Al Melchior wins Week 2 of Phase 5 in @ToutDaily by @FanDuel! A night of less than spectacular pitching.

I bought Andrew Heaney?
I bought Andrew Heaney?

It was supposed to be a glorious night for the pitchers. Five had a cost of $10,000 or more, paced by the uberarm of Clayton Kershaw, and even the rooks, like Daniel Norris and Aaron Nola, came with pedigree. But things didn’t work out quite as expected.

The pitchers were fine overall. Scoring was down for the week. The winning score, Al Melchior’s 47.16, would have finished 20th the week before. But apart from Lance Lynn, the golden arms didn’t win their games. And so eight different pitchers finished in the Top 10, representing 77 percent of the week’s starters. And only one Top 10 team had Lynn. It was up to the hitters to make some noise.

Al Melchior’s made the most. They overcame a mediocre start from Andrew Heaney, who went 5.2 innings and allowed four earned runs, ending up with only 3.66 points. But the hitters shone across the board. Brian Dozier, Welington Castillo, Xander Bogaerts, Bryce Harper, Lorenzo Cain and Michael Brantley all scored more than five points. Here’s how Al did it (click to enlarge).

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Patrick Davitt finished second on the week, behind a nice (but unwinning) game from James Shields, a big night for Mike Trout, and solid performances from Mark Teixeira, Michael Brantley, and Xander Bogaerts.

Paul Sporer took third, with a nice (but unwinning) game from Jacob deGrom, and solid hitting from Jonathan Schoop, Eddie Rosario, JD Martinez, and Lorenzo Cain.

Sporer was the only Top 10 finisher in week one to finish in the Top 10 in week two of Phase 5, and thus finds himself atop a crowded field vying for the final three tickets to the August 28th final.

The top three finishers in each four week phase of Tout Daily receive tickets to the final, which will see $2,000 distributed among the top five finishers, including a $1,000 first prize, by FanDuel, the contest’s sponsor. The winner will also be crowned the first Tout Wars Daily champion.

You can find the leaderboard here.

Touts with tickets already are Jeff Boggis, Lenny Melnick, Scott Engel, Michael Beller, Jeff Erickson, Ray Murphy, Tom Kessenich, Adam Ronis (has two tickets), Charlie Wiegert, Scott Pianowski and Lawr Michaels.

 

The Touts Picks for Tout Daily on August 7!

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We asked the Touts to share their picks for best pitcher and best hitter in tonight’s Tout Daily Week 18 contest. For more about Tout Daily visit here.

Tonight’s contest is Week 2 of Phase 5 of the five phase contest. The top three finishers in each phase get a ticket to the big August 28 final, with big money and the chance to be the first Tout Wars Daily champ. Last week Scott Engel, Jeff Boggis and Peter Kreutzer finished atop the standings.

The leaderboard is here.

Six of last week’s Top 10 already have tickets to the finals.

Scott Pianowski, Jeff Erickson, Adam Ronis (has two!), Lenny Melnick, Lawr Michaels, Tom Kessenich, Michael Beller, Jeff Boggis, Ray Murphy, Scott Engel, and Charlie Wiegert have tickets to the finals already. Everyone but Adam Ronis is eligible to add a ticket in the final phase (two tickets maximum to the finals).

Here are this week’s picks!

PHIL HERTZ

For a pitcher, I’ll go with a top pitcher on a hot team: Jacob deGrom ($11,000 at Tampa Bay).

For a hitter, I’m going to dig deep and take the low cost Eugenio Suarez ($2,400 at Arizona), playing in a good hitters’ park.

GENE McCAFFREY

Tonight is a night for a) light investments in b) multiple teams. So many good pitching bets at a wide range of salaries, at least one is going to throw up a 20-25 point start, but for this game I have to pick one. It comes down to deGrom vs. Sonny Gray and I’ll go with the chance for spectacular with Jacob deGrom ($11,000 at Tampa Bay).

That means cheap hitters, and it looks like Victor Martinez ($2,500 vs. Boston) is over the hump and batting cleanup vs. Joe Kelly.

DOUG ANDERSON

Jose Fernandez ($11,000 at Atlanta) Fernandez is the only pitcher in Kershaw’s neighborhood as far as FanDuel Points Per Game goes. Kershaw is at 16.0 and Fernandez 15.3. No other pitcher is above 14.0. He’s only been back for six starts, but he looks like he never missed any time. Normally I’d expect some hiccups when recovering from Tommy John surgery, but Fernandez seems immune.

Miguel Sano ($3,000 vs. Cleveland and Cody Anderson (RHP)) Cody Anderson has fallen apart after four great starts to begin his season. Sano’s weakness is the swing and miss, but Anderson doesn’t have that type of stuff. I see a long ball coming tonight for Sano.

ADAM RONIS

Jose Fernandez ($11,000 at Atlanta)

Anthony Rendon ($3,000 vs Colorado)

JEFF BOGGIS

Jose Fernandez ($11,000 at Atlanta) Most DFS players will probably go with Clayton Kershaw tonight and pay the premium of $13,400, but I am going to pass for several reasons. I could not come up with a decent hitter lineup to offset the highest salaried pitcher on the board tonight. More of a concern is Kershaw is facing a very good Pittsburgh Pirate lineup and facing their ace in Gerrit Cole at $10,500. In fact, there are many great pitchers going tonight, but unfortunately they face each other, and you risk the chance of your pitcher walking away with a win and 4 fantasy points. Using the methods I described in yesterday’s Tout Round table article at https://www.toutwars.com/?p=3979 for using the Las Vegas lines, odds and props when it comes to researching my DFS lineups, I am starting Jose Fernandez tonight at $11,000. Although he may be on a pitch count tonight, Fernandez has averaged 16.3 fantasy points over his past three starts. The Las Vegas number line has the game at -150 in favor of Fernandez vs. Julio Teheran, with the total runs scored at 6 ½. That compares to Clayton Kershaw -132 vs. Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom -120 vs. Jake Odorizzi, and Dallas Keuchel -114 vs. Sonny Gray.

Todd Frazier ($3,300 at Arizona) Frazier is mired in a slump and his price reflects this at only $3,300. I contribute his slump to the home run derby in the all-star break. It usually takes 2-3 weeks to correct your timing and I look for Frazier to turn it around, beginning tonight against Arizona starting pitcher, Chase Anderson.

BOGGIS Top Stack Special: Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals face fly ball pitcher John Danks tonight at home. I am stacking outfielder Lorenzo Cain, catcher Salvador Perez, and shortstop Alcides Escobar. I wanted to also include second baseman Ben Zobrist, but I could not make my lineup work with his $3,800 salary.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

It’s one of those days, nobody jumps at me. Vegas lines have a lot of low totals, so I expect a lot of good pitching.  I’m going with SD pitcher James Shields ($8,900 vs. Philadelphia) against the Phillies at home, hoping for another solid start and at least 7 k’s.

Leaning heavily on Cincinnati hitters at AZ against Chase Anderson just coming off DL.  Joey Votto ($3,700 at Arizona) has looked locked in lately, hopefully he goes deep tonight.

 ENO SARRIS

Aaron Nola ($6,100 at San Diego) Down the list, at less than half the price of Clayton Kershaw, is a starting pitcher that will allow you to field a heck of a lineup in Nola. With plus command and a great changeup, his below-average velocity is not so much of a problem. Right now, even his inconsistent curve is getting great whiffs. The only mark on Nola’s resume so far — and maybe related to his velocity — is a tendency to give up the homer. He’s going to be in San Diego, though, which will once again be the second-coldest park in the big leagues. As a bonus, the wind should be blowing in tonight. 

Jason Heyward ($3,500 at Milwaukee) Heyward is in Milwaukee, which he should like, and he’s also facing a rookie pitcher in Tyler Cravy. Though rookie pitchers perform better than rookie hitters, we do have enough of a sample to say that Cravy isn’t going to get a lot of whiffs. His swinging strike rate is *less than half* of the one Aaron Nola is showing in the early going. Cravy didn’t get grounders in the minors, either. Heyard’s five-tool skill set can get you points in different places, and a career .281/.367/.462 line against righties is exciting at his price.

RAY MURPHY

Jacob deGrom ($11,000 at Tampa Bay) Kershaw and deGrom are tonight’s top two SP, both working on the road. Kershaw’s the better pitcher, of course… but deGrom’s opposing TAM offense is weaker, as is the opposing SP. The better shot at a win makes him my choice for tonight, and he gives me an extra $2300 on Kershaw owners to build my lineup.

Victor Martinez ($2,500 vs. Boston) VMart snapped a long slump with two HR last night. Tonight he faces the execrable Joe Kelly, he only costs $2500, AND I can play him at catcher? Sign me up.

JAKE CIELY

Daniel Norris ($6,000 vs. Boston) Hear that? Yes, that’s the dice rolling. Norris is one of the better young pitching talents in the game, but he struggles with control. He looked better in his return against the Orioles, walking just one in 7.1 IP. The Red Sox offense has been anemic. Plus, after a mediocre first week, I’m going “all in” for a final shot at a ticket.

Anthony Rendon ($3,000 vs Colorado) He looks to be getting back into the swing of things (pun not intended, okay… maybe semi-intended). Rendon is 10 for his last 35 and has a career .304 AVG against lefties. Jorge De La Rosa has a 4.83 ERA in his last nine starts.

LAWR MICHAELS

I like Lance Lynn ($9,300 at Milwaukee) as a less expensive strikeout pitcher against a team with terrible on-base totals (.293) against right-handers.

As for hitters, Asdrubal Cabera ($3,400 vs. NY Mets) has been hot and as long as he gets to start (he did get hit in the face with a ball yesterday) i like the switch hitter even if he is facing Jacob deGrom.

BRIAN WALTON

There are plenty of available aces on Friday, with seven pitchers drawing five figures. The downside, of course, is putting roughly a third of one’s stipend on one arm. Instead, I will drop down to Phillies rookie Aaron Nola ($6,100 at San Diego), who has been solid in his first three Major League outings (3.38 ERA, 7.2 K/9) and will face the Padres offense in Petco Park Friday night.

 Mired in a slump for weeks was Matt Carpenter ($3600 at Milwaukee). Returned to the top of the Cardinals batting order, the third baseman has taken off, with three doubles, five home runs and eight RBI in his last seven games. Carpenter and the rest of St. Louis’ lineup draws rookie Tyler Cravy in Milwaukee Friday evening.

PAUL SPORER

Jacob deGrom ($11,000 at Tampa Bay) The top five studs are all on the road, but they are all in favorable parks – PIT, TB, ATL, OAK, and SEA. I’ll take the second-most expensive squaring off against the Rays at Tropicana Field. JdG’s having a fantastic season, but he’s been particularly excellent since mid-May with a 1.47 ERA and 0.70 WHIP in 91.7 IP with 98 Ks and just 12 BBs. He has allowed just 2 ER in his last two starts (13.7 IP), but taken a ND in both. The revamped Mets offense certainly makes you more confident about using their aces in DFS as the ever-important W is much more likely. 

Eddie Rosario ($2600 vs. Cleveland) Saving some money with my hitter pick since I’m going with one of the ace arms. He’s been ice cold since his near-cycle with just 1 hit in his last 25 PA. Seems like just a cold snap as opposed to major reason for worry, especially as it comes on the heels of a 13-for-29 run. With Rosario & deGrom, you still have $3K per slot for the rest of your roster. 

PETER KREUTZER

Jose Fernandez ($11,000 at Atlanta) He’s the ace with the best matchup tonight.

Victor Martinez ($2,500 vs. Boston) Maybe it was yesterday’s dingers, but at this price V-Mart can be my catcher forever.

STEVE MOYER

Jose Fernandez ($11,000 at Atlanta) Nothing tricky or cheap here, but Fernandez matches up to well against the weakling Braves to pass him up.

J.D. Martinez ($3,800 vs. Boston) Top dog on the Inside Edge hitter board this week faces Joe Kelly and his six ERA.

SCOTT SWANAY

Lance Lynn ($9,300 at Milwaukee) So many good pitching matchups tonight that it seems like Opening Day in August, so I’ll go w/ a pitcher, who while not as glamorous as some of the more expensive names, probably has a better chance of garnering a Win.

Miguel Sano ($3,000 vs. Cleveland) Sure, he’s just a rookie, but $3,000 for a guy averaging 3.0 Fan Duel points per game, facing Cody Anderson, and sporting an OBP over .400 seems like a bargain.

Tout Wars DFS Round Table: Does what happen in Vegas stay in Vegas?

How much, if at all, do you rely on the Vegas lines, odds and props when it comes to researching your DFS lineups?

Brian Walton, www.mastersball.com, @B_Walton: Zero, none. I never even look at them.

Tim McCullough, www.rotoexperts.com, @Tim_RotoExperts: Aside from the expected run totals for the games, I don’t pay much attention to the Vegas lines. I prefer to go with handedness splits, park factors and stats in general. If the split stats point to a good matchup, I’m inclined to go with that even if the Vegas lines disagree.

Jeff Boggis, www.FantasyFootballEmpire.com, @JeffBoggis: I think that the Vegas lines are one of the most powerful tools Touts can use in Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS). The first number I analyze is the number line. The further away from 100 the number is, the bigger a favorite that pitcher is projected to be that evening. The closer to -200, the closer to a lock in the eyes of Las Vegas. I use this as a win counts for a great percentage of a pitcher’s fantasy points score. So the higher the likelihood of the win, the higher the likelihood of a good score. I also look at the total runs scored as that has a negative impact on a pitcher’s fantasy points. If I see several poor pitchers and want to go with stacking hitters all on the same team, I will look at the line for total runs scored and make a decision based on this information.

Patrick Davit, www.baseballhq.com, @patrickdavitt: I know I should pay more attention to them, but I don’t really do much more than eyeball them en route to my picks.
Nando DiFino, www.rotoexperts.com, @nandodifino: At this point, I have a pretty solid handle on who is good, which parks produce runs, and most of the factors contributing to the line. It’s kind of like knowing everything that goes into a cheeseburger but still checking the menu to make sure it says” cheeseburger.” I don’t rely on the lines, but if something doesn’t add up on paper like it does in my head, I’ll explore a little deeper.
Lawr Michaels, www.mastersball.com, @lawrmichaels: Never look. Don’t even want to know or be influenced.

Chris Liss, www.rotowire.com, @Chris_Liss: I look at the run totals and game odds for stacks to target. Sometimes, I’ll stack different combos of players in game with an O/U of 8 or 8.5 and avoid the 9-plus to get more unique lineups in.

Gene McCaffrey,  www.wiseguys.com, @gene2323: I don’t rely on the odds but I pay attention to them and look for differences between my views and theirs. When there is a significant difference I rethink my conclusions, and sometimes change my mind. The oddsmakers are very good, but any team can win a baseball game, any pitcher can throw a gem or get hammered, and any hitter can hit two home runs tonight. I pay no attention at all to daily props, DFS is a superior format for those bets. You don’t have to be right on every long-shot.

Peter Kreutzer, www.askrotoman.com, @kroyte: 

I just started playing the daily game this year, and early in the season I didn’t pay attention to the Vegas odds. But for good and productive reasons I started to look at better information, and the Vegas lines reflect common opinion. This isn’t wisdom, but it does often reflect some sort of information that is hard to glean from tables of stats.

So I start with the Vegas line, for starting pitchers, and look at games with high run expectations. This isn’t fool proof, and I deviate freely, but the Vegas numbers are a good place to start looking for a stack (if you’re prepping quickly).
Which I think you should be, unless you’re playing high stakes, in which case a whole different set of rules apply.
Charlie Wiegert, www.CDMSports.com, @GFFantasySports: I rely on them and think they are a necessary part of the research needed to select your lineup.  The line is the best indicator of the pitcher’s chances to get a win, and the over/under number is a great way to find the games in which a lot of runs might be scored.  If the number is 8 or higher, I look for value plays,and if the odds highly favor one team, I look for the value players on that team.
Scott Swanay, www.fantasybaseballsherpa.com, @Fantasy_Sherpa: I’ll look at the runs’ over/under and game odds for a second opinion to make sure I’m not overlooking something obvious.  However, when it comes to DFS, Vegas info isn’t much more helpful than horoscopes and biorhythm charts would be in eliminating the inherent randomness.  Not even the smarties who set odds for the sports books can predict when Felix Hernandez is going to implode and give up 8 runs in a third of an inning to the Astros or when Kirk Nieuwenhuis is going to hit three home runs in one game.
Phil Hertz, www.baseballhq.com, @prhz50: Short answer is no.
Todd Zola, www.mastersball.com, @ToddZola : My short answer is not enough.
Here’s my longer answer.
Since I’ve begun playing, both in DFS baseball and football, I know there are many that rely heavily on the Vegas lines. As has been described, the information from Vegas can help elucidate the favored pitchers, how many implied run each team will score as well as some strikeout predictions for pitchers. From my end, I’m getting this exact information when I distill my yearly player projections into daily projections based on the factors I feel are relevant. So now it comes down to who’s better, me or Vegas? Considering Vegas managed to build a city with all sorts of beautiful buildings and flashing lights smack dab in the middle of a desert and I’m a 52-year old guy renting a 3-room add-on to a house in Milford, MA, I’ll give the edge to Vegas. But still, I’ve been stubborn about including adding the Vegas info into my research. Well, until now. Don’t tell anyone but last weekend I took a trip to New York City to attend a DFS fantasy football seminar. While I learned a few other pertinent things that transcend all the sports, one of the main take-home messages was I need to incorporate Vegas more. Why? Those that do this for a living swear by it and if it’s good enough for them, it’s good enough for me. That said, I’m not going to abandon my method but rather embellish it. My colleague Wiseguy Gene has it right. Look for the outliers and  do some additional research. The one caveat is (and I admit this is far from my area of expertise) Vegas sets the lines to attract even money on both sides which maximizes their vig. Sometimes what they think will happen and where the set the lines are a little different.
Before we call it a day, be sure to follow along with the second week of the final phase of Tout Daily. Three more Touts have their sights set on the Golden Ticket and a chance at a cool $1000 in the Tout Daily Championship.
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Tuesday Tout Challenge: Touts Bounce Back (well, most of them)

ToutChallenge

First off, a favor. Our friends at FanDuel have been kind enough to sponsor these Tuesday Night Tout Wars Challenge Double Up contests as a fun addition to our private Friday Tout Daily competition. We fell short of filling this week’s challenge which good for your odds of cashing but isn’t so good for continuing the Tuesday Challenge. With the understanding participation in general wanes this time of season, let’s all spread the word, Touts and friends of Touts and fill this bad boy up next week!

OK, last week the Tout’s took one on the chin but this week we, well, most everyone but me, finished in the money. To show just how unpredictable this endeavor can be, the same person that has finished with the highest score twice in the Challenge was barely above the default line-up this time around. What can I say, I chose poorly. Very poorly.

On the other hand, friend-of-Tout jeterson2 and Yahoo!’s Scott Pianowski chose wisely. Scott, who finished second overall, was joined in the top-ten by Jake Ciely and Scott Swanay. Five more Touts landed in the top-twenty.

Jeterson2’s week-leading squad featured Jon Niese (9.5% ownership) who tossed seven innings, allowing just one earned, fanning six while picking up the win for 16 big FanDuel points. The squad got homers from Josh Donaldson (6.3%), Chris Young (25.4%) and Carlos Gomez (6.3%).

Scott deployed Jimmy Nelson (7.9%) as his hurler, watching the Brewer’s righty twirl 6 2/3rd scoreless frames with four whiffs and the win, recording 14.66 points. Prince Fielder (14.3%), Nelson Cruz (4.8%), Kyle Parker (14.3%) and Young all went deep for Scott’s squad.

Scott’s roster is posted below. Remember, this is Week Two of the final phase of Tout Daily where the last three golden tickets into the Tout Championship will be awarded. Follow along with your favorite Tout and remember to look for next Tuesday’s Tout Challenge!

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This week’s interleague trade deadline FAAB Reports, finally! Well, not yet!

Mastersball.com’s Todd Zola is the Swat for Tout Wars AL. This gives him a front row seat on each week’s moves, and it landed him in the muck last night.

Here’s what happened: Tout Wars uses the Vickrey auction system, in which players are awarded to teams for $1 more than the second highest bidder bid. You bid $10, the second highest bidder is $6, you get the guy for $7. This sometimes works very nicely. An economist named Vickrey won a Nobel Prize in Economics for demonstrating that this method of bidding produces truer and more robust bids, because bidders don’t fear the risk of being embarrassed by a big overbid.

And this is true in Tout Wars, for free agents that two or more owners might covet.

But a problem arises at the claims following the midseason trading deadline. All the teams put in many bids and many contingency bids. When things go to form, as they did this year in TW NL, it’s all easy, but when they don’t, when there are a mosaic of interlocking contingent bids, which is what happened in the TW AL, it is a bear to figure out. Such a bear that onRoto’s Bidmeister stumbles. It struggles to figure out that a $73 bid in an owner’s third block is actually now $36 because of previous purchases reduced by Vickrey. And that’s only a part of it.

Todd worked late into last night trying to determine who should get who in Tout Wars AL. The problem was caused, mostly, because most teams avoided bidding on Troy Tulowitzki, apparently for some fatalist reason, and he fell to Mike Podhorzer for half price, after the Vickrey adjustment. This gave Podhorzer’s bids on other players (he bid his max on most everyone) extra influence and confused things no end.

Not that it’s Mike’s fault. He did the right thing, absolutely, but coupled with Steve Moyer’s attempt to buy lots of players for cheap, rather than spend all his money on one guy, hell broke out.

Which may be why that at this late point on Monday, we don’t yet have a Tout Wars report from Mastersball.com. Todd just tweeted that the report should be posted on his site around 9pm. He says it’s a goody, but not yet here at close to 11pm. Oh, here it is!

Maybe Mastersball is sick of us. Maybe they’re breaking up with Tout Wars. I know they’re sick of Vickrey (Todd tweeted that today). In any case, we’ll post when they post. And I will initiate a discussion about whether Vickrey is really a good thing in our little leagues this winter.

And tomorrow, Tuesday, we’ll post the observations of TW NL Leader Mike Gianella, who went into Sunday’s bidding with the hammer, and managed to spend quite a bit of his money. You’ll learn how and why then.

Here’s Mike’s column, which has lots of good insight but was headlocked by the wrong data that posted at the league stat site for the reasons detailed above. It will eventually be corrected, but here are my notes, which should help you read it until it is.

CORRECTIONS

Rob Leibowitz

Carlos Gomez Vickrey price is $71.

Seth Trachtman

Gerardo Parra Vickrey price is $39

Mike Podhorzer

Mike Fiers Vickrey price is $30. And change the comment to:

The biggest beneficiary of the diversification strategies of other owners with higher FAAB budgets was Podhorzer. Not only did Podhorzer snag Tulowitzki at slightly less than half of his raw bid with a smooth $35 Vickrey price, he also picked up Fiers for $30. Fiers certainly isn’t in the class of Cueto or Hamels, but in the watery pitching market of AL-only, this is a  win for Podhorzer. I really dig the aggressiveness of Podhorzer’s bids on the whole, and even though he didn’t have much of a chance at most of these players in the FAAB sweepstakes, I am more of a fan of being aggressive and getting the best player on the board than worrying about the bargains other owners may or may not get if the league doesn’t bid aggressively on the whole. Marte at $6 is a nice, sneaky play in a week where nearly everyone was focused on the NL imports.

Steve Moyer

Comment edited

Moyer needs a lot of help to get to the 60-point threshold, so instead of putting all of his eggs in one basket with one big purchase, he decided to diversify. I like the strategy to a degree. There is enough variability with the 57 or so games most major league teams have left to play that there is a better chance that two good players could earn more than one great player, especially in an AL-only, where the replacement level consideration is hardly a factor. However, had I been in Moyer’s shoes I would have probably tried two $30 bid blocks in the hopes that I could have walked away with two players of a higher caliber.

Ron Shandler

Johnny Cueto Vickrey price is $39.

Scott Engel’s Big Week!

scottengelLast week Scott Engel put together a late charge and finished second in Phase 4 of the Tout Daily contest. Engel built that team around a surprise starter for the Dodgers, Ian Thomas, who cost only $4,100, but wasn’t expected to last five innings. When he did, and earned the win, Engel’s team of hitting stars jumped up the standings and earned a ticket to the $2,000 finals on August 28th.

Engel’s approach this week was far more traditional, but the results were similar.

He got big nights out of Michael Wacha, owned by more than 25 percent of the active teams, and Manny Machado, Adam Jones, and Andrew McCutchen, each owned by more than one in five teams. His one somewhat surprising hit was Jung-ho Kang, owned by about 10 percent of team.

Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge

Second place finisher Jeff Boggis, also a finals ticket holder, made a late pivot to Zack Greinke (one of just two teams to do so after Clayton Kershaw scratched because of ongoing glute and hip issues), which paid off nicely. He also scored on an Orioles stack, with Manny Machado and Adam Jones coming up big, and he had big games too from Jhonny Peralta and Anthony Rizzo.

Peter Kreutzer, for the second Phase in a row, scored big in Week 1, behind an excellent start from Danny Salazar (owned by more than a third of teams in the contest), and hitting from Manny Machado (did everyone have him?), Nelson Cruz and Anthony Rizzo. Shortly before game time Kreutzer shifted from Wacha and Adam Jones to Danny Salazar and Brandon Moss. That was the difference between first and third place this week.

Only four of the Top 10 teams in Week 1 of Phase 5 do not already have tickets to the August 28th finals (Kreutzer, Zola, Heaney and Sporer). Only one team has two tickets (the max) already to the finals (that would be Adam Ronis).

The contest Leaderboard can be found here, with the week by week totals.

More about Tout Daily can be found here.

 

The July 31 Picks of Touts in Tonight’s Phase 5 Week 1 #ToutDaily by @FanDuel.

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We asked the Touts to share their picks for best pitcher and best hitter in tonight’s Tout Daily Week 17 contest. For more about Tout Daily visit here.

Tonight’s contest is Week 1 of Phase 5 of the five phase contest. The top three finishers in each phase get a ticket to the big August 28 final, with big money and the chance to be the first Tout Wars Daily champ. Last week Ray Murphy, Scott Engel and Charlie Wiegert won tickets to the final.

This week, everyone starts off even again. The leaderboard is here.

Scott Pianowski, Jeff Erickson, Adam Ronis (has two!), Lenny Melnick, Lawr Michaels, Tom Kessenich, Michael Beller, Jeff Boggis, Ray Murphy, Scott Engel, and Charlie Wiegert have tickets to the finals already. Everyone but Adam Ronis is eligible to add a ticket in the final phase (two tickets maximum to the finals).

But there are weekly cash prizes, too, so you can bet Ronis will be playing.

Here are this week’s picks!

ENO SARRIS

Danny Salazar ($8,800 at Oakland) A tier below the most expensive guys sits a pitcher with ace-like stuff in Salazar. A blazing fastball, a devastating a change, a new curveball: Salazar has it all to dominate a Zobrist-less Oakland lineup. And though he has his flaws — his command leaves him at times, and his high fastball can drift over the plate — he’s in a good spot to mitigate those flaws. Oakland will once again be the coldest park in major league baseball tonight, a full 26 degrees cooler than the game in Texas. That will steal some oomph from those fly balls, and keep a few in the park.
Victor Martinez ($3,100 at Baltimore) Using Martinez at catcher is such a fun thing. His career weighted offense is a full 40 percentage points higher than the average catcher, and we don’t need to worry about framing or blocking in the daily game. He hasn’t been great this year, but he’s been much better since he returned from injury. In that time, he’s raised his slugging percentage above league average (not catcher average), and shown signs of coming out of a funk. The wind’s blowing out in Baltimore and it will be the second-hottest non-domed park tonight, and the Detroit lineup is full of great righties that can take advantage of Wei-Yin Chu’s soft stuff. Consider a mini-stack.

CHARLIE WIEGERT

 Going with the homer pick tonight, Cardinal Michael Wacha ($8, 500 vs Colorado).  If you think he’ll have his “A” stuff tonight (I do), he’s a good bargain compared to the other top pitchers tonight.  Rockies scrambling, lost tough one last night, and they could be a little down tonight. Cardinals usually give Wacha good run support, and I expect them to solve Kendrick.
Going with the Cardinals will get to Kendrick idea,
I look for Kolten Wong ($3,100 vs Colorado), now in the 3 spot, to be productive.  And Jason Heyward ($3400 vs Colorado), who has been red hot, to go deep tonight.  I also like the Giants and Orioles hitters tonight against weak pitching!

JEFF BOGGIS

 Clayton Kershaw ($13,300 vs LA Angels) I don’t care about his high salary or that it only leaves me with an average hitter salary of $2,712.50. I don’t care about the medical reports of his sore hip/glute area. I don’t care that he is facing Mike Trout tonight. He’s Clayton Fricking Kershaw and he’s averaged over 25 fantasy points over his last 3 starts. No paralysis by analysis here.

Adam Jones ($2,900 vs Detroit) and Manny Machado ($3,700 vs Detroit) My weekly start both Bryce Harper and Mike Trout approach is being put on hold for this week. Trout is facing Clayton Kershaw on the road tonight and since I am starting Kershaw, which would be limit my upside. Bryce Harper faces The Dark Knight, who owns Harper in head to head matchups. Harper is 0 for 14 with 7 strikeouts against Matt Harvey. (Yes, you read that correctly). So my plan B for tonight is to stack both Adam Jones and Manny Machado against one of the worst pitchers in MLB. Buck Farmer is replacing Shane Greene in the rotation tonight. In 13 IP this season, Farmer owns a 9.22 ERA and has given up 22 hits. That’s almost an average of 2 hits per every inning pitched.

STEVE MOYER

David Buchanan ($5,100 vs Atlanta)  The second-ranked pitcher on the Inside Edge board tonight is quite a shocker. Go big or go home, I guess. You’ll be able to afford plenty of Chris Davis’s at this pitcher price.

Chris Davis ($4,000 vs Detroit)  He ain’t cheap, but Inside Edge says he’s in line for big things tonight against youngster Buck Farmer.

SCOTT SWANAY

Danny Salazar ($8,800 at Oakland) it was a toss-up for me between Salazar and Michael Wacha, but decided to go with Salazar because he faces a weaker-hitting opponent and an opposing starting pitcher (Kendall Graveman) who won’t be winning the Cy Young Award anytime soon.

Ryan Zimmerman -($2,300 at NY Mets) Yes, he’s facing the Dark Knight, but Matt Harvey hasn’t really been pre-TJ Matt Harvey this year, and Zimmerman has hit well in three games since being activated from a lengthy stay on the DL.  At a cost of just $2,300, he’d be a bargain even in Jack Benny’s eyes (if Jack Benny had played DFS).

RAY MURPHY

 Michael Wacha ($8, 500 vs Colorado) at home against whatever is left of the Rockies lineup. Wacha has outwardly struggled lately, but his skills look better than ever. Nice price for a great matchup at home.
Brandon Belt ($3000 at Texas) makes a nice option at 1B tonight. He’s in Texas to face Nick Martinez, who has come unglued in his last five starts. All five were on the road, but seeking respite at home in Arlington in late July is not a good proposition. Belt has been hitting well lately (.317 BA over last month), just lacking power. Looking for that to change tonight…

LAWR MICHAELS

 Gio Gonzalez ($9,600 at NY Mets) Going against a team that has the second worst strikeout rate in the Majors against lefties seems to be a solid under-the-radar selection.
Kolten Wong ($3,100 vs Colorado)  Hitting left against Kyle Kendrick seems like a lot of potential fun for my offense.

JAKE CIELY

 Michael Wacha ($8, 500 vs Colorado)
Chris Davis ($4,000 vs Detroit)

GENE MCCAFFREY

The expensive pitchers tonight are all great but all have questionable starts—or at least issues that make their prices probably too high. Therefore I’m going cheaper with the inconsistent but often brilliant Eduardo Rodriguez ($7,700 vs Tampa Bay) at home against the Rays.
This frees up salary and I’ll spend some of it on Brandon Crawford ($3,200 at Texas) the Giants are a juggernaut on the road and BC is a good bet for a great game against stiff righty Nick Martinez.

BRIAN WALTON

Cleveland’s Danny Salazar ($8,800 at Oakland) draws the A’s in Oakland tonight. The 25-year-old right-hander has just one career outing vs. Oakland, three weeks ago. In that contest, he finished just one out short of a complete game with only one unearned run on the board and eight strikeouts.If you are looking to save a bit of money Friday night, consider third base. St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter ($2,700 vs Colorado) has been in an offensive funk for weeks, but seemed to break out with a four-hit game, including two long balls, against the Rockies Thursday evening.

TODD ZOLA

Jason Hammel ($8,200 at Milwaukee) No Carlos Gomez, no Gerardo Parra and a banged up Ryan Braun – I’ll take that set-up and fade the aces.Chris Davis ($4,000 vs Detroit)  A high-risk, high-reward pick, Davis should be able to make contact against Buck Farmer and when he makes contact, good things happen. A 4K price tag is up there so I may pivot off when I see what’s available after the lineups flesh out from deadline-mania.

ADAM RONIS

Danny Salazar ($8,800 at Oakland)

Anthony Rizzo ($3,100 at Milwaukee)

DOUG ANDERSON

Neil Walker ($3,100 at Cincinnati) vs. Michael Lorenzen (RHP) – Both for his career and in 2015, Walker has as extreme lefty/righty splits as you’ll see. Over the last five seasons he’s scored more than 2.0 FanDuel points more against right-handed pitchers than left-handers. It’s been more of the same this year. The clock has struck midnight for Lorenzon as well. He’s allowed a .333 batting average and 2.15 WHIP to left-handed hitters. This shapes up as an ideal matchup for Walker
.
Jimmy Rollins ($2,800 vs LA Angels) vs. Hector Santiago (LHP) – Rollins is not the hitter he used to be, but don’t try telling that to left-handed pitchers, against whom he’s hitting .321. Rollins is also on a little power spree with three homers in his last six games. Santiago’s shiny 2.43 ERA looks nice, but what’s up with the 4.30 xFIP?

PHIL HERTZ

Matt Harvey ($9,900 vs Washington) Gets Washington at home. Even though Nats are getting healthy, Harvey had pitched well against them until his last outing against them. I look for a rebound and at $9900, he costs less than the other “elite” starters.
Brandon Crawford ($3,200 at Texas) may be the best offensive shortstop in baseball this year. I think he’s a bargain at $3200.

JEFF ERICKSON

Clayton Kershaw ($13,300 vs LA Angels) This isn’t quite as obvious as Kershaw vs the Mets, but it’s still worth the effort to squeeze his price in, especially when I’m uncomfortable with the other top options. My second choice for tournaments is Danny Salazar, and I’d dip all the way down to David Phelps as my third choice.

Nelson Cruz ($4,200 at Minnesota) Target Field is a hitter’s ballpark this year, especially for right-handed bats, the wind has blown out lately, and lefty Tom Milone is on the mound.

PETER KREUTZZER

Danny Salazar ($8,800 at Oakland) I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to backup my AL only guy with a DFS play, but the matchup and the strikeouts look good. Could be a good night or a bad one, if you know what I mean.

Brandon Moss ($2,500 vs Colorado) He’s been ice cold and at some point that has to change, right?

Tout Daily DFS Round Table

Is DFS an endeavor that you do primarily by yourself or is it more of a social experience, perhaps discussing lineups with friends and then following along together once the games begin?

Chris Liss, www.rotowire.com, @Chris_Liss

100 percent solo. Input from anyone else is a great way to poison your process!

Phil Hertz, www.baseballhq.com, @prhz50

It’s a solo activity. I mention what’s going on to a couple of close friends and my wife, but I think they listen only to be nice, not because they’re interested (except if I win).

Peter Kreutzer, www.askrotoman.com, @kroyte

I read some of my friends’ writing about DFS when I play, but haven’t found the experience very social. The normal variance for any player makes it difficult to get too invested in any prediction, though there is plenty of room for discussion about cheap plays.

Tim McCullough, www.rotoexperts.com, @Tim_RotoExperts

So far, DFS baseball is mainly a solo game for me. I can’t remember the last time I got together with friends to watch a ball game, aside from the occasional trip to see a game live. DFS Football is much more social. There were several occasions last season when I got together with friends to watch the hometown team and we all had our DFS plays with us. That’s a ton of fun because all the games matter to everyone in some way or another. If MLB could figure out a way to turn their Sunday games into an event like that, it would go a long way towards bringing fans back to the game.

Craig Mish, www.craigmish.com, @CraigMish

I really don’t have much interaction on DFS unless it’s when I am hosting on air. I do see people commenting nightly on twitter about their lineups but normally it’s more of an individual thing for me.

Patrick Davit, www.baseballhq.com, @patrickdavitt

Not only do I do my DFS solo, but I’m usually hiding the activity and doing it furtively when I think nobody is watching.

Scott Engel, www.rotoexperts.com, @scotteRotoEx

It  really depends on the sport. I find baseball to be a smaller circle that I don’t tend to play with the same people,although I do compare results with other colleagues. In football I find myself in more head to head games. In NASCAR, it’s a family affair, as my son and I watch the races and our live scoring together every week.

Nando DiFino, www.rotoexperts.com, @nandodifino

If I didn’t have the morning show with Tony Cincotta, DFS would be a totally antisocial activity for me. The only time I talk DFS lineups with anyone is when I’m showig someone what DFS is and how to set a lineup. The more opinions I have in my head, the lower I tend to finish.

Lawr Michaels, www.mastersball.com, @lawrmichaels

I generally make my picks while multi-tasking, later at night, while Diane (my partner) and I watch TV and hang before we go to sleep. I use my Surface, and review pitchers and match-ups and hitters, but then look again in the morning to double check, so it is largely a solo affair.
Although, Lord Zola and I have been known to message back and forth discussing whom we like, when, and why, and that is always fun, if sporadic.
Scott Swanay, www.fantasysherpa.com, @fantasy_sherpa
I actively hide my involvement from family, friends, and anyone who might know the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa’s body.
Jeff Boggis, www.FantasyFootballEmpire.com, @JeffBoggis
My DFS endeavor is primarily by myself for several reasons. I want to be in total control of my success and failures, and have the opportunity to learn from the experience. Once I sent my lineup, it them becomes a social experience as I will look at other Tout’s rosters to see if there is a consensus on players. Plus I thoroughly enjoy tweeting with Jake Ciely @allinkid to discuss our team lineups and to see which players on his team will end up on the DL before the end of the contest each Friday evening!
Gene McCaffrey,  www.wiseguys.com, @gene2323
Mostly solo but I often discuss the day’s options with a friend or friends. I also listen to DFS talk on the radio, which is somewhere between solo and social. Research is a solo activity, but I bet it works better when five people are researching in the same room.
Brian Walton, www.mastersball.com, @B_Walton
No, I never discuss my lineups. The daily game requires too much preparation in too short of a time to commiserate with anyone. Besides the players I might speak with are often among my competitors.

Todd Zola, www.mastersball.com, @ToddZola

In full disclosure, I concede I’m a bit of an odd duck, being self-employed, working at home, living by myself, sometimes not talking with humans for days at a time. That said, for me DFS is absolutely a social experience. Be it bouncing line-up ideas off friends via text, g-chat, IM, Twitter etc., sharing news as it breaks and then following along with the games, hopefully having someone vicariously share my sweat but more often than not, at least lately, vicariously sweating a tournament out with a friend, DFS is one of my favorite social outlets.

There’s absolutely nothing like the electricity of an in-person draft or auction, but once the season begins, interaction in seasonal leagues is limited to trade discussions and privately commiserating with another league member over the goofy offer you just received. DFS is a great vehicle to keep in touch with friends since there’s a minuscule something shared will come back to bite you that evening.

Honestly, it’s this social element of DFS, especially following my Twitter feed as the games are ongoing, that keeps me from going more nuts than I already am. If you’re not extracting some measure of social enjoyment from DFS, honestly, you’re doing it wrong.