The daily grind: 7-24
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.
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): There aren’t any starters I’m even remotely interested in. Mike Leake might have the best match-up of the day for available arms. Garrett Richards and Paul Maholm are the not-so-pleasant alternatives.
Edwar Cabrera against the Diamondbacks could be interesting if only because he’s a relatively unknown quantity. He survived the PCL, which has to count for something.
To answer yesterday’s reader question about Maholm, I do not like his match-up. The Pirates are killing it lately.
Pitcher (bum): We’ve got our share of bums today. Will Smith against the Angels and Brett Cecil against the A’s look like the most exploitable.
Masher with a Match-up: It’s hard to pass up Jonny Gomes against a struggling left-hander like Cecil. Not a lot of true power options out there as alternatives today, but I’d expect a couple hits from Lorenzo Cain.
Hitter (speed): Rajai Davis has a nice match-up against Richards. I’m not sure if he’ll steal a bag, but David Murphy has one of the best well-rounded match-ups of the day.
Tomorrow’s grind
My favorite waiver starter—Marco Estrada—has a survivable match-up against the Phillies. However, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard have been providing some firepower lately, so be wary.
Trevor Cahill is a little over 50 percent owned, but I’ve seen him surface in a couple of my leagues and I like him against the patchwork Rockies.
Kevin Correia reliably gives up about three runs in about six innings. The Pirates have been providing plenty of run support so his start against the Cubs appears playable.
| Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing pitcher | Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing pitcher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angels | Brewers | |||||||
| Maicer Izturis | R | Luke Hochevar | Norichika Aoki | L | Vance Worley | |||
| Alberto Callaspo | R | Luke Hochevar | Cardinals | |||||
| Athletics | Jon Jay | L | Aaron Harang | |||||
| Jemile Weeks | S | Ricky Romero | Cubs | |||||
| Coco Crisp | S | Ricky Romero | Tony Campana | L | Kevin Correia | |||
| Jonny Gomes | R | Ricky Romero | Giants | |||||
| Blue Jays | Gregor Blanco | L | Jason Marquis | |||||
| Adam Lind | L | A.J. Griffin | Marlins | |||||
| Indians | Carlos Lee | R | Tommy Hanson | |||||
| Johnny Damon | L | Max Scherzr | Greg Dobbs | L | Tommy Hanson | |||
| Mariners | Nationals | |||||||
| Michael Saunders | L | Ivan Nova | Steve Lombardozzi | S | Jeremy Hefner | |||
| Rangers | Padres | |||||||
| David Murphy | L | Josh Beckett | Yasmani Grandal | S | Tim Lincecum | |||
| Rays | Yonder Alonso | L | Tim Lincecum | |||||
| Luke Scott | L | Miguel Gonzalez | Carlos Quentin | R | Tim Lincecum | |||
| Carlos Pena | L | Miguel Gonzalez | Will Venable | L | Tim Lincecum | |||
| Red Sox | Phillies | |||||||
| Daniel Nava | S | Derek Holland | Juan Pierre | L | Marco Estrada | |||
| Cody Ross | R | Derek Holland | Pirates | |||||
| Royals | Pedro Alvarez | L | Ryan Dempster | |||||
| Salvador Perez | R | Jered Weaver | Garrett Jones | L | Ryan Dempster | |||
| Lorenzo Cain | R | Jered Weaver | Reds | |||||
| Tigers | Zach Cozart | R | Bud Norris | |||||
| Brennan Boesch | L | Derek Lowe | Todd Frazier | R | Bud Norris | |||
| Quintin Berry | L | Derek Lowe | Rockies | |||||
| Twins | Tyler Colvin | L | Trevor Cahill | |||||
| Ryan Doumit | S | Jake Peavy | ||||||
| Denard Span | L | Jake Peavy | ||||||
| Ben Revere | L | Jake Peavy | ||||||
| White Sox | ||||||||
| Dayan Viciedo | R | Nick Blackburn | ||||||
| Yankees | ||||||||
| Raul Ibanez | L | Hisashi Iwakuma |
Gomes returns with a second consecutive day of relevance and Adam Lind joins him as a masher with a match-up. I might have to rename the Hitters (power) section now…
I’ll throw Quintin Berry’s name out there as a guy who could steal a couple bags against Derek Lowe.
I like Salvador Perez and Cain enough to recommend them against Jered Weaver, which makes me wonder why either of them are on the majority of waiver wires. Second half laziness?
Reliever watch
Francisco Rodriguez has blown five of eight save attempts including an ugly four run comeback last night. Granted, some of those blown saves were of the setup variety.