The Daily Grind: 8-12-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Pitching Through Injury
2. Daily DFS
3. Wednesday Picks
4. Table

1. Pitching Through Injury

Yesterday we learned that Justin Verlander has a shoulder injury, and the soreness has been present for some time. At least two of today’s pitchers are probably injured. Generally speaking, you want to avoid using banged up pitchers (and hitters).

Jeff Zimmerman’s fantastically useful MASH report often includes a PAIN index (Pitcher Abuse INdex) which includes any pitcher who exhibits traits of injury. Verlander surprisingly was not on the latest list, but you can still use the tool to identify players to avoid.

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

It’s all late tonight although four games are in jeopardy due to storms (see section 4).

Josh Collmenter has managed decent results out of the Diamondbacks rotation, but the skill set makes for a bad matchup against the Lefties of Cleveland (a new reality television show by Bravo). Progresso Soup Field benefits left-handed power and Collmenter has a high fly ball rate.

The Pirates are without Andrew McCutchen (he’s FINALLY on the disabled list), but they may not need him to dismantle Robbie Ray. I’ve never been very high on the southpaw prospect because he needs to figure out how to halve his walk rate. I’ll let the talent evaluators decide if that’s possible, but it hasn’t happened yet.

The Dodgers and Braves pit two formerly good and currently terrible pitchers against each other. Dan Haren and Mike Minor are both in the midst of awful runs. One or both of them may be pitching hurt.

Nick Tepesch’s fly ball tendencies and mediocre peripherals combine with Globe Life Park to create an opportunity for the Rays. A few of their lefties are relatively cheap, which makes them a good DFS patch.

Rapid Fire: Rafael Montero has the stuff to succeed against the Nationals, but he’s struggled through his four major league starts. Jarred Cosart was spanked in his Marlins debut – now he’ll have to reverse his fortunes against St.Louis. Yohan Pino is merely serviceable. He’s against an all-or-nothing Astros lineup. Yohan Flande is pitching at Petco Park against the Padres, but he’s still exploitable.

3. Wednesday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Michael Pineda makes his return from the disabled list. While I’m in no rush to test him out against the Orioles at Camden Yards, I thought I’d mention him just in case.

Only because I feel like I need to recommend somebody, it might be worth considering R.A. Dickey against the mediocre M’s offense. He’s opposed by Hisashi Iwakuma, so he’ll have to pitch well to take the win.

Pitchers to Exploit: Allen Webster has yet to solve the major league level. Unfortunately, the Reds don’t really have any freely available hitting resources.

The Twins have several right-handed bats that can be useful against Brett Oberholtzer. The Astros have fewer notable lefty sticks to use against Gibson, but they’re out there.

Tyler Matzek is pretty fringy. He isn’t pitching at Coors Field tomorrow, and he’ll also face a tepid Padres lineup. So he might keep things contained after all.

Chris Tillman has skated through this season by the skin of his teeth. Slight fly ball tendencies and otherwise unimpressive peripherals will eventually lead to trouble in Baltimore. Load up on lefty Yankees.

Buck Farmer has just two starts at the Double-A level. He has good minor league numbers, but it’s a big leap from A-ball success to the majors.

Speaking of hurt pitchers, does anybody think Justin Masterson is miraculously healthy? He sure doesn’t look it.

If Miles Mikolas could figure out how to strand a runner, his ERA would be in the mid-4’s instead of 6.57. Either way, he’s still exploitable.

Tsuyoshi Wada has the ever difficult job of retiring the Brewers offense. Wada is a southpaw and the Brewers have some of the best lefty bashers in baseball.

Hitters (power): Jon Singleton has hit well of late and has a solid matchup.

Trevor Plouffe and Kennys Vargas should enjoy facing Oberholtzer.

Tommy Medica, Yangervis Solarte, and Yasmani Grandal are the Padres I use when they face bad left-handers.

Chase Headley and Stephen Drew aren’t big power hitters, but you don’t have to be in order to swat one at Camden Yards.

Khris Davis and Mark Reynolds appear to be the available Brewers these days.

Derek Norris and Jonny Gomes see another lefty.

Hitters (speed): Nationals prospect Michael Taylor can do it all, including steal a couple bags off Bartolo Colon.

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.

Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and New York come with high storm risks today (60-100 percent). This might be one of those days with multiple rain outs. Be aware.

The Link. We have a couple rain free choices for offense tonight and pitching locales are plentiful.

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