Rise & Grind: Friday, July 17th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through the week’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed It
Welcome Back! – Greetings Grinders! We made it through an entire week without baseball. Hopefully you were able to spend some time relaxing. Maybe you worked on your research routine, maybe you spent all week building lineups, maybe you didn’t even think about DFS the entire week. Either way, here we are, ready to hit the second half hard. If you didn’t pay attention while you were gone, here is what you missed.
Daily Fantasy Fix – Dan sent the industry into a buzz yesterday when he interviewed Matthew Berry of ESPN on the Daily Fantasy Fix. Give it a listen as two of the G.O.A.T.s (that’s Greatest of All Time) discuss their passion for fantasy sports and their thoughts on the industry. While you are in a podcasting mood, Gabey had a great interview with Mark Herberholz, formerly of Pinnacle, on what Vegas odds really mean. Lastly, CrazyGabey and Stevietpfl discussed the NASCAR basics. You can find all the podcasts here.
DraftKings Millionaire Maker – With no MLB DFS to stand in the way, DraftKings easily filled their PGA Millionaire Maker for The Open Championship. The success of this event plus past Milly Makers has driven DK to push the limits. DK has already posted another Millionaire Maker for the PGA Championship on 8/13. The prize pool was boosted from $3M to $3.3M but best of all DK is limiting the event to 100 entries per user. With the recent scripting debate raging hotly, DK has definitely thrown the little guy a bone with this move. You definitely don’t need anything other than a pen, paper, and imagination to build 100 lineups with ease.
As for the current Millionaire Maker, it is still way to early to call a winner. The only thing we know so far is that Tiger Woods is not going to win this thing. Tiger shot a +4 as people hinted that maybe it is time for him to hang it up. Even the American Association for Retired People (AARP) got in on the action. The AARP not only tweeted a barb at Tiger, but they also paid money to promote it on Twitter. It is almost like they had this planned.
NFL Free Agency – Several NFL fan bases were on edge this week as the deadline approached to negotiate a long-term deal with players who received the franchise tag. The most notable names on that list were Dez Bryant and Demaryius Thomas. At the last minute, both recieved deals. Both Thomas and Bryant received 5 year deals worth $70M. Even though I’m an Eagles fan I don’t mind giving credit where it is due. I’m glad to see the Cowboys were able to get a deal done. It would have been a bummer if they dropped the ball and were not able to complete the process.
Industry News and Notes – A lot happened over the All-Star break and we don’t have time to cover each item individually. Let’s run through the highlights rapid-fire. FanDuel offered us a sneak peak of their new live scoring interface in the forums, Eilers released their industry-wide players survey, and Max Steinberg who qualified for the WSOP through DraftKings advanced to the final table.
On The Menu
MLB Tonight – Look, you probably didn’t come here spend all morning catching up on news. We have lineups to build for tonight. MLB returns with 16 games. That means every team is in action, plus we have a bonus daytime game between the Royals and White Sox. Notorious already has his MLB First Look posted. There is a nice mix of aces like Jose Fernandez and John Danks on the mound tonight. Wait, did I just say John Danks is an ace? Yep I did, or at least it seems that way anytime I stack against him.
FanDuel GPPs – You think FanDuel is excited to have MLB back? I would say so. Tonight FanDuel with all out with a $500K Grand Slam. One lucky person is going to turn $25 into $100,000. Yes that’s right, someone is getting a six-figure payday tonight. As if that wasn’t enough, FanDuel upped the ante and also posted a WFBC Qualifier at $5. As far as I know, this is the first ever $5 MLB Vegas Qualifier. If turning $5 into $1M sounds like your cup up tea get in there and help fill this thing so we see more in the future. The two GPPs I just mentioned are my personal favorites, but there are a plethora of other contests in the lobby. There are way to many to name but I see Bracket Qualifier, Happy Hour Contests, a Boston Qualifier and several satellites and GPPs.
DraftKings GPPs – How could anyone possibly compete with the FanDuel offerings i just mentioned? Well if you are DraftKings that is easy. How about a $25K Freeroll? DraftKings is giving away $25K in free tickets to their FBWC Qualifiers. 1-5 get a $1,000 ticket, 6-30 get a $300 ticket, 31-530 get a $20 ticket and 531-10530 get a $0.25 ticket. If you don’t yet have a DraftKings account be sure to use the RG link to gain free incentives for a year. Okay, the free contest is pretty sweet. What else do you got DraftKings? A $5 Knuckleball with a $100K top prize? A $1060 Gold Glove with a $100,000 up top? Midsummer classic satellites? Yeah, I would say DraftKings is excited for MLB to return as well.
Industry GPPs -Those are some pretty awesome GPPs on FD and DK. They are going to be tough to win. If you are looking for something a little smaller with better odds I recommend a quick look around the industry. There are only four seats left in the FABC Qualifier on FantasyAces and two of them are being awarded in the $109 Qualifier tonight. Victiv has a $2K Heater as well as some unique multi-entry double ups which are really fun. Last but not least, FantasyFeud is running an MLB Championship Qualifier at $22 and a $5K GPP at $33 both of which have overlayed every Friday this season. Those are just a few examples, just about every site out there is running a nice sized contest or promo tonight.
MLB Content – If you want a piece of the action tonight, stay tuned to RotoGrinders all day for hard-hitting picks and analysis. You can expect the full gamut of content including MLB Grind Down, Starting Pitcher Breakdown and Advanced Stats, Six-Pack, JMtoWin’s Edge, Premium Expert Picks and so much more. On top of all the written content, you can catch three and a half hours of analysis this afternoon. Boggslite and DraftCheat will be on GrindersLive at 3:30 ET, followed by Gabey, Pepsi7, and Zach Miner at 4:30, and then BritDevine, Hoop2410, and EMac at 5:30. Be there or be a square!
#NarrativeStreet – While the advice you can get here on RotoGrinders can win you a GPP, everyone else also has access to it as well. Sometimes you need to go off the grid a bit and find some players that may have a little extra motivation. Here are tonight’s #NarrativeStreet picks to set your team apart. Go ahead and start all your teams with Adam Lind in a #BirthdayGame. Alex Rodriguez is on a #Milestone watch as he needs three hits to catch fellow cheat Rafael Palmeiro at 25 on the all-time hit list. All the following players need one dong to reach a milestone: Ryan Howard (350), Carlos Gonzalez (150), Aaron Hill (150), Carlos Gomez (100), David DeJesus (100), and David Murphy (100). If you prefer your narratives to be backed up by numbers, look no further than today’s #BVPPlaysOfTheDay. Nolan Arenado is batting .636 with three dongs in just 11 at-bats against James Shields. You can’t ignore that. Andrew McCutchen also has four dongs off Mike Fiers in 16 at-bats while batting .325. Fier him up tonight! (See what i did there?) On the opposite end of the spectrum, don’t eve consider Jonathan Lucroy tonight. He is 1-for-14 off Morton. For a few other BVP ideas, be sure to check out the Daily Batter Hub
Bottom Line – Hopefully, the All-Star break was good to you. Preseason NFL starts in less than a month and the stretch run of MLB should be fun. Good luck in the massive GPPs tonight and anyone who has a legitimate chance in the Millionaire Maker. I’m out of here for the weekend but hopefully I’m writing about your big win on Monday when the Rise and Grind returns. Good luck!