Why am I playing a Monday slate? Blame Jeff Erickson who somehow convinced me to set a lineup on the SXM show, and then of course I had to play it just in case it was The One.
Actually, he didn't so much convince me as bring up the topic, and once I suggested Jon Gray for $4600, I had to see whether I could still spend my entire budget, given the short, seven-game Monday slate (I spent all but $200.) What's worse, because I never intended to play and merely clicked on *any* tournament in the lobby to access today's prices, I wound up in a $25 contest instead of a $5 one, realized it only after I had submitted the lineup, and superstition kept me from copying it to a $5 one and deleting it. But now I had committed to burning $25 on a rookie pitcher with no major-league track record, and I couldn't leave it at that. So I added three more $5 Rally lineups with Chris Sale, to give myself a more realistic shot. And then I saw some attractive stacks I hadn't used and set four more. All told, I set eight lineups, seven $5 Rallys and one $25 Grand Slam:
| Pos | $25 GS | $ | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | Gray | 4600 | Sale | 11100 | Sale | 11100 | Sale | 11100 |
| C | Castillo | 3500 | Wieters | 2600 | Martinez | 2900 | Montero | 2300 |
| 1B | Goldschmidt | 3700 | Zimmerman | 2700 | Zimmerman | 2700 | Zimmerman | 2700 |
| 2B | Zobrist | 3700 | Rendon | 2900 | Rendon | 2900 | Schoop | 2600 |
| 3B | Machado | 4200 | Machado | 4200 | Arenado | 4200 | Arenado | 4200 |
| SS | Desmond | 3300 | Desmond | 3300 | Rollins | 2900 | Reyes | 2900 |
| OF | Cruz | 5000 | Jones | 3000 | Van Slyke | 2800 | Parker | 2200 |
| OF | Pollock | 3800 | Werth | 2200 | Werth | 2200 | Gonzalez | 4000 |
| OF | Jones | 3000 | Puig | 2800 | Puig | 2800 | Kemp | 2900 |
| Total | 34800 | Total | 34800 | Total | 34500 | Total | 34900 | |
| Pos | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ |
| Pos | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ | $5 Rally | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | Sale | 11100 | Sale | 11100 | Sale | 11100 | Cueto | 10400 |
| C | Montero | 2300 | Perez | 2600 | Norris | 2400 | Montero | 2300 |
| 1B | Goldschmidt | 3700 | Zimmerman | 2700 | Goldschmidt | 3700 | Abreu | 4500 |
| 2B | Gyorko | 2400 | Zobrist | 3700 | Utley | 2300 | Gyorko | 2400 |
| 3B | Murphy | 3100 | Murphy | 3100 | Franco | 3600 | Arenado | 4200 |
| SS | Suarez | 2500 | Escobar | 2300 | Rollins | 2900 | Ramirez | 3000 |
| OF | Granderson | 4000 | Cain | 3700 | Upton | 3100 | Upton | 3100 |
| OF | Johnson | 2900 | Puig | 2800 | Kemp | 2900 | Kemp | 2900 |
| OF | Kemp | 2900 | Kemp | 2900 | Brown | 3000 | Werth | 2200 |
| Total | 34900 | Total | 34900 | Total | 35000 | Total | 35000 |
I used Sale in six of the eight lineups, and Johnny Cueto and Gray in the other two. My most heavily used hitters are: Matt Kemp (5), Ryan Zimmerman (4), Jesus Montero (3), Nolan Arenado (3), Yasiel Puig (3) and Jayson Werth (3).