Rise & Grind: Monday, May 18th
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.
In Case You Missed It
King of The Hill – If you have DraftDay or FantasyFeud incentives, or read the content on this site on weekends, you already know who louiescards is. You also know he’s pretty decent at this DFS thing. Yesterday, LC dominated on DraftKings. He won the KOTH qualifier, which awards an entry to a $10K head-to-head tonight. He also claimed third in the Payoff Pitch for $7,000 and first in the Moonshot for $4,000. Here’s to hoping tonight’s H2H adds an additional $10,000 to that number. Good luck, louiescards!
Is Doc Rivers Clutch? – Last week we discussed clutch performances from players. LeBron James, Paul Pierce, and Derrick Rose all nailed clutch shots to secure wins. We decided some were clutch and others were lucky. If players can be labeled clutch, what about coaches? Doc Rivers and the Clippers held a 3-2 series lead and a 19-point third quarter lead in Game 6 last Thursday against the Rockets. They went on to lose that game and then lost yesterday to blow what was originally a 3-1 series lead. Doc Rivers is now the only coach in NBA history to lose two different playoff series after leading 3-1. I think it is safe to say we can close the book on this one: Doc Rivers is not a clutch coach.
MLB Roundup – Speaking of coaches who are not clutch, the Marlins fired manager Mike Redmond over the weekend. If you are like me, you didn’t even know who Mike Redmond is. I’m a DFS player, not a Marlins fan. Just give me the lineup early and make sure Stanton is in there. As long as the new guy can handle that, it doesn’t matter to me who they hire to replace him. Speaking of Stanton, he hit another moonshot this weekend that traveled 475 feet. Even more impressive than the home run was that a fan barehanded the catch. He pulled it off much better than this guy, who tried catching a foul ball with a bag of popcorn.
In other MLB news, Bryce Harper is still pretty good at baseball. Harper came up one double short of the cycle yesterday and has absolutely been on fire in May. Speaking of cycles, actually never mind, let’s not go there. Just enjoy what has been an amazing month of May for Harper, who hit .418 with 9 dongs during the month. Harper now has a 1.206 OPS through 39 games. The only player to hold an OPS that high for a season was Barry Bonds in 2004. Wait, I said I wouldn’t go there, sorry. One last note from the weekend: Shelby Miller had his no-hitter broken up with two outs in the ninth inning yesterday. While the no-hitter would have been nice, this was still an impressive performance. Does this mean the streak of aces getting blown up is over? Shelby Miller is an ace, right? No? Okay, nevermind, the streak continues.
DFS NASCAR – As you already know, DraftKings NASCAR kicks off this weekend. What you may not have realized though is that a different site also has NASCAR. If you are a fan of DFS NASCAR, give SportsTradex a look. Yesterday, they re-launched their NASCAR contests with a $100 freeroll. Scoring details for SportsTradex are in that thread. The big difference here is that contests will span two weeks. If you are going to spend the time to research NASCAR this week, you might want to try out the SportsTradex contests along with the DraftKings contests.
On The Menu
MLB Tonight – MLB offers a seven-game schedule today. One of those games is at 1:07 PM ET, but the other six are included in tonight’s slate that locks at 7:08 ET. If you haven’t looked at the schedule yet, I have good news. We have a Coors Field game! If you have looked at the schedule, you already know that game is the Phillies and Rockies. If you are like me, you were in the middle of celebrating a Coors game and the news hit you like this that the Phillies are playing in that contest. Ahhh, that stings!!! Chase Utley and his .191 wOBA is $4000 on DraftKings. Since a full Coors stack may not be viable, I would recommend checking back throughout the day for MLB advice. With a shorter slate, the Pitcher Breakdown article will not be offered, but Notorious will still have his detailed breakdown of every game in the MLB Grind Down.
#Narrative Street – With a short slate devoid of options, tonight might be a perfect night to roll out some picks based only on narratives. Here are the guys who might have a little extra motivation for one reason or another. The entire Marlins team gets a #WinOneForTheGipper game tonight. After firing Mike Redmond, and nearly being no-hit by Shelby Miller, the Marlins tee off tonight against Ruby De La Rosa. In the same game, make sure to check the lineup for Ichiro Suzuki. If he’s in, fire him up for a #MilestoneWatch as he needs just two hits to tie Babe Ruth for 42nd all-time.
The great thing about narratives is we can use them as a reason to play someone but also to avoid someone. The Tigers do not play during the day, so you can cross Miguel Cabrera off your list of targets. You should #AlwaysFadeMiggyAtNight based purely on his splits this season. On Saturday, he added another dong to that list (his 400th), which brings him to 9 daytime dongs and 0 at night. Watching the game on Saturday, the reason for this hit me. Miggy wears his sunglasses during the day, but not at night. Unless Miggy decides to channel his inner Corey Hart and wear sunglasses at night, you don’t want him on your team. It is just that simple.
Bottom Line – With only six games to research tonight, you may find some extra time in your schedule. That means a great opportunity to catch up on any articles or interviews you may have missed. JMToWin offers his weekly article where he lets you know he doesn’t like being told what to do. If you don’t mind being told what to do, Billsfan777 has a great article on learning bankroll management the hard way. Also, LeoTPP has an interview with current TPOY leader AshyL4rry in case you have ever wondered what it is like to be a high volume Grinder. All three of those articles are worth your clicks and your time. Give them a read and good luck out there tonight. See you tomorrow!