The Daily Grind: 4-21-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. A note about the author’s availability
2. DFS Picks
3. Tuesday Selections
4. Table Tennis

1. My availability

The next two days will be a little more rapid fire than usual – my time is constrained. I will be off entirely on Wednesday. The world as we know it will return to normal on Thursday. That concludes today’s message about author availability.

2. DFS Picks

Early: Most platforms won’t be counting the Wei-Yin Chen versus Clay Buchholz slugfest in the making. It’s too bad.

Late: There are 12 late games from which to choose. The tastiest is played in Colorado where the conditions are just right for massive offense, and the starting pitchers aren’t likely to get in the way. Ryan Vogelsong and Jorge de la Rosa are both en fuego, by which I mean they’re writhing on the ground in agony because they’re covered with flames.

The Indians home park is friendly to left-handed hitters only. I like their odds against Jeremy Guthrie and those lefties are free to slug it. Their entire lineup is either left-handed or a switch hitter. They’re going to be an awesome stack against a lot of RHP this season.

The Angles of Angleheim will face back-of-the-rotation starter Tanner Roark. If you’re trying to fade the popular games, this might be where you want to go. I’d still prefer Cleveland.

Lightning can strike at any moment. It might also delay the Cubs game. If the weather looks workable closer to game time, a Cubs stack against Bronson Arroyo is a possible source of value.

3. Tuesday Picks

An outlandish number of aces start tomorrow. A few ruin otherwise workable starts for waiver wire types.

Pitchers to Start: I expect good things from Brandon McCarthy this season, even though we’ve only seen bad things to date. A friendly Cubs matchup is a good place to get the ball rolling. I understand you’ll need cojones to make this play.

If you want to take an only slightly safer approach, Jason Hammel has looked ok and will face the Diamondbacks. Which side do you prefer?

Pitchers to Exploit: I’ve tried to exploit Miguel Gonzalez at the Rogers Centre once before. It wasn’t the best exploit of the day, but it yielded fruit. Let’s do it again. On the other side of this matchup is RA Dickey, who’s been a very mixed bag this season.

Nick Martinez is starting again. Is he exploitable? I don’t know. I do know that his stuff is far from overpowering. I mean he’s not Dean Anna (link), nor is he Nolan Ryan.

Franklin Morales isn’t really a starter. And he has to pitch in Colorado again. He has the stuff to occasionally shutdown an opponent, but he should be in the bullpen.

Hitters (power): Juan Francisco is getting regular reps for the banged up Blue Jays. His lefty power bat matches well against Gonzalez.

You can try Matt Joyce against Kyle Gibson. One of these days I’m going to write James Joyce by mistake and lead you all astray.

Sure, I said you can start McCarthy and Hammel, but you could also stream against them. Whoever plays of Luis Valbuena, Ryan Kalish, and Ryan Sweeney could be worth a day on the roster.

Hitters (speed): David DeJesus is also worth a gander against Gibson.

Gerardo Parra is a solid leadoff hitter. Those aren’t often available on the waiver wire.

4. Table

The table below indicates which stadiums have the best conditions for hitters today. The color coding is a classic stoplight where green equals go for hitters. The weather conditions are from SI Weather’s home run app. A 10/10 means great atmospheric conditions for home runs. A 1/10 means lousy atmospheric conditions.

There is a risk of thunderstorms in Chicago. If a storm does interrupt the game, it appears it will clear out in time to finish. A delay could still wreak havoc on the pitching. The rest of the league is clear or under a retractable roof.

The Link. Four games have that special neon hue. One of them is the aforementioned weather risk while another is the only early game of the day. That leaves DFS players with the Rockies and Brewers games as prime targets.

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