Weekly Content Schedule

Re-Watchables

In case you missed it, here are the YouTube links to re-watch any of our shows or if you need to listen for the first time:

Sunday

Hold The Green: Mexico Open Preview

Monday

Inside Golf Podcast: Live DFS Show

Inside Golf Podcast: Monday Pod with guest Dieter Esch 

Tap In Birdie: Mexico Open with Jay Kinney

Tuesday

Hold The Green: Mexico Best Bets

Wednesday

Inside Golf Podcast: Insiders Only Premium DFS Show

Statistical Spotlight: Best Players from 200+ Yards

As we have covered all week, Vidanta World requires players to be long off-the-tee and elite with your long irons.

On average, players will be asked to hit iron shots from 175-200 yards roughly 20.2% and 200+ yards roughly 41.3% of the time.

Tour average from 175-200 yards is 17.5% and 200+ yards 25.0% of the time.

As you can see, the 200+ yard proximity bucket is a very important metric to look at this week when constructing your player pool and bets.

Over the last 75 rounds, here are the top 12 players in the field from 200+ yard approach shots:

Player Profile: Alex Smalley

Listen, I understand. Did I expect Alex Smalley to number one in EVERYONE’s model this week? I did not. Yet this is just a sign that we are moving in the right direction with data. I cannot speak for others, but here is my best articulation of why Alex Smalley makes tremendous sense for me statistically. Smalley is a great overall driver of the ball, ranking top-10 in recent off the tee play, and while he is not one of the longest players in the field, he certainly boasts above-average distance. The approach play is also encouraging, as Smalley ranks top-30 in both overall recent approach and play and long-term long iron approach play. The short game and putting are certainly relative weakness compared to his ball-striking, but even the recent putting from five to 15 feet is encouraging.

Yet most importantly, Smalley is a resort course/Paspalum merchant, ranking second in strokes gained total on Paspalum and first in strokes gained total on Resort courses. There are many reasons for this, but at the top of mind is his aggressive style of course management, as the former Duke grad ranks ninth in this field in going for the green birdie or better percentage. This birdie-making upside will always be conducive to wide-open, driver-heavy golf courses, and his results at Vidanta Vallarta (6th-MC-MC) and the comp courses (five top-25 finishes and a runner-up in six appearances at Corales Punta Cana, El Cardonal, and TPC Craig Ranch) speak for themselves. He may miss the cut by a billion, but I’m fairly comfortable with the case of why this specific golf course is a bulletproof fit.

One and Done: Nicolai Hojgaard

Nicolai Hojgaard made a name for himself in 2023, which led to a captain’s pick on the European Ryder Cup team from Luke Donald. Last year, his notable finishes was a T16 at the Masters and 7th at the Olympics.

However, coming into this year, his twin brother Rasmus earned his PGA Tour card through the DP World Tour and has bursted onto the scene to start the 2025 season. With all the talk on his brother, I think this is a great spot to buy stock in Nicolai, who may feel he is getting overshadowed.

This year, he finished T36 at the WMPO, gaining 1.22 strokes on approach. He models as the best iron player from 175-200 yards and 9th from 200+ yards in the field. Nicolai also ranks 11th in carry distance in the field.

With a very weak field this week at the Mexico Open, I think you can get a little frisky and select someone in OAD who isn’t necessarily at the top of the odds board.

The course fit is hard to ignore with Nicolai. I don’t expect him to be one of the most popular players in OAD, as Akshay Bhatia and Patrick Rodgers project to eat majority of ownership.

Let’s go back to back as we wrote about Ludvig Aberg last week at Genesis!

Closing Stretch

Brian Kirschner

Make Farmers Insurance Open a signature event in 2026

After spending the week out in Southern California and attended the Genesis on Saturday, I really do believe that Torrey should get a run at a signature event in the upcoming years.

San Diego absolutely showed out for this event on Saturday and the crowd sizes following the groups were way more than expected. Given the course hosted an event there three weeks ago, I was surprised to see the crowds so large. Just proves the point that when the best players in the world attend, the crowds follow.

I understand Pebble has been a great signature event but the PGA Tour really needs to take care of all their sponsors and I think this would be a great way to rejuvenate what once was one of the best event on the calendar. The contrast of Torrey for the Farmers and for the Genesis showed how much better PGA Tour events get when the best golfers in the world are in the field.

Also if you haven’t visited before, San Diego is just a phenomenal city. Perfect weather, great food, attractive people and a great going out scene. If you haven’t visited, I would highly recommend. Spending a day at Torrey and then going out in pacific beach is an ideal Sunday.

Josh Segal

Wyndham Clark is an underrated star of the TGL

Wyndham Clark made a name for himself when he won the 2023 U.S. Open at LACC and was featured in season 2 of Full Swing regarding his mental health. Last year, he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, lost by a stroke to Scheffler at the Players, and qualified for the Olympics, representing the United States.

Over the last 2 years, Clark has made himself a household name in the world of golf, which has paved the way for him to compete in the inaugural TGL season.

Through the first couple matches Clark has competed in, he has been a STAR. He has been very entertaining on the mic, talking through reading putts, dishing some jabs at his opponents, and just simply bringing great vibes.

In his post match press conference, Clark answered a question from Keith Stewart of Read the Line, regarding why he is thriving on the TGL:

As we have stated before, one of the goals of the TGL was to give a platform for players to express their personalities, which they don’t really do much on the PGA Tour.

Clark has so far has thrived in the TGL and has been one of the underrated stars.

Joey Molisani

Derek Jeter > David Ortiz

The date was February 8th, 2025, roughly around 8pm. Some would say it was a normal Saturday night for a man after the age of 30. The fiancée and I were scrolling through Netflix when she asks, “What’s The Comeback?” She was of course referring to The Comeback: The Story of the 2024 Boston Red Sox.

As a sports enthusiast and die-hard Yankees fan, I wasn’t quite sure how to answer this question. Usually in these situations I give the most general answers I can hoping she nods and doesn’t ask any follow-up questions, and we can get on with our day, but this was different. This being the formative years of my childhood and some would say the peak of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, I went into a very biased one-sided rant about how the Red Sox had not won a World Series in 86 years. How the franchise was cursed because they traded one of the best baseball players of all time to the New York Yankees. But I ended my rant and said, “you know, let’s just watch it.”

So here we are, at approximately 8:15pm on a Saturday night, about to watch one of the worst moments in my years of being a Yankees fan. We start watching the show, Aaron Boone hits his home run, I explain how that was one of the greatest moments in Yankees history. I think I bored her, because with that my fiancée went to bed. But I was committed to the show and decided to relive those traumatic times.

By 10:52 I’d had enough, so I reached out to my dear friends Boston Capper and Kyle to let them know that 2004 was bullshit, and that Boston should’ve lost, I can’t prove it but I’m sure it was rigged, there’s just no other way. Boston Capper responds with a GIF, which I took offense to and responded with the statement that David Ortiz is overrated. Now I will admit I caught Capper off-guard with these comments, so he responded with “Ortiz is the best clutch hitter of all time.”

(Editor’s Note: Since the rest of the column doesn’t address this, it’s worth noting that David Ortiz had 23 career walk-off hits (13 HR), 20 in the regular season and 3 in the postseason, including two in the 2004 ALCS. Derek Jeter had seven, including one in his final game.)

Obviously, as a Yankees fan those are fighting words. Theres only one Captain Clutch and His name is Derek Jeter. Those of you who watched this saga unfold in the Discord know this was and is a very touchy subject. I am currently at war with Boston Capper, and this will be the first shot. So the following will be a dissertation on why Derek Jeter is not only better than David Ortiz but why Derek Jeter is one of the best baseball players of all time.

Jeter vs Ortiz

Derek Jeter's career in MLB spanned 20 seasons, all of which he spent with the New York Yankees. From his debut in 1995 to his retirement in 2014, Jeter displayed remarkable consistency, amassing 3,465 hits, a .310 batting average, and 260 home runs. His ability to maintain a high level of performance over two decades is a testament to his skill and dedication.

David Ortiz, who spent the bulk of his career with the Boston Red Sox after being released by the Twins, played 20 seasons in the MLB, from 1997 to 2016, and while he was an offensive powerhouse with 541 home runs, 2,472 hits and a .286 batting average, his defensive contributions were about as nonexistent as Bill Buckner’s glove in 1986 World Series.

Defense

One of the key areas where Jeter outshines Ortiz is in his defensive abilities. Jeter was a shortstop, one of the most demanding positions in baseball. Throughout his career, he made numerous iconic defensive plays, including the famous "Flip Play" in the 2001 American League Division Series, diving into the stands and executing what is now known as the patented “jump throw.”  Jeter's defensive skills earned him five Gold Glove Awards, solidifying his reputation as one of the best fielders of his generation until a bunch of keyboard warriors wanted to talk about defensive metrics, but we will get to this later.

In contrast, David Ortiz's defensive contributions were minimal. Ortiz played first base early in his career but transitioned to being a designated hitter, where his primary responsibility was to bat. While Ortiz's offensive prowess cannot be denied, his lack of defensive impact is a significant factor in the comparison.

Accolades

Jeter

• 14-time All-Star (1998–2002, 2004, 2006–2012, 2014)

• 5-time World Series champion (1996, 1998–2000, 2009)

• World Series MVP (2000)

• AL Rookie of the Year (1996)

• 5-time Gold Glove Award (2004–2006, 2009, 2010)

• 5-time Silver Slugger Award (2006–2009, 2012)

• 2-time AL Hank Aaron Award (2006, 2009)

• Roberto Clemente Award (2009)

• Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year Award (2009)

• Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2020

Ortiz

• World Series championships: (2004, 2007, 2013)

• World Series MVP: (2013)

• American League Championship Series (ALCS) MVP: Awarded in 2004

• All-Star:  10 times, from 2004–2008, 2010–2013, and 2016

• Silver Slugger Award: Won seven times, from 2004–2007, 2011, 2013, and 2016

• AL Hank Aaron Award: Won twice, in 2005 and 2016

• Roberto Clemente Award: Received in 2011

• Home Run Derby champion: Won in 2010

(Editor’s Note: Hi, me again. Ortiz was also technically Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year in 2004 along with all of his Boston Red Sox teammates.)

Postseason

Jeter: had a batting average of .308 with 200 hits, 20 home runs, 61 RBIs and 111 runs scored in 158 games in the postseason in his career. The former superstar shortstop owns MLB playoff records for games played (158), runs scored (111), hits (200), total bases (302), singles (143) and doubles (32).

Ortiz: had a batting average of .289 with 88 hits, 17 homers, 61 RBIs and 51 runs scored in 85 games in the postseason in his career.

Hall Of Fame

Jeter was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2021 after receiving 396 of 397 (99.7%) possible votes, the second-highest percentage ever and the highest by a position player.

Ortiz received 307 of the 394 votes cast for a percentage of 77.9 in 2022.

Conclusion 

While both Derek Jeter and David Ortiz are iconic figures in baseball, Jeter's consistency, defensive prowess, leadership, postseason performance, versatility, and overall impact make him the better baseball player. Jeter's contributions to the game, both on and off the field, have solidified his place as one of the greatest players in MLB history.

(Joey 1, Capper 0)

To the people out there that say Derek Jeter was a below average defensive SS I will leave you with this. Baseball Reference values Jeter at -9.4 wins defensively. Improved run value calculations show that Jeter’s true defensive value is closer to +3.0 wins. When we also account for his 73 games as a Designated Hitter, in which his dWAR is fixed at -0.7, we see that the more accurate estimation of Jeter’s dWAR as a shortstop is +3.7. Incorporating team K% relative to league average K% can improve the defensive metrics of the pre-Statcast era significantly. Jeter was an above average defender at shortstop over his 20-year career.

(Editor’s note: I can’t do this, I tried to be objective, but I just rolled my eyes soooo hard at that last part. Sorry, but he shouldn’t have asked a Red Sox fan to edit this, too.)

Credit to The Paraball notes for all Advanced metric data.

Flex of the Week

Another huge week for our ISN community! Many of our insiders either had outright tickets on Ludvig Aberg or he was in there DFS lineup.

Additionally, Boston Capper, Twitterless Stever, and myself (Josh) hit outright tickets on Ludvig. Coby continues to silence the haters and win big in DFS and in Pat Mayo’s OAD pool.

Here is a recap video from our producer Cam:

How Do I Become an Insider?

If you want to become an insider to ISN, click the button below, which will take you straight to our website

If you aren’t already, subscribe to the newsletter! We drop our latest newsletter every Wednesday morning.