The daily grind: 5-23-13

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.

A reminder: The Grind will be going on a one week holiday starting tomorrow.

Today’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Kevin Gausman’s ownership has more than doubled from 14 to 32 percent. He will face the Blue Jays in his debut.

Edwin Jackson has pitched better than his numbers and should be relatively safe to start against most teams.

Zach McAllister gets the nod only because of the thin pool of options today. Usually I would avoid starts against the Red Sox.

Pitcher (bum): For years, Joe Blanton has underperformed strong peripherals. And now his peripherals have gotten worse and he’s still underperforming them. Stack Royals.

Rick Porcello is also underperforming his peripherals, which suggest he’s the same 4.50 ERA pitcher he’s always been. Remember when he was a monster prospect with swing and miss stuff?

Hitter (power): Nate Schierholtz, Oswaldo Arcia, and Travis Snider are a few names who could swat a long ball today.

Hitter (speed): Lorenzo Cain and Aaron Hicks may be your best bets to pick up a stray steal.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Samuel Deduno is an unusual Twins prospect in that he strikes out a lot of batters and walks more than his share. You may not want to get mixed up in this roller coaster, and especially not against the Tigers, but deep league owners should give him some thought.

John Lackey is looking like vintage John Lackey. His strikeout rate looks a bit high while his walk rate may be a shade low. He’s currently sporting a low 3’s ERA that his peripherals support, but I expect that to be closer to 3.90 over the remainder of the season.

I don’t know what to make of Marco Estrada. He has a strong strikeout rate, respectable walk rate and solid ground ball rate, and yet he keeps turning in disaster pieces. I’m entertaining the possibility that we have a new Ricky Nolasco on our hands (or Javier Vazquez is you prefer), but I’m also sticking with him.

Pitcher (bum): Freddy Garcia is having trouble getting pitches past hitters. Right now, he’s showing non-terrible numbers thanks to a .179 BABIP against. The Blue Jays are a threat to hit some balls out of play.

The Braves draw buffet manager Jeremy Hefner for tomorrow’s feast.

Luis Mendoza: Redefining Mendoza. Actually, he’s pitched solidly after some early season combustion. His skill set remains unimpressive and exploitable by most teams.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Apparently, Joe Saunders kills it at Safeco (9-0 with 1.72 ERA), but gets killed everywhere else. I have to bet on the Rangers lineup over Saunders, regardless of locale.

Hitter (power): Let’s watch Juan Francisco take some big hacks.

Travis Hafner will see Roberto Hernandez. On the other side of that match-up. Kelly Johnson is showing a lot of value as a platoon option at second base.

Righty Chris Carter will face lefty Tommy Milone.

Cody Ross has been quiet thus far. He’s not striking out or hitting for power. He’ll face a lefty tomorrow – Eric Stultz.

Hitter (speed): Cain will gain the platoon advantage tomorrow against Jason Vargas.

Craig Gentry should start against Saunders.

Noteworthy news

I learned yesterday that Brian Urlacher was retiring. Today, I learned that he is calling quits on his stealth MLB career. Read the headline, and if it makes sense, it’s because they fixed it.

Weather watch

Every game except the Angels and Royals is at risk to see thunderstorms and/or rain. Of course, the Orioles and Blue Jays will be playing in a dome, so it doesn’t matter if it rains in Toronto, but the other three games will likely be affected.


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Rich
10 years ago

Urlacher – MLB = Middle Linebacker

Jim
10 years ago

Porcello and the Tigers beating the Twins (who have lost how many straight?) seems like the best stream to me today. I picked up Gausman, but I think I’ll sit him until he has an easier opponent and gets his sea legs.

James T Work
10 years ago

so I picked up Carl Crawford for Shelby Miller…you would think if I need to stream a SP I would need to choose from Viciedo or Profar to let loose?  What would your call be? Viciedo whos a hitting beast…at times or PROFAR who might no stick around anyway? but is phenominal

Compton
10 years ago

Anyone else feelin Phelps tomorrow @ TB?

Tom
10 years ago

Any conclusion on expanding the pitcher pool to 70%? If it’s not too hard to do, you could break it into categories 50-70 and <50. Still a great column.

Drew
10 years ago

I’m giving Phelps a shot today.  TB always seems to be on the wrong end of no hitters for past couple of years so I always hold out hope when my guys start against them.