The daily grind: 8-16
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 are five worth considering today. My top pick is Kris Medlen against the Padres. My second pick is Marco Estrada. Visit yesterday for the other three picks.
Pitcher (bum): I’m going to do something I never thought I’d do and recommend the Brewers against Cliff Lee. He’s been home run prone this season and the Brewers have a lineup that could exploit that. Alex White and Francisco Liriano could have rough outings too.
Hitter (power): Andruw Jones makes his regular appearance and let’s give a hand to Chris Carter, who should appear more regularly than he does.
Hitter (speed): Carlos Gomez has the match-up I’m excited about against Lee. Rajai Davis has the platoon advantage against Liriano and Eric Young has finally earned the chance to start for the Rockies.
Tomorrow’s grind
Ross Detwiler has a solid match-up against the Mets. Wade LeBlanc might be able to survive the Rockies. My favorite pick of the day is Zach McAllister against the A’s.
| Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing pitcher | Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing pitcher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angels | Astros | |||||||
| Alberto Callaspo | R | James Shields | Ben Francisco | R | Wade Miley | |||
| Athletics | J.D. Martinez | R | Wade Miley | |||||
| Brandon Moss | L | Zach McAllister | Brewers | |||||
| Jemile Weeks | S | Zach McAllister | Carlos Gomez | R | Vance Worley | |||
| Chris Carter | R | Zach McAllister | Norichika Aoki | L | Vance Worley | |||
| Coco Crisp | S | Zach McAllister | Cardinals | |||||
| Mariners | Jon Jay | L | James McDonald | |||||
| Eric Thames | L | Nick Blackburn | Cubs | |||||
| Mike Carp | L | Nick Blackburn | Brett Jackson | L | Bronson Arroyo | |||
| Trayvon Robinson | S | Nick Blackburn | Josh Vitters | R | Bronson Arroyo | |||
| Michael Saunders | L | Nick Blackburn | David DeJesus | L | Bronson Arroyo | |||
| Rangers | Diamondbacks | |||||||
| Geovany Soto | R | J.A. Happ | Chris Johnson | R | Dallas Keuchel | |||
| Craig Gentry | R | J.A. Happ | Willie Bloomquist | R | Dallas Keuchel | |||
| Red Sox | Dodgers | |||||||
| Cody Ross | R | TBA | A.J. Ellis | R | Tommy Hanson | |||
| Royals | Giants | |||||||
| Salvador Perez | R | Chris Sale | Brandon Belt | L | Ross Ohlendorf | |||
| Alcides Escobar | R | Chris Sale | Angel Pagan | S | Ross Ohlendorf | |||
| Lorenzo Cain | R | Chris Sale | Marlins | |||||
| Tigers | Carlos Lee | R | Jeff Francis | |||||
| Brennan Boesch | L | Tommy Hunter | Justin Ruggiano | R | Jeff Francis | |||
| Quintin Berry | L | Tommy Hunter | Mets | |||||
| Twins | Jason Bay | R | Ross Detwiler | |||||
| Ryan Doumit | S | Hisashi Iwakuma | Scott Hairston | R | Ross Detwiler | |||
| Denard Span | L | Hisashi Iwakuma | Nationals | |||||
| Ben Revere | L | Hisashi Iwakuma | Steve Lombardozzi | S | Johan Santana | |||
| White Sox | Tyler Moore | R | Johan Santana | |||||
| Jordan Danks | L | Luis Mendoza | Phillies | |||||
| Yankees | Domonic Brown | L | Yovani Gallardo | |||||
| Raul Ibanez | L | TBA | Laynce Nix | L | Yovani Gallardo | |||
| Andruw Jones | R | TBA | Juan Pierre | L | Yovani Gallardo | |||
| Pirates | ||||||||
| Travis Snider | L | Jake Westbrook | ||||||
| Starling Marte | R | Jake Westbrook | ||||||
| Garrett Jones | L | Jake Westbrook | ||||||
| Reds | ||||||||
| Zack Cozart | R | Travis Wood | ||||||
| Todd Frazier | R | Travis Wood | ||||||
| Ryan Ludwick | R | Travis Wood | ||||||
| Rockies | ||||||||
| Josh Rutledge | R | Wade LeBlanc | ||||||
| Eric Young Jr. | S | Wade LeBlanc | ||||||
| Willin Rosaio | R | Wade LeBlanc |
Plenty of names to choose from for tomorrow. Outside the usual and common options, you could try Chris Johnson, Eric Thames, Carlos Lee, Justin Ruggiano and Brandon Belt.
Reliever watch
In the realm of completely expected developments, Jim Henderson blew the save yesterday. Just stay clear of the Brewers bullpen unless you are very confident about your ratios.
Why do you see Lee’s HR rate as something other than sss noise? I guess you could note Jeff’s work on aging curves, but this year is a huge jump compared to what he showed in his article, and at any rate his velocity isn’t down, which I think he correlated with it. And his FB% is league average… and better than his career average.
This is one of those scenarios where I’m leaning on what I see more than the data. I’ve seen a lot of those home runs and they’re coming on fat pitches and bad misses. His cutter in particular is getting left right over the heart of the plate and punished. In fact, I think the problem is mostly trouble with his cutter.
Again that’s all subjective. But if you watch him pitch, the homer prone narrative is very believable. Like back when Hamels had home run problems because hitters were guessing right on his change up.