The Daily Grind: 9-10-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Dalton Pompey?
2. Daily DFS
3. Thin Thursday
4. Table

1. Dalton Pompey?

This is bothering me. The Blue Jays have what appears to be the outfielder of the future on their bench in Pompey. Across three levels, he hit well, stole a buttload of bases, and even popped a few home runs. He’s been up with the Jays since the start of September. With the Jays looking to replace Colby Rasmus and possibly Melky Cabrera, Pompey should feature prominently in the 2015 Jays offense – possibly out of the gate. Yet he’s not getting evaluated in game action. Instead, the Jays are getting long looks at Anthony Gose and Kevin Pillar – both of whom qualify as nice fifth outfielders.

Perhaps Pompey’s lack of play is related to the right quad injury that is referenced on August 8? If so, shouldn’t we have heard about it?

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: The games in Boston and Washington D.C. are early, so don’t worry yourselves over them.

Late: It looks like 13 games are late with two very likely to be affected by weather. I love rainout days because other owners will inevitably fail to notice the report.

I’m not too down on Chris Capuano against the Rays. I only mention him because Yankees Stadium can give anybody a bad game.

The Pirates should get to Jerome Williams. Despite a 2.84 ERA with the Phillies, his strikeout and walk rates are worse than with his other two teams.

Maybe these exciting young Cubbies will get to Drew Hutchison. Hutch was a nice “scouting” find by Carson Cistulli, but he doesn’t quite have the stuff to maintain useful rate stats.

The Rockies and Mets do not have good offenses, especially when not at Coors Field. Even so, a matchup between Tyler Matzek and Rafael Montero seems ripe for run scoring.

Since Chris Bassitt got hammered in his debut, I’ll list him here. I’m in love with his two seamer, but I’ve said the same about Phillippe Aumont’s. For those who don’t know, Aumont is about to get dumped by the Phillies sometime in the near future.

I’m eagerly awaiting Nick Tropeano’s debut. But I list nearly all debuts in the exploit section for a reason – they tend to disappoint.

3. Thin Thursday

With 10 games tomorrow, it’s thin but not that thin.

Pitchers to Start: I usually stay away from Jake Peavy, but he’ll face a terrible Diamondbacks lineup at AT&T Park. The combination of massive field, bad opponent, and opposing starting pitcher (see below) should result in good numbers and a win.

Michael Pineda is still floating around a few waiver wires. I enjoy his stuff, although I think he needs an extended run of health in order to really get the most out of it. He’ll face the Rays.

Pitchers to Exploit: Ricky Nolasco has the misfortune of facing a solid Indians lineup and Corey Kluber. His chances of a positive outing are small.

On the one hand, I think you absolutely have to target Randall Delgado. He’s yet to prove he can handle starting in the majors. On the other hand, AT&T Park is in play.

Cory Rasmus versus Nick Tepesch isn’t quite one of my special recipes, if only because the Texas lineup is ill prepared to exploit ANY pitcher. The Angels certainly should hammer Tepesch.

The youth movement in the Boston rotation is not working. Only Rubby de la Rose looks like a major league pitcher right now. Tomorrow features Allen Webster, who’s yet another Bostonian with a low strikeout rate and high walk rate. Webster is getting hitters to swing through pitches, so there is cause for optimism. He’s opposed by repeated flame out Liam Hendriks.

Hitters (power): Joe Panik is not a power threat, but he’s not a base thief either. He does bat second for the Giants.

If you’re digging, Darin Ruf should start with a mediocre matchup against Francisco Liriano. I’d bet against Ruf is possible.

Hitters (speed): Michael Bourn and Jose Ramirez bat first and second for the Indians.

We’re back to our regular Norichika Aoki or Jarrod Dyson recommendation for speed.

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.

Cleveland and Detroit look iffy today with strong storms in the area. There’s a large percent chance of rain, including a 100 percent forecast for start time in Detroit. Cincinnati might be interrupted mid-game by storms.

Google Drive won’t let me edit my spreadsheet this morning. I’m moving on. Follow the link below for yesterday’s grid, which should serve well enough.

The Link.

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.