The Daily Grind: 8-18-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. September Call Ups
2. Daily DFS
3. Tuesday Picks
4. Table

1. September Call Ups

Matthew Pouliot of RotoWorld did a pretty thorough review of possible call ups. The most interesting (in no particular order) include Francisco Lindor, Billy Burns, Archie Bradley, Jorge Soler, Joc Pederson, and Maikel Franco. We missing any?

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: Kyle Hendricks versus Bartolo Colon could be an interesting game. Both pitchers are talented but allow enough balls in play that anything could happen. Alas, they’re the lone game before 7:00 ET.

Late: The remaining seven games start between 7:05 and 8:15 ET. It’s a thin day, especially because three could be affected by weather.

Lefty Vidal Nuno will contend with the Nationals collection of right handed thumpers. It seems like Jayson Werth will finally return to the lineup after playing a big role in last night’s win.

Jerome Williams. Sometimes I’m really tempted to just write a name, drop a period, and walk away. Here’s the skinny – an elevated HR/FB ratio is part of the package and his high BABIP is complemented by a 25 percent line drive rate. The Mariners lefty stack should feed in Philadelphia.

Brandon Workman has failed to distinguish himself as a major league starter. His 4.63 ERA as a starter is backed up by a 4.85 FIP and 4.63 xFIP. He’ll face the Right Angles of Angleheim tomorrow.

Trevor May was all kinds of sloppy in his debut. His stuff can get elevated, which works in the minors but can lead to trouble in the majors. More importantly, he’ll need to avoid walking seven batters in two innings.

If you believe the content on MLB.com, Justin Masterson is looking to extend his hot streak. I come from a world where a seven inning, three strikeout outing does not constitute a streak. Perhaps he is trying to create a streak? In any case, there’s meltdown potential here.

3. Tuesday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Chase Anderson is a pretty solid pitcher. He’s not as good as his 3.16 ERA, but he’s not substantially worse either. I know he has the command and control to trim his walk rate down to about five percent, the challenge is doing so in a way that doesn’t yield more fly balls. The chink in his armor is a combination of fly ball tendencies and a high HR/FB ratio. The Nationals make for a decent matchup, and Anderson actually has a better ERA than his opponent – Stephen Strasburg. It’s not an automatic loss, although a win will be hard to earn.

Let’s evaluate what Tsuyoshi Wada has going for him. A 10 percent swinging strike rate, 21 percent strikeout rate, and seven percent walk rate are a good way to build an average pitcher. This particular average pitcher will ply his trade against an average Giants lineup. It’s too bad (for Wada) that the game is to be played a Wrigley instead of AT&T.

I’m not on the Mike Fiers bandwagon, although a surprisingly sturdy strikeout rate has my attention. However, I do like the Brewers to win this game due to their matchup, so Fiers could come away with an easy victory. Beware, the Jays could hit a handful of home runs at Miller Park.

Pitchers to Exploit: Allen Webster has yet to have a commanding outing at the major league level. Through four major league starts this season, he’s frequently flirted with disaster but avoided the worst of it. The Angels, who already got one shot at Webster, will take another shot tomorrow.

The good news for Miles Mikolas is that he’s playing at pitcher friendly Miami Stadium. The bad news is that he isn’t very good. His 7.71 ERA overstates his troubles by about two runs. The ball park should neutralize his home run problems, but he’s still prone to clunky outings. All hail the Marlins stack.

J.A. Happ will run into the Brewers lefty-devouring buzz saw. The just spanked the Dodgers righties and they’re sooo much better against southpaws.

The Royals don’t have a ton of righties to lean on against Tyler Matzek. The few they have will benefit from Coors Field.

Hitters (power): Omar Infante, Josh Willingham, Lorenzo Cain, and Billy Butler all have varying degrees of available. They’ll also all have the platoon advantage in Colorado.

John Jaso is one away from matching his career high in home runs. He’s been a nice valuable piece for streaming owners this season.

Mark Reynolds, Khris Davis, and Rickie Weeks are some of the Brewers who are kind of available.

Adam Lind may bat cleanup if Edwin Encarnacion doesn’t bump him from the lineup.

Steve Pearce and maybe even Caleb Joseph are good ideas against Jose Quintana.

Casey McGehee and Garrett Jones jump off the top of the Marlins pile. Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Jordany Valdespin are two more options.

Kole Calhoun is still below the 75 percent owned threshold I use as a cutoff. Some lucky fantasy players can still roster this mini-stud.

Hitters (speed): I think Arismendy Alcantara is going to be a good utility player for a long time.

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.

On this oh so thin day, the Nationals and White Sox have a 40 percent chance of storms. Minnesota has a 70 percent chance of storms!

The Link. Not a lot of green today. I think I’ll be spending a lot of time in Philadelphia.

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