The daily grind: 7-9-13

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.

A flight cancellation interfered with yesterday’s Grind.

Today’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Martin Perez is 11 percent owned and features strong peripherals. Despite a solid whiff rate, he’s currently not striking out many batters. That combined with a match-up against Baltimore make him a hard pitcher to start today.

Kyle Gibson currently has one strong start and one meltdown to his name. He features the raw tools of a quality fantasy pitcher and the Rays aren’t the most potent offense, so he isn’t a bad player upon whom to gamble.

I’ve grown weary of Tony Cingrani, but the Brewers offense is a bit of a shambles. Ryan Braun is slated to return but Aramis Ramirez is now out. Cingrani is 46 percent owned and I have him permanently rostered in most of my leagues.

Dillon Gee is the only stream starter that I’m using today. He’s been much better over the past month and his match-up against the Giants should mitigate his home run problems. It’s possible that Gee is worth owning.

Pitcher (bum): Ubaldo Jimenez has allowed both walks and hits in bunches this season. The Toronto sluggers are well positioned to take advantage.

Ian Kennedy and the Dodgers have developed a bit of a story this season. I’m interested to see how this one plays out. It’s also Ricky Nolasco’s first start as a Dodger, but I would play him if he’s available.

Allen Webster has shown good stuff including a big fastball and high whiff rate. However, until he gets his ERA and FIP in order, I will be betting against him.

Hitter (power): Ike Davis is back in blue and orange and in his three games he’s gone 4-for-13 with four walks and three strikeouts. I may have him categorized wrong as a power threat against Barry Zito—he’s stolen a base in each of his last two games.

Darin Ruf is filling in for an injured Ryan Howard. He’s had a disappointing season and the only positive here is that he’s likely to bat out of the middle of the order.

Hitter (speed): One of my favorite multi-purpose options—Will Venable—will face a hittable Eric Stults.

Eric Young is essentially a permanent resident of the column. He’s playing every day but he contributes only to stolen bases.

Rajai Davis could reach base a couple times against Jimenez.

Grab Leonys Martin while you still can. He’s at risk of falling into a platoon when Craig Gentry returns, but for now he’s starting and putting up great numbers.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): A very difficult Cardinals offense got to Jacob Turner in his last outing, but I’m growing more comfortable expecting consistent performance from the youngster. Keep in mind that he’ll have a hard time winning games, which makes him a fringy choice to spot-start.

Zack Wheelerr is another fringy start option at San Francisco. His walk rate strikes me as potentially jitters-inflated. A correction would help him realize his 2013 potential as a mid-rotation starter.

The Rick Porcello bandwagon is emptying, but he has a great match-up against the offense starved White Sox tomorrow.

Let’s round out tomorrow’s options with short comments. Tyler Skaggs, Felix Doubront, Aaron Harang, and Andrew Cashner are all varying degrees of available and all are potentially startable depending on your situation. I’m using Doubront.

Pitcher (bum): Jonny Hellweg has had a rough go in his first pass through the league. He’ll face the Reds tomorrow.

Wade Davis is coming off one of his strongest outings, but he’s been too prone to blowing up this season and the Yankees can still punish right-handers.

Texas is set to use the venerable TBA.

Hitter (power): Kyle Blanks will see lefty Jorge de la Rosa

Brian Dozier is useful mostly for his dual eligibility at shortstop and second base. He’ll face Jeremy Hellickson.

Travis Hafner should be of use tomorrow against Wade Davis.

Ike Davis has a better match-up tomorrow against Matt Cain.

Hitter (speed): Try Chris Denorfia against de la Rosa.

Hang onto Martin if you can get him.

Noteworthy news

My usual news queries are clogged with All-Star blather, so share anything interesting that happened yesterday or will happen today.

Weather watch

The Northeast and Midwest will see scattered storms today. That includes games hosted in Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia


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

Um, Venable and Stults are on the same team methinks….

Marc
10 years ago

Any news on when Porcello’s appeal will be heard?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Yes that is true. I meant Jhoulys Chacin.

No word on Porcello’s appeal at this point.