The daily grind: 8-15
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
The Fanduel Daily League Players of the Day are:
Pitcher (to start): Uhg. Everyone remotely trustworthy is owned or in a bad match-up today. You could try Mark Rogers at Coors Field or Bud Norris against the Cubs.
If you’re looking to pull an unusual move out of the hat, Roberto Hernandez, aka Fausto Carmona, is set to start today.
Pitcher (bum): On second thought, Hernandez probably belongs on this bum list. He faces the Angels.
The Brewers take on Guillermo Moscoso, who isn’t as bad as his 8.23 ERA, but he’s still pretty flammable.
Scott Feldman and the Rangers versus Freddy Garcia and the Yankees smells like a high scoring shootout.
Hitter (power): Let’s take Raul Ibanez, Brennan Boesch, David Murphy and Jonny Gomes for the power category today.
Hitter (speed): The usual suspects, Carlos Gomez, Rajai Davis and Ben Revere come to mind.
Tomorrow’s grind
Tomorrow is loaded with pitchers worth a second thought but maybe not good enough to trigger the add button. That includes Joe Blanton against the Pirates, Matt Harvey at Cincinnati, Kris Medlen versus the Padres, Dan Straily against the Royals, and Marco Estrada against the Phillies. Double down on Medlen.
| Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher | Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Brewers | |||||||
| Brandon Moss | L | Luke Hochevar | Carlos Gomez | R | Cliff Lee | |||
| Jemile Weeks | S | Luke Hochevar | Cardinals | |||||
| Chris Carter | R | Luke Hochevar | Jon Jay | L | Trevor Cahill | |||
| Coco Crisp | S | Luke Hochevar | Dodgers | |||||
| Blue Jays | A.J. Ellis | R | A.J. Burnett | |||||
| Yunel Escobar | R | Francisco Liriano | Marlins | |||||
| Rajai Davis | R | Francisco Liriano | Carlos Lee | R | Alex White | |||
| Rangers | Greg Dobbs | L | Alex White | |||||
| Geovany Soto | R | Ivan Nova | Justin Ruggiano | R | Alex White | |||
| David Murphy | L | Ivan Nova | Phillies | |||||
| Rays | Domonic Brown | L | Marco Estrada | |||||
| Carlos Pena | L | Dan Haren | Laynce Nix | L | Marco Estrada | |||
| Red Sox | Juan Pierre | L | Marco Estrada | |||||
| Cody Ross | R | Chris Tillman | Pirates | |||||
| Royals | Starling Marte | R | Joe Blanton | |||||
| Salvador Perez | R | Dan Straily | Garrett Jones | L | Joe Blanton | |||
| Alcides Escobar | R | Dan Straily | Reds | |||||
| Lorenzo Cain | R | Dan Straily | Zack Cozart | R | Matt Harvey | |||
| White Sox | Todd Frazier | R | Matt Harvey | |||||
| Dayan Viciedo | R | Aaron Laffey | Ryan Ludwick | R | Matt Harvey | |||
| Yankees | Rockies | |||||||
| Andruw Jones | R | Derek Holland | Josh Rutledge | R | Ricky Nolasco | |||
| Casey McGehee | R | Derek Holland | Eric Young Jr. | S | Ricky Nolasco |
Cliff Lee has been homer prone, making Gomez an interesting multi-threat play tomorrow.
In the pure speed category, Davis has the platoon advantage against the volatile Francisco Liriano. Eric Young should be able to get on and swipe a bag or two from Ricky Nolasco.
Column favorite Andruw Jones returns for a dance with Derek Holland.
Domonic Brown against Marco Estrada appears to be a great power match-up on the surface, but Brown’s swing isn’t generating many fly balls these days. His contact tends to range between hard grounder and fliner. Fangraphs credits him with a 23.3 percent fly ball rate, but I’d hazard a guess that most are those fliner types I mentioned.
Reliever watch
Fernando Rodney blew his first save of the season yesterday, aided by a Carlos Pena error. Nothing to see here yet.
Casey Janssen also blew his first save, but the Blue Jays held on to win. Those kinds of blown saves are always more forgivable. Janssen’s job is very safe as the Jays pen lacks a reliable alternative.
Andrew Bailey is back in a big league uniform. We’ll be treated the Red Sox media debating who should now be the closer. With Alfredo Aceves and Mark Melancon settling in, the Sox now have one of the strongest bullpens in the game.
Travis Snider or Andruw Jones? Who do like better for Thursday’s matchup?
I figure Snider is doubtful to start because of his hamstring injury.
If he starts, I like both match-ups, but I don’t love them. I’d call it a coin flip but it must safer to bet on the Yanquis, right?
I have to agree with you on Harrison. I got some really nice production from him this year (7 GS,4 wins, 1.94 ERA) since I picked him up, but it feels like forever since I started him. You really have to be sure he can have a shot at a W since his WHIP and Ks will never help.
Hey, I had a thought. When you look at speed for this column, do you consider the battery they are facing? I don’t know what it is about the Nats but it isn’t just catcher issues with letting everyone run on them; I’d be shocked if their SP weren’t bad, as a whole, at keeping runners on or were slow to the plate or something.
I do keep battery in mind for the more marginal guys, but mostly I’m concerned with the likelihood of the player getting 5 at bats. The guys I lean on heavily don’t “seem” too sensitive to battery.
I also avoid certain lefties, usually those with more athletic 1b. Cole Hamels for instance isn’t very threatening because Howard’s liable to blow any pickoff attempt.