The Stormy team got their first win! Well, not completely. The Wave team did outscored Stormy 71.85 to 61.8, but the Stormy lineup held a 62 to 56 edge, its first of the week. Of course, they still have a 59-point gap to close between the lineups and 107 in the overall.

For those curious what on earth I'm talking about, you can click here for a rundown of my batter picking strategy for the week.

Tonight's short slate really tightens things up and it will be tough for the Stormy team to come through. First off, the pitching is so low that the benefit of picking these guys in the midst of a poor run is neutralized because the saved money couldn't be funneled back into some strong pitching. The top arm, Garrett Richards, is just $8,900. It's so bad that I couldn't even find a struggling 2B with a track record so I just took the best available guy who is struggling of late in the form of Addison Russell.

As you can see with the pitching available tonight being so low price-wise, I left a whopping $4,100 on the table. That's kind of insane. But that's what a short slate with a strategy like this gives us. The Wave team didn't take the same kind of hit obviously because using the hottest players will get your money spent quickly. First off, it's usually star players who are performing at this level so they already cost a lot but when you add in a hot streak, they shoot through the roof. All that said, I was still able to easily afford the most talented arm on the board in Richards.

I said most talented for a reason because he certainly hasn't been the best pitcher going lately. He's sporting a 7.91 ERA in his last four starts and even if you give him a pass for the Yankee Stadium nightmare (0.7 IP/6 ER), it's still only a 5.30 ERA. There really aren't a lot of great reasons to go with him beyond the fact that he is the most talented. Tampa Bay is mediocre against righties and it's not a bad park for pitching, but that's really it.

Lucroy batting leadoff for $3,500 is prime. Pujols is out of his mind right now so $4,800 almost feels like a bargain. With this strategy of picking players, I don't focus in on platoon splits and things like that so I wasn't thrilled for lefty Panik v. lefty Niese, but Panik is raking southpaws in his 54 PA so far (.923 OPS). The Harper-Stanton will likely be popular given the pitching situation, but it's still fun to have. Rusin is doing some things this year that make me think a trip to Miami could go pretty well for him.