The Daily Grind: 7-28-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

  1. Lineup Performance by Handedness
  2. Daily DFS
  3. Tuesday Picks
  4. Table

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1. Lineup Performance by Handedness

We went through this exercise earlier in the season, but it’s always good to check up on team handedness splits. Because I’m not feeling like embedding giant tables today, I’m just going to link to the appropriate pages.

Against LHP: The Braves (now ranked third) were the the top team against lefties the last time we checked in. Now it’s the Angels. The Tigers are an unsurprising second best, but I bet you weren’t expecting to find the Astros and Cubs in the top five. Pulling up the rear are all the teams you’d expect, plus the Indians and Blue Jays.

Against RHP: The Blue Jays top the list against righties with Cleveland pulling second rank. I think we found our two teams with the biggest platoon splits. The Angels and Tigers rank six and seven on this list, so they’re pretty stable. The Rays and Athletics also rank in the top third on both lists. The bottom is populated by the usual suspects – this time including the Cubs and Astros (two more teams for the biggest splits list). The Braves are the contender in the crapper here, which is surprising since it must be hard to win games without hitting righties well.

2. Daily DFS

Early: Only one game is early. It’s unfortunate, because former outfielder Jason Lane is starting. He makes for an obvious stacking opportunity versus the lefty mashing Braves.

Late: Nine games fall into the evening bucket. They’re not very stacktastic, as you’ll note by the paucity of options below.

Yohan Flande is the most obvious target. The Cubs offense is easy to overlook, but they’re actually the fifth best in baseball against left-handed pitcher per wRC+. The game is in Chicago, so we don’t get the added park factors of Coors Field.

Brett Oberholtzer has to take another whack at the A’s. They feature the eighth best offense against southpaws. It’s kind of crazy to think the Cubs are better than the A’s at something. Oberholtzer has been extremely platoony this season, so load up on righty A’s.

Rapid Fire: Tsuyoshi Wada hasn’t quite made it onto my exploit list, but I’m beginning to understand why his Triple-A numbers didn’t earn him a promotion until after the blockbuster trade. I actually don’t mind a start against the righty deprived Rockies. The Nationals have a good offense and Nate Eovaldi has been sliding for awhile. R.A. Dickey and Clay Buchholz are both good pitchers who throw occasional stinkers. Buchholz’s velocity was down one mph in his most recent start.

3. Tuesday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Neither Marcus Stroman nor Rubby de la Rosa has an easy matchup tomorrow. The up-and-comers have the stuff to help your fantasy team with strikeouts and low rates. It might be asking too much to expect a win from either pitcher, although I would lean towards Stroman if I had to pick one.

I’m not ready to get back on the Dillon Gee bandwagon, but the matchup is right. He’ll face the Phillies. To be clear, I’m not using Gee. Some of the more adventurous among you might give it a thought.

Brandon McCarthy pitched well against the Rangers at Yankee Stadium last week. He’ll face them in Arlington tomorrow.

Pitchers to Exploit: Chris Tillman’s results have been strong for nearly two months. His peripherals remain pretty bad, resulting in a 4.42 FIP and 4.72 xFIP. He’ll have to silence the Angels tomorrow.

The Cincinnati Reds lineup is still gutted, but Trevor Cahill should be hittable to almost any major leaguer. He allowed seven runs in his most recent start, albeit only three were earned. He tends to give way to the bullpen early, which isn’t a big strength for the Diamondbacks.

Nick Martinez has now allowed the same number of walks as strikeouts, which is an improvement from the last time we discussed him. He’s still an extreme fly ball pitcher who relies on balls in play. Not a good combination.

Edwin Jackson has been getting smacked especially hard lately. His fastball velocity was down 1.5 mph in his most recent start. A one outing fluctuation isn’t anything major. If it continues into this start, it may be a sign that he’s hurt. On the other side of the matchup, the surprisingly effective Cubs lineup (against LHP only) will see lefty Jorge de la Rosa.

Scott Feldman is a bit better than most of these exploit types, but he has a tough matchup against the Athletics.

Hitters (power): Seth Smith, come on down. You’re on the Price is Right (i.e. free). He’ll face Lance Lynn.

John Jaso, Stephen Vogt, and Jed Lowrie will see Feldman.

Chase Headley is mostly available against Martinez.

Hitters (speed): Arismendy Alcantara and Justin Ruggiano strike me as two Cubbies to try. They both have a bit of power and speed, which makes them nice pick ups.

Rajai Davis would be a great pick if he weren’t frequently left on the bench. If he does play, he’ll have the platoon advantage against Jose Quintana.

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.

The Red Sox and Reds each have a 40 percent chance of rain tonight.

The Link. We have some pitcher parks for pitchers and hitter parks for hitters. It’s a nice batch for DFS.

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.





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