The Daily Grind: 6-30-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Halfway
2. Daily DFS
3. Tuesday Picks
4. Table

1. Halfway

We’ve made it halfway through the season now, and we’re entering the doldrums. Vigilance is one of the top keys to success in fantasy baseball. Many of your rivals are getting lazy about scouring the wire, settling into predictable patterns, or making decisions based on outdated information. If you can avoid the temptation to take it easy, you can build a commanding lead or make up some ground in the standings. This is the time of year when I turn those horrible 12th place starts into 6th place finishes. It’s not the same as a win, but it sure looks a hell of a lot better.

2. Daily DFS

All 11 games are late tonight. Good luck deciding where you want to stack, there are a lot of options.

David Phelps has the challenge of facing the Rays at Yankee Stadium. The short porch isn’t as big of a factor with the likes of Ben Zobrist, Matt Joyce, and James Loney as the top threats, but it’s still relevant.

Joe Saunders is always a target, especially against an Orioles offense with plenty of potent right-handed hitters.

Yohan Flande is another easy pick to exploit. The soft-tossing lefty will face the Nationals. Bryce Harper is expected to return, but it’s his right-handed teammates who command the most attention.

Hector Noesi has the Angels at hitter friendly U.S. Cellular Field. It’s a tough assignment for a pitcher who’s learning major league skills on the job.

Yohan Pino against the Royals is a lesser option for stacking. The Kansas attack isn’t especially potent and Target Field kills lefty hitters.

3. Tuesday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Jeff Locke’s out-of-nowhere walk rate has made him a solid real life pitcher and occasional fantasy option. He’ll face the Diamondbacks at PNC Park tomorrow – decent conditions for a start.

Clay Buchholz’s velocity was up in his last start. It’s possible he’s back. If so, a start against the Cubs should yield great results. And if last start was the fluke, you might be very sorry you used him. It’s a high risk pick.

Henderson Alvarez will face a Phillies roster that lacks spark. Strikeouts are not something he brings to the table.

Marco Gonzales had the unenviable job of pitching at Coors Field for his major league debut. He didn’t exactly thrive in baseball’s best environment for hitters, but he’ll be rewarded with a start in the home for pitchers – AT&T Park.

Pitchers to Exploit: Marco Estrada’s home run tendencies do not stack up well if the home runniest team in baseball. Jose Bautista is still questionable, but the Blue Jays have plenty of other hitters to deploy.

T.J. McFarland will get a spot start for the Orioles. He’s been alright as a reliever, but a low strikeout rate doesn’t speak to much upside as a starter. I’ll take the under on five innings pitched. On the other side of this matchup is Nick Martinez – he’s a lesser degree of exploitable.

The Nationals face bottom tier lefty Christian Friedrich. He’s been slammed over two major league starts. The Nats have the requisite bats to make it a third drumming.

Predictably, the Tigers are one of the top offenses in baseball against left-handed pitching. Brad Mills will have a tough time holding them down. His pitching style is much better suited to the Coliseum.

Lesser targets include Justin Masterson, Scott Carroll, Ricky Nolasco, Edwin Jackson, and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Based on the matchups, it could be a very high scoring day.

Hitters (power): Adam Lind, Juan Francisco, and Colby Rasmus are all varying degrees of available.

Mike Moustakas‘ ultra-low batting average is on the rise. He’s cooled a bit, but I’m more interested in the matchup with Nolasco.

J.D. Martinez, Austin Jackson, and Rajai Davis (also steals) could make for top plays.

Michael Choice is yet another…choice…for tomorrow.

Hitters (speed): Michael Saunders and James Jones are worth a sniff for steals.

Kole Calhoun will fall off the recommendations page soon. But he’s still out there in over half of leagues.

Tommy La Stella looks to be about an average major league hitter. Fantasy owners won’t care for his home run or steals totals, so he should remain available for waiver starts.

Markus Betts aka Mookie has the skill set to move up in the Red Sox lineup. You might want to hang on to him until he shows us if he’s a permanent rosteree or waiver fodder.

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 chance for isolated storms throughout most of baseball with 12 hours until the first game. The White Sox game has a 50 percent chance of getting hit by strong storms.

The Link. Home run conditions are either very good or excellent.

This post, covering one of the leading sites for daily fantasy, is sponsored and made possible by the generous support of FanDuel. FanGraphs maintains complete editorial control of the postings, and brings you these posts in a continued desire to provide the best analytical information on the latest in baseball.