The daily grind: 5-14-13

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 grind

Pitcher (to start): I’m nervous recommending Scott Kazmir, but it seems like conditions are in his favor. He faces the Phillies and is coming off a superb outing against the A’s.

John Lackey is another guy on the retread rack. He’ll face the Rays, who seem light-hitting but have actually been a top 10 offense.

John Gast is a potentially interesting choice for those who are comfortable playing minor league success. From what I can gather, Gast is “live-armed,” can struggle with command, and has a high ceiling as a reliever.

Andrew Cashner is still out there, waiting to hit triple digits on your team.

Pitcher (bum): The match-up between R.A. Dickey and Barry Zito could provide some 1990s era offense.

Jeff Francis has one of his best assignments so far—the Cubs. That isn’t stopping me from recommending against him.

Dillon Gee spent a lot of time in my “to start” section. This isn’t me throwing him under the bus, the Cardinals are a tough offense to overcome.

Hitter (power): Scott Hairston is the top pick for power output.

Chris Johnson will face Patrick Corbin in a battle to see who can defy regression longer.

Jonny Gomes will start but Matt Moore isn’t easy pickin’s. Too bad he can’t face Francis too.

Hitter (speed): Gerardo Parra is worth a look.

As noted in the comments yesterday, Charlie Blackmon will likely see some of the time I originally slated for Eric Young Jr. Still, Young was already starting frequently, so he’s should see a few more games now.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Phil Hughes has settled in after a shaky start to the season and has a favorable assignment against the Mariners. He’s also 50 percent owned, so he may not be available to many readers.

For some reason, I’m reticent to recommend Mike Leake, even against the lowly Marlins. There’s nothing in his peripherals to justify that reticence besides a low-ish strikeout rate.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Pitcher (bum): For once, I’m going to recommend using the Phillies offense. Corey Kluber is coming off a meltdown outing, though he had previously looked sharp.

Mike Pelfrey will face a struggling White Sox team in a battle to see who can struggle more.

Shaun Marcum has been a mess thus far, and like Gee, he’ll also need to turn it around against the Cardinals. Eesh.

Wade Davis faces Barry Enright in what promises to be a high scoring affair. I usually like Davis, but a match-up against the Angels is off-putting.

Hitter (power): Gomes faces another difficult lefty in David Price.

Tomorrow is a good day to try Colby Rasmus against Ryan Vogelsong.

Domonic Brown draws Kluber.

Hitter (speed): Lorenzo Cain would be a nice addition against Enright.

Try Nate Schierholtz against Jon Garland.

Noteworthy news

Bryce Harper is showing the portion of his skill set that most worries me. He lost a fight with a wall yesterday that has left him day-to-day with some stitches and a possibly jammed shoulder. Harper has that Griffeyesque penchant for leaving it all on the field (and then some).

Weather watch

Hooray for more great weather.


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

Jeff Locke SP for the bucs today vs Milwaukee? spot start anybody???  anybody good besides Kasmire?

cluke
10 years ago

on another note… is it time to start McCann over Yadier Molina?