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It was only about two weeks ago that the Mets sent Steven Matz to have his elbow examined. Fantasy owners were nervous and tried and true Mets fans were ready to call it a lost season. Overreaction at its finest, but it makes total sense; no one wants to see a promising pitcher go down with a serious injury, especially one that's already undergone Tommy John surgery. Well, have no fear. Matz came back in his next start and fired off seven innings while giving up just two runs. His start against Washington last week was even better as he pitched eight scoreless innings while striking out seven. So, Matz is totally fine, but here comes the best news yet: he gets a floundering White Sox team in friendly Citi Field. Chicago is just 2-8 over their last 10 games and looks like total crap which is sweet, serenading music to your ears. Matz is my top pitching option on Tuesday night. New to DraftKings? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run Monday June 6th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.

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See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Sat 5/10
ARI | ATH | ATL | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CIN | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | OAK
The Three Stooges are awesome. Unquestionably one of the greatest comedic acts of all time. If you've seen the Sean Hayes/Will Sasso Stooges film from a few years ago, well, I'm sorry about that. Hollywood has a special knack for ruining things these days, doesn't it? Go check out Disorder in the Court, A Plumbing We Will Go, Brideless Groom, or any of the many other classic short films from this talented trio to get that sour taste out of your mouth. One of their early shorts, Whoops, I'm an Indian!, tends to get lost in the shuffle. The Stooges are caught cheating while gambling and are forced to run from the angry victims. Curly ends up marrying one of the pursuers when dressed as an Indian squaw (because his disguise is sooo convincing) and all is well until his wig slips off and the jig is up. It's probably not their best work, but it never seems to be mentioned much anymore. A bit of an underrated gem, in my opinion. This week's top add, Cleveland Indians third baseman/outfielder Jose Ramirez (51.4% owned; +25.8% over the past week), is another diamond in the rough much like that Stooges short. He's gotten off to an impressive start this season (.305/.381/.447 with 22 runs, 3 homers, 19 RBI, and 4 steals in 161 plate appearances) thanks in large part to his incredible plate discipline. Ramirez has been excellent at pitch recognition (22.2% O-Swing% is 26th lowest among qualified players), and when he does swing at pitches outside of the strike zone, he makes contact at an elite rate (86.1% O-Contact% leads MLB). This has allowed him to strikeout at the third lowest rate (9.3%) among 181 qualifiers, and be one of only eight players with more walks than strikeouts (Zobrist, Span, Harper, Rizzo, Santana, Altuve, and Bautista are the others). Ramirez possesses 25 steal speed (though 15-18 is more realistic), and appears to have a shot to crack double digits in homers this season as well. He's been moved up to the 5th spot in the lineup recently, and should qualify at 2B and SS in addition to the 3B/OF eligibility that was mentioned earlier. Terrific plate discipline, plus speed, developing power (23 years old), and eligible just about everywhere. Giddy up. Grab him if he's still lingering on the wire. Here are a couple of other interesting adds in fantasy baseball over the past week:
Two months have now passed and we’re through the 8th week of the fantasy season.  The calendar turning to June also brings the anticipated promotions of several youngsters as the Super Two cutoff tends to be right around this time of year.  Trea Turner is my favorite stash at the moment, but their are several others to ponder over and pin our fantasy hope and dreams to.  Jonathan Villar is doing his best to fend off Orlando Arcia in Milwaukee.  Maybe you’re in need of some power and happen to be short a corner man at the moment.  You might take a look at stashing AJ Reed.  There is plenty of pitching to be stashed as well Lucas Giolito and Jameson Taillon are the most likely two power arms to make an impact in the immediate future.  I had high hopes for Julio Urias coming in and being an impact bullpen arm, which for RCL purposes I preferred more than him being a starter.  Instead I got one start, a shellacking and a return trip to AAA.  Fun times.  These guys all carry risk and balancing that while weighing the impact of losing a roster spot for an unknown amount of time is tricky business in the RCLs.  Those three bench spots in our leagues are very valuable commodities.  They can be used for rostering extra RPs to tack on extra Ks and ratio help, or they can be used to platoon a SAGNOF base stealer such as, Rajai Davis with a power bat such as Trayce Thompson.  Decisions, decisions, and the answers can be different for every team.  I don’t have the answers, but I do have some numbers.  Come on down and take a look at the week that was, week 8:
And when I say special, I mean special. That is, if special meant filling-in for J.B. and then talking about how Grey knows Buzzy (vicariously I think?) from Jeopardy. Be thankful you guys have Gilpin to do this, otherwise it'd just be a 25-part series of Grey's anecdotes with a live laugh-track called Jay (that's me!). But we do get around to talking about fantasy baseball... Yu Darvish's debut was talked about in there somewhere, along with some meta-trade thoughts now that we're reaching midseason. Jacob deGrom, Carlos Gomez, and CC Sabathia are touched on for a bit, along with some added tidbits about how Carlso Carrasco is a huge buy-now guy. You'd have to figure fantasy teams also have some primo sales going on during this holiday period, so maybe send a message over to your fantasy adversary and see what happens? The question mark is there because I wanted the statement to not be taken as an order, but more a suggestion. Just like how you should listen to this pod...? At the end of the show, we talk about the last episode of Game of Thrones (there is a spoiler alert during the show for all of you who haven't seen it yet) for a bit and then we've made sure to include the best ending of a podcast that the world has ever seen. RESPEK.
You flip through your cassette singles.  You pop in James Ingram's Just Once cassette single, but decide that's better to play right after taking the love of your life for an abortion.  You then pop in the In Your Eyes cassette single, but it feels too Say Anything.  You then pop in the Always & Forever single you played on the way to prom, and it...feels right.  You take your boombox and place it on your shoulder, Luther Vandross plays obnoxiously loud if Vandross could ever be obnoxious, but you decide he can't be.  The song gets to the end and you flip it over to play the Always & Forever house remix.  Yet, this whole time, Matt Harvey's Buy Low Window stays shut.  You wonder why it won't open again, and sigh.  It's now shut because yesterday Matt Harvey went 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA down to 5.37.  Looks like the slider returned with his velocity.  Last week I said I didn't think his problems were unfixable, yesterday he showed they weren't.  Anyway, here's what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
iCGu6yR Power. It's why we're all here, right? As Kanye so eloquently penned:
I'm living' in that 21st century
Doing something mean to it
Do it better than anybody you ever seen do it
Screams from the haters, got a nice ring to it
I guess every superhero need his theme music
No one man should have all that power
The clock's ticking', I just count the hours
Stop tripping', I'm tripping' off the power
See, it's power that rules supreme in fantasy baseball. Whether it's a pitcher's flaming fastball for strikeouts or a hitter dropping mammos into the light tower, power brings strength in numbers. Power is like the tide of fantasy baseball: when the tide rises, everything else rises; when the tide falls, everything else falls. So, if you want to accumulate the most stats possible, target power. And, for hitters, the best way to muster up power? The  pull. While it comes with pros and cons, pulling the baseball provides more power as the batter generates more torque from the turn in his hips. Chubbs was right, it really is all in the hips. As the body turns and the hitter gets out in front of the ball for contact, the shoulders, the hips and the wrists are all engaged to bring the bat through the swing creating the greatest exit velocity of the baseball. Now, before all the baseball purists yell at me, this is not to say that the best hitters in the game are those that only pull the ball. The truth would actually be the opposite, as hitters must be able to take what's given to them and hit to all fields. But...this isn't real life. We're talking fantasy. And in fantasy, gimme those pulled home runs all. day. long, because sometimes a hitter unlocks his development and success when he pulls the ball more. Case in point? The creeper for week 9... Adam Duvall, OF (16.9%) – I mentioned Duvall twice last week as he almost topped Trayce Thompson for the highlighted hitter, but he's jumped him this week all the way into the Top 100 rankings, which is rare for players owned in less than 20% of leagues. But that's where you can find Duvall, available in 80%+ of ESPN leagues. Duvall's taken over everyday duty in the Reds outfield and is producing like a fantasy darling since he took the job. The reason for his recent success (4 HR last 6 games) he highlighted himself in a recent interview with Zach Buchanan, "'It’s probably because I’m getting the head [of the bat] out,' Duvall said. 'Your bat speed maxes out from the plate to a little bit past it. Anytime you can catch the ball out there, you’ve got a chance to do some damage.'" And that's just what he's doing: serious damage. Now, be careful with Duvall, as his sub-.300 OBP and 30%+ K% scream cold spells are coming, but he's pulling the ball so well that he's raising his average, blasting the ball out of the park and racking up the counting stats. Oh, and that power? Duvall has a .313 ISO. As Kanye said, 'no one man should have all that power.' But he does. Enough creepin’…Here are your Top 100 Hitters for Week 9!
The reflexive of what I have been covering in the last few posts has been looking at trends with pitchers and the stealers themselves.  In a steal equation, the catcher plays a part in this.  If he wasn't involved, it would look like the scene from Naked Gun where Leslie Nielson is throwing the balls back.  We wouldn't like that from a whole Enrico Pollazo type way, not one bit.  So for now, let's stop googling that video and focus on the backstops, the teams running most against and their success (or lack there of).  Yes, there are other factors into being caught stealing, a bad jump, shoes being untied, or maybe even a cramp.  So before all the stat gurus get all huffy and puffy and get their mom's basements in a tizzy, let's just say that catchers and their caught stealing prowess are on the even keel that they are what their numbers say they are.  As I discussed last week, stolen bases are down across the board this year and a downward trend has been materializing for years... this has direct affect on the numbers for caught stealing, and attempts.  Without one you can't have the other.  So here is some interesting stat dirt that I have dug up with teams to run against and the possible streaming value added by playing guys against those teams.
We're about 50 games into the season now meaning things are starting to take shape.  I'm a firm believer that we should #killthewin but I can't help but be impressed that Chris SaleJake Arrieta and Stephen Strasburg all have 9 wins already.  Arguably more impressive, Arrieta, Strasburg and Josh Tomlin all haven't lost yet.  Tomlin is 7-0 with a WHIP under 1.  The K's aren't great but there's a ton of value with how he's pitching right now.  His ERA is sitting at 3.35 but it's not a fluke.  Here's what was posted throughout Week 8:
Regulators Mount Up! Or if you're recovering from last two nights like I am, grab a Gatorade, a couple Tylenol, finish watching the second season of Bloodline and post all the spoilers so Grey flips out. If you're not hurting like me, then hopefully most of you are enjoying a day off and if you're not, I'll be sure to poor a little out for my DK homies that are out there grinding. First and foremost, I'd like to thank all of our current and former Military for their service. Without your selfless sacrifices we wouldn't be able to enjoy trivial things like copious amounts of alcohol, BBQ's and fantasy baseball, so again a HUGE THANK YOU! Now onto the trivial stuff. There's some nice early action this morning with Jeff Samardzija, aka Puke Soup and Jose Quintana, but since you partied like a rock star and woke up late, let's concentrate on the games that are still open. Nate Dogg aka Nathan Karns is priced at a very reasonable $9,500 today, with a home start against San Diego. Currently Karns is averaging 17 points a start, granted he had a semi-clunker, 5 Ing, 3 K's and 3 ER last time out against Oak, but he's averaging a strikeout and inning. Not too shabby for an under the radar guy. Hopefully he gets a call from Velasquez and Cueto after the game so they can compare notes and laugh about the double digit K's they all racked up against an underwhelming Padres lineup. Tanner Roark, $9,600 can be rostered with Karns and still leave you with plenty of dough for offense. I don't know what Dusty's been feeding Roark, but whatever he's doing the shizz is working cause dude is is striking people out. His K rates were mediocre/not too good previous to this year, but in 2016 he's averaging over 8 K's a game and he's lowered his K/BB over a full point from 2014. I thought his 15 K's vs Min was a fluke, but surprisingly he's still knocking them down. New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run today to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.
On Saturday, our prayers were answered.  No, not the prayer about winning Powerball.  Or the prayer about sweatpants becoming the new formalwear.  Or the prayer about muttonchops being some magical aphrodisiac.  Or the prayer about your mom forgetting that time you accidentally sexted her.  Or that prayer about being as successful in real life as you are in fantasy.  No, not those.  The prayer about Yu Darvish returning and looking as dominant as ever.  On Saturday, he threw the fastest pitch of his major league career, throwing three pitches for more than 98 MPH.  The line of 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 baserunners, 7 Ks was solid, but I imagine this will be the start of him reaffirming his place in the top 10 starter conversation.  Kevin from ESPN's "Get Him In Your Lineup" Department sang, "Yu, Yu got what I need...Yu say he just spends Yen...Yu say he just spends Yen...But baby Yuuuuuu,Yu got what I need!"  Anyway, here's what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:
Okay, if I'm being honest, what I've attempted to do in this post is completely experimental. While based on statistics it's really just a wild attempt to calculate which closers are bringing home the bacon. And by bacon, I mean points. And by points, I mean points. How many points is each closer going to get me (on average) in a given week. In other words, don't try this at home. I'm not even doing this at home.
Hello everyone, and welcome to Sunday! Well, for the first time this year that I've covered Sundays, today we have a (somewhat) small 9-game Main Slate on our hands, but with the lack on 12+ games comes with so many options to select and draft our teams from. Maybe even too much offense today. There are so many bad pitchers, and so many great plays, it really sucked that I had to choose which made the cut into this article, especially because there are multiple good plays, yet they're at similar price points, so I had to choose the better play, unless there was a difference in format to play them, like a distinct GPP play to a distinct cash-game play. Specifically, I found a lot of great offense from the Red Sox, Orioles, Yankees, and Brewers, all who are in circumstances where Vegas has them in great high-scoring games, most notably coming from the Orioles-Indians game, where Vegas has them currently sitting at a 9 O/U. I'm excited to get into it today, and with some great offense coming all throughout yesterday, let's see if he can get some of that success today. Let's go! New to DraftKings? Scared of feeling like a small fish in a big pond? Well reserve your spot in the 25 Team Razzball Exclusive League set to run Monday May 30th to wet your DK whistle. Just remember to sign up through us before you do. It’s how we know you care! If you still feel helpless and lonely, be sure to subscribe to the DFSBot for your daily baseball plays.