Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Friday, June 10th
Happy Friday! The first full slate is upon us. Friday will feature every MLB team for the first time this season on a Friday. No day games. No double headers. No 6:40 nonsense. An eclipse! We should see plenty of home runs. I can’t take it! Let’s get to the recap.
Ronald Acuna, Jr. is back, huh? I guess I haven’t spent a ton of time considering the Braves recently and I suppose I should. Acuna made me pay with two home runs. Not everyone paid, though, with a handful of contestants grabbing a couple of home runs on an otherwise slot night. The MLB only brought 24 HR. Hendo and dukefan lead the way for the month with five homers apiece. Plenty of people have three to start. Let’s see what Friday brings.
Reminder! Prizes were doubled this 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 award 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, June 10th MLB DFS Slate Notes
15 games. We have 15 games this evening. Oh baby! The Philly bandbox is on the slate as well as Yankee Stadium’s wildly short left field.
The weather looks great. We seem to have a few small issues but nothing very serious as of Friday morning. St. Louis seems to be the only spot with any potential issues. Check back later.
Three teams feature an implied run total greater than five runs. The Yankees, the Blue Jays, and the Braves are all projected for more than five runs. The Yankees will be a very tough team to ignore in Yankee Stadium. The Braves lineup will face a pitcher I’ve never heard of. That can’t be too bad, right?
Let’s check on HR/9. Somebody’s small sample sticks out like a sore thumb:
Elvin Rodriguez – Detroit – 3.38 HR/9
Bruce Zimmerman – Baltimore – 2.04 HR/9
Marco Gonzalez – Seattle – 1.72 HR/9
Jose Berrios – Toronto – 1.49 HR/9
Jon Heasley – Kansas City – 1.42 HR/9
Elvin, Elvin, Elvin… A matchup against the Blue Jays with their bloated run total. Elvin surrendered six home runs in his 14 innings this season. Yikes!
There will be so, so, so very many options this evening. Good luck!
Friday, June 10th MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Aaron Judge – OF – $6,300
Last Friday, I rolled out a full Yankees stack and all three popped. This week, DraftKings has made that an impossibility with pricing against a lefty. With that said, I don’t think there is anyone on the slate I am more comfortable with for a home run call. On a 15-game slate, I don’t want to risk getting too cute and falling behind.
Judge is just a monster. The season he is putting together is on a historic pace in perfect time for him to cash in. A lefty at home? Are you kidding me?
This is a no brainer, in my opinion. If he goes yard, I know I will be in plenty of company and I just don’t care.
FanDuel Sportsbook is offering +280 on your money this evening.
Promenade – Kyle Schwarber – OF – $4,300
This range is a bit tricky tonight. For myself, it feels like we either choose a player with elite power upside in not-the-greatest matchup or we choose a player in a really good environment with less skill. I am going to go for the player that profiles like a home run hitter in a not so great matchup.
Zac Gallen travels to Philadelphia to face a powerful lineup. The ballpark is great. The lineup is great. The opposing pitcher… not great. Gallen is yielding far less than one home run per nine innings. That said, Kyle Schwarber is leading off in a bandbox against a righty.
I am just rolling with heavy fly balls and heavy hard hits and ignoring the matchup. I was thinking about turning to the Orioles and Royals but all of these hitters just feel like a class or two below Schwarber. Give me the talent.
For what it’s worth, FanDuel isn’t giving us a discount. Schwarber is shorter in odds than Aaron Judge at +260. We might want to shop that number around.
Bleacher Seats – Ryan Mountcastle – 1B – $3,000
Getting enthusiastic about this range is very tricky despite the added games. Ryan Mountcastle was the only name I quickly found with a .200 ISO and more than 40% fly balls since last season. Mix in 40.7% hard contact and Mountcastle feels elite relative to his peers in this tier.
This game feels a bit sneaky on a large slate. Both of these pitchers are very bad and neither offense should grab that much attention. For DFS purposes, either team makes an interesting secondary stack.
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