The fellas at Mastersball.com have posted their FAAB roundup for the week, which was mostly a quiet one. There were a few big bids, but all were reduced to little bids by Sir Vickery.
Mike Gianella takes on Tout AL and NL transactions (and includes TW Mixed Draft and Auction in a chart) for the week, at baseballprospectus.com.
Adam Ronis has a 12.5 point lead over Rudy Gamble, which is a big lead except for one thing: Ronis just lost Giancarlo Stanton for 4-6 weeks.
That’s a big blow, but Ronis’s team might be able to handle it. Thanks to Stanton and Bryce Harper, as well as Kyle Seager, Brian Dozier and Pedro Alvarez, all with double digit home runs, Ronis has 13 more homers than Paul Greco’s team, and 24 more than Paul Sporer’s, which is third in the category.
If there is a place Ronis is really vulnerable it just might be in starting pitching. He has two surprise closers, in Jeurys Familia and AJ Cole, but his starting staff is Wacha and Cole, then pray for Tsuyoshi Wada, Bartolo Colon, and Roenis Elias.
But so far that’s been enough to get it done. To see the rosters and transactions in Tout Mixed Draft visit the league’s onRoto.com home page.
The current standings;
Michael Beller, Adam Ronis and Jeff Boggis win tickets to the #toutdaily on @FanDuel final on August 28th, when 15 ticket holders will compete for $2,000 in prizes and the Tout Daily 2015 crown!
Notably, Adam Ronis won his second ticket to the finals. (Each Tout Daily player may win a maximum of two tickets in the contests five phases.) Other ticket holders thus far are: Scott Pianowski, Lenny Melnick, Tom Kessenich, Lawr Michaels, and Jeff Erickson,
Notably, Derek VanRiper was edged out of a ticket by Jeff Boggis by .25 of a point. That’s a single out by a single hitter over the course of four weeks. VanRiper failed to win a ticket despite finishing in the Top 10 during Phase 3 three times. Only Michael Beller, the Phase 3 winner, also finished in the Top 10 three times during Phase 3.
Notably, nobody else was close to the tickets.
Which brings us to Tim McCullough, who won Phase 3 Week 4, with 50.25 points. This was his second Top 10 finish in #toutdaily’s 12 weeks.
Much like Week 11 champ, Phil Hertz, McCullough built his team with unpopular choices. Only Rajai Davis, Adrian Beltre and Xander Bogaerts were owned by more than two other Tout Daily teams.
Big earners for McCullough were spread across the board, with his exclusive Jake Arrieta earning 13 points despite failing to get the win in St. Louis, and Russell Martin, Prince Fielder, Dee Gordon, Scott Van Slyke and Rajai Davis each earning more than five points.
Phase 3 Week 4 runners up include Ray Murphy (Taijuan Walker, Edwin Encarnacion and Scott Van Slyke) and Tim Heaney (Tyson Ross, Edwin Encarnacion, Brian Dozier and Ryan Raburn).
Notably, Charlie Wiegert’s fourth-place team was the highest finisher to roster the night’s biggest-scoring (and highest-priced) starter, Max Scherzer.
Congratulations to Tim McCullough, Adam Ronis, Michael Beller and Jeff Boggis, and please join us next week for Phase 4 Week 1, when the slate is wiped clean!
We asked the Touts to share their picks for best pitcher and best hitter in tonight’s Tout Daily Week 12 contest. For more about Tout Daily visit here.
Tonight’s contest is Week 4 of Phase 3 of the five phase contest. The top three finishers in each phase get a ticket to the big August 28 final, with big money and the chance to be the first Tout Wars Daily champ. Here are the leaders going into this final week (click to enlarge):
Scott Pianowski, Jeff Erickson, Adam Ronis, Lenny Melnick, Lawr Michaels and Tom Kessenich have tickets to the finals already. The leaderboard is here.
Here are this week’s Tout picks. I’ll be updating this as they come in, so check back later if you get a chance.
Jason Heyward ($3700–Chicago Cubs at St. Louis) On the offensive side, I will highlight Cardinals outfielder Jason Heyward. Early returns had pegged the Braves as the clear winner in the Shelby Miller trade, but Heyward is finally heating up. The 25-year-old has a .913 OPS in June and is coming off a Miami series during which he went deep twice and plated four.
Max Scherzer ($12,500–Washington at Philadelphia) Going into tonight’s contest, I am in 3rd place and a close to a “golden ticket” into the Tout Daily Championship, so I can’t afford to get cute and take chances with my roster tonight. Starting pitching is my top priority and I plan on building my team around Max Scherzer. He is the highest salaried pitcher tonight, but that is not stopping me from rostering him in tonight’s contest. Scherzer has averaged 16.95 fantasy points per game this season and over the past 2 weeks, he has averaged 26 fantasy points. He is coming off his no-hitter against Pittsburgh on Saturday and he is facing a team that he has pitched well against this season. In 2 starts against the Philadelphia Phillies this season, he is 2-0 and is averaging 8 innings pitched, 1 earned run, and 7.5 strikeouts. If he repeats this average, that’s 18.5 fantasy points on Friday night. Scherzer faces Aaron Harang who is giving up a lot of home runs lately. Over the last 4 starts, Harang has allowed 20 earned runs in his last 23.2 inning pitched. There is a 50% chance of rain in Philadelphia on Friday, but it decreases to only 20% on Friday night.
Nolan Arenado ($4,500–Colorado at San Francisco) The third baseman for Colorado is the hottest hitter in baseball this week and ranks #1 overall in the past 7 days with 9 runs scored, 4 home runs, 9 RBIs, and a .391 batting average. He faces Tim Hudson tonight to where he is slugging .500 against him in his last 19 plate appearances. Arendado has 20 home runs and 60 RBIs on the season.
Hitter (Cost–Game) Votes (FanDuel Points)
This week’s question requires a little background, specifically the nuances of our FanDuel Tout Daily Tournament. The regular season. so to speak, is 20 weeks long, divided into five periods of four weeks. Each week is a mini-tournament with a modest payout but the big carrot is a ticket into the one-day Tout Daily Championship with a $1000 grand prize. The top-three finishers in each period will get an entry into the finals. Each Tout is allowed to earn two tickets. With that in mind, here’s this week’s question:
IT’S THE LAST WEEK OF PERIOD THREE, WE AWARD THREE MORE TICKETS INTO THE TOUT DAILY CHAMPIONSHIP FRIDAY NIGHT. HOW WILL YOUR PRESENT PLACEMENT IN THE PERIOD THREE STANDINGS INFLUENCE YOUR LINEUP FOR THIS WEEK’S TOUT DAILY?
Peter Kreutzer, www.askrotoman.com, @kroyte: Finding myself 55 points out of the Top 3, with one week to play, with the highest score of any week in this phase 63, I have to admit I’m out of it. But I’m not out of the weekly money contest. So I will submit the lowest-priced pitcher I think is a good chance to win, and then select players from the highest scoring games expected that night. It is an approach that has failed me so far, landing me bad hitters on the nights I have good pitching and good hitters on the nights I have bad pitching. And some weeks all has gone bad, but I’m pretty sure there will be a week when all goes good. Could be this one.
Charlie Wiegert, www.CDMSports.com, @GFFantasySports: Not a time to play it safe, I need a lot of long shots to hit and the studs to be duds to just reach respectability!
Lawr Michaels, www.mastersball.com, @lawrmichaels: Well, I guess I am “lucky/skillfull” enough to have made the cut in Phase II, so I can experiment a little and not lose too much face. But, that does not mean I don’t want to win. I will obviously try to get in with pitching, though seriously, after the horrible Felix Hernandez meltdown my faith in just about everything DFS has reaffirmed my more instinctive Zen approach generally works better for me than does a “sure thing.”
Michael Beller, www.SI.com, @MBeller: I’m in second place for period three, so I’ve got a lot on the line this week. This may not be a satisfying answer to some, but I’m not changing my strategy at all. I’ve now cashed in Tout Daily five times, including one win and another top-three finish, and I’ve had my most success by building my lineup around a pitcher. That’s what I’ll do again Friday, with no shortage of options at our disposal.
Lenny Melnick, www.rotoexperts.com, @LennyMelnick: Competitive juices flowing! Love this standings format for Daily! I have my ticket for finals locked up but I sit 20+ pts points behind leaders in June I will go contrarian and take chances with the hope of being 20 pts better than the leaders. I have done 5 teams options already and I will sit on it for now until the lineups come out! A few surprises in store…IF THEY are playing.
Steve Moyer, www.inside-edge.com: I’d be happy to grind out $12 every week and that’s how I play. If I happen to stumble into the finals, then so be it.
Brian Walton, www.mastersball.com, @B_Walton: Though I should be more motivated to take risk than most, I will stick with my approach to assemble the best team possible. What is behind my motivation point is that I appear to be the only one among the overall leaders to have not yet qualified for the finals. Perhaps there needs to be a wild card added in the future for a marathoner who finds himself among a group of world-class sprinters!
Jeff Boggis, www.FantasyFootballEmpire.com, @JeffBoggis: I think of all the Touts that have the most pressure on them this week, it would be me. I am currently in 3rd place for phase 3 with only a 3 point lead, so every point counts for me this week. The competition is fierce as there are 3 teams in 4th (Scott Pianowski), 5th (Adam Ronis), and 7th (Lenny Melnick) place that have already qualified from either phase 1 or phase 2, so you know that they will bring their A game this week as they can obtain another ticket with a top 3 finish in this phase. For me, the most important element is not getting cute or taking risks, and it all starts with selecting the right pitcher. I already know who I will start as my starting pitcher this week and it will be revealed in Friday’s top pitcher and hitter recommendations article. I then have to fill the other 8 hitting slots with an average of $3,000 per player. I typically will spend $4-$5K on 3-5 hitters in the 1B, 3B, and OF slots, and fill in the remaining 3-4 slots with $2,200 upside players. I will be paying closer attention to the weather and also to finalized MLB rosters as I can’t afford to have players involved with a rainout or given the night off on Friday. To date, for me there has been no magic formula for success in Daily Fantasy Sports. I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity and competition that Tout Daily offers me as I can experiment with different roster strategies. I will be watching both Friday’s competition and the overall phase 3 scores with extra interest on Friday night as I pray for that “golden ticket” into the Tout Daily Championship. Good luck to everyone on Friday!
Rob Leibowitz, www.mastersball.com, @Rob_Leibowitz: Looking at the standings, despite my solid 3rd place showing last week, I won’t be able to overcome my lousy first two weeks of this phase. With that in mind, I will have to go outside the box for most of my picks (and cross my fingers) on some longshots to come within earshot of the top three.
Gene McCaffrey, www.wiseguys.com, @gene2323: I’m trying to find the players with the best chance to get the most points. With a close call I’m inclined to choose the guy I THINK will be less popular, but really that is a guess – more distraction than sound thinking. Speaking of Felix last week, Price was CLEARLY a better choice for performance, what steered me away was the weather issue.
WE INTERRUPT THE ROUND TABLE FOR A SIDE BAR BETWEEN www.RockRemnants.com compadres Lawr and Gene:
Lawr: I dunno Gene. Felix, a strikeout pitcher, going against the team that has the second most whiffs in the majors over the season so far seemed pretty logical at the time. Even if he gave up all those eight runs over say six innings, but struck out ten he would have been worth eight points. that might not have been enough for much, but no one expected that implosion. And, that is why baseball is such mysterious fun, right. you just never know!
Gene: Well, that’s why we play, but one is at home for a .514 team vs. a .465 team, the other on the road for a .452 team vs. a .568 team. I only wish I’d taken my own advice…
WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED ROUND TABLE
Scott Pianowski, www.Yahoo.com, @scott_pianowski: I’m close enough to the ticket area that I can just play it straight, go for the best plays I see without concern to likely pool behavior. If I were down a tier or so, I’d strongly consider pitcher differentiation, since that’s the spot with the most team-to-team variance.
Derek Van Riper, www.rotowire.com, @DerekVanRiper: I won’t be changing anything in my approach even with a small lead for the top spot in Phase 3. If I were on the outside looking in as a qualifier heading into the week, my emphasis would be on players with higher ceiling output, albeit with more variance. Additionally, I would probably think a little more about how much ownership there will be on some of the key players for the teams ahead of me.
Scott Swanay, www.fantasybaseballsherpa.com, @Fantasy_Sherpa: The short answer is “not at all”. Unless the Cards decide to start Miguel Socolovich Friday night, I decide to use him, and he earns a perfect score of 40, I have no chance of finishing in the top three this phase. My personal goal is to score at least 35 points this week so that I’ll beat my Phase 2 score, which was better than my Phase 1 score. At that pace, I might be in contention for a top-three phase finish about the same time the Phillies are in contention for a top-three finish in the NL East again.
Jake Ciely, www.rotoexperts.com, @allinkid: I have to go GPP style and lean contrarian. I missed the Top 3 by 12 points the first period, less than two the second period and now sit about 17 back from third place. I need to make up significant ground and can’t play it safe… but also, I’m trying to convince the powers-that-be to also award anyone in the Top 5 at season’s end a ticket (if they didn’t grab a monthly Top 3 spot). After all, I’ve been so consistent that I’m fourth overall on the year (two points from third overall), yet I’m headed towards missing a ticket for the third straight month! Consistent excellence should be rewarded… who’s with me?!
It was an off-week for the Touts which means more of the public doubled up their money, which is never a bad thing. A Tout did record the top overall score as Paul Sporer logged an impressive 70.33 FanDuel points. Joining Paul in the top-ten were fellow Touts Todd Zola, checking in at #6, David Gonos at #9 and Gene McCaffrey, sneaking in at #10.
All totaled, the Tout Warriors captured only 10 of the 45 money spots. Great job by the readers this week!
Madison Bumgarner was on 31 percent of all the teams including that of Sporer, Zola and Gonos. McCaffrey was one of only 5 percent of participants that used Chris Archer.
Sporer went with the herd as 23 percent of the combatants deployed Maikel Franco and his 14.75 along with 23 percent who used Brett Gardner and his 9.5 points.
Where Sporer zagged while everyone else was zigging was with his clever selections of Logan Morrison, 6 percent owned for 7.25 points and Asdrubal Cabrera, only 5 percent owned for 9.5 points.
Follow along with #ToutDaily as we award the next three tickets to the Tout Daily Championship after Friday’s contest has concluded.
Here is Paul Sporer’s outstanding lineup:
Mastersball’s crew digests and displays this week’s moves, with nods to Chris Parmelee, Derek Deitrich, Kyle Schwarber, and Matt Wisler.
Mike Gianella has an excellent and informative look at the Tout NL FAAB pool, where the biggest buys came from last year, and who has made the best gains this year, at baseballprospectus.com.
I’ve had a lot of bad days playing DFS, when most of my picks were outliers, guys picked in under 5 percent of the teams.
Tonight, Phil Hertz won Week 3 of Phase 3 of Tout Daily with a roster of just such outliers. Only Steven Vogt, who was on 11 percent of Tout Daily teams was on Phil’s squad and more than two others.
Phil was the only owner of Roenis Ellis, who he plugged in this afternoon’s Tout Picks post at ToutWars.com.
On the hitting side, he soared with Nolan Arenado, Stephen Vogt (who was owned by five teams), Jhonny Peralta, Brett Gardner and Justin Upton. Apart from Vogt, none of his scorers was owned by more than two teams in the Tout Daily contest.
It should be noted that Hertz hurt. The second place team was more than 10 points behind. Second place finisher Jake Ciely managed to do it without a productive pitching performance (from Carlos Carrasco). It seems there are many ways to skin a cat.
The weekly leaders for the ticket to the final on August 28 are: Derek Van Riper, Michael Beller, and Jeff Boggis, but they are trailed by Scott Pianowski, Adam Ronis, Brian Walton and Lenny Melnick, all of whom (apart from Brian Walton) already have tickets to the finals.
Read Hertz’s squad and weep:
