The daily grind: 8-24
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): Jarrod Parker is the best name available today but also the most widely owned. If you must reach beyond him, Drew Pomeranz and Patrick Corbin have strong match-ups against the Cubs and Padres respectively.
If you want to say you won your league the hard way, Kyle Kendrick has been unusually productive lately. I’d still avoid him on the basis of five crappy seasons, but sometimes it’s not the early bird but the risk taker who gets the worm.
Pitcher (bum): Bruce Chen against the Red Sox could result in bunches of runs. Corey Kluber versus the Yankees is a similarly ugly match-up.
Hitter (power): There aren’t many terrible pitchers today and hence fewer than the usual number of match-ups. The most notable in the power department is Cody Ross. Raul Ibanez against Kluber is a reasonable alternative if Ross is owned.
Hitter (speed): Carlos Gomez and Rajai Davis find themselves here a lot. Both have excellent match-ups today.
Tomorrow’s grind
Mike Minor is my lone pitching recommendation for the day. He’s 40 percent owned as it is. If you absolutely must reach past him, Clayton Richard and Jeff Karstens aren’t terrible, but they’re also a long way from good.
Maybe I like Craig Gentry too much, but he’s at the top of my list for tomorrow. Ibanez is a solid power option again and Cody Ross is facing some bad pitching.
David DeJesus and Jon Jay have nice match-ups but they only provide batting average and the occasional run scored.
Reliever watch
Alfredo Aceves blew up last night, allowing five runs in the process. He grip on the closer job has never been more tenuous. He’ll be unavailable tonight after throwing nearly 40 pitches and if Andrew Bailey performs ably, we might see a role change.
Ernesto Frieri also had a blown save in that effort, which brings back memories of the Padres using him in extremely low leverage situations.
Did Gentry just get sent down? I thought I read that somewhere.
Not saying Bailey won’t take over, but should be noted that he also blew a save in the same game last night.