Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Friday, June 3rd
Happy Friday, home run hunters! The first slate of June is upon us. Clear the slate! Start anew! With the season really heating up, we have recently seen far more home runs. Before we get into this slate, we must recap Tuesday and the month of May as well as award our winners there bounties!
For the final slate on Tuesday, the MLB brought a measly 22 home run after a home run parade the previous Friday. Many of our popular choices did not go yard. Despite many totals going over, Tuesday was a single and double fiesta.
Well, we didn’t have much movement. SmoothLH20 and your truly were two of the only people in the pool to find one home run. As such, both of us tied for the top total in May. As your humble narrator and coordinator, I excuse myself from the contest. This means that SmoothLH20 is our winner for the month of May — earning one month of MLB Premium content.
In second, Hendo2132 wins a RotoGrinders tee shirt. Please send me a DM on Twitter or Discord with your address information and shirt size.
Tied for third, we have yisman and Trendsetta513. You both receive one week of SAO premium.
Congratulations to all of the winners. All of these home runs will carry over for our seasonal prizes. Let’s start anew!
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 – One month of RotoGrinders MLB Premium
Second Place – RotoGrinders T-shirt
Third Place – One week 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 3rd MLB DFS Slate Notes
We have 12 games on tonight’s slate. Coors Field is on the slate.
Weather appears to not be a concern for tonight’s slate. There is a breath of wind in New York and some wind at Wrigley Field in the forecast.
Given the lack of potential postponements and the 70-degree weather across the board, I anticipate this might be a slate where we see the most home runs thus far in 2022 for our contest.
Three implied team totals exceed 5 runs this evening. The Braves boast a juicy 6.30 run total. The Blue Jays are at 5.71 and the Yankees are at 5.05 runs.
These are the worst HR/9 totals for pitchers on tonight’s slate in 2022:
Nate Eovaldi – 2.51
Bruce Zimmerman – 2.26
James Kaprielian – 1.98
Vince Velazquez – 1.77
Jose Urquidy – 1.60
Unfortunately, Eovaldi and Kaprielian are pitching in Oakland — mitigating the potential power available.
The Yankees feel like a fantastic target for the home run hunt. That starting lineup is going to make many decisions for people. I am going to find it very difficult to avoid them across my picks.
I am very intrigued by the Guardians but I am not sure who to pick outside of Jose Ramirez. Bruce Zimmerman is so far giving up plenty of long balls. I am also very intrigued by the game in Philadelphia. The Philly bandbox with good weather and so-so pitching. The Phillies’ lefties look very interesting tonight.
The DFS slate is really interesting given the variety of offensive stacking options while still having pitching to pay up for.
Let’s make our picks.
Friday, June 3rd MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Aaron Judge – OF – $5,700
Elvin Rodriguez is a guy. He might be a nice guy. He throws baseballs for a living. I am sure he is swell.
Elvin Rodriguez is running into a hornet’s nest. We are going all in on the Yankees this evening.
Leading off (pun intended), Aaron Judge is the league leader in home runs with 19. He is tearing the cover off of the baseball. I mean, literally, if you watch him hit the ball and take a screenshot. Zoom in to a fine granular level, you will see the tears in the cover.
That, of course, is not true… I think. What is true, however, is that Aaron Judge is going to cost more and more money if he can perform like this throughout the course of the season. A .357 ISO, a 193 wRC+… damn.
Pay this man his money! Before we get there, though, let’s lock him in for a home run tonight. Judge brings a relatively nice price tag on FanDuel Sportsbook at +320. Lock that up before lineups are released.
Promenade – Anthony Rizzo – 1B – $4,400
The next member of our home run stack is Anthony Rizzo. The first baseman has not hit a home run in some time but I think tonight is the night. Steadily at 50% fly balls on the season, the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium should help some of those fly balls find the cheap seats.
We know the pace Rizzo started the season with was going to slow down. With eleven home runs, though, I think it is time for a couple more tonight. Rizzo’s price on FanDuel is +460.
Bleacher Seats – Matt Carpenter – 1B/3B – $3,300
Finally, the last member of our stack is Matt Carpenter. The veteran hitting extraordinaire signing with the Yankees was a joyous moment. Getting called up immediately was equally joyous.
Stepping up to the plate with a mustache and immediately hitting a home run…. GLORIOUS! I will always have a soft spot for Matt Carpenter — a member of many of my fantasy baseball teams when I played season-long, I am a big fan.
Tonight, he is a lefty in Yankee Stadium facing a righty. He has been pretty hot to start his Yankees tenure. He also has the potential to hit leadoff. Yes, please.
Carp is +530 for a home run. If you parlayed all of these together for giggles, FanDuel will give you +9903 odds at the time of this writing.
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