Home Run Derby: Monday, July 29th
Calling home runs, besides great fun, often makes the difference between a wildly profitable night in DFS and missing the cash line. Throughout the 2019 MLB season, I will endeavor to find a few home runs in three salary tiers on DraftKings. Join me throughout the year and call your home runs for monthly and seasonal RotoGrinders prizes. Without further ado, let’s play Home Run Derby!
Throughout this season, I will produce the Home Run Derby for main slates on DraftKings 2-3 days per week — selecting a home run from three different pricing tiers. If you want to call your home runs, please use these tiers for your selections to be eligible for any Derby prizes. Here are the tiers.
Luxury Box – $4,500 and above
Club Seats – $3,500 – $4400
Bleachers – Below $3,500
Hitters must be selected from the DraftKings Main Slate.
Schedule this Week: Monday, Tuesday, Friday
Happy Monday, Grinders! We find ourselves on the precipice of August with two more slates left in July. Tonight’s slate, followed by the Tuesday slate, will wrap up July and crown a RotoGrinders T-shirt winner. From there, we are left with one month to crown the final monthly winner and an overall winner. A reminder… the overall winner of this contest will win a 3-month combo premium member to RotoGrinders just in time for the start of the NFL season. The NFL product is absolutely stockpiled with excellent content, tools, and projections that will help you get ahead for your weekly forays into NFL DFS. Make it count during this final month!
With that said, here are my home run picks for tonight’s slate (I am still in the thick of this monthly contest) and a leaderboard update.
The statistics for each player are for the 2019 season.
Luxury Box
Mike Trout — OF – $5,700
Trout in 2019 – .366 ISO, 47.2 FB%, 44.5 Hard%, 90.6 MPH aEV
Zimmerman vs RHH – .212 ISO, 89.3 MPH aEV, 38.4 FB%, 38.4 Hard%
Imagine, Mike Trout, being a contrarian pick. With the Angels playing on the West Coast and the Dodgers playing in Coors Field, Mike Trout might as well play baseball on Mars tonight. Not for me. I am going to be bold and go with a Coors fade with my home run calls and side with Mike Trout sitting in likely the best matchup of the night.
Jordan Zimmerman is a disaster but the Tigers, well, they don’t really care. The season was over before it began and they just need to get through all of these remaining innings. Zimmerman’s combination of hard contact, fly balls, and lack of strikeout ability (15.2%) make me wonder if the Tigers would be better served to place a tee on home plate and let opponents have a crack.
Trout requires no touting. He is the best player in baseball and nobody is going to want him, tonight.
Club Seats
Jorge Soler — OF – $4,300
Soler in 2019 – .261 ISO, 39.5 FB%, 44.1 Hard%, 91.4 MPH aEV
Pannone vs RHH – .142 ISO, 89.8 MPH aEV, 43.2 FB%, 42.7 Hard%
Has there been a quieter season of power than that of Jorge Soler? Soler’s 28 home runs and 117 wRC+ falls on deaf ears since he resides in Kansas City. Make no mistake, though, Soler brings a ton of power to the plate with each at-bat.
Soler has flashed most of his power against right-handed pitching (23 home runs) but will likely see a ton of the Blue Jays shoddy bullpen. Pannone has no made it out of the fifth inning in either MLB start and is backed by a bullpen that boasts a 38.0 FB% and yielded 74 home runs thus far in 2019. Soler, like Trout, might go a bit overlook considering the landscape of the slate. I don’t mind being contrarian here, either.
Bleachers
JaCoby Jones – OF – $3,400
Jones in 2019 – .196 ISO, 38.1 FB%, 43.2 Hard%, 91.6 MPH aEV
Barria vs RHH – .250 ISO, 88.5 MPH aEV, 43.7 FB%, 37.5 Hard%
Had I built a computer program or application to sift through the pricing tiers for me every day and filter out the statistics I emphasize, JaCoby Jones would be a hit regardless of price. I will be honest, I cannot believe that I can pick a player with the power skills that Jones possesses this season in this dumpster fire of a tier.
As if Jones needed additional support, he matches up against Jaime Barria tonight. So if I broadened my app to then filter positive pitching matchups for those good hitters from above, this would be the match of all matches. I should really work on this. I wonder if this is how Match.com’s algorithm works. In any event, Jones is the obvious play in this tier, tonight.
Leaderboard (sortable by column)
| Player | Total | July | 7/2 | 7/3 | 7/5 | 7/15 | 7/16 | 7/19 | 7/22 | 7/23 | 7/26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| joeycis | 29 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| erichanlon | 24 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| shanekern03 | 43 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| KardiacChris | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| nrcave | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| mewhitenoise | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| D4RKSH33P | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| boomanfoo | 27 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| allanturner84 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| hautalak | 24 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| kdubs81 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SportsLover37 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| chdmoney | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| moisheg1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| chris5764 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| donb5170 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TheDataDetective | 20 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| pabloplyr | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| infy72 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ropediddy | 25 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| krot | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| bcorbett | 38 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| pastorthor | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MoccasinMusic | 22 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gillik9486 | 32 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Anttheman | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Curse | 24 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TheBigMeat88 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| only1david77 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| WestCrook1 | 39 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| oxlodge42 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| strgzer585 | 36 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| okbosox26 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| djwagner92 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| weave40 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| pryan000 | 32 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RLane11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Semaj89 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| HIPPYHD | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| michjim | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| apov22 | 32 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| mmart2780 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| gswenson0607 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| mcnasty52 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| whitetrashballerz | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| dankc2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| AverageMoesef | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| tsall | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| jsherman003 | 13 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| samsonite136 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| steelerhead | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| wcuball29 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| him | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| silverback9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| timtime33 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| yellowzjacket | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| mattk614 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| jut01013 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| jokerdpro | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| dhorton8813 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| yisman | 31 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| NatemanH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| kodatazer | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| SmoothLH20 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DJESQUIRE | 26 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| mclellan72 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DKMaestro | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| EmceeDusty | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| sochoice | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| bigstacks2015 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| XonoX | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MattyIce07 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Wencesace21 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J_maw | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TakeoverTarget | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| nearthewall | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mangone | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| dannydonahue98 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| BigPod | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| GBRollClones | 13 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| PackerOwner | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| autumnhunter33 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rcplayer07 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| FiveStarCo | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| tmirrione | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| player527 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| pclesnare | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| fredvr223 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| jsteele1020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| bdawg22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
With only 13 contestants, it is clear that the end of the month is quieting our contest down. Also, now that the article is featured in the “Articles” section — that might have left contestants wondering where the feature was. I will try to advertise the shift on Twitter today and build back up our contest base.
We did not see any dramatic changes to our leaderboard on Friday as a result. The lack of contestants combined with a very quiet 30-home run night in the MLB made for a slow day. Strgzer585 remains atop the July leaderboard with 9 home runs while yisman, jsherman003, and I find ourselves one home run behind. Shanekern03 remains atop the overall leaderboard with 43 home runs with WestCrook1 nipping at his heels with 39 home runs.
Let’s spread the word today. Retweet. Share. Make sure everyone knows to go to the articles section. Let’s finish July up with a bang! I will be back tomorrow morning with a recap of Monday night and a few more picks as I quest to win the month of July. Until then, good luck, everyone.
I am happy to announce that at the end of each month I will be rewarding the highest home run total with a RotoGrinders T-shirt. Having a rough month? Don’t let up. The RotoGrinders member with the most home runs throughout the season — until the end of August — will be awarded a 3-month Combo Premium subscription to start the NFL season!
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the article, stick around for the rest of the MLB season. Want to compete against me? Drop your expensive, mid-tier, and cheap home run calls in the comments (DraftKings pricing). Otherwise, give me a follow on Twitter where I typically post slate-relevant statistics and embarrassing comments about professional wrestling.
Statistics for this article are obtained from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, RotoGrinders Daily Research Console, and Baseball Savant.