Rise & Grind: Wednesday, April 22nd
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
Yahooooooooo! – In a move that provides even more legitimacy to DFS, Yahoo Inc. announced they will be launching a DFS site. Eric Fisher of Sports Business Journal broke the news yesterday. The announcement was included in an official earnings call provided by the company. While it is impossible to predict the impact this will have on the industry, it is safe to speculate that more players will make the transition from season-long because of this. For more information and more thorough recap check out LeoTPP’s article from yesterday.
NHL Last Night – The NHL Playoffs continued last night with four games on the ice. By far the most exciting contest featured the Blackhawks and Predators. The game began Tuesday night and ended at 1:01 AM this morning. Defenseman Brent Seabrook scored the clinching goal one minute into the third period. The only thing more exciting than the game, was the game within the game. During Game 3 on Sunday, Andrew Shaw of the Blackhawks was seated on the bench but reached out and grabbed Nashville’s Mike Ribeiro to stop him from skating away. Ribeiro then turned and punched Shaw. Both players shrugged it off before last night’s game. That didn’t stop the fans from getting involved though. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! That is taking things too far. You don’t accuse another man of listening to Nickelback.
NFL Schedule Release – Sure the NBA and NHL playoffs are taking place, but let’s take a moment to talk about things people really care about. The NFL released their schedule for the upcoming season. I haven’t had time to fully dissect things, but here are my initial takeaways. 1.) Your favorite team never gets any respect from the NFL. 2.) Your favorite team will go 16-0 this year despite this unfair schedule. That pretty much sums it up. See you in about four months so we can discuss this more.
NBA Last Night – As I mentioned, the NBA playoffs are taking place. Last night CLE, WSH, and HOU each won their contests to take a 2-0 lead. From a #narrativestreet perspective, the most exciting series has been the Raptors/Wizards. Yesterday I discussed the ongoing trash talk between Paul Pierce and the Raptors. Last night, after defeating the Raptors and taking a 2-0 lead, Pierce was seen in the hallways yelling, I don’t want to go through customs again. Now you have your narrative for Game 3. Paul Pierce is #NotGoingBacktoCanada.
MLB Last Night – We all knew going into last night that there would be a lot of runs at that ballpark named after a beer. Absolutely no one was surprised when 26 runs were scored, including seven home runs and three grand slams. I’m not the type of person to complain, but the sites really need to think about offering contests that don’t include Miller Park. That was just ridiculous. You will see what I mean in this next section.
Dong Report – There were a total of 33 dongs hit last night, which is our new season high for a single day. Edwin Encarnacion and Zack Cozart hit double dongs. Yes, you read that right, ZACK COZART! Damn you, Coors Field Miller Park. The longest dong of the night belongs to Edwin Encarnacion at 463 feet, and the shortest belongs to Freddy Galvis at 354 feet. There were six pitchers who tied for the most dongs allowed with two each. They were: Wood, Thornburg, Noesi, Krol, Haren and Fiers.
Winner! Winner! – There were plenty of big GPPs across the industry and a few Grinders managed to take one down. Stlcardinalsfan84 took down the FD Slugger, Golden39 took down the FD Squeeze with a 92.41 (which beat many of my DraftKings teams), theclone won the Monster, and naapsterman won the NYC DFBC qualifier. In FanDuel NBA, booourns (youdacao on RG) won pretty much all the money. He claimed eight of the top ten spots in the Slam, took second in the Monster and placed highly in several other GPPs.
Over on DraftKings, Jon1203 had himself a night, taking down 1-4 in the Slugfest for a total of $115K which was 23% of the total prize pool. In other contests, bw5126 took down the Gold Glove and steveavery took down the Perfect Game. For the rest of yesterday’s links, click here.
On The Menu
Soccer Today – We kick things off with a two-game Soccer slate on DraftKings. Juventus takes on Monaco and Real Madrid squares off with Bayern Munich. Grinder ernestiko has your top targets listed here.
NHL Tonight – The playoffs continue with four games tonight. The MLB and NBA guarantees still dwarf NHL, but I’m still seeing over $50K in total guarantees on the two big sites. Feel free to join our daily NHL forum thread and toss in some lineups to sweat while you watch.
NBA Tonight – The NBA playoffs continue tonight with games between BKN/ATL, POR/MEM, and SA/LAC. DFS Players also have the option to play the WED-THU slate and include three games tomorrow. Notorious already has his thoughts on tonight’s games in the NBA Grind Down. If you are looking for someone with a little extra motivation, Aron Baynes is the #narrativestreet play. Blake Griffin absolutely abused Baynes in game one, dunking on him twice. After the game, Baynes Wikipedia page was updated to reflect that he was reduced to a smoldering pile of ash by Blake Griffin. Look for Baynes to avenge his name and try to regain some dignity tonight.
MLB Tonight – With fourteen games on the schedule, MLB offers a super-sized slate for the second night in a row. This slate includes a game at the infamous Coors field as well as a game at Miller Park which shall now be known as Coors light. As always, you can expect the usual array of advice here on RotoGrinders. That will include the Grind Down, Six-Pack, Pitching Report, GPP plays, and so much more. All those pieces will have solid advice for you to digest, but what you really need to pay attention to is the situation brewing in Toronto. In the 7th inning last night, Jays Reliever Jason Garcia narrowly missed Jose Bautista with a 94 mph fastball. Three pitches later, Bautista responded with a two-run home run. Bautista stopped halfway down the first base line to admire his work. This did not go unnoticed by the Orioles
Baseball purists will point out Bautista’s actions were unnecessary and disrespectful to the game. I’m taking the other side of the on this one. Bautista only has seven hits this entire season. He might as well enjoy his home run. He doesn’t get on base often. Anyways, be careful selecting pitchers in this matchup tonight. Bad blood is brewing.
The Bottom Line – If you have been playing DFS long you have no doubt built some crazy lineups. A few of those lineups were no doubt built from strange places. There is a lively discussion going on in the Forums right now about the craziest place you have built a lineup. Come join the fun. I’m sure there are some better stories than the ones already listed (which are pretty good).