The daily grind: 8-30-13

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

Games in Atlanta, Detroit, and Chicago (NL) have a low chance of thunderstorms.

Today’s grind

Outside of Taijuan Walker, there aren’t many options today.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Ivan Nova is finally up to 45 percent, but he still should be owned in more leagues. A match-up against the Orioles isn’t great, yet he’s good enough to use against most lineups.

Zack Wheeler and Dan Haren square off in the next meeting of TDG regulars. Wheeler is at 48 percent owned while Haren is all the way up to 75 percent owned, so it’s possible that neither pitcher is available.

Marco Estrada has been excellent since returning from the disabled list. He’s generating plenty of whiffs while limiting the walks, just like he did last season. It’s time to take off the kiddie gloves and roster him wherever possible. The downside is that the Brewers lack anything resembling an offense to support him, and the Angels aren’t exactly bums.

Pitcher (bum): Scott Feldman has a difficult match-up with the Yankees. He’s been more like his old self since going over to the American League, which isn’t a good thing. The Yankees can mash mediocre righties like Feldman, so it’s a good day to sit him.

Mike Pelfrey was “effectively wild” last week, but that just warns me to avoid future outings. The Rangers aren’t the world-beaters they once were, but they still can put up some runs in Arlington.

Greg Reynolds will be given the difficult task of surviving Coors Field tomorrow.

Ryan Vogelsong is coming off two straight great outings. His velocity is still down three mph, so he’s either learning to adjust or he’s skating on thin ice. He faces the Diamondbacks.

Hitter (power): Ryan Ludwick has the platoon advantage against Jorge de la Rosa.

Nolan Arenado has continued to hit well despite an 18 percent ownership rate. You could also try Charlie Blackmon. He’s an interesting real-life player but doesn’t contribute much for fantasy purposes most days.

John Danks faces the Red Sox tomorrow, so Jonny Gomes will get to play again.

You can mass Astros against Joe Saunders. That includes Chris Carter, L.J. Hoes, and one below.

Hitter (speed): As promised, your Astro for speed is Jonathan Villar.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Adam Eaton and Gerardo Parra remain available in many leagues.

Surprisingly, Leonys Martin’s ownership has dropped slightly despite a four-RBI game on the 28th. This will be his second great match-up in a row.

Pitchers to come

Sunday: Once again, the top pick for Sunday is a no-brainer with Alex Wood drawing the Marlins.

Monday: Danny Duffy currently looks like the top option on Monday. Charlie Morton might be a more stable, lower-upside choice.

Tuesday: Tuesday is looking shallow with Edwin Jackson the best option. He’ll face the Marlins.

Noteworthy news

Miguel Cabrera suffered an apparent leg injury yesterday that later was described as shooting pain from the abdomen to the groin. Cabrera expects to be available to play today, although I’m not sure if fantasy owners should be pleased.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
6 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
S. Urista
10 years ago

What’s up with Villar?

He now has 30 games in the bigs. In his first 15 games, he had 10 stolen bases (3 caught stealing).

I’m kinda off the Villar bandwagon. In his last 15 games, he has exactly 1 stolen base and only 2 caught stealing.

“Maybe he’s not getting on base”, I hear you say. Au contrair, I respond: In his first 15 games he hit .245. Last 15 games, .277, and he’s also striking out less (40% vs 27%…ok, still not great, but still).

The only thing I see that has changed: He was the lead-off batter for the first 12 games, but since then has mainly batted 9th with occasional 7 or 9 spots sprinkled in.

He has no power, batting last, on a not-great lineup, and even when he’s getting on base he’s not even trying to run (only 3 attempts since 10 Aug). He’s not even scoring runs (9 runs the first 12 games batting at the top of the order, just 4 runs the last 18 games).

If he’s not running he offers zero fantasy value…

FeslenR
10 years ago

This happens a lot to rookie speedsters when the league adjusts to them.  Villar will still bag more than 20 before all is said and done.

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

These are good points and it’s probably worth clarifying that I wouldn’t be mentioning him if he didn’t have SS eligibility. He’s still projected to be well above average on the bases on any given day and anyone who needs to stream SS starts has to be happy with 1 good category. Better options don’t exist unless your league hasn’t rostered Bogaerts and you guess right on his start days.

Chief Inspector Dreyfus
10 years ago

Am I going to get hurt in ERA and WHIP with Zimmerman today against the Mets?

Brad Johnson
10 years ago

Probably not. But the same could (and was) said about Felix and Wainwright the other day.

Chief Inspector Dreyfus
10 years ago

FYI Billy Hamilton is getting the call-up.