The daily grind 5-17

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

Short list of picks for today but they’re all solid.

Zach McAllister draws the highly coveted Mariners match-up.

James McDonald will face the Nationals although his ownership rates have raced upwards to 38 percent. You can probably thank the splash page article about him on Yahoo for the ownership boost.

Juan Pierre will be batting leadoff against Chris Volstad.

Eric Thames holds the platoon advantage over Phil Hughes.

Raul Ibanez has a favorable match-up against Drew Hutchinson.

Andy Dirks’ ownership is up to 29 percent. He faces P.J. Walters today.

Tomorrow’s grind

Marco Estrada will face the Ryan Doumit-less Twins tomorrow. It’s a ripe match-up for his strikeout-heavy approach.

Jarrod Parker will take on the Giants as part of the battle of the bay (it’s not worthy of proper noun status).

You could try Alex White against the Mariners or Philip Humber against the Cubs if you want to throw a Hail Mary.

Stick with Ibanez, who faces Arroyo tomorrow.

Dexter Fowler is down to 41 percent owned and is available in three of my leagues. He faces Kevin Millwood tomorrow.

It’s one of those days where Rajai Davis will probably start in left field for the Jays.

Reliever watch

Jon Rauch melted down in the eighth inning yesterday. It might be time to hold Bobby Parnell and hope the Mets want to demo something with upside eventually.

Jonathan Broxton blew his second save of the season. His peripherals haven’t been pretty. The Royals are probably praying he holds it together just long enough to trade him.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

In case you’ve been keeping track of the Cubs’ mess, Kerry Wood blew a save in the seventh inning yesterday. Everybody blows saves in Chicago.

Jose Valverde is day-to-day with back tightness, so pick up Joaquin Benoit.

Yesterday’s results

A fair outing from Chris Capuano, but he took the loss: 6.1 IP, 6 K, 4.26 ERA, 1.42 WHIP

Mike Minor has been abysmal in four straight outings now: 4.2 IP, 3 K, 11.57 ERA, 1.93 WHIP

Felipe Paulino was masterful but the Royals couldn’t shut the door (see Broxton above): 7 IP, 9 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 WHIP

Craig Gentry was 2-for-3 with one RBI.

Matt Diaz was 0-for-4 with one RBI.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis was 1-for-4 and was caught stealing.

Tony Campana was 0-for-2.

Jeff Keppinger did not start. He went 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter.


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Will H.
11 years ago

I knew I was risking Nolasco-itis when I took Minor but was just hoping that wasn’t the case. Alas, while he can’t possibly keep stranding just 50-some percent, his (however brief) career babip is above .350 (and was highish even in the minors) and LD% close to 25 so I fear he going to continue to be one of those whose peripherals will always make it seem like his results are unlucky but a regression will never actually come to pass.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Yea I get the same sense from him. He’s a risky guy to stream because he could add a lot of value or take it away simply by catching him on good or bad days. And the match-up doesn’t reliably indicate how he’ll perform.

Morgan Conrad
11 years ago

Hey, I agree that “battle of the bay” is o.k., though kudos for the As for exceeding expectations so far this year.  But, how about touting “juan pierre” as well?  The past five years he is pretty much a replacement level player, and last night he dropped an archetypal “routine” fly ball in a tie game that game the other team the lead.  If not for Roto’s fascination with steals, he and his ilk (dee gordon) would be unknowns.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

I agree with your point about Pierre, but when you can gather 20+ sb from a waiver platoon using guys like Pierre, Gomez, Davis, etc, you end up with a lot of fantasy value.