Welcome back RotoBallers! The second half of the MLB season is well underway, and we're back at it this week with another juicy contest on OwnersBox!
This week's free RotoBaller contest has a $1,000 cash prize pool - it's completely free to enter with code MLB10! All new OwnersBox users also get a free year of RotoBaller Premium access - just email us and let us know one you're registered.
In case you're not yet familiar, OwnersBox, is a fantastic new weekly fantasy sports platform that offers plenty of game setups to fulfill your desire to draft throughout the season. Over at OwnersBox, you can participate in snake drafts - and for the first time ever you can also select tournament-style salary cap contests. The contests are at least one week long, and some even longer.
In this article, I will be providing you with my weekly fantasy baseball lineup picks on OwnersBox for this freeroll contest which runs for one week (Friday July 30th through Thursday August 6th). Read my picks below, and then join us in this tournament as we battle it out for the cash prizes!
RotoBaller Freeroll Contest!
OwnersBox is hooking up RotoBaller readers to celebrate the launch of their new salary-cap style contests, so be sure to take advantage of these promo offers!
- Join this week's freeroll on OwnersBox - the contest is completely free to enter with code MLB10, and there's a $1,000 cash guaranteed prize pool
- The winner also gets a free year of RotoBaller's Premium Pass ($350 value)
- All new users who make a deposit get up to a $500 deposit match bonus and a free RotoBaller premium pass. Whoa!
You can enter up until Friday, July 30th at 7 pm ET, and the week-long contest runs from July 30th through August 6th.
OwnersBox Pitcher Picks
On OwnersBox, you select two Pitchers, and need three games from these two pitchers. Any game you go over after the third, best ball mode is activated - meaning the lowest score is dropped. So a good approach is obviously looking for affordable two-start pitchers for the week with at least three solid matchups in mind.
Patrick Sandoval, LAA ($24,000) - v OAK, at TEX
It's not often you can walk away with two pitchers you feel good about and spend less than $50,000. But it's happening this week! Sandoval is fresh off the heals of 13 strikeout ONE hitter and is rocking a 2.75 FIP and 32.7 K% in the month of July. Over the last month, Oakland and Texas rank 28th and 30th respectively in wRC+ against southpaws, and 29th and 30th in BA. You have a hot pitcher with two great matchups. Easy click.
Jameson Taillon, NYY ($24,000) - at MIA, v BAL
The matchups arent quite as juicy for Taillon, but they are still good enough for the price and he is just as hot as Sandoval, boasting a 1.42 ERA in July. Over the last month versus RHP Miami and Baltimore own a 25 and 25.3 K% respectively. Taillon scored 63 FP on OwnersBox against the Red Sox lineup in his last outing and I expect that momentum to continue this week.
OwnersBox Infielder Picks
The Infield is my favorite position on Ownersbox. You only need 28 games from the five players. Simple math tells you if you average six games per infielder, you are already at the two lowest scores dropped from the lot. That way you can utilize five-game studs as long as you pair them eventually with a seven-game player also to maintain that 30 total games. The Outfield is much more difficult to take advantage this way, so don't waste the opportunity with your infielders!
Anthony Rizzo, CHC ($19,800) - 6 Games
Rizzo has homered in three straight games and gets to end this week with three games at Coors. Prior to the trip to Denver he travels to Washington, where he has hit seven bombs with a .315 BA across 28 career games, to face easily the worst bullpen in the league over the last two weeks (and maybe not Max Scherzer).
Jeff McNeil, NYM ($17,500) - 7 Games
The Mets offense is finally healthy and heating up. The prices have not caught up and they have a full seven game slate this week versus the Reds and Marlins who possess the third and fourth highest xFIPs versus left-handed batters over the last two weeks. McNeil is hitting .348 through 20 games in July with a 156 wRC+.
OwnersBox Outfielder Picks
As I mentioned previously, filling the three Outfield slots is more difficult than the five Infielders on OwnersBox. You need 17 games from the three hitters, so that means you mostly want to stay away from five-game hitters. I try to get at least one seven-gamer if possible and aim for at least 19 total games for two lowest score drops.
Andrew McCutchen, PHI ($22,400) - 7 Games
Cutch is red hot right now, leaving the yard in two consecutive games - which now gives him 18 since the start of May. He starts this seven-game week off with a return to Pittsburgh where he played for nine seasons, and where there is just a mess of a pitching staff right now. After the Pirates nostalgia trip, he then travels to DC to face off with the Nats and that terrible bullpen again.
Harrison Bader, STL ($16,800) - 6 Games
We need to save some dough in the Outfield, and Bader is a great way to do so. Bader has been on fire since being called up and is boasting a .384 BA, 1.122 OPS, .301 ISO, and a 202 wRC+ through 20 games. He has also added three steals to boot. Nothing about the Twins or Braves pitching staffs make me think he is going to cool off quite yet.