The daily grind: 7-13
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
Already we have some changes between yesterday and today. 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): I’d shell out some money on Clayton Kershaw against the Padres today as the “cheap” pitchers aren’t out there or have bad match-ups. You could consider Christian Friedrich against the Phillies.
Pitcher (bum): I just have a feeling that the Blue Jays are going to squeeze the fun out of Justin Masterson tonight.
Hitter (power): Adam Lind against Justin Masterson. Lind has been warm since returning to the show and Masterson is known to have a bit of a weakness for left-handed power hitters. Second choice is Jonny Gomes against Francisco Liriano. That’s a TTO highlight reel in the making.
Hitter (speed): David Murphy against Kevin Millwood. Millwood seems to nut up when I pick against him, but that trend has to end eventually, right? Murphy’s a great pick in that he does a little bit of everything. Second choice is Ben Revere against A.J. Griffin.
Tomorrow’s grind
It’s another day with scant pitching options.
Joe Saunders is coming off the disabled list for a friendly match-up with the Cubs, but I’d hardly be keen to pick him up.
If you have the cojones, Clay Buchholz is also returning from the disabled list. We’ve seen two versions of Buchholz this year, one that is good and one that is utterly devastating to fantasy rosters.
| Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yankees | |||
| Raul Ibanez | L | Jerome Williams | |
| Rays | |||
| Luke Scott | L | Clay Buchholz | |
| Carlos Pena | L | Clay Buchholz | |
| Blue Jays | |||
| Adam Lind | L | Ubaldo Jimenez | |
| Rajai Davis | R | Ubaldo Jimenez | |
| Twins | |||
| Ryan Doumit | S | Tommy Milone | |
| Denard Span | R | Tommy Milone | |
| Ben Revere | L | Tommy Milone | |
| Angels | |||
| Alberto Callaspo | R | Freddy Garcia | |
| Athletics | |||
| Brandon Moss | L | Cole De Vries | |
| Jemile Weeks | S | Cole De Vries | |
| Coco Crisp | S | Cole De Vries | |
| Seth Smith | L | Cole De Vries | |
| Phillies | |||
| Juan Pierre | L | Jeremy Guthrie | |
| Nationals | |||
| Jesus Flores | R | Mark Buehrle | |
| Tyler Moore | R | Mark Buehrle | |
| Astros | |||
| Chris Johnson | R | Tim Lincecum | |
| J.D. Martinez | R | Tim Lincecum | |
| Jordan Schafer | L | Tim Lincecum | |
| Brewers | |||
| Norichika Aoki | L | Kevin Correia | |
| Pirates | |||
| Pedro Alvarez | L | TBA | |
| Casey McGehee | R | TBA | |
| Garrett Jones | L | TBA | |
| Drew Sutton | S | TBA | |
| Cardinals | |||
| Jon Jay | L | Mike Leake | |
| Rockies | |||
| Tyler Colvin | R | Vance Worley | |
| Padres | |||
| Yasmani Grandal | S | Aaron Harang | |
| Yonder Alonso | L | Aaron Harang | |
| Will Venable | L | Aaron Harang |
If you’re looking for power, Moore has a good match-up against the always crafty Buerhle. I also like the Smith versus De Vries match-up and might take another look at Lind for a second straight day.
Pierre has a great match-up against Guthrie, but the funny thing about Pierre-type players is they’re almost match-up neutral. He’ll put the ball in play against anyone and it either sees its way through the infield or it doesn’t. The usual suspects—Revere and Davis—are available too.
Notes on the project
Positions WILL make it into the table at some point. I’ve marked it as a low priority fix since I think most of you have a general sense as to everyone’s eligibility.
I forgot the @ to mark home or away today but I will work that in next week.
Consider yesterday’s results officially dropped.
If you haven’t guessed it, we’re sponsored by Fanduel. I like the site a lot—it’s intuitive and fun.
This feels to me like the general look and feel I’d like to settle on. Thoughts?
Hey Brad,
So all 28 hitters in the table are considered good plays? I’d think it more useful to differentiate who is the better play rather than offer so many names. But maybe I’m misunderstanding the intent. Just my two cents.
How do you feel about Quintana’s start today? I’m on the fence, but it’s a long week so one bad outing won’t hurt too bad…
Looking really good.
This is what I’m talkin bout. Keep it up.
Joe Saunders is a good choice. I think you overlooked Marco Estrada and Aaron Harang.
Doh!
Marco Estrada is a definite play. I’m using him in several leagues. MLB.com has the Brewers pitcher listed as TBA which is why I forgot him this morning.
Harang always kills me. Always. I’m done with him.
And on missing guys, I know ESPN’s probable pitcher data is better, but my brain refuses to process their UI at 6:00 AM. It adds a good 5 minutes to writing the article all told.
And frankly, I’m on a very tight schedule.
Brad – TDG is one of the few sites I check daily, great job keep it up! I feel like you have a few too many hitters in the chart, but other than that, the upgrades are sweet! Thanks!!
Scott,
That might be true. I’m currently trying to offer a “choose your own adventure” type of experience while also offering my favorite choices below the chart. The column will likely be a living experiment for a few weeks.
I wish I had a few more options for manipulating that table. I’m staring at a 28 inch screen right now, so the right half of the page is completely unused. I wonder if I’d break anything if I tried to split the tables into AL/NL and lay them side by side…
It’s too late for many of the Fanduel games, but James McDonald has a nice match-up and was more cost effective. I played the Blue Jay lineup minus Arencibia, McDonald, and Salvador Perez in a standard Fanduel tourny.
FYI: denard span is a lefty