The daily grind 6-11

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

It’s one of those Mondays where hardly anybody plays.

I found Chris Capuano to start today in the THT League (apparently there aren’t any believers there), but he’s 85 percent owned.

Garrett Richards is widely available, but don’t use him unless you have to.

Raul Ibanez’s ownership rate has crept back down to 35 percent. He faces Randall Delgado today.

Pickings are a bit slim beyond that. Daniel Nava and Rajai Davis are both under-owned, but both are dealing with day-to-day injuries and should be considered questionable for this evening.

Tomorrow’s grind

Wei-Yin Chen against the Pirates feels pretty safe to me. He’s just 19 percent owned.

Alex Cobb has a reasonably friendly match-up against the Mets.

It’s doubtful they are available, but Max Scherzer (Cubs) and Clay Buchholz (Marlins) have good match-ups.

The Phillies vs. Twins game features Kyle Kendrick and Nick Blackburn. Stack up on as many left-handed hitters as possible from both clubs. Some names include Ryan Doumit, Ben Revere and Jim Thome.

Andruw Jones should be let off the bench to tame Mike Minor.

Davis might need a blanket recommendation. His teammate Colby Rasmus is under 50 percent owned and should be widely carried.

Reliever watch

Brian Fuentes blew another save on Sunday, losing his grip on the closer’s role in the process. A committee of Fuentes, Grant Balfour and Ryan Cook is expected to be used, with Cook given a shot at the role. Sean Doolittle lurks in the wings. He struck out five in two innings yesterday and as a bonus, I played against him frequently back in the glory days.

Aroldis Chapman blew the save and took the loss yesterday. He came on in the eighth with inherited base runners. His role is safe for now, although the Reds really ought to be looking into stretching him out if they want to hold on to their narrow division lead (currently tied with Pittsburgh).

Rafael Soriano blew his first save of the season just in time to stir up some controversy. David Robertson is expected to return from the disabled list sometime this week. Robertson was originally handed the role when Mariano Rivera hit the shelf, but the Yankees ought to be fairly indifferent between Robertson and Soriano.

Alfredo Aceves blew the save Sunday, his fourth of the season. He’s been stable since the beginning of the year, so he has a little bit of leeway. Besides which, the Sox bullpen lacks an obvious replacement at the moment.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Yesterday’s results

That was last week.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Kyle
11 years ago

I gotta quibble your description of W.Y. Chen against the Pirates as ‘safe.” The Pirates are 12-3 over their last 15, on a 4 game win streak, and their best bat (we all know who) is hitting lefties this year to the tune of 463/.492/.815 for a huge 1.306 OPS.

W.Y. Chen may be an ok option, and definitely one worth mentioning on this daily grind, but I don’t know about “safe.”

SirTheory
11 years ago

^as I have unfortunately learned the least few times I’ve tried streaming pitchers against the Pirates. haha.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Quibble accepted. I still think he’s relatively safe for a waiver wire play. Perhaps I should have made those qualifications explicit rather than implied. Or perhaps not.

Tyson
11 years ago

Brad, my roommate went to school with Doolittle, said he stole his prom date or something like that. 

Anyway, he’s still listed as 1st baseman on ESPN…I’d like to pick him up, but can’t waste a roster spot on a 1b who can’t put up any stats.

sturock
11 years ago

>>Sean Doolittle lurks in the wings. He struck out five in two innings yesterday and as a bonus, I played against him frequently back in the glory days.<<

Brad, Where did you play ball?

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

South Jersey. Lenape HS to be specific. Doolittle played for our top rival – Shawnee HS.