The daily grind: 9-3-13

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

The weather is all clear today

Today’s grind

Today features a trio of rookies and a sophomore.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Dillon Gee has a difficult match-up against the Braves, who I watched beat up on Daisuke Matsuzaka and friends in person yesterday. He has a good chance to pull down a victory since he’s opposed by Kameron Loe.

Marlins pitcher Brian Flynn will make his debut against the Cubs and this one might be worth watching and maybe even using if you’re desperate. He’s a left-handed pitcher who can hum around the low- to mid-90s with his fastball and shows a good slider as well. His change-up appears decent against right-handed batters, while his curve is pretty mediocre from what I’ve seen. In the minors, he’s shown the right mix of limiting walks while generating a solid strikeout rate.

Eric Stults is a very low upside pick. His main function is to eat innings, add a few strikeouts to H2H totals, and get that 45 percent chance of a win against the Giants.

Erik Johnson is another intriguing pitcher making his debut. Since he’s right-handed and on the White Sox, I would avoid his start against the Yankees. But by all means, fire up MLB.TV and scout him for his next start against the Twins.

Taijuan Walker is the top pick for the day in his second major league outing. He’s opposed by the Royals. We’ll look to see more strikeouts this time around.

Pitcher (bum): The aforementioned Loe really isn’t a starter, so you can stream Mets hitters without fear. They have a roster crammed with second division players so it can be somewhat difficult to predict their starters ahead of time.

Liam Hendriks versus Jordan Lyles is a recipe for runs.

The Dodgers have asked Edinson Volquez to absorb innings for them. He has an interesting combination of velocity and groundball stuff, but he allows far too many walks. I’ve wondered for several years why he doesn’t work out of the pen. His ERA of 5.97 is substantially above his FIP and xFIP of 4.20 and 4.24. The start is at Coors Field.

Jeremy Hellickson has been recalled to face the Angels. His story is similar to Volquez’s without the walk issues. His 5.21 ERA belies a 4.12 FIP and 4.16 xFIP.

Hitter (power): Nolan Arenado will see Volquez. I learned yesterday that UZR is in love with Arenado’s defense, rating him at +22 runs.

Garrett Jones may be worth a look against Wily Peralta.

Christian Yelich’s five-category skill set is worth using against nearly all righies.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Chris Carter sees Hendriks.

The other side of that game includes Oswaldo Arcia and Brian Dozier against Lyles.

I highly recommend Travis d’Arnaud and Lucas Duda against Loe.

Hitter (speed): You can try J.B. Shuck against Hellickson.

Will Venable has the wild card match-up against Tim Lincecum.

Eric Young Jr. also opposes Loe.

Pitchers to come

Thursday: Sonny Gray’s Astros match-up is still the top waiver pick.

Friday: Marco Estrada draws the weak Cubs lineup. He’s pitched quite well since returning from the disabled list.

Saturday: Danny Salazar has the Mets while Alex Wood faces the Phillies. You know how I am about picking between them.

Noteworthy news

Yasiel Puig has irritated a knee strain and may need a couple days.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
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Will H.
10 years ago

I saw Eric Young Jr. live Saturday – when all those Div. II guys BABIP’d Haren to death – and that dude is stupidly fast. (News flash, I know, but still it was impressive.)

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Yea, I’m really glad that Colorado finally freed him. He may only be a second division starter at best, but he’s damn fun to watch play.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Yea, I’m really glad that Colorado finally freed him. He may only be a second division starter at best, but he’s damn fun to watch play.