Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Tuesday, August 9th

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Happy Dinger Tuesday! FanDuel Sportsbook brings another week of their fun baseball promo. For every home run in a baseball game, you can earn $5 towards a free bet if you bet a home run. You can bet every game! Join the party. For our purposes, though, we are amidst the closing month of our 2022 contest. Friday brought fireworks in one location and many of our members capitalized with home runs. Let’s start with a Friday recap.

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So, Josiah Gray did not disappoint the pool. I am only slightly disappointed that I didn’t attack that game with a Phillies stack. Schwarber, Realmuto, Hoskins, Hall, and Castellanos all went yard — certifying that our leaderboard was going to see action. Many of our RG community took advantage of the Hall home run while yisman landed three home runs with a full stack. Frankmichael retained the early August lead with two home runs while many of us kicked off our August campaign with a home run or two. With plenty of hot temperatures and bad pitchers tonight, we should see more action.

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 9th MLB DFS Slate Notes

The White Sox and Royals play a doubleheader and will not be on the slate. Therefore, the DraftKings main slate is 14 games. This includes Coors Field and a few domes. That said, I don’t think we want to target teams that play inside today.

The weather report will likely be published shortly after this article goes live. The automated weather report on our lineups looks to include some potential rain in some spots. That said, the temperatures look to be hot and humid in many locations.

The pitching does not look as strong as our last slate. Instead of suppressing home runs, we have a list of guys who cede them frequently. Here are the worst five:

Mike Minor, CIN, 2.54
Kyle Bradish, BAL, 1.92
Paulo Espino, WSN, 1.91
Zach Thompson, PIT, 1.68
Ryan Feltner, COL, 1.55

I didn’t include Jimmy Yacabonis or Anthony Henry because of a microscopic sample size. Yacabonis will open for the Rays ahead of Ryan Yarborough so we will not see much of him anyway.

The Cardinals travel to Coors Field and boy am I interested. The Cards come off a sweep of the Yankees this past weekend and get rewarded with a series against the hapless Rockies in thin air. I think St. Louis will likely be a very popular DFS stack and for good reason.

The Yankees exploded against the Mariners last night but don’t expect a similar game environment. Luis Castillo will start against the team who coveted him pre-deadline while Gerrit Cole will take the bump for the Bombers. If anything, targeting Mariners bats for home runs might be the play.

The Mets make so much sense against Mike Minor. The park isn’t ideal but the weather should be very conducive to offense. I will be keeping my eye on the weather report all day hoping to take advantage of some Mets’ bats.

Tuesday, August 9th MLB Home Run Picks

Luxury Box – Pete Alonso – 1B – $5,900

Pete Alonso versus a lefty? Yes, please!

Alonso brings 38.2% hard contact and 42% fly balls against lefties this season. Alonso is an extra-base hit waiting to happen. With Mike Minor doling out so much power this season, I will disregard the park shift. Assuming the weather holds up, the temperatures and humidity should help mitigate the caverns of Citi Field.

Alonso brings a +255 price tag on FanDuel Sportsbook. We start our home run card with him in the expensive tier.

Promenade – Nolan Gorman – 2B – $4,400

While Coors Field is not a haven for home runs, the Rockies pitching staff seems to boost our chances.

Ryan Feltner was on our list for power. The thin air of Coors Field should only make it more challenging to keep the Cardinals’ lineup at bay. Gorman was a focal point of the Juan Soto deal for a reason. Throughout his short tenure, Gorman continues to launch the ball into the air. He should draw a good lineup spot on the road against the right-hander.

Gorman carries a +285 price tag — likely shortened because of Coors Field.

Bleacher Seats – Darin Ruf – 1B/OF – $3,000

With Mike Minor possessing the largest HR/9 number on the slate, adding another righty to the card is a no-brainer. With their trade deadline acquisitions, the Mets are fully capable of playing the platoon game so Ruf should start. Of course, we carry plenty of pinch-hit risk if this game gets out of hand if a right-handed arm takes the bump. With that said, I want as many at-bats as I can find against Minor, tonight.

Ruf offers a bit more profit on his +350 home run price on FanDuel. I am not sure, though, if I feel nearly as confident in Ruf as I do in Pete Alonso.

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

About the Author

joeycis
Joe Cistaro (joeycis)

A high school mathematics teacher from New Jersey, Joe Cistaro (aka joeycis) is a lifelong fantasy sports fan. As a member of the RotoGrinders community, Joe cut his teeth writing for the website through the blogging program. Previously engaging the community with articles such as Home Run Derby and Finding Paydirt, Joe now focuses his time on sports betting content for both the NFL and the PGA TOUR. Follow Joe on Twitter – @ JoeCistaro