Rise & Grind: Thursday, June 4th
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
San Francisco Baseball Championship – The good folks at FanDuel know there is nothing like a live final sweat. FanDuel is proud to announce the next in its series of regional championships. The San Francisco Baseball Championship (SFBC) will take place June 27th. The event boasts a $150,000 prize pool including $50,000 to first. Qualifiers started on Tuesday with a $25 GPP and will run throughout this month. More details can be found at the official SFBC link.
Better Know a Prospect: Joey Gallo – When a notable prospect finally gets the call to join “The Show”, we have to devote a few words to them here in the Rise and Grind. Today’s edition of Better Know a Prospect features Rangers top prospect Joey Gallo. No not Jerry Gallo, he’s dead, and not Jerry Callo either. This is Joey Gallo, a former teammate of Bryce Harper on traveling teams, and the kid who hit a 442 foot home-run at Petco when he was 17 years old. Gallo had some serious power in the minors, as he blasted 113 HRs in 330 career minor league games. The knock on Gallo though is that if he doesn’t hit a dong, he usually doesn’t make contact. In 1117 Minor League at-bats, Gallo had 478 strikeouts. On Tuesday, Gallo made his MLB debut with this second-deck dong. as well as two other hits. Last night, Chris Sale helped Gallo keep up his absurd K rate, striking him out three times. Things didn’t end there though. Once Sale was pulled, Gallo hit a dong off Zach Duke. Gallo has now homered in every Major League game he has played. At this point you have to keep playing him, right?
Sepp Blatter Resignation – A few weeks ago, the United States indicted several high ranking FIFA officials on corruption charges. Even though those execs tried to spin the case as the American media trying to get revenge for not getting to host the 2022 World Cup, it didn’t work. One of the reasons it didn’t work was because the “proof” of an American media conspiracy was actually a satirical article in The Onion. In case you are reading this Jack Warner, the Rise and Grind is also a semi-satirical column, and I don’t speak for the American media. With that being said, I am kind of sad that we couldn’t afford to buy the 2022 World Cup. What was the asking price? Hosting the World Cup would have been an amazing experience. We could have held some games down south. I bet the country music community would love some soccer, if they knew what it was. Anyways, FIFA President Sepp Blatter resigned this week. While getting rid of Blatter won’t fix the corruption in FIFA, it should go a long way in getting started. As a special bonus, I’m hearing Prince Ali of Jordan is a favorite to succeed Blatter. Sadly, this is not the Prince Ali from the Disney movie Aladdin. Not every situation can have a happy ending. That stuff only happens in movies.
DraftKings MSG Deal – This news just broke on Twitter a few minutes ago. According to Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal, DraftKings has signed a deal with Madison Square Garden. The deal will include branding rights and a new DraftKings lounge being built at the Garden. There is more though; this deal also includes DraftKings logos on the New York Liberty uniforms. That’s righ” folks, DK is sponsoring the WNBA! It won’t be long until we are discussing whether Brittney Griner is a must play in cash games or if we should pivot to Candace Parker. If MLB DFS has you down, send an email to DK right now and tell them we need WNBA DFS. Let’s make this happen together!
MLB Recap – We already mentioned Joey Gallo, but I suppose we should recap the rest of yesterday’s MLB action. Joc Pederson hit a dong once again just to piss off the people who keep fading him. Chris Carter also hit a double dong just to remind people that he randomly does that about twice per season. In pitching performances, Chris Sale mowed through the Rangers lineup with 13 Ks and Mark Buehrle picked up his second complete game in a row. Those stories are both great, but last night’s true hero was Lance McCullers, who struck out 11 in a complete game win against Baltimore.
Big Winners – With some excellent pitching and hitting performances, let’s check out last night’s big DFS winners. Eatmorebacon dropped an 80 bacon cheeseburger on the FD Slam, Alexeagles10 and luna3787 tied for first in the Monster, Srpiop took down the Rally, and kingofqueens won the WFBC qualifier. Over on DraftKings, rayofhope took down the Gold Glove, scout326 took down the Payoff Pitch, and TonyDunstWPT won the Perfect Game, For the rest of yesterday’s links, check this forum thread.
On The Menu
MLB Action – There are ten games on the MLB schedule today divided into two DFS slates. Early-only contests will include three games and 7:05 ET contests will include seven. You can expect a slightly lighter schedule of content today with the smaller slate. Everyone’s favorite go-to article will still be posted though, as you can pretty much set your watch by the MLB Grind Down. If you aren’t interested in the stats that make certain choices a good play, I recommend building your lineups with narratives.
#NarrativeStreet – Here are today’s narrative picks that should have a little extra motivation for one reason or another. Things get started right away in the first game as Yoenis Cespedes suits up for a #RevengeGame against Oakland. Since it’s a day game, you also need Miguel Cabrera in every single lineup. On the season, Miggy has 10 dongs in 89 ABs during the day versus only one dong in 102 ABs at night. That’s a daytime HR/AB of 11.2% versus a nighttime HR/AB of 0.009%. If my math is correct, Miggy is roughly a 10x better choice during the day. If you have ever paid $4000 for Miggy at night, you pretty much have to play him during the day at any price under $40,000. In the night games, Aaron Harang is pretty much an auto-play in a #RevengeGame against the Reds. If #revenge alone isn’t enough to convince you, take a look at the BvP. If we combine Phillips, Bruce, Schumaker, Frazier, and Cozart, we get 81 at-bats against Harang. In those at-bats, Harang has only allowed 20 hits and one dong while also racking up 15 Ks. Don’t over think this one guys. BvP and revenge are real and tonight will serve as proof.
Bottom Line – I posted this on Twitter last night, but maybe you retired early or have me muted. DraftKings has moved Evan Gattis from (OF,C) to 1B only. Let’s all take a moment of silence to remember Evan. With Gattis’ wildly erratic scoring, it was hard to ever justify using him in the OF. On most nights, it was barely acceptable to use him over the top catching options. Now you can’t play Gattis unless you are willing to avoid some of the best choices like Duda, Rizzo, Miggy, Abreu, Encarnacion, etc. May you forever rest in peace Evan. We truly wish you the best. Maybe in a different life you could have lived on forever at a position besides 1B. Alas, life isn’t always fair. Goodbye my dear friend. I hope the world of irrelevancy treats you well.