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

Agenda

1. A Tip About Stacking
2. DFS Stacks
3. Traditional Fantasy Picks
4. Table Time

1. A Stacking Tip

The concept of stacking is really simple. In any DFS format where you’re playing against a wide field of competition, it can help to have runs scored and RBI double counted. When Robinson Cano drives in Brad Miller, you get a point for Cano’s RBI AND Miller’s run. If you only rostered one of them, you’d get one point.

Related to that strategy, you have to pick players who can conceivably chain. FanDuel limits you to just four from each team – I’d recommend using them on the one through five hitters. If you roster the first three hitters in a lineup, there’s no point in also rostering the seventh. He doesn’t stack with them.

2. Some Stacks for Today

Nationals v. David Hale: Hale is an tolerably adequate starter, but the Nationals have one of the better weather forecasts and a good lineup. It’s not the best stack of the day.

Indians v. Mike Pelfrey: Once the rain clears out, Danny Salazar will be pitted against Pelfrey. The weather conditions suck, but Pelfrey could warm things up with his flammability.

Diamondbacks @ Rockies: You can play both sides of this one. It’s going to be cold, but it’s still Coors field. Both Randall Delgado and Juan Nicasio are known to allow their share of clunkers.

Yankees @ Dustin McGowan: When was the last time McGowan appeared in the majors? Trick question, it was last year. He hasn’t started since 2011. The Rogers Centre should be closed tonight, which makes it one of the better weather parks by default.

Rays v. Joe Saunders: Yes please. I don’t care if the game is at Tropicana Field.

3. Tomorrow’s Traditional Fantasy Pitchers

Pitchers to Start: Carlos Carrasco is a fringe breakout candidate with a matchup against the no-offense Twins. That could work out well.

I’ll cautiously mention that Michael Pineda is making his first start of the season against the Blue Jays. I say ‘cautiously’ because there’s a decent chance I’ll be stacking against him.

Dillon Gee remains streamable despite a tepid first start. He’ll be at home against a good offense, so there are probably better options.

Pitchers to Exploit: Bud Norris has a tough assignment against the Tigers tomorrow. I’ll take the over on the Tigers offense versus two-pitch Norris.

One of Bruce Chen and John Danks will probably pitch well. Both of them pitching well is less likely.

Paul Maholm was nearly booted from the rotation. I don’t know how ready he is for a full start against the Giants. It might be an early evening for him.

Nick Martinez is making his first major league start tomorrow. Is that a good or bad thing? I don’t know.

4. Table Time

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.

Cleveland and Pittsburgh might see rain towards the beginning of their contest, but it should clear out later in the afternoon. That can be disruptive to performance, but the games will be played.

The Mets are slated to receive various flavors of rain all day. During the three hours slated for their game, the flavor of choice is “light rain.” Please be careful.

In addition to rain, three games are slated to be played in 30 degree temperatures – Boston, Chicago, and New York. I recommend avoiding these matchups. Cold conditions generally favor pitchers, but it’s hard to predict. Personally, I lost a lot of velocity when the temperate was below 40. A few major leaguers show the same trend. I can’t help you predict which to play.

Based on park factors and weather, there are only a couple really high octane environments in play today. Keep in mind, the Blue Jays can (and probably will) close the roof.

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