The daily grind: 9-14

The Daily Grind provides daily match-up advice based on my every-morning waiver wire search. I welcome advice to help make this column more effective. Ownership rates are from Yahoo!

The Fanduel picks are a mixture of Daily League specific advice and information for the more typical fantasy owner.

Today’s grind

Those in leagues with same-day moves should refer back to yesterday’s table.

The Fanduel Daily League Players of the Day are:

Pitcher (to start): You have your choice today. You can choose one of two reliable starters against a strong lineup. That’s Ross Detwiler against the Braves or Hisashi Iwakuma against the Rangers.

Or you can choose one of two high upside prospects against a weak lineup. That’s Tyler Skaggs versus the Giants or Andrew Cashner at Petco against the Rockies.

Pitcher (bum): You have some choices here as well. The Reds face Jacob Turner in one of the most exploitable match-ups of the day. The Tigers will see Corey Kluber.

Hitter (power): Jonny Gomes, Chris Carter, and Cody Ross are the power plays of the day.

Hitter (speed): I stick by my assertion that Will Venable is hot, even if that isn’t strictly true in the last two weeks. It’s all a matter of perspective. Coco Crisp is a nice alternative.

Tomorrow’s grind

Phillies fans have pretty much accepted that Kyle Kendrick is now a good pitcher, but I’m not buying. He’s reduced his repertoire from three pitches to two and while his command and control are very sharp at the moment, I’ve seen similar stretches from him in the past and they’ve ended in time. There’s a decent chance he holds it together through the end of the season and against the Astros there’s all the more reason to roll the dice.

Jenrry Mejia will be starting for the Mets against the Brewers. I wouldn’t try him, but he’s certainly interesting enough to mention.

What’s going on with Jarrod Parker’s ownership (40 percent)? He should be owned in twice that number of leagues and that statement has been true for months now. Is it because he’s an Athletic?

Team Player Handedness Opposing pitcher   Team Player Handedness Opposing pitcher
Angels         Astros      
  Alberto Callaspo R Jeremy Guthrie     Brett Wallace L Kyle Kendrick
Athletics         Brewers      
  Chris Carter R Zach Britton     Norichika Aoki L Jenrry Mejia
  Coco Crisp S Zach Britton   Cardinals      
  Jonny Gomes R Zach Britton     Jon Jay L Joe Blanton
Mariners         Diamondbacks      
  Eric Thames L Scott Feldman     Chris Johnson R Barry Zito
  Mike Carp L Scott Feldman   Dodgers      
  Michael Saunders L Scott Feldman     A.J. Ellis R Jaime Garcia
Rangers         Padres      
  Geovany Soto R Jason Vargas     Carlos Quentin R Drew Pomeranz
  Craig Gentry R Jason Vargas     Cameron Maybin R Drew Pomeranz
Rays           Chris Denorfia R Drew Pomeranz
  Carlos Pena L Ivan Nova   Phillies      
Red Sox           Carlos Ruiz R Dallas Keuchel
  Cody Ross R Carloas Villanueva     John Mayberry Jr. R Dallas Keuchel
Tigers         Pirates      
  Brennan Boesch L Justin Masterson     Alex Presley L Jason Berken
  Quintin Berry L Justin Masterson     Starling Marte R Jason Berken
Twins         Reds      
  Ryan Doumit S Jose Quintana     Zack Cozart R Mark Buehrle
White Sox         Rockies      
  Dayan Viciedo R Samuel Deduno     Tyler Colvin L Casey Kelly
Yankees                
  Raul Ibanez L James Shields          

Plenty of power choices today.

Chris Johnson will get some hacks against Barry Zito. Elsewhere, Gomes, Carter and Crisp will be at it against another lefty opponent in Zach Britton.

Carlos Ruiz is surprisingly over-owned for a guy who starts every couple of days—53 percent. However, I’m told he is expected to start today and Sunday and he doesn’t seem to have missed a beat during his time off. He will join John Mayberry Jr. with a strong match-up against Dallas Keuchel.

Maybe you’re saying, I need a speedster. I have a hunch that Quintin Berry will get the start against Justin Masterson.

Reliever watch

Joe Nathan blew his second save of the season, which at this late stage is probably all I need to say. Nevertheless, I will specifically state that Nathan’s job is very secure.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
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Bluff
11 years ago

More likely to start tonight – Pedroia who left other dayy because wife was in labor or Cain who left injured last night? Need to start 1

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Cain

Will H.
11 years ago

As much as I want to start Skaggs, SF is actually quite decent (even sans their roider) away, and ARI plays in a serious hitters park, so I’m staying away.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

That’s an accurate assessment, yet that counts as a fairly advantageous match-up for late season waiver fodder.

HGS
11 years ago

Who out of the 3 below would you like for weekly 5×5 playoffs next week (all categories will likely be competitive):
Rajai Davis
Justin Ruggiano
Lucas Duda

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

Um…yikes.

You’ve got the full gamut of mediocre there. Davis can be expected to help R/SB and hurt elsewhere, Ruggiano can contribute to every category, but at a below average rate, and Duda is a pure HR/RBI option.

I think I’d take Ruggiano as he’s likely to get the most starts. All three have 6 games.

Good luck finding an alternative. And I’m sure you need no reminder that in so small a sample, almost anything can happen.

Morgan Conrad
11 years ago

You might want to go back and quickly delete your pitching suggestions for yesterday.  grin  Thanks for an overall good column, but some days the bear eats you.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

I’ve had more than a couple days where I’ve felt that way.

I plan some “how to Grind” columns for over the offseason for related strategy. I think the purpose of the column is to offer up the best options for a particular day, but you have to pick your spots in order to translate it into success. For example, I probably take ONE of my own recommendations on 2 days our of 5.

Morgan Conrad
11 years ago

That sounds like a great idea. 

To me, the hard part is deciding which players are “borderline” and you should feel o.k. to drop to pick up Brad’s “grind of the day” pick in an attempt to sneak in one extra HR, and which players you should really stick with through thick or thin.  For example, right now I’m really tempted to drop a slumping Panda for a couple more SB, but our team could also use offense in general.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

To answer that simplistically, I usually have 1-2 roster spots that are on open rotation. Sometimes those fill up with permanent guys and sometimes they don’t.

I prioritize SP match-ups that I really like, especially for guys who I think might be outright rosterable.

Next priority is split between decent SP match-ups and position players who might be outright rosterable. The position players have the additional caveat in that there must be a place to start them. Then come position players who fill a slot for a day (if there are no SP).

Last, but maybe most important are the RP. Depending on the format, they may need to be SP/RP like Furbush or Davis.

If you have one stream spot open for the entire season, you would ideally get 60 SP innings, 60 RP innings, and about 35 position player games. Breaking that down over a 170 day season, it’s 10 SP games, 40 position player games, and 120 RP games.

You have to really micromanage to get 60 IP out of 120 reliever games, but it’s easily achievable.