The daily grind 4-30

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!

Today’s grind

It’s an ugly day for pitching picks. R.A. Dickey takes on the Astros in the waiver wire match-up of the day. Randy Wolf draws the Padres in the “if you have to do it” match-up of the day.

There are some good hitter options. Carlos Gomez is starting to garner a full-time role thanks to his hot start and Nyjer Morgan’s utter absence. The Padres send mediocre righty Joe Wieland to the mound, so Gomez should be able to reach base and, hopefully, swipe a bag.

Sticking with the Padres and Brewers game, Chris Denorfia should get the start against Wolf.

Marlon Byrd should get the start in Boston against Tommy Milone.

Josh Reddick is my hitter pick for the day. He faces Clay Buchholz. Reddick is only six percent owned, but he’s a great play against most righties.

Tomorrow’s grind

Jonathon Niese against the Astros headlines a day of crappy match-ups. He’s 53 percent owned as it is, so he’s probably not available.

The only other guy I’d be comfortable looking at is Edinson Volquez. He faces the Brewers and is 48 percent owned.

Shelley Duncan gets the platoon advantage against Chris Sale tomorrow.

The Luke Scott employment train is rolling along. He’s up to 36 percent and faces Hector Noesi.

Boston faces righty Jarrod Parker, which means Ryan Sweeney will be back in action.

Andruw Jones should get the start against Brian Matusz.

Reliever watch

Frank Francisco blew a save yesterday. Jon Rauch also had a bad outing, but it was his first of the season. Consider Francisco to be on his last legs.

Grant Balfour blew his second save of the season. The A’s have a couple options like Brian Fuentes and Fautino de los Santos.

Jose Valverde blew his first save of the season. There are some grumbles that he hasn’t looked very sharp this year, but I haven’t seen him pitch yet.

Yesterday’s results

Saturday wasn’t my best work.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

A couple home runs ruined an otherwise solid outing from Marco Estrada: 6 IP, 2 K, 6.00 ERA, 1.50 WHIP

I warned you I was cringing over recommending Bruce Chen, didn’t I? And I even caught crap in the comments. I hope you didn’t jump on this one: 2.2 IP, 1 K, 20.25 ERA, 3.00 WHIP

I recommended a second Chen, Wei-Yin Chen, and he did quite well. He earned the win along with: 7 IP, 4 K, 1.29 ERA, 1.14 WHIP

I thought Randy Wells could handle an easy assignment like the Phillies, but I was very wrong: 3.2 IP, 3 K, 9.82 ERA, 2.18 WHIP

Randall Delgado also pitched poorly: 4.1 IP, 4 K, 8.31 ERA, 2.54 WHIP

Eric Thames was 0-2 with a pair of walks.

Tony Campana was benched in favor of Reed Johnson, but he still went 1-for-1 with a run scored.

I said it felt like a Jonny Gomes day, and it was. He went 1-for-3 with a home run, one run, one RBI, and one walk.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis went 0-for-5.

Sunday was much better.

Tommy Hunter survived his outing against the A’s: 7 IP, 2 K, 2.57 ERA, 1.14 WHIP

Tim Hudson earned the win in his return from the disabled list: 5 IP, 6 K, 3.60 ERA, 1.60 WHIP

Rajai Davis is day-to-day with a wrist injury, but he walked and scored a run in the eighth inning yesterday.

Tony Campana channeled his inner Sam Fuld with a 2-for-4 afternoon. He scored two runs and stole a base.

Seth Smith was 2-for-3 with a home run, one run, one RBI, and one walk. His teammate Reddick managed a 2-for-4 line with one run.

Justin Turner did not start as I predicted. He also did not pinch hit.


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Mark Himmelstein
11 years ago

I was really hoping Jeff Samardzija would get the Phillies today. Instead he gets the Reds tomorrow because the Cubs don’t want to overload him. I still picked him up in a league.

As for the Phillies today, Chris Volstad gets them has actually been decent by defense independent metrics going back into last year (3.64 xFIP / 3.84 SIERA last year, 3.63 / 3.77 so far this year), and was much better in the second half. In particular his command seems to have legitimately improved, and he’s striking a few more guys out as well. I don’t trust him much, but he’d be my second pitching choice after Dickey against the Astros, and he might actually have some sneaky NL-only value as someone worth holding onto/targeting in trade.

J Free
11 years ago

Keep up the good work. Really like this feature – and enjoy the follow up from previous days too.

Paul Singman
11 years ago

Nice call on Reddick. With his lineup spot and lack of a platoon he’s a really nice OF to own right now… I just hope he doesn’t forget how to hit like most A’s players after a few months. He probably doesn’t have much trade equity in most leagues but I wouldn’t be afraid to flip him if a decent offer does come around. Hanging onto him isn’t a bad play, just don’t get overly comfortable and ignore potential OF pickups because you’ve got Josh Reddick in your lineup.

FDLS is doing well in Triple-A since his demotion so he could be recalled soon and still be a closer candidate but I think Ryan Cook is probably the name you want to mention after Fuentes in the A’s bullpen.

Here’s to Andy Dirks playing well while Delmon is out and carving out more regular PT for himself.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

That Volstad pick didn’t work out, huh?