The daily grind: 8-6-13

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

Thunderstorms could affect games in Atlanta, Philadelphia and St. Louis.

Today’s grind

Today is thin but there are a couple of viable veterans in the mix.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): Miguel Gonzalez possesses an unexciting skill set for fantasy purposes, but a start against the Padres at Petco is worth notice.

You should rush to own Danny Salazar, but be aware that a start against the Tigers isn’t favorable for anybody. Salazar has fringe ace stuff with the ability to strike out more than a batter per inning while limiting walks to a stingy rate.

Hector Santiago is the top option for the day against the lefty-prone Yankees. Alfonso Soriano and Alex Rodriguez could help the Yankees solve their issues against lefties—at least temporarily.

Chris Archer is a nice option, but at 68 percent owned, not many of us have that choice.

Pitcher (bum): I will be rooting for J.A. Happ tomorrow in his return from the disabled list, but Happ versus Aaron Harang is a classic recipe for runs aplenty.

I will bet against youngster Chad Bettis, as I suspect he’s better suited for the bullpen. He’s been excellent in the minors throughout his career but had a very rough debut last week.

Jarred Cosart has an ERA under 1.00 through his first four starts, so you may be wondering why I’m listing him as exploitable. His inability to generate whiffs combined with generous helpings of walks has forced Cosart to rely on a .214 BABIP, 87 percent LOB rate, and zero percent HR/FB ratio. His xFIP is 4.52 and I fully expect his near future performance to be even bumpier than that.

Hitter (power): Michael Morse will see Happ in his return.

Christian Yelich has been plagued by lefty opponents, but I finally get to recommend him against Charlie Morton.

Oswaldo Arcia may enjoy his match-up with Wade Davis

Hitter (speed): Eric Young Jr. continues to remain an excellent source of steals, but that’s the extent of his utility.

Try any number of Rangers outfielders. David Murphy, Leonys Martin and Engel Beltre will all have the platoon advantage. Martin is most interesting if he continues to bat first, but Beltre has a fun mix of speed and pop that should result in 40 or more HR+SB per 600 plate appearances.

Pitchers to come

Thursday: It’s still Gerrit Cole.

Friday: Brandon Beachy versus the Marlins and Dan Haren against the Phillies both represent high risk, high reward opportunities.

Saturday: Saturday is shaping up to be a strong stream day. Alex Wood against the Marlins is the early front runner, but Tony Cingrani has a friendly match-up with the Padres and others look enticing too.

Noteworthy news

Well, we know the outcome of Biogenesis and it mainly affected shortstop depth. From the perspective of this column, the suspension to Nelson Cruz is the most notable. Engel Beltre and Joey Butler seem primed to form an interesting platoon, which makes the entire Rangers outfield waiver-friendly.