Rise & Grind: Friday, July 31st
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through yesterday’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed It
DraftKings NASCAR – If you have played DraftKings NASCAR this season, make sure to check your email. A few weeks ago, several Grinders brought up the fact that Kyle Busch ended up with a -48 pass differential in a race he won and ran out front all day. DraftKings promised to look into the issue and finally finished their review yesterday. The email DraftKings sent is posted in this forum thread. The gist of DK’s email is that pass differential has to be validated after the race using true-loop technology. DK has re-run the previous contests with the correct data and paid additional funds to anyone who was shorted. DK also removed pass differential from future races and added a sixth driver to hopefully reduce the number of ties. As if all that wasn’t good enough, they are also running a $25K freeroll. Click on the thread I linked above for the link.
DraftKings Kickoff – A few weeks ago FanDuel released their NFL salaries and contests. With teams beginning to report to training camp, it was expected that DraftKings would also release their NFL contests. It turns out that today is that day. DraftKings will be releasing the salaries at 11:30 AM ET this morning live on Spreecast. If you are excited to learn how much an Eagles stack is going to cost you, or if you simply don’t have anything better to do, tune in for the release. If nothing else, it will be exciting to find out the prize pool for the Millionaire Maker and other featured tournaments. As Bart Scott would say, Can’t Wait!
Sheldon Richardson – Speaking of Jets players, is Sheldon Richardson the dumbest human being on the planet? On 7/14 police in St. Charles County, Missouri observed Sheldon Richardson of the New York Jets engaged in a street race. Police clocked him three separate times at speeds of 112, 135, and 143 MPH. When Richardson spotted the patrol car trying o pull him over, he evaded police and then tried the old “shut my lights off and pull in a driveway” move. It didn’t work, and honestly it never does. As police approached the vehicle, they observed Richardson place a gun between his feet. Once police were able to get everyone out of the vehicle they detected a strong odor of marijuana and also noticed a passenger in the back seat was a 12-year-old boy. Richardson was already suspended four games this season for a positive marijuana test. I guess that leaves plenty of time for street racing and smoking more marijuana. If you are going to do all that, you might as well bring along a kid too, just because, why not?
Steven Jackson – In happier NFL news, free agent RB Steven Jackson would like the Cowboys to know he is available. Yesterday, Jackson tweeted a picture of Cowboys stadium with his number 39 shining down like the Bat Signal. The timing of his tweet no doubt correlates to the news that Darren McFadden was placed on the pre-season Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list with a hamstring injury. Unfortunately for Jackson, the Cowboys still have Joseph Randle, who is looking to steal the starting job. We know he’s capable too, because he has experience stealing things. By the way, if you couldn’t tell, I’m an Eagles fan and this is my column. Deal with it Cowboys fans!
MLB Trade Deadline – Over the past few days, MLB teams have been wheeling and dealing in hopes of either improving their team for a run this year or unloading aging stars or contracts for prospects. We have seen the Rockies swap Troy Tulowitzki to the Jays for Jose Reyes, the Tigers deal David Price to Toronto, the Reds deal Johnny Cueto to the Royals, and several other big moves. It is always tough to get traded. Just ask Mets shortstop Wilmer Flores. On Tuesday, social media was abuzz with rumors that Flores and Wheeler had been traded to the Brewers for Carlos Gomez. Apparently, those rumors reached the clubhouse and Flores learned about them while still playing. This led to Flores crying on the field while playing shortstop. I guess Flores hasn’t seen A League of Their Own. There is no crying in baseball!
Big Winners – By the way, the Flores deal mentioned above didn’t actually go through. Awkward! I’m sure many of you can sympathize with Flores though. I had a Twins stack last night and Chris Sale completely imploded and ruined it. I felt like crying as well. On the positive side, there were some excellent performances last night. Brandon Phillips scored over 50 on DK, and several other players hit multiple home runs. Let’s find out which DFS players put together the right combo to take down some major cash. As always the full list of links is in this thread. I can’t mention every contest but you are free to browse on your own. On FanDuel, the night belong to “Slammin’ ehafner, who took down the Grand Slam and Monster for well over $50K. In other GPPs, busque1 won the Rally, luke8787 won the WFBC qualifier, and ssmith_8 won the Slugger. Over on DraftKings, jonathan627 won the Payoff Pitch, samenole won the Perfect Game, jaykocks won the Moonshot, and underjones won the Gold Glove.
On The Menu
MLB Tonight – Today is Friday! That means we get our usual full MLB slate offering 15 games. With every single team in action, there is no shortage of good options tonight. At first glance, this slate is a bit overwhelming. There are several aces on the mound, including Cueto, Kershaw, and Bumgarner. There are also intriguing mid-range pitching options. You are going to want to get some outside thoughts on this slate once you form your own opinions. Here at RotoGrinders we are happy to assist with that. You can expect a full slate of content including the MLB Grind Down, Pitcher Breakdown, Hitter Breakdown, JMToWin’s Edge, Beermakerfan’s Six-Pack and so much more. As if that wasn’t enough, you can also catch 3.5 hours of MLB discussion GrindersLive starting at 3:30 PM ET.
MLB GPPs – After a quick look at the lobbies of the Big Two, it is pretty obvious you are going to want some of tonight’s GPP action. DraftKings has a $500K Perfect Game, $160K Payoff Pitch, $135K Moonshot, $50K Hot Corner, $40K Gold Glove, WFBC Qualifier, and a massive amount of satellites to various contests. The guys over at FanDuel also have some really great GPP options. There is a $200K Grand Slam, $150K Monster, $100K Rally, $50K Squeeze, and several other smaller GPPs and satellites. In short, there is a lot of money to be made on the Big Two. There is also plenty of possible overlay on the smaller sites as well.
UFC/NASCAR – As I mentioned above, DraftKings is running a $25K free roll this week. Once qualifying is complete be sure to check back this weekend for stevietpfl’s Pit Stop, NASCAR After Dark with Tobinator and greenflag, as well as the Trading Paint article. While you are at it, you might want to give UFC a look as well. bbbomb has some excellent thought’s on the card for UFC 190 this weekend in The Daily Fantasy Takedown.
Bottom Line – The RotoGrinders community is easily the best DFS community out there. Maybe I’m a little biased when I say that, but I still think it is true. If you have ever wanted to meet some of the people who you spend all your time chatting with and talking to on the forums, the RotoGrinders Party is the best way to make that happen. Cal posted the details for this year’s party in the forums. The event will take place September 12th-13th in Las Vegas. Click on the thread for all the details and to reserve your spot. You won’t regret attending this amazing event!