Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Tuesday, August 16th
Happy Dinger Tuesday! FanDuel Sportsbook wants to reward us for betting home runs, so, bet home runs we shall! The halfway point of the month is upon us. The remaining slates are very finite. Let’s start with a peek at the leaderboard after an extremely weak Friday evening.
With only 21 home runs, the MLB must be joking us. Perhaps, they aren’t, however, as today’s slate is armed with plenty of power-suppressing pitching. Aaron Judge and Kyle Tucker tallied home runs across the contest with many others drawing blanks. While we are awarding prizes for August, the season-long prizes are still out there. While I won’t claim any prizes, I surely want to win. Who will reign supreme after months of hunting home runs? Let’s see if Friday shakes up our leaderboard.
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.
Tuesday, August 16th MLB DFS Slate Notes
Typical for a Tuesday, we see a big thirteen-game slate with only a couple of games starting at 6:40 PM EST. DraftKings excludes San Diego, Miami, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia from our slate when it locks at 7:05. We won’t have Coors Field.
The automated weather information on our starting lineups indicates that we won’t be too worried today. That said, check in with that link for today’s weather prior to locking in lineups, bets, and picks.
Here is our HR/9 list for this slate:
Patrick Corbin, WSN, 1.71
Garrett Hill, DET, 1.47
Robbie Ray, SEA, 1.46
Charlie Morton, ATL, 1.32
Ryan Pepiot, LAD, 1.31
Jose Suarez, LAA, 1.30
Nick Pivetta, BOS, 1.25
I demand a recount! The worst pitcher with regard to home runs faces the Cubs. Suarez and Ray square off in Los Angeles. We will need to get creative this evening.
Tuesday, August 16th MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Nolan Arenado – 3B – $5,400
Nolan Arenado draws a lefty in his ex-teammate Kyle Freeland tonight at home in St. Louis. Arenado and fellow slugger Paul Goldschmidt might sneakily be two of the top options in this range for power.
Arenado made a career out of slaying lefties and this season is no different. A .429 ISO is highlighted by a 59.4 FB% and 44.9% hard-hit rate. The man is selling out for power against southpaws and we love to see it. The Cardinals make for a very nice stack against Freeland as they can get very, very right-handed.
Arenado is +360 to go yard, tonight. Lock that price in ASAP. He will be my pick for Dinger Tuesday.
Promenade – Matt Olson – 1B – $4,700
Taijuan Walker did not make our HR/9 list in our notes. Yet, over the last 30 days, Walker holds a 2.41 HR/9 and a 7.71 ERA. Needless to say, he has come a bit back down to Earth recently and sees a very strong Atlanta lineup. In a stadium designed for Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson should do.
Olson brings a 39.8 FB% and 44.8 Hard% against right-handed hitters. We will call it 40/40 and get excited about the prospects of Olson leaving the yard a couple of times this evening. The Braves are riding hot, winning several games since the last Mets series and opening up this series with a 13-1 win last night.
Olson is priced at +280 to go yard this evening. While we don’t love the price, we like the added confidence in our case.
Bleacher Seats – Joey Gallo – OF – $3,400
Welcome back to our life, Joey. A trade out of New York and to the Dodgers means that Gallo is likely to play with significantly less pressure than he did in Yankee Stadium.
Gallo has gone yard twice since dawning the Dodgers uniform. The Dodgers continue their series against the Brewers in Miller Park, a nice park shift for left-handed hitters. Brandon Woodruff is pretty good but he does give up plenty of fly balls (41.9%) and hard contact (40%) to lefties. Joey Gallo is pretty much all fly balls at a 54.5% clip. New York fans hated this but I don’t. Give him three at-bats and we might get one moonshot.
Gallo boasts a +520 price tag on FanDuel Sportsbook. In a game where we might see a few long balls, Gallo is a nice high-upside choice for the Dinger promo.
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 Friday for a recap, leaderboard, and home run calls.
Player Image Credit: Imagn