Hello Everyone! I go by “Thunder Dan” around here and you can find me @ThunderDanDFS on twitter. I’m a history teacher by day, and DFS analyst and consultant by night.
In case you missed it, we had a hugely successful weekend at DFS Army with members taking down tournaments in several different sports and winning LIFE-CHANGING MONEY. Check it out!
Baseball, Basketball, Golf, NASCAR…you name it. Yes, that’s 75 THOUSAND DOLLARS. My favorite story, however, was talking to a player who won 100 dollars in small DK GPP within a few days of joing up. He said “DFS ARMY has the tools I’ve been missing to put it all together.” Whether you are a small time player or a big spender, the point is that we can help you win. We have the tools to help take players of all types to the next level.
It Takes A Village
There’s a saying we use a lot in education, “it takes a village to raise a child.” And while none of you are children (at least you better not be playing DFS illegally) I think that principle applies to DFS players. No player knows everything there is it to know about any one particular DFS sport or strategy. The best part of being a member of DFS Army is the fact you are part of a community. When a member wins, we are all excited and no one particular staff member can take all the credit because that winning player likely read multiple premium articles, listened to a podcast, checked in with our weather expert, used the research tools and chatted with our coaches in the slack. Simply said, if you aren’t part of a DFS community you are fighting an uphill battle against players who have an edge on you in nearly every way.
What kind of premium content do we offer daily?
Painting the Black – expert pitching analysis that goes well beyond the box score.
Walsh’s Wingmen – daily position by position breakdown
Top Stacks – the best teams to stack nightly, including super sneaky stacks at low ownership
The Donut Shop – mass multi entry strategy, including a new method that has already resulted in big wins!
Tonight’s Pitching Breakdown
Well, the first thing I’ll mention is that tonight is not a great night for pitching. It’s also only a seven game slate so our options are a little limited.
If you’re playing cash games, it’s simple. Play Stephen Strasburg (10000 FD, 13600 DK). He leads the field in pretty much every statistical category today and has an elite match up against San Diego. His DFS Army score in our Research Station is 94 and the next closest player is only at 54. The separation between him and the rest of the field is ridiculous. He is a sizable road favorite and should be massive chalk today, like 75% or more in cash. I’m fine with eating the chalk in cash and I would highly recommend doing so. We saw the same situation play out with Max Scherzer yesterday when some players got off Mad Max with some weather concerns and you absolutely needed him to cash. But for tournaments, it’s the perfect night to swerve off Strasburg and hope he is simply effective and not lights out.
The Pivots
I think many might look to Dallas Keuchal against Oakland or Jeff Samardja against Philadelphia but I’m not high on either of those plays. Keuchal’s numbers are down across the board this year and Samardja has yet to show us anything since making his debut a few weeks ago. I’m only looking at four other pitchers tonight as viable options for tournaments or to use as your SP2 on Draftkings.
Jarlin Garcia (7100 FD, 5900 DK) vs. Kyle Hendricks (7900 FD, 9600 DK)
Hendricks is a massive -240 favorite here and while he is usually a steady dependable pitcher, he lacks k-upside. If you’re rostering Hendricks it’s probably on FD since his DK price is 1700 more tonight and you’re hoping for 6-7 innings with a QS and a win. There is nothing sexy about this play, but I get it, we love to pick on the Marlins who lack power in their lineup. But they do make plenty of contact and Hendricks pitches to contact, so I wouldn’t call Hendricks totally safe.
Garcia really interests me because he is not only cheaper, but no one will play him. He is on the road and a massive underdog facing the feared Cubs hitters. However, this kid has been really good this season. He has yet to allow more than 2 earned runs in any of his 6 starts this season. He only has one win this year largely due to the lack of offense behind him. He won’t rack up a ton of strikeouts but he could subdue a weary Cubs team (they played extra innings into the AM hours last night) and put up a nice score while other higher owned options fail.
Michael Fulmer (8300 FD, 8000 DK) at Texas
I’ll be honest the thought of rostering Fulmer tonight gives me the same kind of feeling in my stomach that I get after eating my third Taco Bell taco. However, as we already discussed it’s an ugly night for pitchers. We have to consider some average pitchers tonight who are in good spots. Fulmer is not a great pitcher, but has only had one blowup start this season out of six starts. In the other five starts he’s managed to put up 31 Fanduel points in each. We know the Texas team is a team that can strikeout with the best of them (I’m looking at you, Joey Gallo), and so while Fulmer isn’t exactly a strikeout pitcher, he certainly could rack some up tonight. It’s not a safe spot, Texas has power and has been hitting much better over the few weeks, but Fulmer is mainly a ground ball guy so perhaps he can keep in on the ground tonight and out the right field bleachers.
Tyson Ross (7700 FD, 8700 DK) vs. Washington
If you’re looking to go really contrarian, why not play the starter who is opposing Strasburg tonight? Hear me out on this one, Tyson Ross has been surprisingly good this season, especially against right handed hitters. Before he got hurt, he was a promising young talent and he has appeared to regain some of that form here early this season. He gets the benefit of pitching at home in pitcher-friendly Petco Park, and if he can navigate the red hot left-handed bats of Bryce Harper (hint, just walk him already…) and Matt Adams (throw him offspeed pitches away) I think he could put up a nice score for you tonight.
Good luck tonight in your contests and if you like what you read here today, give me a shout out on twitter! Retweet, share with friends on Facebook, and spread the word, thanks!
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