The Daily Grind: 8-6-14 — Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Alert
2. SP Plays
3. Stacks
4. Weather

1.  Alert

As Brad said yesterday, he’s moving cross-country this week, so Landon Jones and I are filling in. Bear with us.

2.  SP Plays

Note: I’m only looking at pitchers and hitters for the evening contests.

Below is a chart of the starting pitchers for the day. You’ll see the pitcher, his handedness, his opponent and his salary along with an adjusted projection and his cost per projected point. I got the projections by taking the Steamer RoS projections and breaking them down on a per game basis. The adjusted part of the projection is an adjustment I make for quality of the opponent based on the opponent’s wRC+ against pitchers of that handedness.  Next to the projection and the cost per projected point, you’ll see the pitcher’s rank in those categories. If a player’s ranking is green or red, it means they’re one of the best or worst options in that category.

The pitchers that don’t have a projection either don’t have a Steamer projection, or, more likely, they have a projection that includes relief appearances, which throws off the projection for their starts.

As you can see, Justin Verlander and Danny Salazar are the pitchers I like the most today. They’ve got the desired blend of a good projection and above average value. If you need to save money on pitching, I think Brad Peacock and Shelby Miller represent the best value.

3.  Stacks

Orioles vs. RHP, Drew Hutchison – The guys I expect to be the top five in the Baltimore lineup today have all been above average against right-handers since the start of last year, Nick Markakis, Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis. You can only use four hitters from one team on FanDuel, so pick your poison between Markakis and Machado and team them up with the 3-4-5.

Tigers vs. LHP, Chris Capuano – The Tigers three best hitters against lefties, Rajai Davis, Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, should hit 1-3-4 tomorrow. Ian Kinsler has been about average against left-handed pitching the last couple of years, but he’ll be sandwiched between the other guys in the two hole, so use the top four as a stack.

Nationals vs. LHP, Jon Niese – With Ryan Zimmerman and Wilson Ramos unavailable today, the 2-3-5 in the Nats lineup is the play here with Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth and Ian Desmond.

4.  Weather

I’m not including Brad’s typical chart mainly because I couldn’t figure out exactly how he updates it. I’ll just note that there is a chance of rain in the Bronx, Philadelphia and St. Louis. Make sure you check the weather for those games later this afternoon.

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