Tout Daily Tilt Tonight, With Picks!

Week 2 of the first period of Tout Wars Daily, sponsored by RTSports.com kicks off tonight at 7pm.

Brian Walton was the leader in Week 1, followed by Doug Anderson and Pat Mayo. You can see the whole leaderboard here.

You can watch tonight’s results live at RTSports.com.

Here’s who the Touts are picking this week:

Phil Hertz like Zack Greinke ($9,400 @ SD) and says that Wilson Ramos ($3,800 @ Philadelphia) is a bargain at Citizen’s Bank.

Charlie Wiegert: I’m spending top $ on top pitcher Clayton Kershaw ($9,900 vs. SF).  He helped win me the Tout Daily title last year, hopefully he can do it again.  Plus pitching at home against the Giants and Bumgarner will provide extra incentive. As for top hitter, I’m going with a hot hand in Justin Upton ($5,500 @ Houston) vs Keuchel, and for another pick, Jeremy Hazelbaker ($4,100 vs. Cincinnati) at home against the Reds.

Lawr Michaels likes Zack Greinke ($9,400 @ SD) facing the largely anemic Padres in San Diego. True, Greinke has been roughed up his first pair of starts, but a safe chance to establish his game (and prove the hurler was worth his massive contract) in a pitcher’s environ against a team with a .291 OBP and 81 strikeouts–sixth worst in the league–thus far makes for that opportunity. On the hitting side, Jacoby Ellsbury ($5,000 vs. Seattle) facing Nate Karns (7.20 ERA) and averaging 3.34 points a game looks like a nice play.

Ray Murphy shares a two-headed pitcher play for tonight: maybe it’s buying too much into early-season performance, but it’s hard to ignore the combo of Rich Hill ($6,700 vs. KC) and Jeremy Hellickson ($5,100 vs. Washington). At a combined $11,800, both pitching at home against offenses that have been below-average so far this year, the pair could turn a nice profit on their own and set you up to build a monster offense. As for hitter, Mark Trumbo ($4,500 versus Texas): he has 2 HR in 9 AB vs LHP this year, and a career-long record of mashing southpaws. Tonight he draws Martin Perez in Texas. Sign me up.

Gene McCaffrey: Pitcher: Clayton Kershaw (duh) ($9,900 vs. SF). Hitter: Robinson Cano ($5,300 @ Yankees)

Brian Walton notes that Garrett Richards ($8,100 @ Minneapolis) did not get off to a great start to 2016, but the Angels’ right-hander should feast on the toothless Twins offense Friday night. Minnesota’s team batting average through nine games is barely above the Mendoza Line at .201, dead last in the American League. My top hitter is third baseman Matt Carpenter ($5,800 vs. Cincinnati) of the St. Louis Cardinals, who draw Reds’ fill-in starter Tim Melville at home. St. Louis’ leadoff man is heating up with seven hits, five runs scored and eight RBI in his last five games.

Jake Ciely: Pitcher: Garrett Richards ($8,100 @ Minneapolis) Hitter: Tyler White ($4,200 @ Detroit).

Scott Swanay’s favorite pitcher tonight is Chris Sale ($9,700 @ Tampa Bay) going against a Rays lineup that doesn’t scare anyone.  Kershaw has a higher expected points per dollar of salary, but Giants are a much more formidable foe than Tampa. Swanay’s favorite hitter tonight is “Hot Start All-Star” Tyler White ($4,200 @ Detroit) going against Mets/Twins cast-off Mike Pelfrey, who’s now pitching batting practice in the Motor City.

New Standings Show Harsh Reality of Tout Wars Head 2 Head!

How are our Head 2 Head players doing this week?

onRoto.com, our stat service, has put together a standings page that reflects the current situation in Wins and Losses. With four days of games left in the first period (worth six games of W-L) that’s good news for some, a bitter pill for others. But hold your heads up, there are four days of games left to play!

Click the image to see the current standings.

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Head to Head War Breaks Out!

Howard Bender started it with an email to the league.

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The only problem? The first “week” of Tout Wars H2H doesn’t end until April 17th! Jake has time to recover.

So do all the other losers. Here are the standings though Monday’s games. Scoring is two wins for three or more hitting categories, two wins for three or more pitching categories, and two wins for six or more overall categories. Ties split the two wins.

You can follow the results here all week long.

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This Week’s Tout Wars FAAB Reports. April 10

Mike Gianella’s FAAB report at Baseball Prospectus is up and it’s good! This week he adds TW mixed bids to his LABR mixed report, and LABR AL and NL bids to his Tout Wars Onlies reports. Very interesting. Read it here.

Learned that Mastersball’s FAAB report was posted (here) with this tweet:

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Brian Walton Wins Tout Daily by RTSports, Week 1!

Screenshot 2016-04-09 10.25.31Brian Walton, of Mastersball.com, sent in his picks for this week late in the afternoon yesterday, and we didn’t get a chance to compile them with the others. He wrote:

Hitter (3B): Evan Longoria ($5100) My top spend on a hitter on Friday is on Tampa Bay third baseman Evan Longoria. This will be the eighth year Longoria has faced Baltimore starter Chris Tillman, so there is certainly familiarity. Over his career against Tillman, Longoria is 16-for-49 (.327), including 10 extra-base hits of which six were long balls.

 Pitcher: Yordano Ventura ($7300) Ventura and the Royals draw the Twins at home Friday night. In five career starts against them, the right-hander has held the Twins to a collective .231 batting average and logged 10.8 strikeouts per nine.

On a night when no one paid up for Trevor Story, Walton’s picks paid off when combined with solid nights from Jean Segura, Scooter Gennett, Taijuan Walker and Stephen Piscotty.

Screenshot 2016-04-09 10.34.06Other top finishers include Doug Anderson (also rostered Ventura and Longoria, but his big hitter was Chris Carter), Patrick Mayo (got big games from Chris Tillman and Delino Deshields), Michael Beller (Tillman and Ventura and Deshields), and Tom Kessenich (went his own way, with Jaime Garcia, Taijuan Walker, Scooter Gennett and Jean Segura).

Jeff Boggis’s lineup (led by Brock Holt and Starling Marte) was submitted on time but because of a technical glitch landed in the wrong place. He’ll get credit for a fourth place finish.

The rest of the Top 10 finishers were Rotoman, Scott Engel, Gene McCaffrey, Scott Pianowski, Rudy Gamble, Jason Collette and Ron Shandler (the last three in a tie for 10th).

Week 2 of Segment 1 of the Tout Daily Tournament will take place next Friday, April 15th. Read all about it here at ToutWars.com.

Screenshot 2016-04-08 11.47.33To play RTSports Daily Fantasy Games visit RTSports.com/tout-wars.

I Wonder Who The Touts Are Playing Tonight! Tout Daily At RTSports.com/daily!

The touts of Tout Wars (@toutwars) are playing Tout Daily tonight, the first of 21 Friday contests that will lead to the crowning of our second Tout Daily champion.

Last year’s champ, Charlie Wiegert, won the final night’s competition by being the only Tout to roster Clayton Kershaw!

You can follow along with tonight’s contest at https://www.rtsports.com/daily/scoring-baseball/5442619/

Here’s who some of the Touts are liking:

Champion Charlie Wiegert says, The game is a little different this year, you get 2 pitchers in the RT sports DFS game, which I prefer!  But you still need two good ones.  I’m going with Jamie Garcia ($6,900 @ Atlanta) tonight. Cardinals need to get on track, and hopefully his spring success will carry over tonight. For the top hitter, I’m spending top $ on LA 1st baseman Adrian Gonzalez ($5,900 @ San Francisco) going against Matt Cain and SF.  Dodgers have been on a roll, and he’s in the right spot to have a big night against a pitcher that might not be ready for prime time again yet!

Craig Mish says that Matt Wisler ($4900 vs. St. Louis) as a second pitcher is worth a shot. Cardinals having major offensive issues to start the season with a ton of swings and misses. Hopefully Wisler will grab 4-5 K’a and a QS. Don’t need much to get the value here. George Springer ($5,900 @ Milwaukee) is one of many Astros to use tonight. Springer showing early better plate discipline and seems ripe for a couple hits in Milwaukee.
Al Melchior says his Top Pitcher is Yordano Ventura ($7,300 vs. Twins), who is is one of my top breakout picks for this season, based on the dramatic improvements he made down the stretch last season. He was particularly tough on righties in 2015, and the Twins don’t have any left-handed hitters that worry me. The Top Hitter: Nelson Cruz ($5,900 vs. Athletics), No qualifying hitter in the majors had a higher wOBA against lefties than Cruz last season. Eric Surkamp won’t be among the better southpaws to face Cruz this season, so it could be a big night for Seattle’s slugger.
Eno Sarris says Jaime Garcia ($6,900 @ Atlanta). This one is too easy. Jaime Garcia is really really excellent when he’s healthy. With a plus-plus ground-ball rate with three pitches that rate above average by whiffs, Garcia is also really good at changing speeds and movements on his fastballs. It’s almost like he’s got four or five fastballs out there. You don’t have to worry about keeping him healthy like the Cards do. You just have to enjoy the matchup against that lowly Atlanta offense, and ace-like stats for mid-table pricing. And Addison Russell ($4,600 @ Arizona). Russell quietly changed his swing heat maps late last year, choosing to stop swinging at pitches inside off the plate and down off the plate. That improved his strikeout and walk rates. His developing power is in a great situation Friday night against a lefty with a bad changeup in a good hitter’s park. Yes, Robbie Ray throws hard and has a decent slider. This is someone Russell can handle, though.
Rotoman took Jaime Garcia ($6,900 @ Atlanta) and Addison Russell ($4,600 @ Arizona), too. Because good pitcher against bad offense, why not? And the ball is flying out in Arizona.
Tim Heaney liked  Jaime Garcia ($6,900 @ Atlanta): Tasty matchup for the Cards’ southpaw against one of the league’s weakest lineups. And Luis Valbuena, ($3,800 @ Milwaukee): Valbuena hit 25 HR and crushes righty arms. He should tee off against Chase Anderson.
 Phil Hertz will go with Andrew Mccutcheon ($6,200 @ Cincinnati) and Francisco Liriano ($8,100 @ Cincinnati).  Pirates on a roll.

David Gonos is picking Marcus Stroman ($8,100 vs. the Red Sox) and Mitch Moreland ($4,900 @ Anaheim).

Look for more next week.

 

 

Tout Wars Daily Starts Tonight!

It’s year two of the Daily Fantasy Sports contest that lasts 21 weeks!

Screenshot 2016-04-08 11.47.33Sponsored by RTSports.com, the Touts will be playing every Friday, with the goal of making the championship match and succeeding 2015 champion Charlie Wiegert on August 26th.

Follow tonight’s action at https://www.rtsports.com/daily/scoring-baseball/5442619/

To learn more about RTSports Daily Fantasy Contests, visit rtsports.com/tout-wars.