The daily grind: 4-5-13

The Daily Grind provides daily match-up advice for tinkers 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 Fanduel picks are a mixture of Daily League specific advice and information for the more typical fantasy owner. Use the team-by-team TDG eligible players spreadsheet for more detailed information.

Today’s grind

The Fanduel Daily League Players of the Day are:

Pitcher (to start): I thought about giving Zach McAllister a shot, but none of my teams have an opening for streaming yet.

Dan Straily is a solid choice, though like all guys on the waiver wire, he’s not without risk. For those in even deeper leagues, Brad Peacock has some upside.

Pitcher (bum): A warm, spring day game at Coors is an invitation to score runs in bunches. And when the starting pitchers are Jeff Francis and Jason Marquis…well you know where I’m going with this.

Apparently my fantasy writing doppleganger likes Liam Hendriks, but I still think he’s exploitable for fantasy purposes. So I’m putting money on Chris Davis extending his streak of dominance.

I believe that Kyle Kendrick and Wade Davis mark the first time in 2013 where converted relievers have faced each other. They’ve both seen success as starters in the past, but they also have exploitable flaws, especially Kendrick (left-handers).

Hitter (power): Seth Smith against Peacock is a decent streaming option. But I’m more excited about Juan Francisco’s 70 grade raw power against Scott Feldman.

Meanwhile, I noted yesterday that Matt Joyce should enjoy batting against Kendrick, but he should also enjoy his actual match-up today—McAllister.

Hitter (speed): At some point, Domonic Brown is going to attempt a couple steals. Why not today?

Chris Denorfia and Craig Gentry are more classic choices to swipe a bag.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Trevor Bauer is interesting and prospect-y, although I don’t necessarily expect good things tomorrow. If you want to own him, this might be your one shot.

Patrick Corbin is a guy I own outright in one of my mid-depth leagues. So, it suffices to say that I think highly of him. However, a match-up against the Brewers is a tough assignment for the lefty.

I think Chris Tillman can make it through the Twins lineup a couple times without going belly up, don’t you?

Pitcher (bum): I generally like tomorrow’s pitchers, but I’m definitely selling short on Tommy Hanson.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Jon Garland in Colorado has no chance of working out. Right?

Hitter (power): I’m going to give Adam Lind a few more shots here. I suspect the Blue Jays are thinking much the same thing. Theoretically, he should match-up well against supposedly improved John Lackey.

If I have any understanding of biology, then I am right to think that the love child of Lucas Duda and Ricky Nolasco would be a home run.

It’s Jonny Gomes time. J.A. Happ is the perfect match-up for him.

Hitter (speed): Collin Cowgill may swipe a base. Have I mentioned he’s a grinder. We like grinders here at The Daily Grind.

Will Venable should be back in the lineup for that tasty Garland match-up

Noteworthy News

Just when you thought Brian Roberts might play 15 games in a row, he went down with an injury. I was starting to think he might be relevant to this column, but no dice K.

Weather watch

The Yankees, Tigers, Mariners, and White Sox draw the cold weather today.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
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drewcorb
10 years ago

Who would you rather start today: Jake Arrieta against the Twins or Dan Straily against the Astros?

Tom
10 years ago

Need HRs/RBI’s Carter vs Straily or Joyce vs McAllister?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

I’d lean to Straily. I’m mistrustful of both because I think they need quite a bit of polish before they will be reliable, even against weak lineups.

But lineups don’t come any weaker than the Astros.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Joyce.

Carter’s kind of like Luke Scott. He goes on these tears where he’s Barry Bonds, but if he’s not on a tear, it’s painful to play him.

Tom
10 years ago

Thanks Brad. But the problem that a lot of people don’t talk about with Joyce is that he get PH for late in most close games if a LHP comes in – happend twice this week alone!