Rise & Grind: Friday, May 22nd
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
Chef Curry – The battle between the league MVP and runner-up continued last night. Even though Curry beat out Harden for the MVP, anyone who watched last night’s game knows voters would have been justified selecting either player. The Rockets rode a 38/10/9 performance from James Harden to a 99-98 loss. The difference in the game turned out to be its final play, when Curry stripped the ball from Harden as time expired. Even though Curry caught some heat earlier this week for bringing his daughter to the post game press conference, that didn’t stop him from bringing his child again last night.
Yerrr Outta Here! – In the 7th inning of a 1-1 game, Brewers relief pitcher Will Smith was called on to pitch. He faced one batter before being ejected for using a bit of rosin and sunscreen to grip the ball better. Smith’s reaction pretty much went like this: Foreign substances aren’t allowed? Welp, see ya later! In all seriousness, Smith needs to learn to become a better cheater. You can let a little air out of the ball, maybe spy on opponents practice, but you aren’t going to win a championship when your opponent can see the substance from the dugout.
Dong Report – Including yesterday’s early and late slates, there were 21 dongs hit. While it wasn’t the longest dong, the most impressive was Madison Bumgarner taking Clayton Kershaw deep. Yes, you read that right. MadBum officially becomes the first pitcher to homer off Kershaw. They weren’t as impressive, but the longest dong award goes to Duda (446 feet) and the shortest goes to Valencia (348 feet).
King of the Hill – In the least interesting $10K head-to-head ever, PetrGibbons defeated Jibberz 81.6 to 0. How did Jibberz get a 0? No, he didn’t draft the best lowball team ever; he actually didn’t draft a team at all. This left many speculating that a deal was arranged and he simply took a dive. Whether he lost intentionally or not, it is an interesting conversation to have. How much of the $10,000 winnings would your opponent have to offer you to lose on purpose? Feel free to chime in on that forum thread with your thoughts.
On The Menu
Coca Cola 600 – Once DraftKings began offering DFS NASCAR, other sites in the industry have followed suit. The Coca Cola 600 is this weekend and you can get your racing fix on DraftKings, SportsTradex, and also FantasyFeud. Yesterday, Matt Kenseth qualified the fastest and will start in the pole position aka first place. Make sure you are aware of your favorite site’s scoring rules, as starting on the pole is not always good for place differential and pass differential. If this short paragraph has you interested in driving fast and turning left, be sure to check out some of the NASCAR content on this site. Grinder tobinator44 has an interesting piece on Hedging Against Wrecks. Give it a read and get in on the action this weekend.
MLB Big Friday – With 15 games on the schedule, we have another super-sized Friday GPP slate. The marquee event for big spenders is the $1M Perfect Game on DraftKings, which offers a $100K first prize and a $300 entry fee. If $300 is out of your price range, FanDuel has a $200K Grand Slam at $25 and FantasyFeud has a $50K GPP that has had overlay every single week. If live finals are your style, FanDuel is offering low rollers their last chance to go to the Playboy Mansion for $5. For just a bit more, aspiring live finalists can try out the $50 FD WFBC, the $109 FA FABC, or the $1K DK FWBC. If any or all of these contests are out of your price range, try attacking the satellites. Most of the sites are offering low dollar satellites tonight into their high dollar GPPs and qualifiers.
MLB Content – If you want a piece of the cash I just mentioned, keep your mouse on the refresh button all day long. RotoGrinders will continue to deliver the content you have come to expect this season, including the Grind Down and Pitcher and Hitter Breakdowns among other things. If you want to do some of your own research, check out the Daily Research Tab at the top of the page. An excellent place to start your GPP teams is the Team Stackability Tool in the Daily Batter Hub. You probably already knew Washington and Colorado were strong stacks, but did you consider St. Louis? Give the batter hub a look today – it is where all the cool kids are getting lineups that keep beating you.
#NarrativeStreet – You know what you won’t find anywhere in the batter hub? Some very strong picks based only on narratives. You can only get that right here on Narrative Street. For example, were you considering Eric Sogard and Colin Cowgill tonight? You should be, as they both have a #BirthdayGame. What about Elvis Andrus and Nelson Cruz? They are both on #MilestoneWatch, as Andrus needs five hits to reach 1,000 and Cruz needs six. Last but not least, if you are the type to assign narratives to small samples, you will want to fire up the #BVPPlayOfTheDay. There are several top candidates in the Top BvP splits, but the nod goes to Chris Davis, who is 5-for-10 off Henderson Alvarez with a dong. Fire him up, BvP would never lie to you.
Bottom Line – If you entered the DFS For Ryan contest on FantasyFeud, don’t forget to set your lineup tonight. While you are on the site, show some love to FantasyFeud for their generosity by playing in some of their other contests as well. Also, do not forget to thank a veteran or current military member for their service this Memorial Day weekend. With that, I’m going to pull a Bryce Harper/Will Smith and get outttaaa hereeeee! See you on Monday!