Rise & Grind: Friday, March 13th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through the yesterday’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
In Case You Missed It
NBA Recap – It was a rather Grizzly night for “chalk” value plays last night. Early in the day yesterday, Memphis announced that four of their starting five would sit due to rest or injury. In hindsight, when Courtney Lee is the consensus value play it’s probably a good time to take a day off. Instead, the Memphis value train Leuer’ed everyone in then quickly de-railed causing mass carnage. The good news here is that we probably won’t be seeing the Grizzlies in a primetime game on TNT anytime soon. In other news, Kyrie Irving is pretty good at basketball, Rudy Gobert is an unstoppable force inside, and James Harden made it hard on anyone to cash with him on their team.
Big Winners – Speaking of cashing, those who avoided the Memphis “value” and instead focused on the highest over/under in San Antonio were rewarded handsomely. Grinder circadudexl turned $2 into $10,000 in the FanDuel Shot. On the ice, Grinder ndplayboy pulled off a third place finish in the FanDuel Breakaway. Meanwhile over on DraftKings, Makisupa took down the 3-Ball and bw1526 claimed the last seat to the Fantasy Hockey Championship in Las Vegas. As always, the rest of the links are in the forums.
NFL Free Agency – It’s been a busy week in NFL free agency. It appears that Chip Kelly is prone to last minute tinkering just like many DFS players. Last week, Kelly had McCoy in at RB. After taking a second look, Kelly decided to punt RB with Frank Gore. When that didn’t work out, Kelly decided to take a look at Ryan Matthews. After further thought, Kelly decided it’s best to pay up at RB and signed DeMarco Murray. As someone who often tinkers with his own teams, I can advise Kelly it’s not a good idea. Just wait until next year when McCoy and Gore score multiple TDs. Kelly will be beating himself up. “Man, I had that guy in earlier this year!”
Other notable free agent moves include Suh to the Dolphins, Revis to the Jets, Maclin to the Chiefs, and Jordan Cameron to the Dolphins. This is obviously not an all-inclusive list. I’m sure I left your favorite team’s big moves off. Tough luck, get your own column if you want your favorite team featured on the front page of RotoGrinders. Either that or just start a forum thread.
Belated Congratulations – I missed this yesterday, but congratulations are in order to RG Expert and keeper of the “ban-hammer” Stevietpfl. Wednesday was Stevie’s birthday which meant a #BirthdayGame. Stevie claimed second place in the FantasyAces FABC qualifier. Unfortunately, the first place winner is not able to attend. This means Stevie gets the trip package and a chance to win all the monies. While we are on the subject, don’t forget about the Grinders Freeroll tonight on FantasyAces where you can win a trip to join Stevie in Newport Beach, CA.
MLB Podcast – Before we move on to today, I need to highlight one last piece here on RotoGrinders. MLB DFS starts in a few weeks and it’s time to start gearing up. CrazyGabey and the aforementioned Stevietpfl recorded a podcast yesterday talking all things MLB DFS. Give it a listen at this link. If you don’t have time right now, you can even download it and listen later.
On the Menu
CBB Action – Today is Friday the 13th. If you are a superstitious person, it might be a good idea to stay home all day. If you go this route, it’s going to be boring though. Lucky for us, there is plenty of CBB action to keep busy. Scott121422 has CBB Daily Plays covered and Varncass has expert picks for incentive members. The early contests are filling fast so be sure to reserve your entries now.
UFC Action – In the Octagon this weekend, Anthony Pettis and Rafael dos Anjos will headline UFC 185. Grinder Pug_ca has his thoughts on all the fights as well as a pitch why you should support “The Hammer”. Give it a read here and fire up a few teams for this weekend on DraftKings.
NHL Action – On the ice tonight, we have five games which all start at 7 or 8ET. The guarantees aren’t huge on either of the two big sites but there are satellites available to huge end of season NHL GPPs. FanDuel has King of the Ice satellites for as low as $2 and DraftKings has Triple Deke satellites for as low as $12. DK also has Millionaire Maker ticket satellites for $2. Pepsi7 has you covered later today with his NHL Daily Plays and you can also join the discussion in our daily NHL forum thread.
NBA Tonight – As I said above, tonight is Friday the 13th. Hopefully you expended all your bad luck last night. The good news is that with nine games tonight, we won’t need to Google Kosta Koufus and Jamychal Green to figure out who those guys are. Notorious already has his First Look posted. Later today, the usual offerings including Starting Five, Grind Down, Six-Pack, Advanced Matchups, and GPP Plays will be available. Those are great places to find advice but gimmick teams are way more fun to build.
NarrativeStreet and Gimmicks – In honor of Friday the 13th, I’m offering a few gimmicks in addition to the usual narrative street plays. For example, Russell Westbrook is exactly $13K on FanDuel and today is Friday the 13th. Don’t over think this one. It is also Caron Butler’s birthday and he has been in the league for 13 years. Tristan Thompson has a birthday as well and he happens to wear #13. See where I’m going with this? Joakim Noah and Derrick Williams also wear #13. You might as well throw them in. On the revenge front, look no further than Kevin Martin matching up against Oklahoma City. Play all of these plays with confidence tonight. If you don’t win it’s probably just bad luck.
With that Grinders, it’s time to bid adieu for the weekend. In honor of St. Patrick’s Day weekend be sure to enjoy some green beer while re-thinking what made you use Jeff Green and Jamychal Green last night. See you on Monday!