The daily grind: 9-21
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): Pitching options today feature a whole mess of warts. Chris Carpenter is coming off the disabled list for a start today, but he’s old and it’s been awhile since he’s faced major league hitters.
On the young end of the spectrum is Martin Perez, who has a high upside arm but hasn’t really shown signs of putting it all together yet. He could blank the Mariners or they could put up some runs on him. Expect inconsistency.
Jarrod Parker is a good pitcher and should not be as available as he is at 44 percent owned. However, his match-up against the Yankees makes him hard to play.
Kyle Kendrick is an enigma and should not be anywhere near 42 percent owned. He’s made a career off dominating the Braves, but I wouldn’t count on that luck to hold.
Pitcher (bum): Chris Volstad is chiefest of bums today. The Cardinals will look to pile on as they protect their thin Wild Card lead.
In my opinion, Jacob Turner is not ready for the big leagues. The Marlins keep trotting him out there and the Reds will look to take advantage. He’s been a little bit better in recent outings.
Hitter (power): Chris Johnson and Brandon Belt are your best options today. They both have the platoon advantage against an inconsistent, young pitcher.
Hitter (speed): Jon Jay and Ben Revere best fall into this bucket, although I’m going to squeeze David DeJesus in here as well. All three are good sources of runs too.
Tomorrow’s grind
Much like today (and many other days), tomorrow features a couple pitchers that you could throw the dice on, but nothing desirable.
Patrick Corbin may be the most talented of the bunch. He’s away at Colorado.
Wily Peralta would certainly like to compete for the talented title. I expect much inconsistency from him over the next handful of seasons.
Kevin Correia is your boring veteran of the day. The match-up with Astros helps his cause.
I hope you’re playing in an AL or mixed league tomorrow.
Andruw Jones is once again available and he’s joined by the usual assortment of Athletics hitters—Seth Smith, Brandon Moss, and Coco Crisp. Beyond those common recommendations, Delmon Young and Omar Infante have a strong match-up with Scott Diamond.
Some names from the NL worth a try are Starling Marte and Chris Johnson.
Reliever watch
At this point, the Reliever Watch lacks actionable information. It is humorous to point out that Andrew Bailey has joined the fun in Boston with his first blown save of the season. I almost feel bad for their blackhearted fans.
I say hold pat on pitching then and defend SB. That guarantees you 5 points with a strong chance to win K. If you can defend SB with a high avg, run scorer, you’ll improve your odds of taking those categories too.
In past weeks you were playing for every point. Now you only need to make sure you get 6 (or even 5 plus a tie)
So you think Nelson then or just play the matchups?
My starts left (+2 stream slots)
Vogelsong vs SD
Bumgarner vs SD
Morrow@TB
Dempster@SEA
Gallardo@WAS
His starts left (not counting stream)
Kendrick vs ATL
Hanson@PHI
Niese vs MIA
Moore vs TOR
Minor@PHI
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I can grab 1 each day, or 2 1 day.any stand out?
Saturday stream options – Tillman@BOS,Correia@HOU,Fife@CIN,Wood vs STL
Sunday stream options –
Nolasco@NYM,Lyles vs PIT,Cobb vs Tor,Bailey vs LAD
I would grab a hitter today to replace one of the scrubs and keep the other slot unused in case of emergency.
Forget the pitchers until necessity says otherwise.
Oh, and with that hitter, I would prioritize SB/R/AVG in that order.
I have no where to put the hitter is the thing.As move won’t go through until tomorrow and finals end Sunday.So having to pick lightning in a bottle essentially.
C – Weiters
1B – Reynolds (1B/3B)
2B – Nelson (2B/3B)
SS – Aybar
3B – Hanley(3B/SS)
OF – Granderson/Gordon/Harper/Aoki
UTIL – Pedroia
BN – Seager (2B/3B/SS)
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Sandoval,Marte,McClouth,Utley,Barney,Alonso,Rizzo,Plouffe,Alvarez,Smoak,Gomez,Mayberry,Altuve are available
Oh, I thought you had same day moves.
If I was 100% confident the Brewers would play Gomez against Wang on Sunday, I’d tell you to pick him up.
What about Panda for Reynolds? Or now that Reynolds is @STL instead of @OAK and @SEA where he has been should the power pick back up for weekend?
Are Grandy/Pedroia droppable for trying to catch lightning in a bottle? or do I focus on pitching instead?
You don’t have anything to focus pitching on unless something unexpectedly terrible happens and you need to throw a hail mary.
Stand pat or drop one of Nelson/Seager (doesn’t matter which) for Gomez/Utley/Sandoval/Rizzo.
I’d lean towards Utley, he looks sharp at the plate.
Drop Pedroia or Seager? Less counting stats than Nelson in the last 7 and Pedroia colder than Georgia in the winter of late .087 with 0 R 2 RBI 1 SB last 7. Seager gives me more flex if someone doesnt play at 2B,3B,SS.
Nelson, unless Pedroia is battling an injury. (I haven’t been following the Sox at all)
Turner is playing the Mets at Shea 2, not the Reds. Does that change your opinion of his matchup?
A little. I still don’t see a major league ready pitcher.
Trying to set my rotation for the 10-day championship week in a 5×5 H2H. A couple of questions:
1) My opponent will go with 7 starters (14 total starts) and 2 closers (Soriano & Rodney). I have the option of going 6 starters (12 starts) with 3 closers (Motte, Kenley J, G. Holland), or 7 and 2. His rotation goes 7 deep w/ quality (Verlander, Hamels, Peavy, Medlen, Kennedy, D. Holland, Carpenter, or Kershaw if he plays). Should I match the starts or take the edge w/ closers?
2) Greinke, Darvish, and Gallardo are definite starts for me. Here are my other options:
4.Marco Estrada (@WAS, vs.HOU)
5.Phil Hughes (@MIN, @TOR)
6.Mike Minor (vs.NYM, @PIT) – his 2nd start is scheduled for the last day of the reg season, presumably the Braves will have it wrapped up & he might not start or might only go 3-4 IP.
7.Ivan Nova (@TOR, vs. BOS)
8.Andy Pettitte (@MIN, @TOR)
9.Carlos Villanueva (@BAL, vs.MIN)
10.Wei-Yin Chen (vs.TOR, vs. BOS)
I would lean Estrada and Hughes for sure, but then do I add 1 or 2 more, and which 1 or 2? Normally I would go with Minor for sure, but I can’t imagine he gets a full 2 starts. What do you think?
Daily League – Start Seager or C.Nelson today,tomorrow,sunday?
R – 15 to 12 (winning)
HR – 4 to 2 (losing)
RBI – 22 to 19 (winning)
SB – 5 to 2 (winning)
AVG – .238-.257 (losing)
Seager vs M.Perez,Harrison,Dempster at Home
Nelson vs Miley,Corbin,Kennedy at Home
I’d lean towards Nelson personally but it’s really a coin flip.
Double check playing patterns on both of them. If either is more likely to play all 3 games then the other, go with him.
seager doesnt have great numbers against lefties or at home. hes facing 2 lefties this weekend, and all 3 are at home. conversely, Nelson hits lefties better by a slim margin, but he hits about 70-80 points higher at home than on the road. miley and corbin seem to be the perfect guys to face for Nelson. although, if you need power and SB, nelson doesnt really give you many of either. hes more of a runs, avg, and some RBI kinda guy. seager has more upside though.
I agree with that take.
Bluff, you still killing on the pitching side?
I can set lineups up until the games start, and yahoo is decent about letting you know if someone isn’t starting.I also check daily lineups online.So it just boils down to matchups and categorical help.
My opponent has started streaming as well, so while i have leads not as pronounced in some categories as before.
I am winning 8-2 but obviously some of the offensive category leads are slim at best.Pitching wise he has way more matchups left than I do as well.
W:6-1 (winning)
SV:6-2 (winning)
K:42-29 (winning)
ERA:2.26-6.83 (winning)
WHIP:1.08-1.45 (winning)
Seems like you shouldn’t have much trouble winning 4 of those categories so long as nobody asplodes on your end. K’s could come under fire, but even that seems well defensible.
I have – Weiters,Reynolds,Pedroia,Hanley,Aybar,Gordon,Grandy,Aoki,Harper with Seager/Nelson taking up final slot
My opp has –
Posey,AdGon,Cano,Headley,Castro,McCutch,Pence,Willingham,Jackson,Arod
Speed wise i should be fine unless McCutch goes on a tear. So comes down to R/AVG/HR/RBI.
We both have around 5 starts and then 2-3 stream slots left (i picked up Morrow for tomorrow already).Issue is nothing stands out saturday or sunday as beyond passable.