The daily grind: 8-30

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.

There will be no Grind tomorrow. It’s a travel day.

Today’s grind

The Fanduel Daily League Players of the Day are:

Pitcher (to start): Kyle Kendrick has me stumped. He’s been masterful lately to the extent that he’s one of the hottest pitchers in baseball. But that doesn’t stop him from being Kyle Kendrick. Maybe something’s going on here, but I’ve watched these starts and the only thing I’ve seen is a little more movement out of his two seam fastball.

Jarrod Parker’s ownership is at 43 percent, which is probably a little on the low end. Today, he’ll face the Indians.

On the other side of that match-up is Justin Masterson. He’s potentially available as well at 47 percent owned.

Pitcher (bum): Brooks Raley against the Brewers sounds unpleasant (for Brooks).

Jeremy Guthrie has settled in a bit with the Royals. He is pitching much better than he was for the Rockies, but that just means he’s mediocre now. The Tigers are a tough match-up for a mediocre righty.

Hitter (power): Lucas Duda has what is typically a pleasant match-up against Kyle Kendrick. Of course, Kendrick has been dealing lately. Dayan Viciedo against Zach Britton could return a long ball or two.

Hitter (speed): Rajai Davis will have the platoon advantage, but that hardly counts against Matt Moore. Carlos Gomez also has the platoon advantage and it definitely counts against Raley.

Tomorrow’s grind

Mike Minor has pitched ably in recent weeks. The biggest improvement has been in the walks allowed—he hasn’t allowed more than two free passes in a game since June 30. Against the Phillies and opposite Roy Halladay, we have the fixin’s for a low scoring game.

Mark Rogers is always a solid but risky choice. The Pirates still have a pretty crappy lineup, though they’ve produced runs in bunches for over a month. Now the roster is experiencing a bit of a team-wide slump and Rogers may be able to take advantage.

Clayton Richard isn’t a sexy pick, but the Rockies lineup is a shambles. The game is at Coors, so maybe count this as plan D.

I’d consider multiple Giants hitters against Chris Volstad, including a few not listed above.

David Murphy’s always a nice well-rounded choice.

Will Venable should get a chance to flash some speed against Alex White.

Todd Frazier and Ryan Ludwick slipped back onto my cheat sheet, but they don’t qualify as available players. Still, I like the match-up and Zack Cozart could benefit, too.

Reliever watch

Kenley Jansen may be returning to the disabled list with an irregular heartbeat. This is a shame for those in keeper leagues as he’s shaping up to be the best closer this side of Craig Kimbrel or Aroldis Chapman. Ronald Belisario and Brandon League will likely battle for the role.

Alfredo Aceves blew another save on Tuesday, which could spell DOOM for Aceves. Honestly, Boston needs starters, right? Aceves has some speckled history as a starter. Maybe the Sox ought to take another look?

Casey Jannsen blew his third save but he’s completely safe in that shell of a bullpen.