Yesterday was the 19th anniversary of the film “Crimson Tide” being released. Other than “The Hunt for Red October” it is my favorite submarine film. Coming in at a respectable third place finish is “Down Periscope.”

On today’s agenda:
1. Jose Fernandez…sadface
2. The new New York Mets rotation
3. Junior Lake’s big day
4. The Daily Five

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Last week, I unveiled the May Tiered Rankings for the second base position, and readers quickly zeroed in on my rankings of Dee Gordon and Aaron Hill. They believed I had placed both of them too low. One intrepid reader even took the time to pound at the keyboard and ask exasperatingly, “WHAT DOES DEE HAVE TO DO!”

While I appreciate the lack of question mark at the end of the sentence — as it would’ve resulted in an uncouth double punctuation — it’s clearly a question about which this individual feels passionately and desires a sincere answer. After all, Dee Gordon is hitting .331/.364/.441 with 24 steals. He’s the number-one ranked second baseman in ESPN leagues and the number-three overall player, behind only the Colorado duo of Charlie Blackmon and Troy Tulowitzki.

How the [insert choice expletive here] could I possibly rank Dee Gordon as a fourth-tier second baseman?

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Agenda

1. A note about weather reports
2. Monday Mashables
3. Tuesday T-Word
4. Table

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I’ve mentioned this before, but whenever I’m doing my daily prep I use some baseline projections I calculate from the Steamer RoS projections. Every Sunday I take the updated Steamer RoS projections, run the relevant statistics through the DraftStreet scoring system, and then cut them down to a per-game basis. I use these per-game projections to help me determine value. For starting pitchers, I make daily adjustments for matchups and then compare the adjusted projections to salaries to determine the best value. For hitters, I look at opposing pitchers and Vegas game lines to see which teams might have the best offensive days, and then compare the RoS projections to salaries to determine the best value.

If you’d like to use these projections in the same way, I have provided them after the jump.

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Did you have a good week? I had a good week. Unfortunately, that week could have been better, and that can sometimes be a frustrating part of daily fantasy, but it’s often a necessary evil depending on your situation in life and general disposition toward risk.

What I mean is, I had a handful of double-ups this week where I scored well enough to place in a tournament setting (not across the board but, generally, they were strong enough to expect a return). So, instead of getting the appreciable payout from a tournament format, I was left with “just” the double-up prize.

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Agenda

1. It’s Mother’s Day
2. DFS Picks
3. Monday Mincemeat
4. Table

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Happy Mother’s Day from everyone here at RotoGraphs, FanGraphs and even NotGraphs. Call your mom right now. Me? I’ll just yell up the stairs at my mom.

On today’s agenda:
1. Welcome back, Chase Headley
2. Rickie Weeks: not a left fielder
3. Thoughts on Erik Bedard
4. The Daily Five

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If you haven’t noticed by now, I usually like to spotlight a player who is struggling or excelling and shine a little light on why either is happening. Ian Kennedy will be our focus today. After being traded to San Diego by Arizona last season, Kennedy was pretty good (3.97 xFIP). And because of how he pitched down the stretch and the park he now calls home is so friendly, he was a target many people had going into draft season. Man, oh man, has he rewarded the owners (myself included) who either drafted him or picked up off of waivers.

Kennedy’s strikeout rate has spiked an incredible amount, and San Diego’s catchers may have a little to do with that. Both Yasmani Grandal and Rene Rivera grade out fantastic framers, according to the numbers. 25% of Kennedy’s strikeouts have occurred when a batter was caught looking. His highest percentage since his fantastic 2011 season. He’s caught opposing batters looking 14 times already, compared to 33 last season in  181 innings. Kennedy’s been able to leverage an increase in velocity, phenomenal catchers, and more ground balls into fantastic numbers so far. And I see no reason why he can’t continue it going forward.

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Agenda

1. Evaluating a winning roster
2. Today’s DFS
3. Sunday Selects
4. Table

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Today is the 20th anniversary of Weezer’s “Blue Album.” For me, Buddy Holly still ranks among my favorite music videos.

On today’s agenda:
1. Doug Fister’s rough return
2. A better return for Scott Feldman
3. Drew Pomeranz up, Dan Straily down
4. The Daily Five

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