Totally Buzzed! Bender Edges Moyer Inside on a Night Hitters Rule!

Pitchers on Top 10 Teams This Week and Points in Tout Daily by RTSports.com

  • Lance McCullers 10.66
  • Jose Quintana 11.66
  • Zach Davies 12
  • Matt Harvey 7
  • Joe Ross 13
  • Matt Shoemaker 12
  • Michael Fulmer 9.66
  • Jeff Samardzija 16
  • Jonathan Gray 8

This list, which we usually run at the end of the Tout Daily report, usually helps explains who won and who lost that week. This week is different. The only difference maker on the list, Jeff Samardzija, was rostered by only one Top 10 team, a team that finished tied for 10th on the evening.

Screenshot 2016-06-18 07.49.27The night’s winner, Howard Bender, had rostered two fine arms (McCullers, Quintana) who pitched two quality starts but didn’t earn wins.

The night’s second place finisher, 6.33 points behind, was Steve Moyer, who rostered Zach Davies (QS, no decision) and Matt Harvey (bad game).

What they had in common was Michael Saunders, whose three home run, eight RBI night was worth 23 points.

What Bender also had was three other double-digit earners on offense, in Peter O’Brien (owned by 30 percent of players), Paul Goldschmidt (13 percent), Saunders (16 percent) and Yasmany Tomas (3 percent).

Screenshot 2016-06-18 08.23.04Moyer also had Tomas.

Third place finisher Scott Pianowski owned O’Brien, Goldschmidt and Franklin Gutierez, whose two homers and six RBi was worth 19 points, the second biggest earner on the night (and owned by 11 percent of teams).

Sixth place Rick Wolf rostered Salvador Perez, who earned 11 points on the night.

Steve Gardner, in 10th place, unearthed a big night from Josh Donaldson worth 14 points. Donaldson was on 28 percent of rosters, but his huge price tag must have cost him some productive pairings.

This is how, on June 17th, the Tout Daily winners did it.

Bender’s big win, and Tim Heaney’s 26th-place finish on the night (he started with Matt Harvey and Matt Shoemaker, just like fifth place finisher Jeff Erickson, but was unable to find a complementary piece for Peter O’Brien) has stirred the Period 3 pot.

Tristan Cockcroft takes advantage of Heaney’s stumble to move into first place. Heaney is 14.33 points back in second, and six farther points behind are Phil Hertz, Howard Bender, and Rick Wolf.

A few points behind them are a bunch of teams who are going to have to have a big weeks to pass the many teams ahead of them. The Top 3 finishers in the period, after next week’s contest, win golden tickets to the August 26 final.

The complete leaderboard is here. (UPDATE: The board and story were corrected at 1:35 pm ET to reflect fixes to an editing error. Tristan Cockcroft and Scott Pianowski gained four points, and Brian Walton’s entry was entered.)

Follow the game each Friday here at ToutWars.com, where the touts reveal their picks on Friday afternoon, and at RTSports.com, where you can watch how the contest unfolds on Friday night.

You can also play for prizes or fun every day of the week at RTSports.com.