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.

 

Links to May 30th Tout Wars FAAB Reports!

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!

 

In Tout Daily It’s Collette’s Week, Davitt’s World!

Screenshot 2016-05-28 09.23.25Jason 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.

Screenshot 2016-05-28 09.34.33But 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.

 

 

The Fight For First! Tout Daily Week 4 of Period 2 Commences! Touts Pick Picks!

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:

Jarrett Parker ($2,900 @ Colorado). During your Coors stack, don’t forget the visiting team. Parker is cheap and suddenly owns a top=side platoon role, at least, to go with his intriguing power.
Adam Conley ($6,100 @ Atlanta). The Braves have the worst OPS vs. LHP. Conley boasts a 2.73 road ERA so far. Great combo.
Rotoman picks Jaime Garcia ($6,900 @ Washington), into Scherzer because he likes the price, and Jose Ramirez ($3,100 vs. Baltimore) because he’s cheap, hot, and is facing Mike Wright.
Charlie Wiegert goes long:
Top Pitcher Well, it’s time for some long shots.  going with Michael Fulmer ($5,800 @ Oakland) and Williams Perez ($4,400 @ Miami), both could be surprise sleepers, both pitched well last time out without good results.
Top hitters With my money saved from pitching, I’m loading up on both SF and Col, hoping the game is a slugfest.  If you see a 14-11 score, I might have a shot!

May 23 FAAB Reviews!

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.