The daily grind: 8-8
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): Dan Straily’s ownership jumped from six to 19 percent over the past 24 hours. If he’s available in your league, he might be worth starting against the Angels.
Clayton Richard and the Padres face Jeff Samardzija and the Cubs at Petco. Middling pitchers plus bad offenses plus cavernous park equals good stream options.
I’m not a believer in Carlos Villanueva but he’s been solid when he can avoid allowing home runs.
Pitcher (bum): The Twins’ -efty heavy lineup should like Justin Masterson. However, I recall making this recommendation before and it did not end well…
I haven’t seen Armando Galarraga pitch yet this season, but I have a hard time imagining he’s suddenly a major leaguer again.
And then there’s Chief Bum Jeff Francis. The Dodgers should do some thumping tonight.
Hitter (power): The slew of Mariners I recommended yesterday now face Steve Johnson, who I honestly must admit to knowing nothing about. That’s very rare for me. Eric Thames, Mike Carp and Michael Saunders fit the power description.
Of course, I’d also bet on some non-Mariners like Todd Frazier against Randy Wolf and Dayan Viciedo against Bruce Chen.
Hitter (speed): Anthony Gose and Trayvon Robinson are my pure speed picks for the day. Not exciting options by any means.
Tomorrow’s grind
Joe Saunders will face the Pirates. He’s only 13 percent owned but it’s probably because he’s pretty blah. That’s a technical term.
Wei-Yin Chen is set to face the Royals but his ownership is up to 46 percent.
Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher | Team | Player | Handedness | Opposing Pitcher | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Blue Jays | Astros | |||||||
Yunel Escobar | R | Matt Moore | Brett Wallace | L | Jordan Zimmermann | |||
Rajai Davis | R | Matt Moore | Jordan Schafer | L | Jordan Zimmermann | |||
Orioles | Cubs | |||||||
Wilson Betemit | S | Jeremy Guthrie | Brett Jackson | L | Mike Leake | |||
Rays | Josh Vitters | R | Mike Leake | |||||
Carlos Pena | L | Henderson Alvarez | David DeJesus | L | Mike Leake | |||
Red Sox | Diamondbacks | |||||||
Cody Ross | R | Ubaldo Jimenez | Chris Johnson | R | Wandy Rodriguez | |||
Royals | Willie Bloomquist | R | Wandy Rodriguez | |||||
Salvador Perez | R | Wei-Yin Chen | Giants | |||||
Alcides Escobar | R | Wei-Yin Chen | Brandon Belt | L | Adam Wainwright | |||
Lorenzo Cain | R | Wei-Yin Chen | Angel Pagan | S | Adam Wainwright | |||
Tigers | Nationals | |||||||
Brennan Boesch | L | Hiroki Kuroda | Steve Lombardozzi | S | Lucas Harrell | |||
Quintin Berry | L | Hiroki Kuroda | Pirates | |||||
Yankees | Starling Marte | R | Joe Saunders | |||||
Raul Ibanez | L | Doug Fister | Reds | |||||
Zack Cozart | R | Chris Volstad | ||||||
Todd Frazier | R | Chris Volstad | ||||||
Chris Heisey | R | Chris Volstad | ||||||
Ryan Ludwick | R | Chris Volstad |
It’s definitely a thin day but there are enough options out there to plug and play with some aplomb.
Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart are probably among the best options available.
Even though Chen is solid, Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain are good hitters and thus worth a peek given the paucity of options.
Wilson Betemit isn’t a sexy choice, but he has the best match-up of the day.
Last but not least, Rajai Davis will hold the platoon advantage, which is just swell in my book.
Reliever watch
Tyler Clippard turned in his third blown save of the season. Expect the Nationals to start finding Drew Storen some opportunities. Clippard’s still the better guy to own at this point, but Storen will eventually get that job back.
With Jim Henderson closing the door for the Brewers last night, it’s tough to say who will get the next opportunity. Were I the Brewers, I would stick with John Axford.