The Daily Grind: 8-1-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

  1. All Deadline Deals
  2. Daily DFS
  3. Saturday Picks
  4. Table

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1. All Deadline Deals

It might take me a couple days to internalize all these changes, so I thought a helpful list of all the deadline deals could be beneficial. After one minute of research, I decided I like CBS’ round up page the most.

Players with changes who may frequently appear in the Grind include Jonny Gomes, Sam Fuld, Gerardo Parra, Chris Denorfia, Stephen Drew, Kelly Johnson, and Emilio Bonifacio.

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

It’s all together today. We have a lot of pitchers to stack against today, so I’ll expand upon the most interesting and leave the rest filed under Rapid Fire.

Jerome Williams has a touch of a home run problem. With the Indians sending their lefty lineup stack against him, damage could ensue. Remember, Progressive Field allows more than its share of home runs to left-handed hitters.

The Tigers face lefty Franklin Morales tonight. Detroit wrecks lefties in general, and Morales has terrible peripherals. Expect a Bugs Bunny style hit parade.

Chris Capuano sounds like a sandwich meat to me. The Red Sox exchanged some pieces for a couple good righty bats yesterday, so this matchup got even harder for him.

Logan Darnell doesn’t stand out in any particular way. He’s made one major league start – also against the White Sox – in which he was crushed.

Rapid Fire: Roenis Elias is away against the Orioles. The Braves have one of the top offenses against left-handed pitching, which should help them solve Eric Stults. He’s an easy puzzle. Dan Haren has been pretty awful due to an absurd quantity of home runs. It’s rare for him to survive an outing without at least one long ball. Jarred Cosart could be flaky after swapping from Houston to Miami yesterday.

Why I didn’t Pick…Danny Salazar: He’s racked up strikeouts since returning from the minors, and he even avoided walks in his most recent outing. You may want to consider using him against a limp Texas assault.

3. Saturday Picks

Pitchers to Start: First, here’s a trio of high risk/reward youngsters. I know most in the audience will be jumping all over them – I advise caution.

Shane Greene is opposed by Allen Webster. Greene has pitched well for the Yankees through four starts, and he was solid in the minors too. Expect a decent performance but nothing excellent. Webster has a wider range of possible outcomes. He has good stuff and has pitched well in the minors, but he’s been very shaky in a couple exposures to the majors.

James Paxton is back after a long stint on the disabled list. He was a little shaky in his rehab work, with a few too many walks for my liking. He possesses good upside, which is why he’s here.

T.J. House is a mid-risk, low reward option for tomorrow. He has the inside track on a win, will face a bad lineup, and has the park in his favor.

Vance Worley is a similar play to House. He’s showing better control this season, and Chase Field isn’t nearly as favorable as Progressive Field.

Pitchers to Exploit: Miguel Gonzalez has kept a lid on his home run problem this season. I entered the season expecting this to be the year he entered the Jerome Williams: Journeyman phase of his career. Tomorrow could be a challenge only because the Mariners send a lot of lefties to the plate and Camden Yards plays cozy (128 HR park factor for LHH).

Miles Mikolas may be a pitcher to target, but he’s not as bad as his 8.54 ERA. A 44 percent strand rate has something to do with his high ERA. That said, feel free to stock up on Indians. Whether or not regression factors in, Cleveland should do well.

Tyler Matzek is the next lefty on the Tigers mash list.

Deja vu returns with Yohan Pino paired against Scott Carroll. Both pitchers are hittable, although both lineups are mediocre.

Hitters (power): Again with the Seth Smith.

Parra was ostensibly acquired by the Brewers to platoon with Khris Davis. This is one of those days.

Oscar Taveras is liable to start mashing at any time. I’d stash him in any format with a little depth.

Try Lucas Duda against Jake Peavy.

Nick Swisher and Lonnie Chisenhall are among the most available Indians.

Hang onto Steve Pearce for a start against James Paxton.

Jonny Gomes should get his first A’s action against Jason Vargas. Derek Norris and Jed Lowrie are also good pick ups.

Hitters (speed): Arismendy Alcantara and Justin Ruggiano seem to be drawing daily picks here.

Adam Eaton has a nice matchup and could swipe a base.

Rajai Davis is now safe to own outright again.

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 Orioles, Nationals, and Tigers come with storm risks today.

The Link. A lot of “8 to 4” ratings today. Most of those lean towards the four rating.

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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Kris
9 years ago

Ranaudo vs. NYY or Vogelsong @ NYM tonight? or neither…