The daily grind: 8-23-13

The Daily Grind provides daily match-up advice for tinkerers and daily fantasy players. I welcome advice to help make this column more effective, including notice of impending weather events, new injuries, and changes to platoon situations. Ownership rates are from Yahoo!

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

Today’s weather watch

Once again, the league is looking free and clear.

Today’s grind

Today is all kinds of deep for pitcher streaming.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Scott Kazmir is a high risk, high reward option against the Twins. He’s still showing good velocity and an acceptable strikeout to walk ratio. The Mauer-less Twins will oppose him.

Hector Santiago has an iffy outing against the Rangers tomorrow. The White Sox will need to score runs off Yu Darvish and friends for Santiago to earn the win, so I wouldn’t bet on it.

I don’t like Eric Stults, even against a weak lineup like the Cubs, but I do need somebody to fill out this portion of the column. To be fair, the only knock against him is a poor strikeout rate, which he saves by being stingy with walks and limiting home runs. As long as those trends continue into his start tomorrow, he’s safe enough to use. just be wary of that tiny strikeout rate if you have to manage that stat.

If you’re open to pure gambles, try out Erasmo Ramirez. He has the raw stuff to be a reliable, if unspectacular, fantasy option, but his results to date are hairy. He did stifle the Rangers lineup, so his match-up with the Angels shouldn’t be terrifying.

Pitcher (bum): Jeff Manship will face the Marlins, yet I’m still listing him in the exploit section.

I expect Wily Peralta to figure out how to succeed at the big league level, but for now he’s inconsistent and set to face a formidable Reds lineup.

Brad Peacock has several issues—a high walk rate, low whiff rate, and way too many fly balls for a bandbox like Minute Maid Park. The Blue Jays—who currently list TBA—should enjoy the match-up.

Wade Davis’ Jekyll and Hyde act continues, although the real issue seems to be related to walking too many batters.

Ethan Martin is perhaps the most erratic starting pitcher I’ve watched this season. He’s made some 55-foot pitches that bring back nostalgic memories of my own playing days. The Diamondbacks should succeed if they are patient.

Hitter (power): Try Christian Yelich against Manship. The dynamic youngster can potentially contribute to five categories.

David Ross is a low average, high power option for tomorrow, but he’s not guaranteed to start against Hyun-Jin Ryu. Jonny Gomes should be good to go.

Justin Maxwell will be in the lineup against Jon Lester.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Try Michael Morse and Nick Franklin against lefty Jason Vargas. He’s been rusty since returning from the disabled list.

Hitter (speed): Though he isn’t stealing bases yet, I think it’s safe to use Adam Eaton more regularly. Gerardo Parra is also an option against Martin.

Craig Gentry will likely start against Santiago.

Rajai Davis has some pronounced career splits, so I usually wouldn’t rush to pick up a game against a right-hander, but Peacock should be a good pairing for Davis.

Pitchers to come

Sunday: Ivan Nova is finally playing his way out of my column—he’s up to 46 percent owned.

Monday: I’m currently torn between Zack Wheeler versus the Phillies and Andre Rienzo against the Astros.

Tuesday: At the moment, I prefer Jose Quintana versus the Astros, but Alex Wood is always an appealing option.

Noteworthy news

The Mets have brought in Daisuke Matsuzaka while the Rays signed Delmon Young. The former will be a useful addition to the exploit section and makes his first start today against the Tigers. The latter is a mediocre platoon bat who may get mentioned once or twice down the stretch.


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Will H.
10 years ago

Is it weird that there was another Erasmo Ramirez pitching in the last decade?

I know it’s fringy, but I was planning on going with the lesser stuff of Vargas just based on how well the two offenses match up, win-wise (the park should be friendly either way). LAA is actually quite good vs. RHP while SEA is terrible against LHP. However, I didn’t notice his velo drop since getting off the DL.

Pretty much the same reason I’m gambling on Jimenez today (CLE offense > MIN, safe park that limits Ubaldo’s blowups).

Funny, Nova isn’t available to me, but you’re right that Sunday is deep. Haren, Cashner and de la Rosa all have reasonable setups.

Cliff
10 years ago

Nick Franklin is out up to a week with a laceration on his knee.

yada yada yada
10 years ago

conflicted???  1st and formost. ESPN makes it to say that C. Martinez is coming only for the Bullpen …also I should pickup Bruce Chen whiles hes on the wire or just go with Nate Eovaldi and J.Niese, Ive got two spots

Bob
10 years ago

Seriously,how can you take anyone seriously that recommends Franklin who has been out for days?

Will H.
10 years ago

I know, right… what? the fallibility of human beings? He should definitely research the status of hundereds of non-DL designated players each morning.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

It’s not like I didn’t know he was out, it was just a brain cramp…I do start the column with a disclaimer that covers this type of thing.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Yada,

Definitely go with Niese and I have to imagine that there is a hidden answer D for that second spot. Eovaldi and Chen are quite poor options.