State of the grind: March, 2013

2012 was the inaugural season of The Daily Grind. The column originally was intended to highlight a few waiver-wire players who could help traditional fantasy owners for a given day, but it quickly became clear that the article applied to daily fantasy games like Fanduel, as well.

The format of the column will remain much the same, with picks for today and tomorrow broken down by four categories: pitcher to start, pitcher to exploit, power hitter, speed hitter.

The availability of a player in a traditional fantasy league is unpredictable. In essence, my leagues are not your leagues. I may be able to acquire and cut Justin Smoak at will, but you may not have that option.

To combat that shortcoming, I have created a report that highlights 110 players and position battles*. This should help owners in leagues that are shallower or deeper than the original target audience. The report will be updated continuously, and I encourage regular reader participation to make it even better. I’m not a beat writer for one team, let alone 30, so information will escape my attention.

There are two major additions I plan to incorporate at some point in the season. Both will require some experimentation in order to implement effectively.

Home run conditions: SI Weather has an iPhone/Android app that displays home run conditions in each ballpark for a given day. It’s a simple 1-to-10 scale ranging from bad to great.

Unfortunately, my iPhone 3 cannot use it, so I cannot directly implement it into the column. Some basic research suggests I could successfully emulate Android apps on my PC. If anyone knows more about that, leave your contact info in the comments (or email me if you can solve the puzzle in my signature). I’m not a developer, so I expect it to be difficult.

Please be aware, I have not used the app, and this is not a recommendation to purchase it. However, I am told there will be free versions made available this season.

Weather conditions: Along the same vein, I’m looking to implement some sort of system that will alert me of impending weather events. The column runs half a day before most games, so don’t expect perfection.

To recap in brief:
{exp:list_maker}Last season’s format was effective and parsimonious
More detailed information can be displayed in an attached report
The column will work best as a team effort
Weather is important and should be included {/exp:list_maker}I’m looking forward to Season Two of The Daily Grind. I accept payment in the form of Twitter follows.

*Please note, the current report is incomplete and not finalized. It makes little sense to update during spring training.