So for any of you esteemed loyalists to Razzball Nation who have not yet tried out DraftKings, the real question is why are you such a Schmohawk!? Well don’t worry, we can trim that Schmohawk right off with an awesome offer from our friends at DraftKings to get you winning right away. For any first time depositor to the industry leading daily fantasy site, if you deposit at least $25 you’ll receive an extra $10. Hurry though – the offer is only good until Friday at 5:00 PM EST – aka when Grey gets up in the “morning.” That mustache won’t comb itself! You’ve got to enter through our link here into another CAN YOU TAKE DOWN RUDY GAMBLE (and Nick) CONTEST, which returns to Friday (the 24th) this week. The contest is limited to 30 entries (up to 2 per person), with the winner receiving a ticket into another one of their huge six figures contests – the $100,000 Punch Out on June 14th. But as always, there isn’t just 1 winner. This week spots 2-5 will double up to $10 and 6-10 nab $5. And if you’re a first time depositor, you can get your two entries this week essentially for free!
The last huge DraftKings $100K Spring Fling challenge last Friday had six Razzballers enter and commenter Pacochu got 54th and notched $200 buck-a-roos! Not bad for a $5 entry, huh? Hey Pacochu, next time we get cervesas at the cantina the Dos Equis are on you! I don’t always drink beer with Razzballers, but when I do, I prefer Dos Equis. Now I’m starting to get hungry for some tacos.
Taking a stroll down memory lane to last week’s picks:
SP – Stephen Strasburg W 8.0 IP 3 H 3 BB 1 HBP 1 ER 4 Ks (23.8 Pts)
CI – James Loney 0-4 1 BB (2 Pts)
MI – Ben Zobrist 0-3 2 BB (4 Pts)
OF1 – Brett Gardner 1-5 2 SB (13 Pts)
OF2 – Starling Marte 2-5 1 2B 2 Rs (12 Pts)
UTIL – Alex Rios 1-5 1 HR 1 RBI 1 R (14 Pts)
TOTAL – 68.8 (Previous weeks’ finishes – 47.7, 67.3, 92.4, 75, 83, 96)
Still not into the higher totals I was hitting early on, but it’s nice to be scoring more than the past two weeks. Strasburg proved to be the pitcher you wanted of the aces pitching last Thursday, with Justin Verlander and Yu Darvish both struggling in the highly publicized pitcher’s duel in the desert. Stolen bases at 5 points a piece also proved to be critical, helping Brett Gardner score above average points.
Here’s my picks for Friday night’s action:
SP – Anibal Sanchez ($9,200) – Mmmmm, pitching against the Twins. At home. In very spacious Comerica Park. Love this matchup, and the strikeout potential is ripe for a high scoring affair. As I mentioned on the Podcast, a high strikeout outing like Alex Cobb a few weeks ago (the 4.2 inning 13 K game) gave him 25.7 points and Stephen Strasburg’s hand-down better real-life outing last week (as detailed above) scored only 23.8 points. So you want those Ks. Great value, great matchup, love the Sanchise (ugh probably jinxed him with that joke).
CI – Edwin Encarnacion ($4,600) – Mmmmmm, Encarnacion has been en fuego the past week. Since the Jays have tinkered their order with Melky hitting first and Bautista two, Encarnacion has thrived in the three hole. Hitting at home against Chris Tillman, I like the power potential. Sure he’s only 4-15 against Tillman with no extra base hits, but I think the trend bucks with the heating up Blue Jays lineup.
MI – Kelly Johnson ($4,100) – Mmmmm, a middle infielder with power and speed, and that homer he hit last night to dead center was tasty. KJ is 0-4 against opposing pitcher David Phelps but has taken two walks (walks do score you 2 points), and I think can do more damage on Friday night. All of Phelps’ numbers against lefties are inflated, so I see Johnson having success.
OF1 – Adam Dunn ($4,000) – Mmmmmm, I love my hitters to be 6-6, 280. A lot of fantasy owners have given up on Dunn, but he’s been on fire this past week and is hitting against some Marlins pitcher named Tom Koehler at home in batter’s dream house Cellular Field. Koehler’s given up homers in both of his starts this year, gimme Dunn to make it three in a row.
OF2 – Will Venable ($3,400) – Mmmmm, love me some dual threat ability against Brandon McCarthy in Arizona. A much nicer place to hit, I think Venable could easily power a homer or nab a base. Steals are worth 5 points, so a faster player with power at the low price looks magic to me.
UTIL – Nick Swisher – ($3,900) Mmmmm Fenway. Hitters’ haven. You wanna know what else is a hitters’ haven? Hitting against John Lackey. Yea Swisher is only 10-61 against Lackey (.164 AVG), but with that number of at bats on a strong offense right now in Cleveland, I love Swish’s value Friday night. Lackey is obviously not the pitcher he used to be in most of those at bats, so I think Swisher has a good shot at some multi base hits.
As usual, if you have any questions about anyone else, or for any other DraftKings contests, shoot them below, thanks for checking our friends out!
