Home Run Derby - MLB DFS Community Contest: Tuesday, May 3rd
Happy Tuesday, Grinders! I hope the weekend was peaceful, pleasant, and profitable. Many home runs were crushed on Friday. I hope that surge carried us through a fun weekend of baseball or whatever DFS sport you played. April is in the past. May is here. Let’s start with the final April leaderboard and winners!
Jamisonsdad1 closed the month in epic fashion with five home runs (for a winning total of 8) over the last two slates. Nipping at his heels was yisman, who finished second with seven home runs. Finally, 1010mg found one more home run on Friday to break the third-place tie and claim a solo bronze medal for April. What did they win?
For April, our winner Jamisonsdad1 wins a full free month of MLB Premium. Yisman wins an RG swag pack and 1010mg wins a free week of SAO premium. I am sending a DM on RG to each of you to confirm receipt of your prize. If not, you can reach me at Twitter to iron out all of the details. Congratulations to our winners! Let’s clear the slate and start anew for May.
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.
Tuesday, May 3rd MLB DFS Slate Notes
The DraftKings Main Slate features 11 games tonight. The Mets play a doubleheader against the Braves. Neither game is on the slate. Make sure to pick home runs only from the 11 games from DraftKings.
The weather for tonight, at the time of this writing, seems okay. There will be rain throughout the day in Detroit and Chicago. They should play if the fields hold up. That said, temperatures are cold with a wind blowing in from left field in Wrigley Field. I am not sure we want much action in these games.
The Friday main slate featured a power surge relative to what we have seen this season. Forty one home runs were slugged with a handful of games closing north of ten runs. That said, prior to summer heat, runs continue to stay down across the league. Maybe these baseball really are dead.
Aaron Judge leads the league in Barrel/PA % at 18.3%. Mike Trout and Yordan Alvarez follow with fellow bomber, Giancarlo Stanton sitting in fourth. Judge lit the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals up last week — smashing five home runs amongst his ten hits for 11 RBI. Judge is dialed in ahead of tonight’s tilt with the Blue Jays in Toronto.
Mike Trout leads the league with a 235-yard average distance. With minimum number of Statcast events being 25, Trout’s 51 batted-ball events have been extremely impressive. Trout is clearly reminding everyone who is the best hitter in baseball.
Potential gas cans this evening — relative to last year’s stats – Bruce Zimmerman, Michael Wacha, Bryse Wilson, Michael Pineda, Chris Flexen, Cristian Javier, Erick Fedde
Tuesday, May 3rd MLB Home Run Picks
Luxury Box – Mike Trout – OF – $6,100
I cannot possibly put the effort to note the recent form of Mike Trout without using him on this slate. Further, the pickings are a bit tricky tonight in the upper tier. Many of the sluggers do not have the greatest matchup and/or ballpark. Trout is and always will be matchup proof.
Certainly, his recent form doesn’t hurt. He is truly crushing the baseball to open the season. Fenway Park is a suitable park for right-handed power with the Green Monster not really very monstrous when a slugger connects. A matchup against Michael Wacha scares nobody.
Wacha yielded a 53.2% hard-hit rate to righties last season. While he suppresses fly balls a bit, Mike Trout is simply Mike Trout. Returning to the top of the pricing list, I am starting my month with the best.
Trout is +310 to hit a home run on DraftKings Sportsbook this evening.
Promenade – Christian Yelich – OF – $4,500
Speaking of form, Christian Yelich and the Brew Crew are scoring in bunches early in the season. Miller Park is always a suitable place to hunt home runs because weather is never a concern. Yelich collected two home runs over the course of last week.
Tyler Mahle would not be a pitcher we necessarily picked on last season. That said, he is struggling a bit out of the gates in 2022. He has yielded north of 40% fly balls and 10% walks this season. The Milwaukee stack can do a number on Mahle early and get into the Reds bullpen.
Without many options for great weather environments, I don’t mind taking a shot here indoors on a hitter with some pedigree. Yelich should see a minimum of three at-bats in a positive home environment for power. Sign me up.
Yelich is +430 to hit a home run at FanDuel Sportsbook.
Bleacher Seats – Anthony Santander – OF – $2,900
Good luck in this range. With the weather in many spots and enough good arms, the lower tier is looking very slim barring some favorable lineups. I am going to simply take a lefty in Camden Yards who hits plenty of fly balls.
I am not worried about Joe Ryan or his stats for Minnesota because we don’t have plenty of options this evening. Instead, I love Santander’s matching 43.8% fly balls and hard hits from 2021 against right-handed arms. We will take our chances and hope to finally catch one in this range.
Santander is +530 to hit a home run tonight. At the time of this writing, you can place a parlay on FanDuel with these three selections for +13848. I already put a very, very, very tiny parlay in for kicks. Good luck if you tail.
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