Razzball Nation! As promised, we have a huge DraftKings contest this week – by far our biggest prize pool – with DraftKings throwing us a RAZZBALL END OF YEAR SHOWDOWN which you can only get into through this link. I won’t beat around the bush – it’s $10 per entry this week – 50 total spots open with up to 2 per user – with a pay structure of #1 nabbing $300, 2nd place $100, 3rd $50, 4th $30 and 5-6 will break even with $10. With that money you can pop a lotta tags! Using my abacus, you can count up the prize pool makes no money for DraftKings, just one huge bash for Razzball Nation to duke it out one final time for a huge cash prize. A lot of the Razzball family will be in there, so you’ll have to bring your A game to beat us (and well, your D game to beat Rudy).
Taking one final look at last week’s picks:
SP – Julio Teheran W 6.1 IP 4 H 3 BB 1 ER 8 Ks (28.05 Pts)
CI – Paul Goldschmidt 1-3 BB (5 Pts)
MI – Daniel Murphy 2-4 2B 2 R (12 Pts)
OF1 – Alex Rios 1-3 BB (5 Pts)
OF2 – Adam Jones 1-4 2B R (7 Pts)
UTIL – Martin Prado 1-4 (3 Pts)
TOTAL – 60.05 (Previous three weeks: 91.3, 41.95, 77.95)
A fairly solid week with the nice game from Teheran leading my scoring. I finished decently in last Friday’s daily dollar but out of the money, and will need to step up my game to bring in that top prize in Friday’s huge sendoff. Here’s who I like gunning for that grand prize:
SP – Matt Garza ($8,900) – As I mentioned on this week’s podcast, there are tons of great pitching options out there this week, but my #1 guy is Garza who had 8 or more Ks in 4 of the last 5 and in his last 3 games. Besides Mike Trout, that Angels line-up is brutal and it’s in the much more spacious Angel Stadium.
CI – Miguel Cabrera ($7,200) – Whew-ee, that price is a tough pill to swallow, but I’m willing to make my line-up work with some scrubs to get Miggy in there. He absolutely crushes James Shields hitting .421 in 38 ABs. You’ll have budget around him, but he’s worth the big investment.
MI – Emilio Bonifacio ($3,500) – The pride of the late season SAGNOF, Bonifacio has been running wild since joining the Royals and has another great shot to bring the speed on Friday. With steals worth 5 Pts a pop they are nothing to sneeze at, and against Anibal Sanchez who has given up 19 steals to only 1 caught, I think Bonifacio goes nuts on the basepaths.
OF1 – Yoenis Cespedes ($3,900) – It’s been a very up-and-down season for the Cuban sensation before Yasiel Puig, but he’s got multi-hits in the last three games, and is 3-4 against Dallas Keuchel with a steal. Got that speed potential, the obvious power upside, all for a low price.
OF2 – Hunter Pence (TBA) – With the Giants playing at 6:40 PM today Pence isn’t in the DraftKings system for today’s games – so this pick will be contingent on his price – but Pence has been one of the most underrated hitters this year. Patrick Corbin has been struggling mightily lately, and this will be his second straight start against San Francisco. Pence is 6-16 (.375) with a double, triple and two homers against him and off a 3-4 game with one of those homers in that previous Corbin start last Sunday.
UTIL – J.B. Shuck ($3,100) – I know what you’re thinking… “JB only picked him because he’s a J.B.!” And you’re right! I haven’t picked Shuck all year, but he’s been consistently leading off and comes at a nice low pricetag to absorb that Miggy weight. And it’s a ton of weight. He’s 2-7 against Garza, who I know is my pitcher this week, but Shuck has never struck out against him, and since Garza is going to strike everyone else out, I like Shuck at the price. Plus one of those hits was a homer. Remember, picking guys who lead off at a cheap price is a nice way to go since they could get an extra at-bat and batting average doesn’t matter. Go team JB!
And there you have it! Shoot your DraftKings questions below or tweet me @jbgilpin. Along with this huge DraftKings Baseball send-off, DraftKings for Football coming this season (!) with my picks for daily fantasy football glory. DraftKings is throwing a huge Week 1 Kickoff Bash, which includes the massive NFL Kickoff Million contest with $1,000,000 paid out and a $150,000 top winner! It’s the biggest week 1 event in fantasy football so get geared up for daily fantasy football contests to keep your daily league fix going year round!
