The daily grind 5-7

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

Philip Humber is 25 percent owned and playable against the Indians. On the opposite side of that match-up is Zach McAllister, who’s a sneaky pick-up for today. Yahoo isn’t aware yet that he’s starting so he’s available in every league.

Carlos Zambrano’s had a nice start to the season. He’s 28 percent owned and will face the Astros, which sounds like a combination for a stream start.

I like Felix Doubront against the Royals as they’re a lefty heavy club and Doubront can gather some strikeouts against same-handed opponents.

The Red Sox face a lefty, making Marlon Byrd and Darnell McDonald solid plays.

Craig Gentry will probably start against Brian Matusz.

The Indians and White Sox play a doubleheader so look for options from either team. Shelley Duncan will get the platoon advantage in the second game against Eric Stults.

Tomorrow’s grind

My favorite bandwagon guy, Danny Duffy, is only 10 percent owned. Unfortunately, he faces the Red Sox, so I will once again advise that you pick him up but consider benching him for this game.

Daniel Bard’s ownership is down to 35 percent. He faces the Duffy and the Royals.

Marco Estrada faces the Reds. He reliably produces strikeouts but the rest of the stat line is anyone’s guess.

Duncan faces John Danks for round two. I picked out that match-up last week and Danks won by holding Duncan hitless.

Miguel Batista will start for the Mets, which means I’ll be trying Juan Pierre and Laynce Nix.

Luke Scott is up to 43 percent owned. My work here is done. He faces Ivan Nova tomorrow if there are any remaining holdouts.

Reliever watch

Jose Valverde blew a save on Saturday and then closed the door on Sunday. Joaquin Benoit waits in the wings, but Valverde will have to immolate first.

Speaking of immolation, Heath Bell blew another one. The guy needs to go on the disabled list or something. Steve Cishek is only 30 percent owned, as the fantasy nation apparently reacts to news slowly. Edward Mujica has picked up two saves even though Cishek is ahead on the depth chart, so keep an eye on that.

Santiago Casilla had an error-aided blown save. He should be safe for now.

Javy Guerra blew another one as well. Buy or trade for Kenley Jansen; he’ll step into the role as a top five closer soon.

Chris Sale is being moved to the bullpen to take over the closer’s role. He has some elbow soreness, so it could default to the previous tangle of Hector Santiago, Matt Thornton and Addison Reed.

Yesterday’s results

I made a bunch of recommendations last Friday that I’m going to describe qualitatively.

Strong performers: James McDonald, Kyle Seager

Mediocre performers: Wade Miley, Eric Thames, Andruw Jones, Will Middlebrooks.

Bad performers: Kyle Drabek, Mike Carp, Scott, Duncan

Injured: Carlos Gomez

All in all, not my best day of picks.