The daily grind: 6-3-13

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.

Today’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Andy Pettitte comes off the disabled list today to face the Indians. Consider it a neutral match-up at best.

Kyle Kendrick’s ownership has dropped back into the sane realm of 52 percent. He’ll face the Marlins. Having watched more than my share of Kendrick, be wary. His command has not been as crisp over the last few starts, and that’s when he gets hit around.

I’m inclined to believe Marco Estrada will get his home run demons under some semblance of control.

Pitcher (bum): Erik Bedard has been uncharacteristically wild in recent starts, which doesn’t bode well for his start against the Angels. I’m going to step out on a limb and suggest that Bedard may be pitching hurt. Granted, that’s a pretty sturdy limb to stand upon.

The Mariners’ reshuffled roster will face John Danks for his third start of the season.

Hitter (power): Dayan Viciedo hasn’t done much of anything recently, but he’ll face a hit-able lefty in Joe Saunders.

Try a couple of the usual suspects against Estrada: Seth Smith and Brandon Moss.

Hitter (speed): Stephen Fife supposedly will start for the Dodgers today in place of Chris Capuano. If so, that makes Will Venable a solid choice for steals.

Nick Franklin—Edmundo to Yahoo owners—will face Danks.

Juan Pierre will be on the lookout to swipe a few bases after Jacoby Ellsbury stole five off the Phillies last week.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): I have recommended Scott Kazmir at all the wrong times this season. So while the match-up looks right for a good outing, I’m personally going to pass.

I want to recommend using Justin Grimm, but the Boston Red Sox may be the wrong time.

As has been noted, I am a fan of A.J. Griffin, even against the Brewers.

Pitcher (bum): I’m not a believer in Jeremy Hefner as a major league pitcher, at least not a starter. The Nationals should do fine in what is expected to be Jayson Werth’s return to the lineup.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

The Orioles probably will swat Lucas Harrell around. The Orioles turned out to feature a very dynamic lineup.

I think Samuel Deduno has the makings of a very good reliever, but he’s just too erratic to trust as a starter.

Clayton Richard has had a tough season, and while the Dodgers aren’t a tough match-up, that trend is likely to continue.

Josh Johnson returns from the disabled list tomorrow to face the Giants. As you can probably guess, my money is on the Giants.

Hitter (power): Werth is merely 48 percent owned and due to come off the disabled list tomorrow.

Brandon Belt has been a favorite pick-up of mine this season. I like the match-up against Johnson.

Go ahead and hang onto Smith and Moss if power is what you need. They face Kyle Lohse.

Hitter (speed): Chris Denorfia will see Ted Lilly.

Pierre is worth holding, too, against Jonathan Pettibone.

Noteworthy news

The MLB Rule 4 draft begins this Thursday.

Stephen Strasburg appears headed to the disabled list with an oblique strain. This seemingly has no relevancy with the Nationals holding him out of the playoffs last year. Anyone who belabors that dubious link is probably a nincompoop.

Weather watch

Weather should be a non-factor today.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
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Nate
10 years ago

I read on Twitter that Zack Wheeler may get called up this week. Any truth to that?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

As far as I can gather, he’ll probably be called up next week so as to avoid Super 2 status.

AbSkippers
10 years ago

The Daily Grind has been missed.  I really enjoy your column and especially appreciate your willingness to answer questions.  It’s good to have you back.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

There will be another brief interruption of service in the second half of June, but I shouldn’t have any more conflicts after that.

Jacob
10 years ago

Reddick is off the DL. Oakland plays in MIL tonight (No DH). Is Smith going to start much in the interleague games, or are we mostly looking at Crisp, Cespedes and Reddick?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Good catch, I forget to check AL/NL for the interleague games sometimes. Thought it was in Oakland for some reason.

So, the answer is yes.

Tom
10 years ago

Have you thought about my suggestion to raise the bar on pitcher ownership to maybe 70%. You could even break it into a separate category if you wanted. Yeah, I know that may add another 3 pitchers to the pool, but I’ll bet it would be worth the effort in viewership.

Abdoozy
10 years ago

Ike Davis may be coming out of his slump and has some juicy matchups this week. Not sure I trust him yet, would you roll with Belt over Ike?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

I think Belt is a safer choice, but sometimes you can’t take the safe choice.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

I’ve been pushing the bar up a little higher, several today were between 40-60. Categorizing them separately would be too much effort. I only check ownership rates when I’m uncertain if the player may be eligible.