The daily grind: 8-14-13

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 weather watch

The weather is all clear across the board today.

Today’s grind

Today’s class has a few of the top waiver wire picks but isn’t deep.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Sonny Gray is an option against the Astros. He’s an interesting prospect in that he can strike out his fair share while limiting walks, but I wouldn’t be overly aggressive about adding him outside of deep keeper leagues. If he gets additional work, we can probably expect an ERA north of 4.00.

Dan Haren has been pitching well, which mostly means that he’s limiting home runs. Tomorrow he faces the Giants, so the match-up is there to continue using him.

Tony Cingrani faces the Brewers tomorrow. He has posted a higher walk rate since returning to the rotation in late June, but has otherwise continued to succeed with his fastball heavy approach.

Zack Wheeler appears to be working to get his walk rate under control, which is a big reason why he’s someone to avoid for neutral or difficult outings. He’s paired against the Padres, so he’s a reasonable waiver pick. Do note that his decent 3.63 ERA belies a 5.14 FIP.

Alex Cobb returns to the mound tomorrow to face the Mariners. He’s 70 percent owned, so it appears that he was stashed on the disabled list in most leagues. It’s hard to know what to expect coming back from such a gruesome injury.

Pitcher (bum): I would suggest that Andre Rienzo versus Mike Pelfrey could yield quite a few runs, but the White Sox and Twins feature two very weak offenses.

Ryan Vogelsong was not sharp in his return from the disabled list last week, but he did survive the outing. Of particular concern is the reduced velocity on his fastball, which registered about 2 mph slower than his usual average. This time around he faces the Nationals.

Hitter (power): Chris Young could be worth a try against Erik Bedard. On the other side of the match-up, Robbie Grossman may be able to take advantage of Gray.

Jonny Gomes will face Mark Buehrle.

Brian Dozier continues to hit well for an up-the-middle asset. His eligibility at shortstop and second base can be a boon.

Hitter (speed): Jonathan Villar is back in the lineup and has shown a willingness to steal in bunches.

Will Venable has a decent chance to steal some bases against Wheeler and the Mets.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Pitchers to come

Friday: Continue to target Alex Wood against the Nationals.

Saturday: I may have been too critical of Jenrry Mejia when he originally arrived in the big leagues. He’s succeeded in large part due to an unprecedented, excellent walk rate (1.11 BB/9). While that rate is almost certain to regress, it’s conceivable that it will remain far enough below his career norms to make him a solid fantasy option. He faces the Padres on Saturday.

Sunday: Sunday features several adequate options like Ricky Nolasco in Philadelphia or Hector Santiago against the Twins. Keep an eye out to see if a better name emerges from the pack.


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ABSkippers
10 years ago

12 team root keeper – D Jennings and J Villar for Jim Henderson and Aramis Ramirez?  I don’t like it, but I’m desperate for saves, I’m flush with SB, and I need avg and RBI on offense.  Aram would fill in for Smoak and/or Ike Davis.  Is he at all an upgrade at this point?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

ARam isn’t an upgrade on Smoak or Davis at this point. At least not until we see him show some signs of life.

Is Jennings or Villar for a closer (preferably one of the guys from yesterday) at all possible?

ABSkippers
10 years ago

For whatever reason, I cannot get a straight up one-for-one for a closer, and SB’s are bunched up way more than saves are.  6 SB’s separate 4th and 9th place.  Frustrating.