TOUT WARS!

Who Are They Picking? Tout Daily Hitter and Pitcher Picks for May 6th.

It is week 1 of period 2 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com, the expert daily fantasy contest. Brian Walton, Rob Leibowitz and Patrick Mayo won tickets to the finals in period 1. Now the scores reset in the next four-week contest, during which three more touts will win tickets.

Who are the Touts picking tonight? (You can follow tonight’s action, or make some of your own at RTSports.com.)

Phil Hertz likes Ryan Braun ($5,900 at Cincinnati) against Adelman in Great America Ballpark and Kenta Maeda ($7,300 at Toronto) on seven days rest, just like he was used to in Japan.

Lawr Michaels loves Thor Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego) in pitcher-friendly San Diego, while on-base guy Seth Smith ($4,000 at Houston), with a .400 OBP, faces Doug Fister in a matchup you have to like.

Jeff Erickson takes Drew Pomeranz ($5,600 vs. NY Mets) in a home start, which saves a lot of cash for an ace and big bats. On the hitting side Jeff is loading up on Reds and Brewers because both Cravy and Adelman are disasters in waiting, and the bullpens are worse. Taking Chris Carter ($5,100 at Cincinnati) over Joey Votto ($6,300) to save money.

Charlie Wiegert makes Rick Porcello ($6,700 at NY Yankees) his pitching pick. “Can the magic continue? Against a Yankee team that is scuffling, I think so. He has been striking out over one per inning and the Red Sox batters have been giving him the run support to get wins.” On the hitting side, he’s stacking Reds tonight against Milwaukee’s Tyler Cravy who is making a spot start in place of Peralta. And using Ryan Braun ($5,900 at Cincinnati)/Chris Carter ($5,100 at Cincinnati) against Reds Tim Adelman. Hoping for a 13-12 game with the ball flying out of the Great American Ballpark multiple times!

Jeff Boggis takes Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego). “I’m not messing around on starting pitching this week and spending top dollar on Syndergaard. Noah Syndergaard has gone deep in games this season, averaging better than 6 1/3 innings per start. He has a favorable matchup on the road in San Diego, but there is a 52% chance of rain tonight and it’s a late start. Keep an eye on the weather and change to another pitcher if the rain chances increase before the 7 PM ET games get underway. For hitter, Jeff likes Mark Trumbo ($4,800 vs Oakland). He is batting .324 on the season, but only .217 over the last week, explaining his depressed salary of only $4,800 on RT Sports today. I’ll take my chances and look for Trumbo to get rolling tonight at home as he faces Oakland’s Rich Hill.

Scott Swanay is on Zack Greinke ($9,300 at Atlanta), who may be leading the league in hits allowed, but he may also be able to cut his season-to-date ERA in half pitching against the Braves. And he thinks Adam Eaton ($4,800 vs Minnesota) showing signs of life in the past week, and facing Ricky Nolasco, who last showed signs of life in 2013.

Mike Gianella is big on Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego) this week. Thor struggled in his last outing against the Giants, but facing the Padres in San Diego is a recipe for success. The Padres have the third highest team strikeout percentage in baseball while Thor has the highest pitcher strikeout rate in the game. Even at $9,300, this screams bargain.His top hitter is Ryan Braun ($5,900 at Cincinnati). I’m all about the Reds stack against Brewers’ starter Tyler Cravy, but Braun gets a pretty tasty matchup of his own against Reds hurler Tim Adleman. Braun is the 10th best hitter in MLB by wOBA the last calendar year. I don’t know how long he’ll keep this up, but I’m all about riding the hot bat against Adleman.

Steve Moyer works for Inside Edge, and Inside Edge likes all three obvious starters tonight (but of course), but I’ll tab Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego) just because he’s a tad cheaper than MadBum (hate those trendy nicknames of today) and perhaps a tad safer than Greinke. As for the hitter, he’s not exactly el cheapo, but he’s not quite high end either – Inside Edge says Brandon Crawford ($4,700 vs Colorado) is your shortstop tonight, facing Chad Bettis of the Rockies.

Tout Wars FAAB Reports for May 2 Collected Here!

Mastersball weighs in on this week’s Tout Wars FAAB moves here, covering AL, NL, Mixed Auction, Mixed Draft and Head 2 Head.

Mike Gianella analyzes this week’s pickups from his solarium aka Baseball Prospectus. Beware the Walrus.

Tout Wars H2H Standings Explained!

New standings are out for Tout Wars H2H. Brent Hershey, Jeff Zimmerman and Peter Kreutzer are tied for first, with 15-3 records.

This is a new league with a new scoring system, so this seems like a good time to review how games are won and lost.

Last week, after the first two H2H matchups, Hershey and Zimmerman were tied at 12-0. This meant that both had won more hitting categories than both their opponents, won more pitching categories than both their opponents, and won more overall categories than both their opponents.

Hitting, pitching and overall categories won in each week are worth two “games” each.

For instance, this past week, you can see in the HIT column, that Hershey won three hitting categories and Zimmerman won two. That means Hershey won two Games for the week, while Zimmerman lost two.

In the PIT column, you can see that Zimmerman won three categories, while Hershey won two. That means Zimmerman won two Games for the week, while Hershey lost two.

In the TOT column, you can see that both Zimmerman and Hershey won five categories each, and lost five categories each, so each receives one win and one loss for that week’s games, making their records for the week 3-3.

Add that to their 12-0 records and they go into contest four at 15-3.

Here’s how the week’s other contests went:

Doug Anderson beat Jeff Mans 4-2.

Peter Kreutzer beat Howard Bender 6-0. (Bender and Kreutzer had a bet on this one. Payoff was photo in front of Cafe Society in Half Moon Bay, where Howard lives.)

Jake Ciely beat Paul Sporer 4-2.

Stephania Bell beat Andrea LaMont 5-1.

Michael Beller beat Jeff Boggis 4-2.

New contests begin tonight! Here’s the schedule:

O Those Golden Tickets: Walton, Leibowitz and Mayo On Train For Tout Daily Finals! Melnick wins week.

The first Period of Tout Daily by RTSports.com is done, and three golden tickets to the contest finals have been awarded to Brian Walton, Rob Leibowitz, and Patrick Mayo.

No surprises there, as these three were the leaders after Week 3 of the contest as well, though Mayo made it interesting, finishing 39th of 40 teams in Week 4. The stumble dropped him from first to third, but he still takes home a ticket.

Fifteen ticket holders will compete on August 26th for the title of Tout Daily champion.

You can view the leaderboard here.

Of the finalists, only Rob Leibowitz finished in the week’s Top 10, which was won by Lenny Melnick. Leibowitz finished in the Top 10 three of the Period’s four weeks.

Melnick’s team (click image to enlarge) was built on strong pitching performances from pitcher of the day Juan Nicasio and King Felix Hernandez. His big hitters, Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout came up meh, but Nick Castellanos had a strong day and the rest of Lenny’s team produced enough points to win the week.

The week’s second place finisher, Jeff Erickson, also had Nicasio, as well as 17 point earner Aaron Sanchez, plus a big night from the Mets Yoenis Cespedes.

Nicasio was also on Bret Sayre’s third-place finisher, while Phil Hertz finished fourth behind an almost equally strong game from Miami’s Adam Conley. Conley was pulled after 7.7 no-hit innings last night.

Other strong pitching performers on the night were Steven Strasburg, Alex Wood, and Steven Matz. Corey Kluber was the other pitcher who led some teams into the Top 10, with 11 points.

On the hitting side, Justin Bour had 17 points, hitting two homers and driving in five runs against Milwaukee. Castellanos and Cespedes were the only other hitters to score 10 points on teams finishing in the Top 10.

It was a night for the pitchers.

For instance, Rob Leibowitz finished the night with 56 points, only 19 of those coming from his hitters. Nicasio and Strasburg were the night’s best pitching combo, with 37 points. That was good enough for sixth place on the week.

Patrick Mayo had 18 points from his hitters, but only 15 from his pitchers (Corey Kluber and Sean Manaea), to finish 39th.

You can play daily fantasy baseball at RTSports.com every day this season, for money in some states and for free everywhere.

Tout Daily by RTSports.com Period 1 Week 4: Everybody is chasing Patrick Mayo and Brian Walton.

This is the final week of Period 1, the first of five. The top three finishers in the Period win a Golden Ticket to the August 26th final. Tout Daily is sponsored by RTSports.com, where you can play daily fantasy baseball for money or for free.

Check out the Leaderboard here. Mayo and Walton are clearly in the lead, with Rob Leibowitz and Todd Zola a step back and a step ahead of the pack. But there is a group of many, two steps behind, a big week from any of whom could upset the standings in a moment.

We asked the Touts who their top hitting and pitching picks are tonight. Here’s what we heard. (And check out the week by week results, and follow live, at RTSports.com.)

Scott Swanay picks Sean Manaea ($5800 vs. Houston) tonight. Sure, it’s his MLB debut, but if you’re in 20th place heading into the last week of a 4-week contest, and you need to move up to at least third to grab a golden ticket, you’ve got to swing for the fences (if one can use that metaphor when talking about a pitcher). As for the hitter, Marlon Byrd ($4000 at Philadelphia) will be a homecoming for him (although he could say that about playing in almost 1/3 of the MLB parks). The opposing pitcher, Adam Morgan, didn’t fool many hitters in 15 major league starts last year, and Scott expects that to hold true tonight in his first MLB start of 2016.

Charlie Wiegert says Juan Nicasio ($4500 vs. Cincinnati) saves some money, and is 2-0 at home with 13k’s in 12 innings. And Top Hitter Brandon Moss ($4000 vs Washington) will take Strasburg deep at home tonight!

Phil Hertz likes Michael Conforto ($4900 vs. San Francisco) tonight against Jake Peavey, and Adam Conley ($5700 at Milwaukee).

David Gonos goes with Mashiro Tanaka ($8000 at Boston) and Robinson Cano ($5300 vs. Kansas City).

Jake Ciely picks Sean Manaea ($5800 vs. Houston) and Michael Conforto ($4900 vs. San Francisco).

Brian Walton says Pittsburgh’s Juan Nicasio ($4500 vs. Cincinnati) was one of the most popular spring training sleeper picks, meaning he was quickly no longer a sleeper. Once the regular season began, he has alternated good and bad starts. The right-hander’s Thursday outing was rained out, giving him an extra day of rest and a shot at the Cincinnati Reds Friday evening. With two pitchers in RTSports, Nicasio’s $4500 salary is too cheap to pass up. Brian watched all four games of Arizona’s most recent series and really liked the way Welington Castillo ($4000 vs. Colorado) is swinging the bat. He is 11 for his last 31 (.355) with four home runs and nine RBI. Having taken Thursday off, the catcher should be well-rested in his Friday start at home against Tyler Chatwood of Colorado.

Tim Heaney writes that Mike Fiers ($6700 @ Oakland) is a fly-ball pitcher in cavernous O.co Coliseum, plus the home team has the league’s worst team OPS at home (.582), which equals a heck of a value. Derek Dietrich ($3900 @ Milwaukee) should step into the lineup at least against RHPs with Dee Gordon suspended. Can’t think of a better opening for that than slugging in the launching pad of Miller Park, against that skunky pitching staff, this time Zach Davies.

Lawr Michaels says D-Ped ($4800 vs Yankees) is hot. Oh, Dustin Pedroia, and he likes Sean Manaea ($5800 vs. Houston) tonight.

Ray Murphy lines up Drew Smyly ($7400 vs. Toronto), a lefty against the Jays, which would have been madness a year ago. But this isn’t 2015. This year’s Jays have mustered just a .662 OPS vs. southpaws; Jose Quintana dominated the Jays in the Rogers Centre the other night. Smyly is Quintana’s equal (at least), and has the benefit of facing the Jays in his own dome, which will help keep the Jays in the park. And as long as you’re defying conventions, consider pairing Smyly with his mound opponent, Aaron Sanchez ($6100 at Tampa Bay), and buck the conventional wisdom about starting two SP from the same game. At hitter, Murphy say Melvin Upton ($3300 at LA Dodgers) should be batting cleanup tonight against the struggling Alex Wood. Upton doesn’t have much of a platoon split for his career, but Wood has been shaky and Upton has looked resurgent in the early going. A reasonable 76 percent contact rate is key to his resurgence. Once he puts the ball in play, his power/speed profile gives him a lot of ways to score points.

Steve Moyer likes Corey Kluber ($9300 @ Philadelphia) because Inside Edge says he makes it two fine outings in a row, and Jimmy Rollins ($3400 at Baltimore), because the bargain shortstop allows for frivolous spending elsewhere. Rollins has been hot the past week and faces “Stinky” Mike Wright tonight.

Jeff Boggis says his top starting pitcher is Drew Smyly ($7400 vs. Toronto). If we throw out his first start of the year, in 22 innings pitched Smyly is 1-1 with 28 strikeouts, an ERA below 2.00, and a WHIP around 0.60. Boggis’s top starting hitter is Gregory Polanco ($5100 vs. Cincinnati). He owns a seven-game hitting streak and is showing very good plate discipline this season. He has increased his batting average up to .329 on the season.

Mike Gianella’s Top Hitter is Manny Machado ($6,400 vs. White Sox), who isn’t running this year, but otherwise looks like he hasn’t missed a beat from last year’s breakout season. Mike’s Top Pitcher is Steven Matz ($7300 vs. San Francisco), who appears to have recovered from his awful first start and looks like a solid matchup against the Giants at Citi Field. I like the idea of going against a team on the first day of an East Coast/West Coast road trips.

UPDATE:

Jeff Erickson says: Just got a lineup in. Hitter is Francisco Lindor ($4800 @ Philadelpha), almost always use him against a mediocre or worse lefty, which Adam Morgan qualifies as. Pitcher was tough – ended up using Aaron Sanchez ($6100 at Tampa) and Juan Nicasio ($4500 vs. Cincinnati) to make everything fit.

Rotoman likes Justin Bour ($4800 @ Milwaukee) against a weak Kyle Davies, and paired the two premiering pitchers, Michael Fulmer ($5800 @ Minnesota) and Sean Manaea ($5800 vs. Houston), looking for some explosive unfamiliarity on the part of Twins and Astros hitters, and a lot of points in order to climb up from twelfth to the top three in Tout Daily.

You Look FAABulous! Tout Wars Faab Reports for April 25th.

The Mastersball Version, covering all five season long leagues. Written by Todd Zola, Lawr Michaels, Brian Walton, Zach Steinhorn, Perry Van Hook, and Peter Kreutzer.

The Baseball Prospectus version, covering AL and NL, with mixed prices accompanying LABR commentary. Written by Mike Gianella.

Shandler Tops Tight Tout Daily Field! April 22, 2016

Ron Shandler bet on two starters from Chicago last night, and rode their sterling starts home to victory in Week Three of Period One of Tout Daily.

Shandler was also helped by Curtis Granderson’s two-home-run night, which led to 16 points in the Mets game versus Atlanta.

While Jose Quintana and Jon Lester were popular picks, only three percent of daily players at RTSports.com played Granderson last night. Of the Tout Daily Top 10 finishers, only Gene McCaffrey rostered Grandy.

On the other hand, second-place finisher Todd Zola rostered both Quintana and Lester, and third-place finisher Mike Gianella rostered Lester, along with Aaron Nola’s impressive bounce back from a recent pasting. Nola was the night’s highest-scoring pitcher.

None of the other Top 10 finishers owned Mike Moustakas, Shandler’s other big scorer.

Shandler’s victory was Brain Walton’s defeat. Walton had won the first two weeks of Period One of Tout Daily, but finished 32nd on the night, stacking the wrong Mets and Rays.

After three weeks in the four-week contest, Patrick Mayo has a slim lead over Walton, with Rob Leibowitz and Todd Zola battling for third place. Adam Ronis, Mike Gianella, Ron Shandler, and Jake Ciely are among the hopefuls of sneaking into the winning group for Period One.

The top three finishers in each period win a golden tickets to the Tout Daily Finals on August 26th, when a Tout Daily Champion for 2016 will be crowned.

You can see the whole leaderboard here.

Play fantasy baseball everyday at RTSports.com.

Can Brian Walton Win Three Weeks in a Row? Tout Daily’s Big Question, Tonight.

A look at the leaderboard shows Brian Walton out in front on the strength of two first-place finishes, and Patrick Mayo just behind him, based on his second and third-place finishes in the first two weeks. Then there’s a lot of folks fighting for third, or hoping for one of those two to collapse.

You can follow the races tonight at RTSports, and play a daily game yourself, for free or for cash.

Here’s who the Tout are picking tonight.

Brian Walton has always liked Matt Moore ($6700 @ Yankees), but he has had a long road back from Tommy John surgery. Last time out, the Rays’ lefty fanned 10 White Sox in 6 1/3 innings but he draws the Yankees in the Bronx Friday night. He still likes Moore as his second starter. On the offensive side, the Dodgers head to Coors for the weekend with lefty Jon Gray taking the ball for the Rockies. After taking Thursday off from his duties behind the plate, Yasmani Grandal ($4200 @ Colorado) should be in Friday’s lineup and has seven hits in his last five games.

Stephania Bell likes Felix Hernandez ($9200 @ Angels) and Bryce Harper ($6700 vs. Minnesota). BREAKING NEWS: King Felix is ill and his start is being pushed back!

Charlie Wiegert can go with Gio Gonzalez ($7100 vs Minnesota) and save a few $ and go with a hot pitcher against a weak hitting lineup. It’s time for Gio to get his first win this year, and at least 8 Ks. Evan Longoria ($5100 @ Yankees) has hit CC Sabathia like he owns him, and he’s on a hot streak right now also, so what’s not to like? He’s Charlie’s top choice!

David Gonos’ top picks are Gio Gonzalez ($7100 vs Minnesota) and Yoenis Cespedes ($5500 @Atlanta).

Lawr Michaels says that coming off a couple of decent starts, Jeff Samardzija ($7600 vs Miami) gets to toss at home against the interesting Marlins. Miami has surely improved their plate numbers over last year, ranking sixth-best in batter strikeouts and posting a .327 OBP. Still, the Giants will be home and ready to take things out on someone, and the Fish seem to be the likely west coast victims. As for hitters, it is hard to not like the Dodgers batters in Colorado facing Jonathan Gray, who will be making his first start of the season. I like Yasmani Grandal ($4200 @Colorado), and also Robinson Cano ($5300 vs Anaheim) going against Nick Tropeano.

Gene McCaffrey thinks Brandon Barnes ($2400 vs Dodgers) should do a little something and lets you use more expensive hitters, so necessary tonight, while Aaron Sanchez ($6100 vs Oakland) is home against a weak lineup, and cheap.

Tim Heaney picks 1B Ryan Howard ($3900 @ Milwaukee) because homers have been flying out of Miller Park. He’ll take this clearance-priced chance Howard launches at least his fifth against Zach Davies. SP Adam Wainwright’s ($7900 @ San Diego) early struggles have lowered his price to a more rational point for someone of his diminishing skill. But … it’s Petco Park vs. a AAA lineup, so let’s go for it.

Jeff Erickson was a doubter for his season-long leagues, much to his chagrin, but Aaron Sanchez’s ($6100 vs Oakland) still priced affordably for daily. In a two-pitcher format, especially when you want to get some Coors, you need to find that cheaper option. Odubel Herrera ($4,100 @ Milwaukee) is batting leadoff against a gas can in a pretty good hitter’s park when the roof is closed. At $4,100, he also helps save some cash to afford a Dodgers stack.

Phil Hertz says Lucas Duda ($5200 @Atlanta) is heating up and faces Bud Norris, while Jeff Samardzija ($7600 vs Miami) at AT&T is enticing.

Jeff Boggis’s top starting pitcher on RTSports Friday night’s Tout Daily contest is Toronto’s Aaron Sanchez’s ($6100 vs Oakland). Through 20 innings pitched, he is 1-0 with a 20/7 K/BB ratio, a 1.35 ERA, and a 0.85 WHIP. The price is very favorable at only $6,100, ranking him as the 17^th highest salary. That is a savings of $3,100 compared to Felix Hernandez. Sanchez has averaged 13.7 fantasy points per game this season. Sanchez is at home, with a neutral matchup against the Oakland Athletics. He faces starting pitcher Sonny Gray, which is a tough matchup, but Boggis feels that Sanchez will get enough run support tonight from the Toronto offense. Boggis’s top starting hitter on RTSports is Bryce Harper ($6700 vs. Minnesota). Despite Harper being tied with Mike Trout as the highest priced outfielder, he is on a roll and can take over a daily fantasy contest on any given night. Harper is hitting .335 versus right handed pitchers and faces RHP Kyle Gibson, who has a 1.53 WHIP on the season.

Steve Moyer picks Francisco Cervelli ($3900 @ Arizona). Psst. There’s a catcher hitting .340 who’s still cheap. And Gio Gonzalez ($7100 vs Minnesota). Inside Edge, of course, likes Lester and Harvey better, but Gio’s the best balance between price and pitchability.

Mike Gianella went with Jon Lester ($8900 @ Cincinnati) and Jason Heyward ($5300 @ Cincinnati) this week.

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