The daily grind: 7-25

The Daily Grind provides daily match-up advice based on my every-morning waiver wire search. I welcome advice to help make this column more effective. Ownership rates are from Yahoo!

The Fanduel picks are a mixture of Daily League specific advice and information for the more typical fantasy owner.

Today’s grind

Those in leagues with same-day moves should refer back to yesterday’s table.

The Fanduel Daily League Players of the Day are:

Pitcher (to start): An easy choice (for me) for once. Marco Estrada has climbed way up my non-existent rankings list and should be owned in most formats.

Trevor Cahill is a solid alternative if available and Kevin Correia is a reliable, if not exciting, option.

Pitcher (bum): As if you needed a reminder about the wanton nature of baseball, some pretty crappy pitchers not only survived their outings yesterday but pitched very well.

Nick Blackburn is the goat of the day and he’s been a reliable one. We’ll see what the White Sox can do. They’re a hard team to bulk up on since you can start pnly one of Paul Konerko and Adam Dunn.

Hitter (power): Jonny Gomes gets another chance to use his boom-goes-the-dynamite stick. I hear he grunts that with every swing. In the opposing dugout, Adam Lind will be trying to match him swing for swing. Let’s hope they connect…

Hitter (speed): Quintin Berry should get to test his wheels against Derek Lowe. Though he is not mentioned in yesterday’s table, I’ve decided that it’s time that Carlos Gomez be picked up by more teams.

Tomorrow’s grind

We’re at half strength tomorrow with only eight games, yet it might be one of the best days for pitcher streaming I’ve seen in awhile. The list includes Jason Vargas, Matt Harvey (on waivers in most leagues), Zach McAllister, Jake Westbrook, Tommy Milone, Aaron Laffey and Chris Tillman. None of those pitchers have perfect match-ups, but they’re all playable.

It’s a thin group, but there’s still plenty of fodder to go around.

Gomes returns for his third straight party. There are plenty of other power options in the second tier like Scott Hairston and Luke Scott.

Rajai Davis and Quintin Berry are well set for a steal opportunity.

Pick up Lorenzo Cain. I mean seriously, why are you waiting? He’s settling in as the Royals clean-up, making him a five category producer.

Reliever watch

The Brewers have blown two saves in spectacular fashion on back-to-back nights. Last night it was the middle relievers—specifically Manny Parra and Kameron Loe—who supplied the letdown.

Francisco Cordero picked up right where he left off in Toronto with a blown save in his first attempt for the Astros. Don’t say I didn’t warn you away.