Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Friday, August 19th
Happy Friday, Grinders! Boy, were we close to hitting a three-home run parlay on Tuesday. With a bigger slate and some nice offensive spots, I feel good about some picks this evening. Let’s review the slate and get into tonight’s MLB offering.
While I missed on my three-leg parlay, clutch13 and frankmichael certainly did not. Both were able to go three-for-three with their choices. I sure hope they found a sports betting site to punch a small ticket on their picks. With the big day, frankmichael vaulted into the top spot in August while yisman jumped into solo-second with a double-dong night. Franmil Reyes, Vlad Guerrero, and Matt Olson were very popular choices that went yard on Tuesday. All in all, we saw 25 home runs on Tuesday night. Surely, Friday must bring more.
Reminder! Prizes were doubled for each month. Spread the word!
Rules, Tiers, and Prizes
Here are the cliff notes from the introductory rules and guidelines set forth in our opening article. If you want a bit more clarification, here is the first article with a more developed explanation for the contest.
In short, pick three players in the comments for tonight’s DraftKings Main MLB slate. You may pick one player from each of the tiers below.
Luxury Box – $5,000 and above
Promenade – $3,500 – $4,900
Bleachers – Below $3,500
You will collect home runs for every home run your batters hit that night. Selections must be made prior to lock time in the comments section. At the end of each month, prizes will be awarded to the community members with the most home runs. At the end of the season, additional prizes will be awarded to those members who put together the best totals for the entire season (ending in August).
The following prizes will be awarded to players based on their home run total for the month (April, May, June, July, August)
First Place – 2 months of RotoGrinders MLB Premium
Second Place – RotoGrinders T-shirt and hat
Third Place – 2 weeks of SAO Premium
The following prizes will be awarded to players based on their home run total for the entire baseball season (April – August)
First Place – One month of RotoGrinders Combo Premium
Second Place – RotoGrinders Swag Pack
Third Place – One month of SAO Premium
If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comments or send me a message on Twitter.
Friday, August 19th MLB DFS Slate Notes
We have a packed 14-game slate on DraftKings tonight starting at 7:05 PM EST. Coors Field is on the slate and is going to play a major role in all of your daily fantasy decisions.
The weather looks pretty good. We might see typical pop-ups in Atlanta and some potential for a delay in Colorado. Kevin Roth believes the one trouble spot is Minnesota where we should certainly circle back to before lock time.
Here is a list of HR/9 for tonight’s pitchers:
Lance Lynn, CHW, 1.78
Paolo Espino, WSN, 1.77
Bryse Wilson, PIT, 1.64
Marco Gonzalez, SEA, 1.46
Jose Urena, COL, 1.42
Jose Urena sticks out like a sore thumb as does Paolo Espino in San Diego.
Notably, Jordan Lyles continues to avoid home runs as he preps to make a start against Boston at home. That said, Lyles possesses a 54.5% FB rate over the last 30 days and a sub-9 % HR/FB rate. Something has to give.
Let’s get into my choices for Friday.
Friday, August 19th MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Manny Machado – 3B – $5,900
Paolo Espino takes the bump for a Nationals team that… ahem, won against Yu Darvish on the road last night. That’s baseball for you, everyone.
In any event, Espino is one of our main home run targets. Over the last 30 days, Espino allowed 2.31 HR/9. He has not suppressed power and will face a very powerful lineup. Juan Soto is a prime target here as well but I think I like the upside of Machado a bit more. Machado comes in tonight with a 10-game hitting streak. Eight of those games saw multiple hits. The man is on fire.
I don’t believe much in revenge narratives. They are silly. The Juan Soto narrative is even worse. In what world would he be mad? In any event, we start with Machado and hope he stays hot.
Promenade – Joc Pederson – OF – $3,900
Joc Jams in Coors Field against a horrible righty… priced at $3,900. Hello, algorithm?
Joc is our first of a couple of Giants because the pricing is all out of sorts. I can’t explain the Giants being so underpriced at Coors Field no matter how bad they are at baseball. You can pretty much do whatever you want tonight because of these prices.
With this contest, we do love Joc Pederson for a home run. Jose Urena was on our list but has given up 2.2 HR/9 over the last 30 days. The guy isn’t a threat and we should capitalize. Joc is second on our list.
Bleacher Seats – Brandon Belt – 1B – $2,800
Well, hello there Mr. Belt. Inexplicably, we see bargain basement prices on the Giants at Coors Field against Jose Urena. The Rockies just surrender 1,000,000 runs to the Cardinals. This just feels too good to be true.
This means, it probably is too good to be true! That said, I can’t stay away from these prices and will likely struggle to avoid them in DFS this evening. We add Belt to go along with Joc and hope for the best.
Thanks so very much for reading. Give me a follow on Twitter for sports betting banter, golf tidbits, and professional wrestling reactions. We will see you again on Tuesday for a recap, leaderboard, and home run calls.
Player Image Credit: Imagn