The daily grind 5-21

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

R.A. Dickey gets the lucky Pirates match-up. Unfortunately, he’s 42 percent owned.

Juan Nicasio has a decent match-up with the Marlins.

Travis Wood gets to face the Astros. I picked him up twice.

David Murphy should start against the hittable Hector Noesi.

Matt Adams’ ownership has jumped to 15 percent. The match-up with Edinson Volquez isn’t exciting or anything, but you might not have long to pick him up despite that. He’s also plastered all over the Yahoo! fantasy splash page, so his ownership will skyrocket. He’s not a lock to start any given night until he establishes himself.

Rajai Davis will get another chance to hit multiple home runs, this time against the Rays’ Matt Moore.

Marlon Byrd and Reed Johnson are both set to face hitable lefties.

Tomorrow’s grind

Marco Estrada is a reliable source of strike outs. The rest of the results could be anything. He faces the Giants.

Scott Feldman rarely crosses my radar, but he faces the Mariners tomorrow.

Andy Pettitte against the Royals sounds like a workable match-up. It also sounds like I’m playing an outdated video game.

Murphy’s set to see Kevin Millwood.

Carlos Gomez should get a start against Barry Zito.

Kirk Nieuwenhuis faces Charlie Morton.

Reliever watch

Jason Motte picked up the coveted blown save, vulture win last night. He’s pitched well despite the three blown saves.

Jonathan Broxton blew his second save. He’s done well to date but there’s reason for concern in his peripherals. It might be time to start quietly adding alternative Royals.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Andrew Cashner blew a non-ninth inning save. I didn’t have eyes on this game, but my impression is that Cashner isn’t quite polished enough for a high leverage role yet.

Henry Rodriguez was pulled from a save situation after recording one out. The Nationals are said to be considering alternatives, but there aren’t many available. Tyler Clippard is probably the best reliever in the pen, but he has history of trouble in the ninth and management has been adamant that Clippard will remain the setup man.

Yesterday’s results

Great start from Felipe Paulino. He earned the win while shutting down the Yankees: 6.2 IP, 8 K, 0.00 ERA, 1.20

Jamie Moyer did not get through that outing with the Marlins. I hope you have less fantasy hubris than I and passed on that recommendation: 3.2 IP, 5 K, 14.73 ERA, 3.55 WHIP

Seth Smith was 1-for-2 with one run and a pair of walks.

Eric Thames was 1-for-3 with one RBI.


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Kubrick
11 years ago

Broxton didnt pitch yesterday.  Who are you confusing him with?

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Someone reprinted the May 16 BS under a May 22 headline. My Google News feed can be a bit primitive at times. My mistake.

Andrew
11 years ago

What do you think the chances of Adams sticking around when Allen Craig comes back?

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

It will depend on a couple things. First, will Craig be able to handle outfield and/or 2B duties on a regular basis? Will Jon Jay be back? If not, will Beltran be able to fake it in CF? Will Beltran even be healthy by then? Will Holliday still be healthy?

Now if Adams flat out rakes, he might get to hang on to the 1B job regardless of all that noise. Most likely, he’ll do OK and will be dependent on which vets are doing what.

Boil that all down, say 20-25% chance?

Andrew
11 years ago

Yeah I was thinking in that range or a little lower even since I don’t think the Cards think Craig can handle 2B at all.  So his options will be 1B or OF, but with no corners OF spots open(assuming a heatlthy Holliday and Beltran) His AB’s will mostly come from 1B where there will be less wear and tear on him.  I doubt Beltran can play any sort of significant CF, so Adams will probably struggle for AB’s after Craig comes back.

Will H.
11 years ago

While his ownership is still below 40% I think you should make more mention of Moreland. Like Murphy, but even better, if you platoon him against righties (against whom he has a .976 OPS this year).

Will H.
11 years ago

Actually Stammen is a really good as an RP but they want him for multiple inning situations…

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Often when I’m not mentioning an available guy, it’s because I’ve wrongly assumed he’s owned in 90% of competitive leagues. I’m frequently baffled by ownership tendencies.

As I point out in the italics up top, the advice is based on my daily activity. Moreland has been largely unavailable in my leagues.

I’ve been really impressed by Stammen this year. His skill set is vaguely reminiscent of Clippard’s (mostly thinking of the slow fastball), but without the track record.