The daily grind 6-29

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

Ross Detwiler is set to face the Braves. It’s not a drool-worthy match-up, but it’s playable.

Bud Norris is coming off the disabled list to face the Cubs today. He’s 44 percent owned but does have some nice upside.

Michael Saunders against Aaron Cook could be a nice opportunity.

Similarly, Daniel Nava versus Hector Noesi is friendly. Nava is not guaranteed to start but probably will.

I’m hoping that the Rockies will get Tyler Colvin in the lineup again. Yesterday he played in place of Michael Cuddyer. The Rockies face Jason Marquis.

Let Ben Revere slap a couple hits against Luis Mendoza.

Tomorrow’s grind

You could try J.A. Happ against the Cubs. It’s not an inspired match-up, but the few Cubs hitters who are “feared” also happen to be left-handed.

The Diamondbacks and Brewers are hosting the regression special—Wade Miley against Michael Fiers. Both lineups are solid enough that I’d avoid the two despite their sub-3.00 ERAs.

The high-risk, high-reward option of the day is Christian Friedrich versus the Padres.

Craig Gentry will get in there to face Tommy Milone. On the other side of that match-up, Seth Smith will get a shot at Justin Grimm.

The Twins and Royals are having a doubleheader, so snatch up Revere and Ryan Doumit for the double game.

Reliever watch

David Robertson blew the save yesterday in a mid-inning appearance.

Rafael Betancourt got touched up for a solo home run by Bryce Harper. That was Betancourt’s fourth blown save. Now may be a good time to look to trade the veteran, not because of performance, but because the Rockies are fairly likely to trade him to a team where he may be the setup man. The flip side to that is he could also get a major upgrade.

Yesterday’s results

If you found Trevor Bauer, his debut was uninspired: 4 IP, 3 K, 4.50 ERA, 2.00 WHIP

Wei-Yin Chen was similarly lacking in inspiration: 6.1 IP, 3 K, 8.53 ERA, 1.42 WHIP

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Smith has been popular around here lately, but he was 0-for-4 with one RBI and a sombrero (three strike outs).

David Murphy went 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

Pedro Alvarez took out his whoopin’ stick. He went 1-for-3 with a home run, one run, one RBI, and one walk.

Alex Presley had one walk off the bench. It would seem the Pirates have temporarily given up on him.

Tyler Moore was 1-for-4 with one run and one walk.


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Abdoozy
11 years ago

What I find amusing this year is that both pitching *and* hitting appear to be down simultaneously.

Maybe that new PED detection program is more effective than anyone wants to admit?

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

I have to say, I’ve never had such a hard time streaming. The last two years I’ve averaged around 300 IP, 250 K, 3.50 ERA, 1.25 WHIP from my stream starters, not counting RP (which is where the gravy’s really made). This year, I’m putting together a disasterpiece with my streaming efforts in 2 of 5 leagues and those other leagues have seen replacement level performance.

Abdoozy
11 years ago

Given my bad luck streaming, I’m considering a trade: I give Granderson and Belt, I’d get CJWilson and Hosmer. I have Dickey and Verlander for reliable arms, Norris, Parker, and have been streaming the rest.  Grandy hasn’t exactly been a production powerhouse this season and I have HRs covered pretty well. 

Would you pull the trigger on that one?  Barring injury (and this is a bad season to say that) I could probably afford to give up on streaming SP this year.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

I’d want a better pitcher for Grandy.

This seems like a good time to plug Mike Silver’s new site: http://www.fantasyplayerrater.com/

It will help you evaluate the impact on your roto points.

Ben
11 years ago

Well… CJ has been overperforming so far.  With the walk rate he’s sporting so far his ERA should be much closer to 3.50.  He is a groundball guy, which helps protect his low BABIP, so maybe he’ll sustain… it’s not unprecedented.  On the flip side, Granderson has been underperforming somewhat.  His career has been somewhat random, so who knows if he’ll bounce back to a normal BABIP and fly ball rate.  I hate his K rate and I’m not sure he improves much.  The redeeming factor of that trade is that Belt for Hosmer is skewed way to Hosmer if you believe, like I do, that he’ll bounce back.  Belt is a waiver wire floater with little value outside of OBP or OPS leagues.  So based on your goal of getting a good starter it’s merely an OK trade.  In terms of total talent trading hands, I’d take it.

Ben
11 years ago

Your regression special will likely be more skewed towards Miley.  As long as Fiers continues to not walk guys, his only stats that are out of line is a slightly high strand rate and some luck on homers.  Yeah, it’d be nice if his fastball was better than 88.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Fiers hasn’t been up long enough for me to put any faith in his peripherals. He has visibly mediocre stuff which would make him an exception if he keeps this up.

I mean it happens, Duchscherer and Colby Lewis immediately come to mind as examples, but it’s uncommon.