The daily grind: 9-24

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.

It’s down to the wire and with that comes a slight shift in presentation.

Today’s grind

The Fanduel Daily League Players of the Day are:

Pitcher (to start): Grind favorite Marco Estrada is being noticed by more people (35 percent owned). Against the Nationals, it is best to tread carefully.

Wei-Yin Chen is owned at a 44 percent rate, but I picked him up in two leagues yesterday, so he’s ostensibly available for some of you.

Dan Straily is interesting, but he also is opposed by the Rangers.

Andy Pettitte is scheduled against the lefty-leaning Twins lineup. It’s just the second start back from the disabled list for Pettitte, so expect it to be a high variance outing.

Pitcher (bum): Bums don’t mean much these days since teams have 15-man bullpens to clean up any messes. That said, Ricky Romero has had a difficult season and will be starting game two of today’s double header.

Liam Hendriks isn’t a very good pitcher. The Yankees lineup is depleted, but not THAT depleted.

Hitter (power): Raul Ibanez popped a couple home runs the other day and against Hendriks, he’ll have a chance to repeat.

It’s a Jonny Gomes day with lefty Derek Holland opposing the A’s.

Hitter (speed): With two games today, Rajai Davis and Nate McLouth are both solid selections. McLouth isn’t much of a runner, but Davis could potentially swipe several.

Tomorrow’s grind

Pitcher (to start): None of tomorrow’s pitchers combine the qualities of good match-up with availability.

Tyler Skaggs might be the best pitcher you can acquire on short notice. He has great stuff, but he hasn’t quite figured out the big league level yet.

Edinson Volquez pitches at home against the Dodgers and is 47 percent owned.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

Pitcher (bum): While all the good names are taken, there are plenty of bums to exploit. The game between the Indians and White Sox pits Corey Kluber against Francisco Liriano. Expect runs to score.

The Tigers should rough up Bruce Chen and the Royals. They still trail the White Sox by just one game, so they need to take advantage of weak opponents.

The Yankees are likely to touch up Esmerling Vasquez for a couple runs. I haven’t scouted the guy yet, so I can’t say more.

Hitter (power): Vasquez is a good match-up for Yankees’ lefty Ibanez, so hold him a second day.

Delmon Young will be pleased to face Chen. Young likes lefties and it’s probably fair to say that Chen is one of the easier ones to face.

Hitter (speed): Ben Revere slaps a lot of balls into play, and the Yankees infield defense isn’t known for its flash.

Norichika Aoki has closed out the season on a strong note. Let’s see if he can continue swiping bags at will.

Davis will get another start with the platoon advantage tomorrow.

It’s hard to decide where Craig Gentry goes as he’s mostly an average hitter with little power or stolen base potentially. He’s more likely to steal a bag than hit a home run, so I’ll slot him in here.


You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
HGS
11 years ago

The 10 day championship week of my 5×5 H2H league starts today.  Should I use Kenley Jansen or Wilton Lopez as my 3rd closer?  Kenley would be the obvious choice, except for Mattingly has inexplicably returned him to a middle relief role.

Brad Johnson
11 years ago

I think I would still use Kenley.

Tom
11 years ago

I would also check out Erasmo Ramirez for tomorrows start. He’s been good lately, but facing the angels so start w/ caution.