Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Friday, June 17th
Happy Friday, Grinders! Also, an early Happy Father’s Day to anyone reading that will celebrate there special day this weekend. I hope your Sunday is filled with golf, baseball, grilling, beverages, and maybe even your feet up. I know I will angle for that! Let’s start with a recap of Tuesday’s slightly disappointing slate before getting into Friday night.
I think we need to grade Tuesday as a bit of a disappointment given the great offensive contexts around the MLB. A large variety games didn’t even feature a home run. Don’t tell that to bowler710 or Hendo2132, though. They both managed to benefit from Wilson Contreras and Rhys Hoskins to amass three home runs on the night. Hendo has a comfortable two-bomb lead this month entering a pretty big Friday night slate.
Refresh on the rules and prizes and then take a look at our slate notes.
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 17th MLB DFS Slate Notes
The DraftKings Main slate begins at 7:05 PM EST with 12 games. The second leg of the Phillies doubleheader is in play. Please make sure to restrict your selections to this slate.
We have four games in domes today and Coors Field. We will get back to Coors Field in a moment.
The weather is great, again. We don’t have a Wrigley Field wind game but we have hot temperatures across the slate. Coors Field will play at 90 degrees for some extra unnecessary help. The balls should be jumping off the bats in that affair with the implied game total resting at 12 runs at the time of this writing.
Here is today’s HR/9 list for the six worst ranks on the slate:
Hunter Greene, CIN, 2.25
Lucas Giolito, CHW, 1.86
Bailey Falter, PHI, 1.80
Robbie Ray, SEA, 1.62
Zach Thompson, PIT, 1.62
Eric Lauer, MIL, 1.61
Hunter Green and Eric Lauer will pitch against each other in the very friendly Cincinnati confines. The game makes for a nice potential pivot off of Coors Field for your DFS lineups.
Here is a quick look in to the top five in exit velocity this season on batted ball events:
Giancarlo Stanton, 96.5 MPH
Aaron Judge, 96.2 MPH
Yordan Alvarez, 96.0 MPH
Joc Pederson, 94.3 MPH
Vladimir Guerrero, 94.2 MPH
As the season progresses, we should not be shocked with the talent on this list. The more plate appearances and events will likely filter out the flukey small samples of hard-hit balls over a week or so.
Let’s get to tonight’s picks.
My apologies. The Brewers and Reds are not on tonight’s slate.
Friday, June 17th MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Byron Buxton – OF – $5,500
After all the talk about the weather outdoors being great and Coors Field being nice and hot, my first pick is going to be a late night player in a dome. Byron Buxton draws a matchup with Madison Bumgarner on the road.
Buxton is arguably an MVP candidate if we existed in a world where Aaron Judge and his 25 home runs didn’t exist. Oh, whoops, we would also have to skip the other alternate universe where Buxton’s 18 HR weren’t tied with Mike Trout. In any event, Buxton versus a left-handed pitcher? Yes, please.
Buxton boasts a .344 ISO since last season against LHP. His 45.3 Hard% checks the box albeit combined with a fly ball rate a bit below 40%. Madison Bumgarner spends more time arguing with umpires and opposing players these days while giving up plenty of fly balls. Leading off on the road, we should see a healthy complement of plate appearances to get the job done.
Buxton is +275 to go long today on FanDuel Sportsbook. We will start our card/parlay with him.
Promenade – C.J. Cron – 1B – $4,800
C.J. Cron started the year on a torrid pace. Since, Cron has struggled a bit and we have not seen a home run in quite some time.
Well, could there be a better situation to get off the schneid than tonight? With temperatures in the 90’s tonight at Coors Field and a lefty on the bump, Cron surely needs to get it together. Mackenzie Gore is no slouch, not by a long shot. That said, he gives up just enough hard contact (north of 40%) to get my attention and help me green light this selection.
FanDuel is not as bullish on Cron as they were with Buxton but I will buy at the +340 sticker price.
Bleacher Seats – Jose Miranda – 1B – $3,200
So, maybe I should stack the Twins in tonight’s DFS lineup? They would surely need to be a sneaky stack given the other opportunities around the slate.
I don’t see much in this tier that I love so I will just add another righty in Jose Miranda to get after MadBum. Miranda (small sample) is at 48.6% fly balls and north of 40% in hard hits against lefties. That will do just fine tonight.
If we add Miranda at 530 to our SGP, we get the price to +8486. If you join me, good luck!
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