Rise & Grind: Monday, April 20th
Welcome to the RotoGrinders cup o’morning joe. Start your day off right here, as we sort through the weekend’s happenings and take a peek at the upcoming DFS day.
Unwritten Rules of Baseball – If you are new to DFS baseball, you are probably starting to get a grasp on the basics. You already know your pitcher needs to be the pitcher of record after the game becomes official in order to pick up the win. His team must also not relinquish that lead after he leaves. These kind of things are easy to learn as they are written in the rule book. The part of baseball you might be confused about is the unwritten rules. Take for example, this weekend’s series between the Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics. Below is a picture of two separate plays. The one on the right is Royals outfielder Jarrod Dyson sliding into Danny Santana to break up a double play. This happened last Thursday during the Twins/Royals game. This play was lauded as a heads up play by the Royals announcers. Now take a look at the slide on the left. That is Brett Lawrie sliding into Escobar to break up a double play. That was dirty.
Okay, now that we have established the play on the right was good baseball and the play on the left was dirty, where do we go from here? It gets a little confusing because these are unwritten rules. No one knows where they came from and even though they aren’t written, they have been handed down throughout time. The unwritten rules say that since Escobar was injured on the play the Royals have to intentionally try to hurt Lawrie the next time he bats. This of course happened the next day and Yordano Ventura was promptly ejected for doing it. Ok, this brings up a lot of questions. They hurt our guy on a slide, we hit theirs with a pitch. Is that the end of it? Some would say yes, but the very next day Scott Kazmir of the A’s threw a pitch in the dirt that hit Lorenzo Cain in the toe. Really? The toe? Who throws at a guy’s toe? Was that even on purpose? Later in the same game, Royals pitcher Kevin Herrera threw 100MPH fastball behind Lawrie and then pointed at his own head. Herrera says the ball slipped and when he pointed at his head he meant “think about it”. This is all very confusing and maybe MLB should consider writing down these rules. As Kevin Herrera would say, just think about it.
That Time I Did Not Quit DFS – Speaking of learning about MLB, set aside some time today to read JMToWin’s weekly article on things he learned last week. I read it yesterday and ignored his advice to quit targeting the Braves with mediocre pitchers. I actually used a guy who lives in a van in Wal-Mart parking lot and it didn’t go well. Give the column a read. You don’t have to implement all the advice, but just think about it.
Add Your Twitter Profile to RG – When FanDuel chat (rip) died a few years ago, the social aspect of DFS went away for many. You can still select opponents based on their username but you don’t really know if “beepimajeep” really is a jeep or what the deal is with “_____”. Is that just someone too lazy to create a name? Anyways, if these people are RG members you can now find them on Twitter and ask these questions. You can also opine on their picks, talk strategy, or even post a challenge (h2h4rollz?). This should be fun. Think about adding your twitter handle to RG, okay?
Winner! Winner! – You know what else Twitter is good for? Bragging about big wins. Let’s talk some big Grinder wins for a minute. Friday on FanDuel, moebanga tied for first in the Grand Slam, Mirage88 took down the Slugger, Alanijoy took down the Line Drive, and Braskey (aka Cal Spears) took down a second PFBC ticket. On DraftKings, felder15 won the Payoff Pitch and took second and third in the Moonshot. ceezeeman took down the Gold Glove, booyah72 won the early Payoff Pitch, jae686 won the early High Heat, kamakazi won the early Gold Glove, and TeeJayorTJ won the Kentucky Derby Qualifier. On FantasyAces OhioState241 also won a ticket to the FABC. The full list of Friday’s links are here.
Saturday on FanDuel, waveswebdesign took down the early Grand Slam, blakel34 took down the Grand Slam, bcalicore took down the Monster, mavs1978 took down the Slugger, ktforcier took down the Rally, blakel34 punched a ticket to the NYC qualifier, and beez1973 punched a ticket to the Playboy Mansion. Over on DraftKings, dleepi01 took down the Payoff Pitch, steveravery took down the Perfect Game, and ashyl4rry won the Gold Glove,. The full list of Saturday’s links are here.
Yesterday, 3rd_and_Schlong took down the FD Slugger, hittinheavy93 punched a FD NYC DFBC ticket, and underjones took down the DK Perfect Game as well as Gold Glove. For the rest of yesterday’s links click here.
Tebow! Tebow! Tebow! – If your name isn’t listed above you probably didn’t take down a huge GPP this weekend. That’s ok though, we are all winners. Tim Tebow has signed a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. This is huge news and ESPN rightfully dropped everything to bring you full coverage of the Eagles new third sting quarterback. As an Eagles fan I can hardly contain my excitement at the thought of Sam Bradford, Mark Sanchez, and Tim Tebow as our quarterbacks. How can we possibly use them all? Just think about it, doesn’t it sound awesome?
On The Menu
NBA Tonight – With just two games on the schedule enthusiasm is dampened just a bit for NBA tonight. This is playoff basketball though and you are going to want a DFS sweat as you follow along. DraftKings is undeterred by the size of the slate and is boldly running a Showcase qualifier for only $12. FanDuel also has a $100K Slam for only $25. If you want a piece of that action you can get started with Notorious NBA Grind Down then talk some strategy in our NBA Forum Thread.
MLB Tonight – If two NBA games just doesn’t do it for you, hopefully eight MLB games does. Tonight’s slate includes a game at Coors field which is always exciting. You can get a jump on your research in Notorious’ MLB Grind Down. After you have Noto’s thoughts on all the game be sure to check back for the usual assortment of MLB advice. Today that will include Daily Batter breakdown, Starting Pitcher Breakdown, Advanced Pitching Stats, the Six-Pack and also The Sporer Report.
NHL Tonight – NHL doesn’t always get a lot of love around here but there is still money to be made. Why not break out your playoff beard and jump into some contests tonight? We have three games on the menu including NYR/PIT, STL/MIN, and ANH/WPG.
The Bottom Line – Hopefully I have given you some things to think about on this beautiful spring Monday. If you want an MLB sweat at work there are all day contests that lock at 11:05 AM. If you are going to venture into those contests I would recommend you read up on your specific site’s rules for rainouts. If you are unsure why I’m saying that, just think about it. See you tomorrow!