Rise & Grind: Friday, May 15th
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
Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! – We have known for a few months that DraftKings planned to announce DFS NASCAR. Yesterday, we finally learned the structure of contests and when they will begin. DraftKings signed a 3-year deal to become the official Daily Fantasy Product of NASCAR. Contests will begin with the Coca-Cola 600 on May 24th. DK already has some GPPs in the lobby. Users will draft five drivers with a $50K salary cap. Points will be awarded for place differential, pass differential, finishing position, fastest lap, and laps led. This is a great time to remind everyone that RotoGrinders has a blog program. If you are an avid NASCAR fan, give us your thoughts on what strategy to employ for DFS NASCAR. You could win up to $200.
NBA Roundup – The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Chicago Bulls 94-73 last night to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. This had to be a very conflicting victory for LeBron James as he both plays for the Cavs and also owns the Bulls, or at least that’s what Wikipedia says. In the other game, the Rockets closed the game on a 49-18 run to defeat the Clippers and force Game 7, which will be played on Sunday.
MLB Roundup – Okay, first of all, we have to settle something. What in the world happened to Tim Linecum on this pitch? Has Linecum been hitting the peace pipe again? Or was he just channeling his inner 50 Cent? Either way, I guess it is safe to say that was, “Juuuust a bit outside!.” As far as actual MLB DFS, yesterday was not a good day for pitching. Johnny Cueto and Drew Hutchison had their wins blown by their team’s bullpen, Vance Worley proved that pitching against the Phillies isn’t something that just anyone can succeed at, and even mentioning “Travis Wood in cash games” still gives me shudders.
Dong Report – There was a total of 22 dongs hit yesterday. Hopefully if you missed on pitching with the guys mentioned above, some of these hitters saved you. Miguel Cabrera, Cory Spangenberg, and Anthony Recker did the most saving, each hitting double dongs. Miggy also had the shortest dong of the day at 358 feet. They all count the same though, right? The longest dong went to Carlos Gonzalez on his game-winning dong which traveled 436 feet. As far as serving up dongs, no one did that quite as well as Travis Wood. He allowed three to the Mets, including the two hit by the aforementioned Recker.
Revenge Qualifying – One day after losing a WFBC qualifier seat in a H2H tiebreaker, the DFS Gods showed a little mercy to biggameaims. Bigga took down last night’s $1065 qualifier and now gets the chance to avenge his loss to CheeseIsGood at the WFBC final event. Congrats to bigga for taking his loss in stride and getting right back to work the next day. He also claimed second place in the Monster. Sounds like a pretty good week to me. For the rest of yesterday’s winners, be sure to check the Thursday Links thread.
On the Menu
NBA Tonight – By now you already know the drill. There are two games tonight in the NBA. Notorious will have his thoughts in the NBA Grind Down. You open up your preferred DFS site and build a team that you think is super sneaky. The games start and you realize 40-50 other people also thought of your super sneaky team. That’s okay though, we don’t mind sharing payouts with other geniuses right? Depending on what happens tonight, we may not see another NBA DFS slate until early next week. If Golden State and Atlanta win tonight, we have to wait until after Sunday’s game between the Clippers and Rockets before the next round can begin. In short, it’s almost time to make the transition to a different sport NBA guys. You better start learning, MLS, MLB, PGA, MMA, or NASCAR. At least you have those five options though – this time last year we only had MLB.
MLB GPPs – Tonight is Friday, and we have a super-sized MLB slate as usual. This means giant GPPs galore! FanDuel is running a low dollar version of its WFBC qualifier at only $25. DrafKings is running its usual Mega Perfect Game as well as moderately sized Payoff Pitch and Moonshots, FantasyAces has a $109 qualifier, and Vicitv and FantasyFeud have smaller GPPs, but they nearly always overlay. Be sure to take a peek around the industry to discover where you can get the most value for your dollar.
MLB Tonight – With so many games on the menu, you can expect the usual array of Friday MLB content. Keep your eyes peeled for the MLB Grind Down, Pitcher and Hitter Breakdowns, GPP Plays, Six-Pack, and so much more. Besides the written content, we will also have three hours of live advice on GrindersLive starting at 3:30 ET. Sure, you could get your picks from any of those articles or podcasts, but won’t everyone else have those picks? If you want to win a GPP, you need to find the picks who will have a little extra motivation.
NarrativeStreet – Here are tonight’s #NarrativeStreet picks based on crazy stuff like the idea that people play better on their birthday, when their friends attend, or when they are looking to exact revenge. We start things off with players who chose this day to enter the world. Justin Morneau, Michael Brantley, and Brian Dozier all have #BirthdayGames tonight. You can play all three with confidence. On the #Revenge front, Torii Hunter makes a fine play as he exacts revenge against the Tigers. For the #BVPStackOfTheDay, we are going off the radar a bit. James Loney, David DeJesus, and Asdrubal Cabrera are a combined 14-for-33 off Phil Hughes. Fire up the Rays BVP stack tonight.
Last but not least, we have tonight’s most important #Narrative. The Rockies’ inability to hit lefties plus Clayton Kershaw’s ability to be good at baseball combine to make Kershaw tonight’s top play. I wouldn’t fault you in the numbers lead you to Kershaw tonight, but I need to point out one number that should give you pause. 100! That’s the number. Kershaw is looking for his 100th career win tonight. Normally, this would put him in play as a #MileStoneWatch candidate. I was about to endorse Kershaw, but then I noticed his record in games that are important, playoff games specifically. Kershaw owns a 1-5 record with a 5.12 ERA in those ever important playoff games. If getting his 100th career win matters at all, Kershaw will struggle mentally tonight. Fade Kershaw until he achieves this milestone. Even if you don’t believe in this narrative, help me get the word out. It will hopefully lower the cash game ownership for those of us who want to take the “risk” on Kershaw.
Bottom Line – The bottom line is short and sweet today. If you are going to troll on Twitter, you need to bring your A game. Two nights ago the Discovery Channel posted an interesting fact about Penguins. The Pittsburgh Penguins responded with some shameless self promotion about their current team. After the Penguins were eliminated by the Rangers, Discovery Channel responded with this tweet. Ouch! Can someone send some burn cream to the Penguins and their fans?