Rise & Grind: Tuesday, May 12th
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
The MLB Grind – Do you have what it takes to consistently place highly in a field stacked with other Grinders? Do you want to prove you are one of the best single-entry players? RotoGrinders is excited to announce The MLB Grind presented by FantasyAces. The idea here is simple, 40 players will compete each day for 20 days. Each day will pay out like a normal GPP, but players will also receive points based on finishing position. At the end of 20 days, the players at the top of the leaderboard will be paid from the side-pot. FantasyAces has even agreed to add $500 to the side-pot. To join, respond to the thread above and make sure your FantasyAces account is funded before the contest starts.
Deflategate – Yesterday the NFL announced the Patriots’ punishment for tampering with the air pressure of footballs during the playoffs. The Patriots will pay a $1M fine, forfeit a first round draft pick in 2016, and forfeit a fourth round pick in 2017. As for Tom Brady, he is suspended for the first four games of the upcoming season. Since this news was announced, the hot takes have been rolling in. Personally, I’m glad to see the NFL take action here. Growing up, I was constantly told cheaters never win. How could it be that a cheater has won four Super Bowls, made over a $100M, and married a supermodel? That sounds like winning to me. Hopefully, a four-game suspension does the trick here. If even one kid sees this and decides cheating isn’t worth the risk, this suspension has done its job.
FanDuel NBA Playoffs – Friends, the Rise and Grind has failed you. Here at the Rise and Grind we pride ourselves on keeping you up to date with promotions in the industry. Apparently, FanDuel has been running a free contest every night during the NBA playoffs and we have been missing out. The contest began April 18th and runs until May 18th. Each night, a free contest is available that awards a trip to New York City and an entry into the NBA Finals. On May 22nd, the qualifiers will compete in a final event that awards a trip to the NBA Finals to the winner. If a trip to the Finals is something that interests you, open up the lobby, adjust your slider to $0, and join the fun.
The Effect of K% on Hitters – From time to time, an interesting discussion pops up the forums. The idea behind RotoGrinders is that we are a Daily Fantasy community. Discussing strategy in the forums is one way to improve your game. JMToWin started a very interesting discussion last night. How much do you factor a pitcher’s K% when selecting a hitter against him? The cliff notes version of JM’s theory is that the difference between a K rate of 10% and 30% would produce an extra three positive outcomes per 100 at bats. Do you factor in K% when selecting a hitter? What other stats are you using to gain an edge? Feel free to chime in on the thread with your thoughts.
MLB Recap – Whether you love it or hate it, stacking remains a very viable strategy for MLB GPPs. The key to last night was to stack against any pitcher with a name starting with “Col”. The Yankees hung a crooked number on Alex Colome and the Rays, scoring 11 runs with five dongs. Diamondbacks pitcher Josh Collmenter saw the work done by the Rays and upped the ante. Collmenter allowed nine earned runs and two dongs in less than two innings of work. Congratulations if you used Collmenter in lowball last night; his -20 on DK and -7.67 on FanDuel was crucial in achieving the overall negative score needed to win.
Dong Report – A total of 31 dongs were hit last night. The longest dong belonged to Khris Davis at 439 feet. The shortest dong of the night went to Jordan Pacheco at 362 feet. On the other end of the spectrum, multiple pitchers allowed two dongs, but Alex Colome ran away with the trophy, allowing four dongs to the Yankees.
On The Menu
NBA Tonight – As I mentioned above, FanDuel is running an NBA freeroll. That sounds like a pretty good reason to dive into tonight’s two-game slate. The Bulls/Cavs and Rockets/Clippers square off for the pivotal game five of each series. Make sure you check out the NBA Grind Down for Notorious’ thoughts on this slate. With Pau Gasol possibly out and Hack-a-Jordan possibly creating 30-40 free scoring opportunities, there are a few plays you won’t want to miss out on.
MLB Tonight – With 14 games starting at 7:05 EST or later, tonight is Super Tuesday in the industry. FanDuel and DraftKings have both upped the ante on their GPPs and both sites have live final qualifiers running. The MLB Grind Down and JMToWin’s MLB Edge have already been posted, but motr MLB content will continue to roll in throughout the day. Be sure to keep checking back and absorb all the expert advice you can handle.
Narrative Street – While the experts will have picks based on stats, tonight we will need to find players with a little extra motivation if we want to win a GPP. Let’s take a quick stroll down #NarrativeStreet for the picks to click based on nothing but narratives. You absolutely have to start every team with A.J. Burnett tonight. Not only does he get the best matchup on the board, but it is also a #RevengeGame. If you play the early slate, (6:10 EST lock) make sure to fire up Lance Lynn for a #BirthdayGame. Tonight is also Clayton Kershaw #BobbleheadNight but he isn’t pitching, so I’m recommending the opposite pitcher in that game. Dan Haren gets a #RevengeGame as he faces the Dodgers. Last but not least, we are trying something new. The official #BVPPlayofTheDay will become a recurring theme in this space. Yesterday, Evan Longoria disappointed BVP truthers with an 0-for performance. Today’s BVP matchup of the day goes to nearly the entire Orioles team. Delmon Young, Adam Jones, Chris Davis, and Travis Snider all have favorable splits. Fire up the #BvP stack against Buehrle and profit tonight.
Bottom Line – The last hour or two before lock can be a stressful time in DFS. There are plenty of places you can get advice. Some would say GrindersLive is nothing more than a podcast filmed in a basement with a rolling chat. They might be right. We don’t have a fancy set. What we do have though is pros who started playing before last Thursday. Tonight’s lineup includes BritDevine, DraftCheat, Dean78904, Pepsi7, CSURam88, and Al_Smizzle. Don’t let the competitors fool you, GrindersLive is where you need to be every afternoon from 3:30 EST to 6:30.