The Daily Grind: Sequel

Gonna have to rapid fire this one…

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. Sequel

1.The Daily Grind Invitational

Brewday found a winning combination of Sonny Gray and a bunch of Dodgers. Congrats and Leaderboard.

We have 11 games tonight on FantasyDraft.

2. Weather Reports

Boston, New York, and St. Louis have modest rain threats. Keep an eye on them.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Two aces stand head and shoulders above the pack – Justin Verlander ($23,100) versus the Tigers and Walker Buehler ($21,900) hosting the Blue Jays. Oh how I would love to roster both of them. They feature cathedralesque ceilings and also appear to offer well over a point per $1,000 (our rough line for “value”).

Patrick Corbin ($21,500) ain’t too shabby either at PNC Park against a lefty-prone Pirates offense. Pittsburgh is ranked dead last with a 73 wRC+ opposite southpaws. Joe Musgrove isn’t a safe play by any measure, but he does have top-value potential with a $11,900 price tag. He recently tallied 28.1 points against the Cubbies.

Mike Minor ($20,400) is roughly fifth-best in terms of median projection. He’ll host the strikeout resistant Angels at an August Glob game. All hail the Glob Life.

I’d rather pay a little less for Yu Darvish ($19,600). He’ll host the lowly Giants. The wind is blowing in at a steady seven mph from right field. Yesterday, it swirled quite a bit between when I wrote and when games started. Just… be aware.

Skipping a bunch of grossly priced mid-tier crap.

J.A. Happ hasn’t exactly been a fount of value this year, but it stands to reason he could supply some juice on a $13,700 contract. Not much though. And the A’s are dangerous enough to turn this into a rout.

Finally, something juicy! Adrian Houser ($9,900) offers a strikeout per inning, a high ground ball rate, and a penchant for avoiding hard contact. This is a $14,000 matchup against the Cardinals in sub-$10,000 packaging. There’s risk – plenty of it in fact – but the upshot is something like 20 points.

Mike Montgomery ($8,400) is visiting Aaron Brooks ($8,000) in a battle of craptastic pitchers who are so cheap that they almost can’t help supplying a bit of value. They’re both stack targets too.

Favorite Plays: Verlander, Buehler, Corbin, Darvish, Houser

Stack Targets: Brooks, Monty, Dereck Rodriguez, Drew Smyly, Daniel Norris, Jacob Waguespack

4. SaberSim Says…

Verlander, Buehler, Corbin, Darvish, and Julio Teheran are the top pitchers. Teheran faces the Marlins, although I still thought he was a little pricey for my tastes. Verlander, Houser, Monty, Brooks, and Teheran are the bargain plays. Clearly the Sim disagrees with me about Julio T.

Rafael Devers, Mike Trout, Jorge Soler, Cody Bellinger, and Yordan Alvarez are the early picks for best hitter. Valueland is ruled by Jack Mayfield, Trent Grisham, Chris Owings, Ryan O’Hearn, and Isan Diaz.

5.Sequel

Tune in for the best sequel I’ve seen in ages.

Kershaw got crap earlier in the year for being homer prone, a claim which has since proved false. Mostly.

Harrison Bader may not be able to hit very much, but he sure can make some plays.