Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Friday, May 6th
Happy Friday, Grinders! If I may, an aside… I started blogging for RotoGrinders just before my son, Logan, was born. I remember vividly sitting in the hospital as we welcomed our little buddy and writing a blog as I stacked the Tampa Bay Rays and Logan Morrison for kicks after his birth. Fast forward five years, and my best buddy Logan is five years old today! He isn’t much for baseball, yet — loves Transformers, though.
Many of you followed and interacted with the blog back then. Fortunately, we are all still here, enjoying the game we love and having fun competing with fantasy sports. Good times!
With that said, one May slate is in the books. Friday will make two and boy is weather going to be a factor. Below, the leaderboard is update with a new column to keep track of your seasonal total and May total.
The community impressed after disregarding my picks and going with Coors Field bats. C.J. Cron and Juan Soto were picked often by the community — leading to many players adding two home runs to their May and Season totals. Yisman stayed hot with these two bombs — vaulting him to nine overall home runs.
That said, we only saw 19 home runs on Tuesday’s slate. After seeing a barrage last week, the dead ball came right back to us for a dismal amount of power. Many runs were scored with many times falling to death by singles. I would expect more tonight but the weather might get in the way. Let’s get to it.
Batter up!
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, May 6th MLB DFS Slate Notes
Nothing is more important today than the weather. We have a 13-game slate that is likely going to get shortened because of rain throughout the day on the East Coast. Given I write these pretty early, I might look for indoor environments to target bombs.
The Brewers are scorching hot over the last 7 days. They lead the MLB with 15 HR and a 168 wRC+ during that time frame. Second in HR during that time? The Diamondbacks.
The Astros will probably be a very, very popular DFS today because of all of the weather and a dome-matchup with the Tigers. Stack ‘em up! Yordan Alvarez will face a right-handed pitcher you never heard of.
Weather looks fine on the West Coast but the ballparks aren’t great. Can we hunt home run with the marine layer? The Diamondbacks and Rockies play in Arizona but that park no longer plays like a home run haven. At least the game can’t rain out.
I don’t have much today because I am truly not sure what games will even make the slate. Check RotoGrinders MLB content throughout the day for evolving coverage of the slate as weather news breaks.
Friday, May 6th MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Yordan Alvarez – OF – $5,200
Honestly, this feels like a no-brainer call and play today. How popular will Alvarez be on DFS sites? With no threat of rain and no uncertainty, plug him in for a ready made power-bat in the middle of the order.
On DraftKings, relative to the rest of the upper-price tier, Alvarez is probably underpriced given the certainty that his game will play today. Alvarez has four straight games with hits, nine hits over his last seven games, and four home runs during that time frame. He is a top power option in a controlled environment.
Yes, please.
Promenade – Eugenio Suarez – 3B – $4,600
Suarez draws a matchup tonight with Josh Fleming of the Tampa Bay Rays. The likelihood is that Suarez only sees one AB versus Fleming prior to the Rays turning to the bullpen. No matter, Suarez brings a track record of hard-hit fly balls to the plate.
Last season, Suarez closed with a 47.4 FB% and a 44.5 Hard%. Maybe, just maybe, he gets lucky and gets two AB with the lefty Fleming where Suarez leans significantly more towards fly balls.
Again, though, weather, weather, and more weather. I don’t have to sweat the weather report in Seattle. I don’t want to take the risk of a washout with my top two tiers. Suarez it is…
Bleacher Seats – Jose Miranda – 1B – $2,100
The rookie, Jose Miranda will see his first action in Minnesota as the Twins welcome the Athletics. We don’t have much track record with Miranda but he is a strong-hitting prospect who will now see his fair share of time.
I suppose Miranda will be a popular play today because of the immense salary relief on DraftKings. He booked his first hit of the season last night against Baltimore and should be riding the wave into a home matchup versus a southpaw. Miranda should see plenty of opportunities over the next couple of weeks with Luis Arraez hitting the IL.
Miranda will likely hit near the middle of the order and should see a few AB tonight in what appears to be a pretty safe weather game. Let’s hope for his first HR at the measly price of $2.1K.
Good luck with the weather, tonight! Limit your bankroll if you are playing plenty of DFS and good luck with your home run calls.
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