The daily grind: 7-2-13

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.

Ahoy there. The Grind is back from temporary hiatus for an abbreviated week. Next week, I plan to shake up the format slightly by focusing more of my effort on tomorrow’s plays. Please note, I’ve been disconnected for two weeks, so I may have missed a few playing time changes like Eric Young becoming an everyday starter for the Mets.

Today’s grind

Pitcher (to start): John Lackey is 54 percent owned and today’s top waiver pick-up.

I really like Justin Grimm for these soft match-ups like Seattle. He’s faced a ton of tough offenses this season, and they’ve punished him.

After two meltdown starts in his past five, the Corey Kluber express seems to be pulling out of the station. Which means I now own him outright in all of my leagues since my rivals dropped him. A start against the Royals should produce solid results.

A.J. Griffin will see the Cubs in Oakland. Unfortunately, he’s 59 percent owned.

Rounding out the top five is Phil Hughes against the Twins.

Pitcher (bum): The Nationals showed a few signs of life last night on offense, but more importantly, Wily Peralta has struggled this season. He’s a talented arm, so keep an eye on him in the future.

Chien-Ming Wang will face the dreaded Tigers lineup in Toronto. Need I say that this is a horrible assignment for Wang?

I’ll bet against Roy Oswalt for two reasons. It’s hard to pitch in Colorado, and it’s unlikely he’ll pull down the win against Clayton Kershaw.

Hitter (power): I’m not a big believer in Scott Feldman, so I like Seth Smith’s match-up today.

You could try Chris Carter in David Price’s return from the disabled list.

Samuel Deduno is a good match-up for Travis Hafner.

Jonny Gomes will get in against the deceptive Robbie Erlin.

Hitter (speed): Craig Gentry should get the nod against Joe Saunders, and I’m pretty sure Jurickson Profar will, too.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): If you don’t mind not getting strikeouts, you can probably sneak a start from Ross Detwiler tomorrow.

Tony Cingrani will draw the Giants, but be careful. I liked him a lot more as a reliever.

I wish Scott Kazmir was predictable in any way. This is a high-risk, high-reward match-up with the Royals, so decide if a possible explosion is worth a possible gem.

Tyler Chatwood is rolling a strong combination of ground balls with a roughly league-average strikeout rate.

Pitcher (bum): Randall Delgado is somebody that even the Mets might be able to punish.

The Yankees may be a shadow of their former selves, but they can still feast on fringy righties like P.J. Walters.

Hitter (power): Kyle Blanks gains the platoon advantage against Jon Lester.

Hang onto Hafner.

Hitter (speed): Try Eric Young against Delgado.

Chris Denorfia is also in line for a start.

Noteworthy news

The whole Biogenesis thing is still happening, so hold your injured Ryan Braun closely. Or something.

Weather watch

The entire Northeast and Midwest will be seeing scattered storms today, so expect a lot of delays and possible cancellations. Games in Pittsburgh, Washington, New York, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Atlanta could be affected.


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

Ibanez over Richie Weeks this week, right? 3 in Texas and 3 in Cincy and he’s as hot as can be.

Martha
10 years ago

For speed, I like Toronto’s Rajai Davis, who’s filling in for Melky Cabrera and has seven steals in his past four games. Hope I’m not jinxing myself here, since I picked him up last Saturday…

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

I’m a big Rajai Davis fan for fantasy purposes. My rosters usually end up with 10-15 odd steals from spot starts. I prefer to use him against LHP though.

Yes to Ibanez over Weeks. Regardless of hot or not, Ibanez is just much more likely to start on a given day. However, I’m certain there are other factors to consider here (alternatives being one), so I can’t guarantee this is the best recommendation.

Shibboleth
10 years ago

Griffin hit waivers in my 12 team QS/Solds league. I dont lnow enough about him… Is he worth owning over any of these guys:

Gee, Kluber, Porcello, Blanton, Pestano, Oliver Perez, Krod?

Adi
10 years ago

What do you think about Bedard (14 ks and a 2.7 ERA in his last 2 starts) facing the Rays?

Jon J.
10 years ago

Craig Gentry on the DL.  Leonys Martin has .387 OBP and 4 steals since Gentry got hurt.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Thanks Jon. Yes, Martin is the rec if Gentry is out.

Adi, I like Bedard now that he’s back to form, but don’t expect W’s. I usually like to chase waiver match-ups that have a good prospect at a W.

fhod_dj_x
10 years ago

Weeks is the starter now FTR, Scooter is at AAA so he should be starting regularly and also has 3 weatherproof games this week to Ibanez’s 0. I’m not sure how Ibanez would be more likely to start than him…

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Thanks for the heads up, I didn’t notice Scooter got demoted. That does change the evaluation quite a bit, I would have to look at their match-ups, which I don’t have time to do now. Definitely more of a toss up now with Weeks likely to play more games.

FeslenR
10 years ago

Griffin is way better than Blanton, and Porcello, I’d dump Perez and KRod if you need starters for weaker streaming teams.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Sorry Shib, your message didn’t hit my inbox for some reason.

A case for Griffin could be made over all those pitchers you listed (I’m pretty sure I prefer Kluber), and I agree with Feslen on the players who are the weakest links.

Franco G
10 years ago

I like your daily read, missed it when you were gone. I especially like it when you mention any stats that support your thought process.

shibboleth
10 years ago

Many thanks, fellas!