The daily grind: 4-8-13

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): Paul Maholm is up to 48 percent owned and a game against the Giancarlo Stantons of Miami temporarily justifies that rate.

Several other marginal pitchers have good match-ups today, but they are all heavily owned.

Pitcher (bum): I’m not going to recommend streaming the Twins offense very often, but Ervin Santana seems to have lost his major league eligibility. He’s opposed by Kevin Correia, who is usually good for giving up four runs.

I have a $10 bet against Roy Halladay that should tell you my opinion pretty clearly. I bet that he would not pitch six innings and would not hold the Mets’ tepid offense to two or fewer runs. We’ll see.

Hitter (power): On that note, try Lucas Duda with the knowledge that Doc is only half a season removed from toying with hitters of Duda’s caliber.

Chris Parmelee should get a chance at Santana, but Kaufman Stadium isn’t the most home run friendly.

It’s another Jonny Gomes day. Fun!

Hitter (speed): Jeremy Hellickson was rough around the edges in his first outing, so go ahead and try David Murphy (batting fifth most days and should be owned outright despite 33 percent ownership rate) and Leonys Martin.

A.J. Pollock has the platoon advantage against Wandy Rodriguez.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Dillon Gee is unlikely to beat Cliff Lee tomorrow, but he’s a good pitcher who should be owned several times more frequently than his current 12 percent rate.

Carlos Carrasco is interesting in the same way that craps is interesting. I don’t know what you’ll get tomorrow, but the Yankees offense is el terrible. (And I just LOVE being able to say that.)

Pitcher (bum): Roberto Hernandez squeaked through his inaugural outing, but I’m not sure he can repeat the performance against the Rangers.

Same goes for a Mike Pelfrey versus Jeremy Guthrie match-up in Kansas City. If the offenses were a little better, I would predict greater than 15 combined runs scored. But they aren’t, so I won’t.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

I’m pretty convinced that Tim Lincecum is suckballs now, which is a technical term for the kind of guy who walks seven in five innings and doesn’t get away with it.

Brandon Maurer was less than stellar in his debut. He appeared to throw waaay too many pitches over the heart of the plate. Might have just been nerves, or he might get teed up by Houston’s few hitters with power.

Hitter (power): Chris Carter has been ice cold to start the year, but a grooved fastball could change that around.

Nate Freiman is a very large man and thus should have some very large power, like Richie Sexson. C.J. Wilson is no slouch though and there’s no guarantee that Freiman will even play.

The Ryan Doumit and Trevor Plouffe trains are slowing down, which could mean either is available in his start again Guthrie.

I’m going to go ahead and give a quiet recommendation for Travis Hafner.

Hitter (speed): Carlos Gomez is still heavily owned, but he’s available in every league in which I do not own him, so I suspect he’s available in some of yours too. He has a nice match-up against Travis Wood.

Try Murphy and Martin again. Murphy should be owned at least 10 percent more frequently than Gomez.

Noteworthy news

Kyuji Fujikawa appears to have ousted Carlos Marmol already. I just got done explaining in multiple places that the Cubs have a vested interest in using Marmol so they can dump some of his salary, but I guess they have given up on that plan.

Kelvin Herrera notched a save and could compete with Greg Holland if the latter struggles.

A few first basemen are banged up. Freddie Freeman hit the disabled list with an oblique strain while Adam LaRoche is day-to-day with a strained back.

Weather watch

The Yankees, Indians, Cubs, Brewers, Reds and Cardinals are all playing around some rain, but it doesn’t look like any of the games should be overly affected. St. Louis could see isolated thunderstorms, while the other two games have morning rain that probably won’t linger.


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ABSkippers
10 years ago

With Freeman hurt, will the Braves find a few extra starts for Gattis at 1B, or will he stay an every-other-day C?

Jack Weiland
10 years ago

I’m not sure I agree, re: Marmol. Obviously the Cubs would love to deal him, but do you really think teams are going to be swayed much by him being a closer? Teams acquiring him probably want him to set up anyway. And these very public ninth inning flameouts are not helping his value, regardless. As if he has any value left at all whatsoever SIGH.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Well that’s the point. The flameouts don’t help, but if he rattles off 10 scoreless saves in a row he starts to look marginally more attractive. Which could be the difference between eating say $5 or 7 million on his contract in a salary dump.

The Braves situation is one to monitor. Freeman’s only going to be out for the minimum (at least that’s what I expect since he was playing through it with little sign), so even if Gattis does turn into an everyday guy, it’s likely to be brief.

SuaveXXI
10 years ago

What should be done with Roy Halladay at this point?
I’m thinking drop him.  Halladay had been so consistent for many years, but last season was telling and in his first 2 starts in 2013, he’s showing he’ll need to make several adjustments to be a quality starter in the future.  And that’s going to take some time to polish over.  I don’t think you just hold on because his name is Roy Halladay.  He looks nice on your roster 4 of 5 days, but every 5th day is ugly!

SuaveXXI
10 years ago

Thank you, Brad.  I’ll gauge trade interest this week & next before I’d release him.

Who else has an opinion of what to do with Roy Halladay?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

fwiw, I’m quite confident that he’s working through a shoulder injury or “pre-injury.” It explains the reduced velocity and control issues. And from watching him, it just LOOKS like his shoulder isn’t moving as freely as it should be.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

That’s a good question. I would try to sell low for a pitcher that looks like a waiver wire arm but is actually slightly better (maybe a Wandy Rodriguez type?).

You may even find someone who thinks he’s smart buying low and will pay more.