The daily grind: 8-21
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): This is what the grind is about, mediocre pitchers facing pitiful lineups. Marco Estrada faces the worst offense in baseball today—the Cubs. Trevor Cahill finds himself against the second worst offense—the Marlins. Dan Straily faces the Twins’ solid but unimpressive lineup.
Pitcher (bum): There are simply too many bums today. I think you’re capable of picking out the dozen easy ones. I expect big struggles from Roberto Hernandez and Francisco Liriano. Cliff Lee’s a fair bet to allow half a handful of home runs.
Hitter (power): I’m out of things to say about Andruw Jones. Use him if you want power today. There’s also Todd Frazier and Delmon Young.
Hitter (speed): Coco Crisp and Carlos Gomez are the top speed picks of the day.
Tomorrow’s grind
There are a few solid options for tomorrow. Tommy Milone is about as low risk as they come on the waiver wire, but his upside is quite limited, even against the Twins.
Zach McAllister at Safeco seems like the perfect gig to me.
Matt Harvey is up against a decimated Rockies lineup. Making this match-up even better, it’s at Citi Field and Jeff Francis opposes.
| Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher | Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athletics | Brewers | |||||||
| Brandon Moss | L | TBA | Carlos Gomez | R | Travis Wood | |||
| Jemile Weeks | S | TBA | Cardinals | |||||
| Chris Carter | R | TBA | Jon Jay | L | Bud Norris | |||
| Coco Crisp | S | TBA | Diamondbacks | |||||
| Jonny Gomes | R | TBA | Chris Johnson | R | Jacob Turner | |||
| Blue Jays | Wade LeBlanc | |||||||
| Yunel Escobar | R | Anibal Sanchez | Stephen Drew | L | Jacob Turner | |||
| Rajai Davis | R | Anibal Sanchez | Wade LeBlanc | |||||
| Mariners | Gerardo Parra | L | Jacob Turner | |||||
| Eric Thames | L | Zach McAllister | Wade LeBlanc | |||||
| Mike Carp | L | Zach McAllister | Giants | |||||
| Trayvon Robinson | S | Zach McAllister | Brandon Pill | R | Chris Capuano | |||
| Michael Saunders | L | Zach McAllister | Angel Pagan | S | Chris Capuano | |||
| Rangers | Marlins | |||||||
| Geovany Soto | R | Tommy Hunter | Carlos Lee | R | TBA | |||
| David Murphy | L | Tommy Hunter | TBA | |||||
| Rays | Greg Dobbs | L | TBA | |||||
| Carlos Pena | L | Luis Mendoza | TBA | |||||
| Tigers | Justin Ruggiano | R | TBA | |||||
| Omar Infante | R | Aaron Laffey | TBA | |||||
| Delmon Young | R | Aaron Laffey | Mets | |||||
| Twins | Jason Bay | R | Jeff Francis | |||||
| Ryan Doumit | S | Tommy Milone | Scott Hairston | R | Jeff Francis | |||
| White Sox | Andres Torres | S | Jeff Francis | |||||
| Jordan Danks | L | Phil Hughes | Nationals | |||||
| Yankees | Steve Lombardozzi | S | Kris Medlen | |||||
| Andruw Jones | R | Chris Sale | Padres | |||||
| Yonder Alonso | L | James McDonald | ||||||
| Carlos Quentin | R | James McDonald | ||||||
| Cameron Maybin | R | James McDonald | ||||||
| Will Venable | L | James McDonald | ||||||
| Phillies | ||||||||
| Erik Kratz | R | Bronson Arroyo | ||||||
| Domonic Brown | L | Bronson Arroyo | ||||||
| Laynce Nix | L | Bronson Arroyo | ||||||
| Juan Pierre | L | Bronson Arroyo | ||||||
| John Mayberry Jr. | R | Bronson Arroyo | ||||||
| Pirates | ||||||||
| Travis Snider | L | TBA | ||||||
| Garrett Jones | L | TBA | ||||||
| Reds | ||||||||
| Zack Cozart | R | Vance Worley | ||||||
| Todd Frazier | R | Vance Worley | ||||||
| Ryan Ludwick | R | Vance Worley | ||||||
| Rockies | ||||||||
| Tyler Colvin | L | Matt Harvey |
The crop of hitters is a little thinner than usual. Delmon Young and Carlos Pena have the best match-ups on the AL side of the game and David Murphy is a solid second choice. The best NL choices include Scott Hairston, Domonic Brown, Todd Frazier and Gomez
Reliever watch
Chris Perez apparently got into a shouting match with a fan and used some uncouth verbiage for emphasis. Which is to say, he has a potty mouth. That’s the extent of reliever news today.
Also, Straily isn’t pitching today for the A’s, Brett Anderson is taking his place
Grumble. How dare team’s change their plans between yesterday and today…
It is H2H league so no IP limit.
I have – Bumgarner,Grienke,Dempster,Gallardo,Maholm,Billingsley
My opponent has –
King Felix,Wainwright,T.Hudson,Cain,Nova,Hughes
Well, it’s neither a good match-up or a bad match-up. I could easily make a case for either action, there’s no clear cut “right” choice.
The kicker for me is I am clinched for playoffs.So every decision has to have that maintain now vs improving for playoffs balance.
If I needed to win this week it would be easier to say use Aybar/Ogando/Maholm to stream with.Especially considering the pitching he has.Since I’m in however, every decision has to be “Will it improve my playoff chances”.Of course streaming now doesn’t so.
Yay or Nay Maholm@WAS today?
Before anyone comments, yes, I know Drew was traded. I saw that after I submitted for the day.
Flip a coin. Or more to the point, where are you on your innings req? Because it’s a middling match-up.