Category: About Tout Wars

Who Is Playing? Who Is Picking? Tonight’s Tout Daily by RTSports.com

Ron Shandler is in the lead at the turn, as we head into the third week of Period 2 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com. But he has Adam Ronis, Scott Engel and Patrick Davitt close behind him, and with two weeks remaining lots can change.

You can follow tonight’s action at RTSports.com/Tout-Wars, and while you’re there make some paid or free action of your own.

We asked the Touts who they would likely be playing tonight, and why. Here’s what they had to say:

Jeff Boggis said a lot!

Top Pitcher: Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) and Jose Quintana ($7,800 vs. Kansas City. Jake Arrieta is the obvious choice tonight for starting pitchers, but comes at a very steep price at $9,800. My strategy this week is to save some money on starting pitching and go with the value play of Aaron Nola at $6,900. Aaron Nola takes on an Atlanta Braves offense at home tonight. The Atlanta Braves team batting average of .235, ranking them 24th out of 30 MLB teams. Atlanta is dead last in slugging percentage at .318 and OPS at .616. Aaron Nola has a WHIP of 0.85, ranking him 4th overall in the major leagues for starting pitchers. As my 2nd starting pitcher tonight, I am starting Jose Quintana (SP-CWS) $7,800. Jose Quintana ranks 2nd overall in the major leagues with an ERA of 1.54. Quintana ranks tied for 7th overall in the major leagues in WHIP with 0.99. Jose Quintana is at home tonight against Kansas City. In his last 7 starts, Quintana has pitched at least 6 innings and has not given up more than 2 earned runs in any of his 8 starts this season.

Top Low Cost Pitcher – Matt Andriese ($3,700 @ Detroit)

Top Hitter: Danny Valencia ($4,300 vs. NY Yankees). Until Valencia cools off, you have to ride the hot hand. Over the past week, Valencia is the top ranked hitter in fantasy with 8 runs scored, 6 home runs, 11 RBIs, and a batting average of .444. He has a base hit in 8 of his last 9 games started. He faces C.C.’s Pizza Sabathia who is coming off the disabled list tonight to start against Oakland. Sabathia has an ERA of 3.81 and a high WHIP at 1.55.

Top Low Cost Hitter – Alex Avila ($2,900 vs. Kansas City)

Phil Hertz writes: “I’m recommending Gerrit Cole ($9,200 vs. Colorado) as pitcher, and some outfielder on the Angels, whose name escapes me.  Oh right, Flounder, or is it Trout ($6,700 vs. Baltimore).

Howard Bender has some ideas:

Top Hitter: Anthony Rizzo ($6,600 @ San Francisco) It’s a must to pay up for Rizzo tonight. An absolute must. Jake Peavy is a punching bag for lefties who are posting a .464 wOBA against him and Rizzo is sitting on a .302/.416/.556 slash line for May with an INSANE 1.334 OPS versus righties while he’s on the road. 

Top Pitcher: Scott Kazmir ($7,300 @ San Diego) I rarely like to use Kazmir. Almost never, in fact. But facing the Padres is almost like a gift at this point. The Friars have a below-average .306 wOBA with a 26-percent strikeout rate against lefties and they’ve posted just a .236 wOBA over the last seven days. DO I even need to point out that they rank dead last in offense at home too?

Lawr Michaels likes Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) facing the Braves (who doesn’t?) and loves Michael Conforto ($5200 vs Milwaukee) going against leaky Wily Peralta and his 7.03 ERA.

Scott Swanay reports:

I’ll go w/ Scott Kazmir ($7,300 @ San Diego) as my Pitcher pick this week.  His FIP (5.16) has been even worse than his ERA (4.89) this season (which is due in large part to a lousy HR/9 mark), but he’s still striking out almost a batter an inning, and he faces a Padres team that’s worst in the league in OBP, has the third-fewest HRs, and third-most strikeouts.  I’m in.

I’ll go w/ Anthony Rizzo ($6,600 @ San Francisco) as my Hitter pick.  In the “Two Jakes” match-up the Cubs have the clear advantage, so I’ll stack several of their hitters tonight and hope for the best.

Charlie Wiegert tells us:

Top Pitcher: Not a lot of time to do much research today, so going with my gut, Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) has been pitching well,  Atlanta’s offense is not good and they tend to strike out, seems like a reasonable pick.  Tanner Roark ($5,600 at Miami) had a bad start last time out, but he did have a big K game a few weeks ago, maybe lightening can strike again versus the Marlins.

Top Hitter: Riding hot hands.  Manny Machado ($6,500 at LA Angels), Ian Kinsler ($5,200 vs. Tampa Bay) and Carlos Beltran ($4,500 @ Oakland). Also taking some Cardinal right handed hitters against Corbin; Piscotty, Diaz and Molina.

Mike Gianella weighs in:

Top Pitcher: Jake Arrieta ($9,800 @ San Francisco) He’s expensive, but so far this year he has been worth it.

Top Hitter: Ben Zobrist ($4,800 @ San Francisco) In order to pay for Jake, I had to avoid any big ticket items on the hitting side. The Cubs will bounce back after a moribund offensive series against the Brewers. Having Jake Peavy toeing the rubber on the opposite side of Jake will help.

Brian Walton’s thoughts:

Of the two NL East clubs expected to be terrible this year, Atlanta has lived up to the billing, while Philadelphia has been respectable while rebuilding. Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) takes on the Braves in Atlanta and inexplicably is just the 12th-most expensive pitcher for Friday.

Danny Valencia ($4,300 vs. NY Yankees) of Oakland has been red-hot since coming off the DL last week with six home runs and 11 RBI over his last seven games. Not bad for the 21st-most expensive third sacker on Friday, who draws C.C. Sabathia at home.

Rotoman thinks Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) is the obvious choice for one of tonight’s pitching slots, with ML OPS leader Aledmys Diaz ($3,800 vs. Arizona) moving up to hit second a fun matchup against Arizona.

Ray Murphy chimes in:

Everyone’s probably going to have Aaron Nola ($6,900 vs. Atlanta), and with good reason: he’s been terrific and the Braves are awful. For a second SP, I’ll go with Tyler Duffey ($6100 vs. Toronto), who has been strong in three straight starts and catches Toronto at a good time. That will leave me with 74% of my budget for offense.

Speaking of offense, Justin Nicolino is terrible, and Anthony Rendon ($4700 @ Miami) should be batting near the top of the lineup against him tonight. I’ll buy at an average-ish price.

It’s Shandler All Night in Tout Daily, This Week!

If you checked in early to the Tout Daily by RTSports.com scoring last night, Ron Shandler was in the lead. And if you checked in late, after his team was done, he was also in the lead, and clearly would remain so as long as the Mariners didn’t take the lead and give Nate Karns a victory.

The Ms didn’t, and Ron held on against the Karns-owning Jason Collette, finishing far ahead of a pack led by Steve Gardner, 10 points behind.

Screenshot 2016-05-14 09.17.51Ron built his team around the popular and cheap Rich Hill facing the Rays, owned by 38 percent of teams, and the not-so-popular Chris Tillman, owned by just five percent, against the Tigers. Tillman scored 18 points, same as Chris Sale, the superstar of the night, who cost $3,700 more.

Shandler’s offense was lead by Bryce Harper, Travis Shaw and Jimmy Rollins, and he notably rostered Kevin Plawecki, the highest scoring Met in what proved to be a popular and unproductive stack in Colorado.

Second-place finisher Jason Collette avoided the stack in Colorado completely, and prospered with solid if unspectacular games from Khris Davis, Yan Gomes, Jackie Bradley and Francisco Lindor backing up Chris Sale’s domination of the Yankees.

christillmanPitchers in the top 10 finishing teams last night were Tillman, Sale, Hill, Karns, Jeff Samardzija, and Junior Guerra,

Halfway through Period 2 of the Tout Daily contest, Shandler is 6.33 points ahead of Jeff Boggis, with Adam Ronis, Scott Engel, and Patrick Davitt close behind. You can see the leaderboard here.

The top three finishers in each of five four-week periods will earn a golden ticket to the Tout Daily finals, held August 26th, after which this year’s champion will be declared.

Follow along all season on Fridays, with pregame picks during the day at toutwars.com and all the action all night at RTSports.com.

 

The Tout Daily Friday the 13th Picks!

Who are the Touts picking tonight? (You can follow tonight’s action, or make some of your own at RTSports.com.)

friday13thcastbaseball_c62663_1_VJeff Boggis is going to try to use Chris Sale ($9,700 @ Yankees) (The obvious choice is Chris Sale, but you have to pay a hefty premium ($500 higher than the second highest pitcher). I am willing to roster Chris Sale at $9,700 and look for hitter bargains to justify the high price tag on Chris Sale tonight. Sale faces the New York Yankees tonight against Luis Severino who currently owns a 6.12 ERA. Sale should get plenty of run support tonight, but I don’t think he will need it. Sale has now won 7 straight games and sports a 1.79 ERA, a 0.77 WHIP, and a 10/47 walk to strikeout ratio. Matt Harvey is an intriguing option at $9,200, but this is his first time ever pitching at Coors Field in Colorado.) and Jackie Bradley Jr. ($4,100 vs. Houston) (A bargain price for the hottest hitter over the past two weeks. In this two week span, Bradley has 5 home runs, 21 RBIs, 1 stolen base, and batting .468. Bradley is $2,600 less than the highest salaried outfielder (Mike Trout at $6,700) tonight. Bradley is scheduled to face Houston starting pitcher, Lance McCullers of Houston, who is coming off the disabled list.) tonight. Note, however, that there is a significant chance of rain tonight in Boston, so make sure the game is going to be played before rostering Bradley.

Phil Hertz will go with Rich Hill ($6,700 @ Tampa Bay) and Kevin Plawecki ($2,200 @ Colorado) for cheap at Coors.

Law Michaels is looking at Gio Gonzalez ($7,100 vs. Miami) to tame the Marlins, and ideally bag some whiffs, while thinking at Coors, Yoenis Cespedes ($5,400 @ Colorado) drives the Mets and the ball into the Rockies.

Tim Heaney picks SS Jonathan Villar ($3,800 vs. SD) because hosting Christian Friedrich at Miller Park smells like a profitable day for one of fantasy’s most surprising hot starters, and SP Nathan Karns ($6,200 vs. LAA), because Safeco Field will help even more against one of the league’s coldest offenses.

Charlie Wiegert is paying the price and taking Chris Sale ($9,700 @ Yankees) against a beat up Yankee team that is struggling to score runs.  He should rack up 8-10 k’s, and be in line for a win. He’s also going to ride the hot hand of Daniel Murphy ($4,700 vs. Miami) against Tom Koehler, and stack a few players in the Mets @ Colorado game.

Ray Murphy takes Nathe Karns ($6,200 vs. LAA), who is taking a step up this year and draws the struggling Angels at Safeco, with a very reasonable price point, and notes that Jeremy Hellickson has had problems with the long ball and with LH hitters, so when he ventures into Cincy tonight I will very likely be using both Joey Votto ($6,300 vs. Philadelphia) and Jay Bruce ($4,900 vs. Philadelphia).

Gene McCaffrey goes with Steven Wright ($4,200 vs. Houston), assuming the weather holds up, you can’t beat the bang for the buck, and Michael Conforto ($4,900 @ Colorado) is too good to stay quiet in Coors Field.

Scott Swanay selects Chris Tillman ($6,000 vs. Detroit) tonight and hope that he continues his early-season success against a Tiger team that strikes out a lot and has been only middling in the power and on-base percentage departments so far this year. He’ll also pick against Minnesota’s Ricky Nolasco for the second Friday night in a row, this time hoping that Jason Kipnis ($5,100 vs. Minnesota) will be the beneficiary of Nolasco’s largesse.

Jeff Erickson has two wishes: Kevin Plawecki ($2,200 @ Colorado), please be in the lineup tonight! Cheap catcher, in Coors, homered earlier this week. Captain Obvious pick. And Rich Hill ($6,700 @ Tampa Bay), I’m a little worried about the platoon factor, but he has high strikeout upside against the team with highest strikeout percentage in baseball, at an affordable price.

Brian Walton finds it interesting that six of the top seven starters are on the road Friday. He’s going with the best of the best, Chris Sale ($9,700 @ Yankees) at Yankee Stadium. The Indians’ ace has a sub-2.00 ERA this season and a career 2.14 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 21 innings in the Big Apple. And when is Bryce Harper ($6700 vs. Miami) a bad pick? Well, he has been especially good against Marlins starter Tom Koehler. In fact, six of Harper’s nine hits (in 28 at-bats) against Koehler left the park. He drove in 11 while at it.

Eno Sarris points out that Christian Friedrich wasn’t particularly good in Triple-A for the Padres, so he’s stacking Brewers righties — Ryan Braun ($5,900 vs. San Diego) and Chris Carter ($4,900 vs. San Diego) — in particular. Home cooking bratwursts in Milwaukee. As for pitching, nobody can figure out when to swing at Rich Hill’s ($6,700 @ Tampa Bay) curveball, and as long as his arm stays on tonight, he should be fine in Tampa. And cheap!

Mike Gianella goes with Ryan Braun ($5,900 vs. San Diego). He says: I just can’t quit Braun, and the matchup at home against a marginal left-handed pitcher is way too much to pass up, even at this price. He also likes Edinson Volquez ($6,900 vs. Atlanta) and says, rather than go with a big time arm, I decided to go mid-level and play what I hope is a great matchup against Atlanta. Volquez has a 3.02 ERA at home dating back to 2015 (compared to a 4.20 ERA on the road). Volquez isn’t someone I’d normally play in DFS, but picking him allowed me to take advantage of some stronger hitters on a slate that looks very soft on the whole on the pitching side.

ferrari baseball capSteve Moyer says that recommending Chris Sale ($9,700 @ Yankees) tonight is like telling a friend to buy a Ferrari when he tells you he needs a car. Maybe it’s not all that much less obvious, but I’ll say Josh Tomlin ($5,900 vs. Minnesota) takes advantage of the hapless Twins. As for hitter, look for Xander Bogaerts ($5,100 vs. Houston) to give Lance McCullers a rude welcome back.

 

Tout FAAB Reports from May 9, 2016 Are Here!

Todd Zola and his merry men discuss and chart this week’s FAAB action in all five Tout leagues right here, at Mastersball.com.

Mike Gianella engages his audience at Baseball Prospectus with banter and insight into the moves in Tout AL and NL, with references to Tout Mixed prices in his LABR analysis.

 

 

Who Is Winning Tout Wars, May 7th Edition!

In Tout Wars AL, a familiar face has climbed atop the leaderboard: Larry Schechter! He’s four points ahead of Seth Trachtman.

In Tout Wars NL, Todd Zola is a few points ahead of Andy Behrens.

In TW Mixed Auction, Cory Schwartz has a six-point lead over Bret Sayre.

In TW Mixed Draft, Anthony Perri and Patrick Mayo are deadlocked, just a couple of points ahead of Tim McCullough.

In Tout H2H, Brent Hershey, Jeff Zimmerman and Peter Kreutzer are tied at 15-3, but in this week’s matches Hershey is up 6-0, Kreutzer is 2-4, and Zimmerman is 0-6. Fourth place Michael Beller is up 6-0 right now and would be 16 and 8 if he holds on. There are still two days worth of games to go, so all this could change.

Pianowski Edges Melnick in Tout Daily!

Scott-Pianowski-YahooLast week Lenny Melnick’s Tout Daily by RTSports.com victory was overshadowed by the awarding of three golden tickets.

This week, on Lenny’s birthday no less, Scott Pianowski snuck past Lenny late in the day, grabbing victory in Week 1 Period 2 of the Tout Daily contest.

That puts Pianowski atop a cluttered leaderboard of teams vying for tickets to the finals in Period 2. You can view the leaderboard here.

Screenshot 2016-05-07 09.59.22Scott rode big games from popular choice Madison Bumgarner and less popular choice Zack Greinke to victory.

On the hitting side his big bat was Matt Duffy, a rarely selected player last night who had a big game against Chad Bettis and the Rockies, and Alex Presley, whose rare homer was rostered by an astounding 43 percent of RTSports.com Daily teams last night.

Pianowski adopted the popular Cincinnati-Milwaukee stack last night and won, even though Tucker Barnhart, Chris Carter, Colin Walsh and Jonathan Villar barely registered.

Melnick led most of the night, at least until Bumgarner notched the W in San Francisco for Pianow, behind the best pitching performance of the night, by Danny Salazar. He was hurt by Noah Syndergaard, or rather by a Mets offense that could not turn Thor’s QS into a W.

Melnick scored in the Cincinnati-Milwaukee game with the expensive but productive Joey Votto, and got a nice game from the red hot Brandon Drury against the Braves. Happy birthday, Lenny!

Tout Daily by RTSports.com will continue with Week 2 of Period 2 next Friday. Join us here for coverage of the action, and play along with us at RTSports.com for fun or money.

Who Are They Picking? Tout Daily Hitter and Pitcher Picks for May 6th.

It is week 1 of period 2 of Tout Daily by RTSports.com, the expert daily fantasy contest. Brian Walton, Rob Leibowitz and Patrick Mayo won tickets to the finals in period 1. Now the scores reset in the next four-week contest, during which three more touts will win tickets.

Who are the Touts picking tonight? (You can follow tonight’s action, or make some of your own at RTSports.com.)

Ryan_BraunPhil Hertz likes Ryan Braun ($5,900 at Cincinnati) against Adelman in Great America Ballpark and Kenta Maeda ($7,300 at Toronto) on seven days rest, just like he was used to in Japan.

Lawr Michaels loves Thor Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego) in pitcher-friendly San Diego, while on-base guy Seth Smith ($4,000 at Houston), with a .400 OBP, faces Doug Fister in a matchup you have to like.

Jeff Erickson takes Drew Pomeranz ($5,600 vs. NY Mets) in a home start, which saves a lot of cash for an ace and big bats. On the hitting side Jeff is loading up on Reds and Brewers because both Cravy and Adelman are disasters in waiting, and the bullpens are worse. Taking Chris Carter ($5,100 at Cincinnati) over Joey Votto ($6,300) to save money.

Charlie Wiegert makes Rick Porcello ($6,700 at NY Yankees) his pitching pick. “Can the magic continue?  Against a Yankee team that is scuffling, I think so.  He has been striking out over one per inning and the Red Sox batters have been giving him the run support to get wins.” On the hitting side, he’s stacking Reds tonight against Milwaukee’s Tyler Cravy who is making a spot start in place of Peralta. And using Ryan Braun ($5,900 at Cincinnati)/Chris Carter ($5,100 at Cincinnati) against Reds Tim Adelman.  Hoping for a 13-12 game with the ball flying out of the Great American Ballpark multiple times!

Noah_Syndergaard_throws_live_BPon_-WSMediaDay_(22279313563)Jeff Boggis takes Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego). “I’m not messing around on starting pitching this week and spending top dollar on Syndergaard. Noah Syndergaard has gone deep in games this season, averaging better than 6 1/3 innings per start. He has a favorable matchup on the road in San Diego, but there is a 52% chance of rain tonight and it’s a late start. Keep an eye on the weather and change to another pitcher if the rain chances increase before the 7 PM ET games get underway. For hitter, Jeff likes Mark Trumbo ($4,800 vs Oakland). He is batting .324 on the season, but only .217 over the last week, explaining his depressed salary of only $4,800 on RT Sports today. I’ll take my chances and look for Trumbo to get rolling tonight at home as he faces Oakland’s Rich Hill.

Scott Swanay is on Zack Greinke ($9,300 at Atlanta), who may be leading the league in hits allowed, but he may also be able to cut his season-to-date ERA in half pitching against the Braves. And he thinks Adam Eaton ($4,800 vs Minnesota) showing signs of life in the past week, and facing Ricky Nolasco, who last showed signs of life in 2013.

Mike Gianella is big on Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego) this week. Thor struggled in his last outing against the Giants, but facing the Padres in San Diego is a recipe for success. The Padres have the third highest team strikeout percentage in baseball while Thor has the highest pitcher strikeout rate in the game. Even at $9,300, this screams bargain.His top hitter is Ryan Braun ($5,900 at Cincinnati). I’m all about the Reds stack against Brewers’ starter Tyler Cravy, but Braun gets a pretty tasty matchup of his own against Reds hurler Tim Adleman. Braun is the 10th best hitter in MLB by wOBA the last calendar year. I don’t know how long he’ll keep this up, but I’m all about riding the hot bat against Adleman.

Steve Moyer works for Inside Edge, and Inside Edge likes all three obvious starters tonight (but of course), but I’ll tab Noah Syndergaard ($9,300 at San Diego) just because he’s a tad cheaper than MadBum (hate those trendy nicknames of today) and perhaps a tad safer than Greinke. As for the hitter, he’s not exactly el cheapo, but he’s not quite high end either – Inside Edge says Brandon Crawford ($4,700 vs Colorado) is your shortstop tonight, facing Chad Bettis of the Rockies.