The Daily Grind: 5-21-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Stage Two
2. Daily DFS
3. Not-So-Thin Thursday
4. Table

1. Stage Two

Events conspired to keep me up to 2:00 AM PT last night. Zombie Brad is aware of today’s early contests, so he’s going to publish in two stages. The first stage featured the early contests from today. The second stage, which you view now, features all the normal column content. In other words, you didn’t need to read this unless you already read my comments about stage one.

2. Daily DFS

Early: We have four early contests today. The earliest is at 12:05, which means we might not see rosters for the other games before the contest starts. Since I don’t think you want to stack Indians against Max Scherzer, you’re going to have to guess some starters.

You can try Tigers against Zach McAllister. I happen to like McAllister most days. The Tigers lineup skews to right-handed, and Progressive Field features a 78 home run park factor for righties. In other words, the stadium suppresses home runs by 22 percent.

Chris Young versus Nick Tepesch is going to be the game to target. Left-handed Mariners and top of the order Rangers are the choice pickings of the time slot.

Chase Whitley was impressive in his short debut. The Cubs possess a pretty awful lineup, so this doesn’t look like a place to stack. Nor am I overeager to target Yankees against Jeff Samardzija.

The last game starts four hours after the earliest, and there’s a risk of rain. Alfredo Simon and Tanner Roark both look like pitchers to use, not exploit. Yet the potential for rain is about 50-50, which is too high for my liking.

Late: We’ll have 11 games to choose from tonight.

Right-handed Orioles face an easy pitcher in a tough park. I’ll probably look elsewhere, but it’s worth noting.

The Blue Jays lefty-stack will see an inconsistent Clay Buchholz in a park that does not favor left-handed hitters.

Tommy Milone versus Erik Bedard reeks of runs, yet I suspect both starters will keep things in check just enough to make this game a meager stacking option.

Neither Matt Cain nor Jhoulys Chacin are bad pitchers. But they are playing at Coors Field, which is enough to tilt the scales against them.

3. Not-So-Thin Thursday

Pitchers to Start: Alex Cobb is back tomorrow. I don’t expect he’s available in your league, but I know I have to make some cuts to get him into the lineup.

Pitchers to Exploit: Target right-handed Giants in Denver against Jorge de la Rosa.

A few right-handed Indians could benefit from facing Wei-Yin Chen. I very nearly recommended using Chen, so I don’t see him as an A+ target.

The Cardinals could get to Wade Miley, but there are scant few Redbirds on the waiver wire.

A game between David Phelps and Hector Noesi could mean a ton of home runs at U.S. Cellular Field. Load up.

Mariners lefties get yet another recommendation against a right-handed pitcher – this time it’s Jarred Cosart.

Hitters (power): Ryan Raburn, Mike Aviles, and Yan Gomes are the principle Indians who might like facing Chen.

Try out Kelly Johnson and Yangervis Solarte against Noesi. If you prefer to target Phelps, you can use Conor Gillaspie or Adam Dunn.

Jonny Gomes will be in to test the mettle of Mark Buehrle.

Hitters (speed): Gerardo Parra has the platoon advantage against Lance Lynn. He (Lynn) features a noteworthy platoon split.

Michael Choice has been drawing top-of-the-lineup reps against left-handed pitchers like Robbie Ray.

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.

In the early batch, the Nationals have a 50 percent chance of storms. There’s more possible rain in the later game, including in Pittsburgh, Colorado, New York, and St. Louis

The Link. Of the four early games, the Texas game looks very attractive. Conditions in Chicago are great too. The late group only features one green stadium. There is a risk of rain in Colorado, so watch the weather closely. If it looks clear closer to game time, you know where to target.

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