’ll go w/ Scott Kazmir ($7,300 @ San Diego) as my Pitcher pick this week. His FIP (5.16) has been even worse than his ERA (4.89) this season (which is due in large part to a lousy HR/9 mark), but he’s still striking out almost a batter an inning, and he faces a Padres team that’s worst in the league in OBP, has the third-fewest HRs, and third-most strikeouts. I’m in.
I’ll go w/ Anthony Rizzo ($6,600 @ San Francisco) as my Hitter pick. In the “Two Jakes” match-up the Cubs have the clear advantage, so I’ll stack several of their hitters tonight and hope for the best.
Charlie Wiegert tells us:
Top Pitcher: Not a lot of time to do much research today, so going with my gut, Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) has been pitching well, Atlanta’s offense is not good and they tend to strike out, seems like a reasonable pick. Tanner Roark ($5,600 at Miami) had a bad start last time out, but he did have a big K game a few weeks ago, maybe lightening can strike again versus the Marlins.
Top Hitter: Riding hot hands. Manny Machado ($6,500 at LA Angels), Ian Kinsler ($5,200 vs. Tampa Bay) and Carlos Beltran ($4,500 @ Oakland). Also taking some Cardinal right handed hitters against Corbin; Piscotty, Diaz and Molina.
Mike Gianella weighs in:
Top Pitcher: Jake Arrieta ($9,800 @ San Francisco) He’s expensive, but so far this year he has been worth it.
Top Hitter: Ben Zobrist ($4,800 @ San Francisco) In order to pay for Jake, I had to avoid any big ticket items on the hitting side. The Cubs will bounce back after a moribund offensive series against the Brewers. Having Jake Peavy toeing the rubber on the opposite side of Jake will help.
Brian Walton’s thoughts:
Of the two NL East clubs expected to be terrible this year, Atlanta has lived up to the billing, while Philadelphia has been respectable while rebuilding. Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) takes on the Braves in Atlanta and inexplicably is just the 12th-most expensive pitcher for Friday.
Danny Valencia ($4,300 vs. NY Yankees) of Oakland has been red-hot since coming off the DL last week with six home runs and 11 RBI over his last seven games. Not bad for the 21st-most expensive third sacker on Friday, who draws C.C. Sabathia at home.
Rotoman thinks Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) is the obvious choice for one of tonight’s pitching slots, with ML OPS leader Aledmys Diaz ($3,800 vs. Arizona) moving up to hit second a fun matchup against Arizona.
Ray Murphy chimes in:
Everyone’s probably going to have Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta), and with good reason: he’s been terrific and the Braves are awful. For a second SP, I’ll go with Tyler Duffey ($6100 vs. Toronto), who has been strong in three straight starts and catches Toronto at a good time. That will leave me with 74% of my budget for offense.
Speaking of offense, Justin Nicolino is terrible, and Anthony Rendon ($4700 @ Miami) should be batting near the top of the lineup against him tonight. I’ll buy at an average-ish price.
Five leagues, five reports, from Mastersball.com.
Mike Gianella’s comments Tout AL and NL, along with Labr Mixed at Baseball Prospectus.
If you checked in early to the Tout Daily by RTSports.com scoring last night, Ron Shandler was in the lead. And if you checked in late, after his team was done, he was also in the lead, and clearly would remain so as long as the Mariners didn’t take the lead and give Nate Karns a victory.
The Ms didn’t, and Ron held on against the Karns-owning Jason Collette, finishing far ahead of a pack led by Steve Gardner, 10 points behind.
Ron built his team around the popular and cheap Rich Hill facing the Rays, owned by 38 percent of teams, and the not-so-popular Chris Tillman, owned by just five percent, against the Tigers. Tillman scored 18 points, same as Chris Sale, the superstar of the night, who cost $3,700 more.
Shandler’s offense was lead by Bryce Harper, Travis Shaw and Jimmy Rollins, and he notably rostered Kevin Plawecki, the highest scoring Met in what proved to be a popular and unproductive stack in Colorado.
Second-place finisher Jason Collette avoided the stack in Colorado completely, and prospered with solid if unspectacular games from Khris Davis, Yan Gomes, Jackie Bradley and Francisco Lindor backing up Chris Sale’s domination of the Yankees.
Pitchers in the top 10 finishing teams last night were Tillman, Sale, Hill, Karns, Jeff Samardzija, and Junior Guerra,
Halfway through Period 2 of the Tout Daily contest, Shandler is 6.33 points ahead of Jeff Boggis, with Adam Ronis, Scott Engel, and Patrick Davitt close behind. You can see the leaderboard here.
The top three finishers in each of five four-week periods will earn a golden ticket to the Tout Daily finals, held August 26th, after which this year’s champion will be declared.
Follow along all season on Fridays, with pregame picks during the day at toutwars.com and all the action all night at RTSports.com.
