The Dongers Club – Sat, Aug 1st
SLATE INTRO I have two things I want to cover and get off my chest. #1. In regards to the current COVID-19 outbreak situation between the Marlins and the Cardinals + the talks of them shutting the season down. This
The Dongers Club – Friday, July 31st
SLATE INTRO It’s a Friday and so this article is being done in that sweet, sweet, sweet time window of 2PM on a Friday afternoon with the thoughts of a delicious cold beverage waiting for me when I complete the
The Dongers Club – Thu July 30th
SLATE INTRO This set of games today is like what a normal Monday slate would feel like. It’s a little odd though as we have some new series starting up, while some other series are finishing up today. Only eight
The Dongers Club – Wed July 29th
SLATE INTRO Not much to highlight from last night other than the pitching did wind up being as dumpster fire as everyone else thought — but in reality it was a great FD slate with Merrill Kelly being the easy SP1 and he should have been higher owned and that potentially helped many of you out by having him. As for today, we’re onto one of those SP1 type slates with some big name Ace’s on the mound but I am very cautious to not get too settled into a normal MLB season routine and remember that this is still a short season and the sprint aspect of things will keep the aces down from being must starts every time out. Scheduling is the biggest impact today New York Yankees at Baltimore Orioles – This is a game that was not originally scheduled and is an adjustment from the Marlins COVID-19 spread. Of course the Yankees get the benefit of new games in Camden Yards where they murdered Baltimore last year. Of course they do! Both FD and DK have the exact same slate and have included the Yanks/Os game on it. Lock is 7pm WEATHER There are no issues or impacts today. Some lingering showers headed towards Camden Yards for the Yanks/O’s game but it will play fine. As I outlined above, there’s some aces today and some key decisions to make where we have A vs B options on the pricing and that’s always the way I try to measure debating a pitcher on one site versus another. For example on FanDuel Today you have Cole at 11.7k and deGrom at 11.2k then you have Paddack at 9.7k and Woodruff at 8.7k. All four are likely popular choices today but you aren’t debating Cole vs Paddack per say, you are saying do I want to spend 11.7k or 9.7k for my pitcher based upon how I build out my bats. If you fall into that 11k range then it’s a Cole vs deGrom decision. Make sense? If not, I’ll get out a whiteboard and draw it for you with lots of lines all over the place and then you might understand better? Chris Paddack You’re probably like, dude, you could have just told us Paddack was your choice and cut to the chase. But then I wouldn’t have been able to post a GIF from The Office and see, there’s nothing wrong with doing that now is there? Now that we have you thinking in terms of presentations and flow charts for the analysis decision let me walk you through this thought pattern. Paddack beats Woodruff in the same range because the Giants have a slightly higher strikeout projection against Paddack than the Pirates do vs Woodruff in my mind. Paddack also has the 2k savings on Cole who even though he should whiff down an Orioles lineup which has been off since Sunday, I don’t want to spend extra for the premium pitching quite yet. So the sheriff gets the nod. Gerrit Cole But yeah, Cole is a no brainer and the play over deGrom. Playing both Cole and Paddack on DraftKings today is a fast track to putting yourself in solid contention to be cashing with just a few hitters doing well. Andrew Heaney Here’s the boom or bust play of the day. I had lots of people over the past few days ask me about ownership and if I am fading or playing certain spots because of ownership. My immediate answer is always no because I look at who is a good or bad play and recommend based off that. I didn’t fade the Red Sox yesterday because they were chalk, I faded them because they are bad. However, I may have mislead some of you with my answer because when it comes to Pitching the upside of fading a chalky player who has high risk is greatly increased and I think Heaney falls into that category today on DraftKings where he’s just $7,900. If we get closer to lock and it’s smelling like Heaney is a 40% owned pitcher I’d be more than fine not touching him and hoping the Mariners do enough to force his pitch count up to get him out before a full five innings as that’s the biggest hurdle he has today. Outside of the Box Play Nathan Eovaldi Eovaldi gets a nice park shift going into Citi Field as this series shifts parks. What do we know about Jacob deGrom starts? He never gets run support and Eovaldi is the benefactor of that today while being around the same price as Heaney while a road underdog. He’s your pivot. A few thoughts on guys I am not using Jacob deGrom – Boston while not being good offensively is not a strike out target. This doesn’t mean deGrom can’t strike them out, but it’s not a smash spot. Mike Soroka – Don’t play pitchers in Atlanta this season. It’s the opposite of Texas. St. Louis Cardinals (and yeah, the Twins) Paul Goldschmidt, Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman, Yadier Molina This lineup is centered around Paul Goldschmidt, America’s 1st Baseman who sometimes we forget is a LHP masher himself and has certainly not struggled with Rich Hill (8-18, 1 HR) in his career. I love the Cardinals potential in any park when they go on the road because their own stadium can be a tough place to have big games in and we saw Edman get a lucky HR last night off Buxton’s glove and Tyler O’Neil went yard as well. But it’s Goldy-DeJong that drive this combination today and the ball should be carrying in Target field very well today. Meanwhile the Minnesota Twins are pretty much into that auto-play territory right now. Ponce de Leon has good movement on his pitches but that’s the exact pitch you don’t wanna be offering up to Cruz, Sano, Kepler and Garver. I think Kepler sets the table tonight and
Quick Pitch Dongers Club – Wed July 29 (Early Slate)
We have an early slate on FanDuel today that justifies being played as it has five games on it and the contests are good enough to look at playing it. DraftKings opted to just focus on the Main slate for
The Dongers Club – Tue July 28th
SLATE INTRO So by now you likely heard that the Orioles-Marlins & Yankees-Phillies games have been PPD due to the Marlins having a large number of positive COVID tests. I do not think this is a doom and gloom scenario,
The Dongers Club – Mon July 27th
SLATE INTRO So by now you likely heard that the Orioles-Marlins & Yankees-Phillies games have been PPD due to the Marlins having a large number of positive COVID tests. I do not think this is a doom and gloom scenario,
The Dongers Club – Sun July 26th
SLATE INTRO What year is it? FanDuel went and included as many games as they could on the slate today and we have more games on a Sunday Main slate on FanDuel than DraftKings?!?! Wow. My favorite game today is
The Dongers Club – Sat July 25th
SLATE INTRO Guys (and gals) — I will be honest with you. I might be over-reacting to just one day but I am really not sure what to make of everything thus far. I realize that statement sounds completely asinine
The Dongers Club – Opening Day 2020
SLATE ISSUES Normally this is where I give you any issues on Weather or maybe talk about random things that are on my mind. However, in 2020 we’re going to likely have frequent daily updates that are of note in