Rise & Grind: Thursday, April 2nd
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
April Fools – As I warned yesterday, April Fools jokes were out in droves throughout the day. The sports world is no different than your annoying co-worker or Facebook friend who think they are clever. There were some pretty funny sports related jokes, and then there was Bruce Irvin. Seattle Seahawks LB Bruce Irvin sent this tweet followed by this one claiming to have been busted for DUI. The obligatory “April Fools” followed shortly after, but the only fool here is Bruce. On the other end of the spectrum, in a joke that was actually funny, the Cincinnati Bengals trolled the in-state rival Browns. You may remember earlier this year the Browns announced a logo change, which to it put kindly, wasn’t much different. The Bengals announced their own logo change which included a slightly bolder orange in the logo. Well played Bengals, but don’t get too cocky. All you did was beat the Browns, everyone does that these days.
Head-to-Head Cup – Congratulations to aurren for taking down the Inaugural H2H Cup Championship. Aurren bested a field of 40 Grinders in a World Cup style tournament played over several weeks. Honorable mention goes out to duder500, nawmsayin, and e4e5nf3nc6 who all advanced to the final four. This was a really entertaining concept proposed and run by fcbjakub. Rumor has it this will return for MLB. The Rise and Grind will be throwing its support behind the next round and hoping we can increase entrants to 64 in order to make it a true World Cup style bracket. Stay tuned for details.
Big Winners – Several Grinders did well on what ended up being a very high scoring night. Congratulations to broughmin for taking down the FanDuel Slam, thepacificocean for taking 2nd in the Shot, mrtuttle05 for taking down the Super Baller, peteyt for taking down the monster, and scuderi12 for taking down the Layup.
On DraftKings, penny1pimp claimed first place and $100K in the Crossover Championship, rigby took down the All-Star Championship and 3-Ball while teamdemolition won the Layup Championship. For the rest of Wednesday’s tournament links visit the forums.
Better Know a Prospect – Here at the Rise and Grind we believe in pushing the limits of sarcasm, comedy, cheesiness, and to a certain extent plagiarism. No, not the kind of bold plagiarism you did in college where you just copy and paste from Google. This is the kind of plagiarism imitation where I steal use a concept created by another writer. RotoGrinders’ own duckiesuccumbs has been writing an entertaining series called, “Better Know a Grinder.” While I wasn’t invited to be interviewed, I can appreciate the concept and apply it to MLB. With opening day in three days, let’s catch up with Blue Jays top pitching prospect Daniel Norris.
Who is Daniel Norris? He is a pitching prospect for the Toronto Blue Jays. Norris was drafted 74th overall in the 2011 MLB draft. Norris received a $2 million dollar signing bonus. He spent the last two seasons in the minors except for a short call-up last September. Despite the aforementioned signing bonus, Norris spent this offseason living out of a 1978 Volkswagon van parked in Wal-Mart’s lot. He is also an avid surfer and shaves with an axe. Norris earned a spot in the Blue Jays’ rotation this season and is available for $4500 on FantasyAces or $8500 on DraftDay. Towards the end of opening week, when you see “probable pitcher” next to Norris, fire him up with confidence. Why wouldn’t you want to bet money on a guy who spent his summer living like a homeless person?
On The Menu
NBA Tonight – Woohoo! After thirteen games last night, I’m sure we could all use a break from intense research. How about three games? That seems simple. Tonight we have Cleveland/Miami, Dallas/Houston, and Golden State/Phoenix. Notorious already has his First Look posted. Later today, the NBA Grind Down and Starting Five will also be available. Unfortunately, with just three games, there will not be an NBA GrindersLive tonight. To make up for it, how about I suggest some picks you may not have considered. Let’s take a walk down #NarrativeStreet.
#NarrativeStreet – You are making a mistake if you ignore the proverbial “elephant in the room” tonight. LeBron James hosts his former team in what is not only a #RevengeGame, but also a possible playoff matchup. This game has everything you want for an all out narrative stack. You have LeBron #Revenge, Heat #Revenge (for walking out on them), and a possible Udonis Haslem #FluGame. Since most sites require at least one player on your roster be from a game besides MIA/CLE go ahead and throw Chandler Parsons in there too. Parsons squares off against Houston, who refused to match his contract offer this past offseason.
NHL Tonight – If three-game NBA slates aren’t your thing, I can’t fault you. NHL DFS offers a much more palatable nine games tonight. If you plan to take the plunge into NHL you don’t have to go it alone. TheTonyM will have NHL Daily Plays for you today and Pepsi7 has GPP Plays and the Frozen Five coming your way. Pepsi7 will also join Billsfan777 to discuss tonight’s slate on GrindersLive at 5:30 ET. Be sure to tune in as you put the final touches on your teams.