The daily grind: 5-21-13

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.

Yesterday’s pitchers didn’t work out well. Kazmir bombed and Odorizzi scuffled a bit. I hope today can be better.

Today’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Matt Garza’s ownership is up a whopping two points to 61 percent. I expected to see a huge jump yesterday, but I think a lot of fans are still unaware of his return.

Jose Fernandez is the only other card up my sleeve for today. He jumped three ownership points to 51 percent. Sorry I don’t have somebody more widely available to point at today.

If you absolutely must use somebody, Wade Davis against the Astros seems like the best play.

Pitcher (bum): Is it me, or are there an unusual number of exploitable pitchers this season? I don’t recall leaving guys off this portion of the list on a daily basis last year.

I’ll limit myself to four picks: Aaron Harang against the Angels, Edinson Volquez versus the Cardinals, Tyler Cloyd against the Marlins (yes I’m picking the Marlins offense) and Mike Pelfrey against the Braves.

Hitter (power): It’s Juan Francisco’s turn in the platoon.

David Murphy draws Dan Straily, who appears a bit off his game.

Jonny Gomes faces Jose Quintana.

To hedge my bets, Carlos Pena could launch a long ball against Davis.

Hitter (speed):
Kelly Johnson will see ancient journeyman Ramon Ortiz.

Gerardo Parra will face Jhoulys Chacin.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start):
Jorge de la Rosa is erratic, which makes him rather maddening to use. His strike out rate is surprisingly small this season, which eats into his value.

Speaking of maddening pitchers, Francisco Liriano is owned in only 37 percent of leagues and will face the Cubs. The only thing we can tell about him right now is that he’s generating whiffs.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Pitcher (bum):
The Braves offense remains a strong pick against Vance Worley.

I don’t believe in Ubaldo Jimenez’s hot streak and generally speaking, I don’t believe in starting pitchers against the Tigers anyway.

Jason Hammel turned pumpkin.

Tyler Lyons versus Burch Smith sounds like a lot of runs.

Hitter (power): Try Travis Hafner against Hammel.

Scott Hairston could be worth employing against Liriano.

You can also try Cody Ross against de la Rosa.

Hitter (speed): Chris Denorfia should start against Lyons.

Lorenzo Cain should like facing Jordan Lyles.

Weather watch

There are scattered storms expected throughout baseball today. The Cubs, Pirates, Mets, Reds, Tigers, Indians, Athletics, and Rangers could be affected. The other storm locations have domes.

Column notes

I will be out from Friday, May 24 through the end of next week.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
11 Comments
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Motley Yu
10 years ago

Mike is going to Leake all over the Mets tonight

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Scholars are still studying whether that is good or bad.

Tom
10 years ago

I come visit the column every day. I love the concept but I wish you could expand your pitching pool a bit. I’m not sure how much more trouble expanding the cutoff for ownership % for pitchers to 70% would be, but I think it would be helpful to the readers – especially in shallower leagues. I wouldn’t expect you to do the hitters that way, but I figure since there are at most “only” 30 SP’s every day it might be doable.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Poll: Is there interest in me expanding the pool of pitchers to 70% owned?

jumping Jimmy
10 years ago

Cards SP Shelby Miller…What caliber player should be take in offers?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Keeper league? If so, what’s his cost?

If redraft, guys like Pablo Sandoval, Chase Utley, Jay Bruce, Nelson Cruz on the position side or Shields, Lester, Scherzer, or Peavy on the pitching side.

You might be able to do better if someone is over-excited.

jumping Jimmy
10 years ago

10 team Keeper league… B. Phillips, Rizzo, Craig, Trumbo, Beltran, N. Cruz, M. Cabrera,  C. Crawford, A. Ramirez in their lineup???  RP- Bailey and Parnell available since I have O;s Johnson on the hot seat..

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

I’d take Parnell over Johnson. I’m not sure what you mean by the rest of the message.

What’s the cost to keep Miller compared to say Miguel Cabrera?

ABSkippers
10 years ago

Ike Davis finally got dropped in my league.  Should I bother?  I was the guy who dropped him about this time last year, but all the pathetic flailing is just so hard to watch, I don’t know if my fragile psyche can take it.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

If you can stash him without hurting flexibility then maybe. You have to think a demotion is imminent.

He just got dropped in my home league too. I’m already flush with Votto, LaRoche, and Freeman filling my 1B/CI/UTIL slots and Taveras and Profar taking up stash spots. So I didn’t really consider him.

M. Simpson
10 years ago

Yes i would like the pitcher pool to be larger also