The daily grind: 8-9

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): It’s definitely a thin Thursday even though there’s a healthy slate of games. I never expected to recommend Joe Saunders prior to the season, but he’s been predictably solid. Frankly, there just isn’t anyone else available.

Wei-Yin Chen is owned in 51 percent of leagues. He’s the only other option worth a sniff.

Pitcher (bum): At least there are some good bums to work against today. Chris Volstad should help fuel the Reds to another victory. Will Smith against the Orioles and Ubaldo Jimenez versus the Red Sox are likely to end with a lot of runs on the board.

Hitter (power): Todd Frazier, Wilson Betemit and Salvador Perez are my top picks to do a little bashing today.

Hitter (speed): Lorenzo Cain is more of a well-rounded type than a speedster, but placing him here lends a certain feng shui. Rajai Davis is a healthy pick if you really need a steal.

Tomorrow’s grind

Maybe I should stop making recommendations against the Braves. Clearly I’m insane since these match-ups keep blowing up. That said, Matt Harvey has some talent and is only 35 percent owned. He’s also probably the only guy worth using today.

Mark Rogers is only one percent owned and he’s set to face the Astros Triple-A lineup. And yes, I’m aware that they somehow score runs on occasion.

Brandon McCarthy is owned in 46 percent of leagues. Why? In any case, he’s set to come off the disabled list.

Andruw Jones is back again with the platoon advantage.

Frazier’s becoming a popular standby here, he’s set to face Justin Germano, who I never really expected to see in the majors.

My irrational lack of respect for the Braves is outweighed only by my lack of respect for Kyle Lohse. I expect Domonic Brown and Nate Schierholtz to have solid games. By the way, Brown’s smoking the ball to the tune of a 27 percent line drive rate. Unfortunately, it’s coming at the expense of fly balls. And it’s very small sample.

Reliever watch

Jim Henderson appears to be the guy in Milwaukee, earning his second consecutive save. All I can offer are shrugs.

Ryan Cook hung on for an ugly save, giving up a couple of runs in the process. His grip on the closer gig has to be loosening and Sean Doolittle appears to be next in line despite Grant Balfour’s “experience.” I could be leaping to conclusions: Balfour pitched the seventh yesterday and allowed a solo home run while Doolittle pitched the eighth and allowed two hits while striking out the side.

The Giants’ bullpen is devolving into an ugly mess, not unlike the A’s, now that Santiago Casilla has gone cold. Because Sergio Romo is often unavailable, I’d bet on Casilla righting the ship and reclaiming the job. Others may wish to put their chips on Romo or Jeremy Affeldt.