Rise & Grind: Tuesday, July 7th
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
De’Andre Johnson Video – College Football season is a little under two months away. That means it is time to put the pads on and start hitting. That doesn’t mean it is also time to start hitting off the field, especially when we are talking about punching a woman. While there are some things you can get away with as the starting QB at FSU (cough cough Jameis Winston) punching a woman at a bar on videotape isn’t one of them. After the video of Johnson punching a woman became public, the Seminoles have released him. Go ahead and cross Johnson off your list of DFS targets for this season. In fact, go ahead and cross Johnson off your list of decent human beings.
Carlos Carrasco – Speaking of someone getting hit around, how about that Carlos Carrasco guy? For most of this season, Indians pitchers and anyone pitching against the Astros have been DFS goldmines. Naturally, that lead the masses to select Carrasco last night as he met both criteria. He is a pretty good Indians pitcher and he was facing the Astros. Carrasco rewarded us by promptly giving up four runs in the first inning. If you avoided the Carrasco train wreck, congratulations. Last night also provided an answer to the ages old joke, “Who is on first?” The answer is no one.
Big Winners – While Carrasco was an “obvious pick” in cash games, some pretty good players made the decision to play the fade in GPP and were rewarded handsomely. Htown12 took down the DraftKings Knuckleball ($100,000 off $5) with a Tigers stack. Woodyi won the Payoff Pitch, bw5126 won the FWBC Qualifier, Flagellum took down the Gold Glove, paulbertini took down the Perfect Game, stevemarch won the High Heat, and zotherguy won the Moonshot. Over on FanDuel, theclone had a really good night. He won both the WFBC and Boston qualifier and placed in the top 10 of several GPPs. Other than theclone, we had jimmy_g24 win the Monster, dmercer4 win the Grand Slam, shamarcotton win the Rally, iamwill win the Slugger, and threejos taking down the Squeeze. For the rest of yesterday’s links, check this forum thread.
MLB All Star Game – If you are a frequent reader of the Rise and Grind, you probably read my plea last month to help the Royals occupy all the starting spots on the All-Star team. Apparently, most of you didn’t vote 35 times per email like I asked, or at least you didn’t vote for Royals. A couple weeks ago the Royals held seven of the eight starting positions (fielders). Sadly, after the official results were announced, the Royals only held onto four of those spots. Perez, Escobar, Cain, and Gordon will start for the AL. A full list of both the AL team and NL team are listed here along with some snubs. If you still want to get another Royal in, we have one last chance. The AL final vote candidates are Dozier, Gardner, Cespedes, Moustakas, and Bogaerts. Go vote for Moose-Tacos and help the Royals get one more in. On the NL side, the last player in will be one of Kershaw, Cueto, C. Martinez, Familia, or Tulowitzki. That’s a tough choice, but it’s got to be Martinez or Familia, right?
On The Menu
MLB Action – Today is Tuesday, which means a super-sized slate. Instead of the usual 15-game slate, MLB even tossed us an additional two bonus games for a total of 17. The first two games are part of doubleheaders and only included in the early-only slate. The other 15 are included in tonight’s 7:05 ET slate. As usual you can expect the full gamut of analysis here at RotoGrinders. You will want to pay special attention too since Tim Cooney, Dallas Beeler, Manny Banuelos, and Tyler Cravy are pitching tonight. Who are those guys? I honestly have no idea. Also, Chad Bettis and Andrew Heaney are pitching in Coors. Maybe it will be worth closing your eyes and picking one of the non-names. Stay tuned for the answer to that question and more.
MLB GPPs – If you are interested in the two game early-only set, I’m seeing a round $50K in GPPs on DraftKings and FanDuel. If you are looking for a huge payday you will need to play the late slate for that. FanDuel has a $150K Grand Slam, $60K Squeeze, $15K Sac Fly, $100K Rally, $150K Monster, and a qualifiers for the Bracket Challenge, Boston Championship, and WFBC. Over on DraftKings they have a $250K Slugfest, $150K Perfect Game, $115K Moonshot, $55K Gold Glove, $50K Hot Corner, and qualifiers for King’s Cup, FBWC, Millionaire Maker and several other tournaments. The smaller sites such as FantasyFeud, Vicitv, and FantasyAces have overlay nearly every night and will almost certainly have some tonight.
#NarrativeStreet – If you want a piece of the cash offered above, you will need to find a way to differentiate your team. Anyone can read Notorious’ MLB Grind Down and build a really solid team. Here are some players who might have a little extra motivation that others may not be considering. In the #MilestoneWatch department Prince Fielder needs one hit to reach 1,500, while Alex Rodriguez needs four to tie fellow cheater Rafael Palmeiro at 25th on the all-time hit list. In the milestone HR department, Ryan Howard needs two for 300, Aaron Hill needs one for 150, and David DeJesus and David Murphy need one for 100. If milestones aren’t your thing, take a look at the revenge factor. Normally, we look for players against their former team. With the recent All-Star game announcement, you can safely play anyone who was snubbed from the All-Star team. That includes Dozier, Cespedes, A-Rod, Gardner, Bogarts, Iglesias (yes, seriously), Grandal, A. Gonzalez, Votto, and Turner. In fact, the Rise and Grind is throwing its support behind building your entire team around All-Star snubs tonight. If you are bored this afternoon, find me on Twitter and send me your best All-Star snub team. I will retweet the best ones.
Bottom Line – I’m sure you are already aware, but Sunday is the last day before the MLB All-Star break. After Sunday, there won’t be any MLB DFS until next Friday. In years past, when MLB DFS was the only option, things got pretty boring around here. That won’t be the case this year. We now have NASCAR, PGA, MMA, and MLS to hold us over. What I’m saying here is you need to start learning a new sport for next week. I recommend PGA, since that is the sport offering a $1M prize. If you want to learn PGA, start this week with the John Deere Classic. DevoPoker, STLCardinals84, and Gibbathy will be on PGA After Dark at 8 PM ET to give you their opinions on the entire field. Give it a listen and go win some tickets to use next week.