The daily grind 6-5

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

Drew Smyly is set to face the Indians today. He’s hit a bit of a rough patch so it will be interesting to see how he handles the easy assignment.

Chris Young has a start today. I don’t recommend him, but he’s a curiosity so he’s worth a mention.

A.J. Burnett has the all-or-nothing start against the Reds.

Brennan Boesch will face Ubaldo Jimenez. You remember Jimenez as that unhittable guy on the Rockies, but the current iteration is very hittable and walks more than he strikes out.

I think Matt Adams will start against Lucas Harrell tonight, but Allen Craig might get shifted to first base.

Gerardo Parra may or may not play, but if he does, he has an excellent match-up against Jeremy Guthrie.

Craig Gentry is likely to spot start against Travis Blackley.

Tomorrow’s grind

Felipe Paulino against the Twins is the money match-up of the day. I still say you should own this guy outright.

Brad Lincoln has been surprisingly effective and the Reds are rather hit or miss. I’d only play this one if I were scrapping the barrel.

If you’ve got balls, Wei-Yin Chen and Alex Cobb take on the Red Sox and Yankees respectively. They’re both solid pitchers though the match-ups for tomorrow are borderline lethal.

James Loney gets a shot at Kyle Kendrick.

Anyone can hit Nick Blackburn which is why I recommend any available Royals like Jarrod Dyson or Jeff Francoeur.

One of my favorites, David Murphy, draws the Bartolo Colon match-up.

Reliever watch

Jonathan Papelbon blew a tie game and took the loss.

It looks like Santiago Casilla should avoid the disabled list. In the interim, Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt appear to be handling closing duties.

Shawn Tolleson has been activated by the Dodgers. He went into the season as one of the top relief prospects in baseball and he’s only added to that status this season.

Yesterday’s results

Vance Worley threw his 50 pitches: 4 IP, 4 K, 6.25 ERA, 2.00 WHIP

Jason Vargas was solid while earning the win: 5.2 IP, 8 K, 6.35 ERA, 1.94 WHIP

Christian Friedrich overwhelmed the Diamondbacks while earning the win: 7 IP, 4 K, 0.00 ERA, 0.86 WHIP

Kirk Nieuwenhuis was 1-for-4.

Ryan Doumit was 0-for-5. I’d still play that match-up any day of the week.

My favorite Murphy was 0-for-2 with a walk.

Seth Smith was a homer short of the cycle. He went 4-for-5 with two runs and one RBI.