The Daily Grind: 9-16-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Help Of Every Kind
2. Daily DFS
3. Wednesday Picks
4. Table

1. Help Of Every Kind

Eno has some early pitcher picks for those trying to find a few more starts on the wire. A few of those will get covered below, but you can get a head start on Thursday.

If you’d like personalized help, feel free to leave a comment or tweet me @BaseballATeam. I’ll try to be especially diligent about answering questions in a timely fashion. Generally speaking, I’m better able to respond before the end of the work day.

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

Drew Hutchison is a solid pitcher with a bad matchup against the Orioles at Camden Yards. Ubaldo Jimenez is an often bad pitcher who also has a bad matchup. Having noted that, I’m sure this will end up with a 2-1 score.

Anthony Ranaudo has bad peripherals and bad results. The only spot of light is a matchup against the Pirates at PNC Park. The Pirates have a tidy little offense, but PNC should limit the long ball damage.

I kind of love Chris Bassitt’s pitch movement, but he has a little ways to come as a major league pitcher. On the other side of this is Liam Hendriks. He’s destroyed Triple-A competition but can’t seem to bring the same success to the majors. It could be a high scoring affair at Kauffman Stadium.

I like Nicholas Tropeano. I’m even starting him in one league (the one I don’t own Corey Kluber). But speaking of Kluber, that’s who pitches today for the Indians. Moreover, the game is in Houston and the Indians hit righties pretty well. Youngsters are always prone to bad games too.

Dan Haren versus Tyler Matzek is today’s recipe for runs. Coors Field is dishing up a rich herb broth prepared with caramelized chorizo, charred onions, garbanzo beans, and chives.

Roenis Elias has the (dis)pleasure of facing an Angels lineup that assassinates left-handed pitching. The key to the game for Elias is to get the Angels best hitters out (says the generic sports commentator).

The Ranger du jour is Nick Tepesch.

3. Wednesday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Clay Buchholz is a roller coaster, mixing spectacular starts with sludge. I’m a big fan of the pitcher friendly components of PNC Park, which is why I’m considering him against Francisco Liriano.

Henderson Alvarez is a better real world than fantasy pitcher. If you don’t need strikeouts, then his matchup against Dillon Gee and the Mets is viable.

Brandon McCarthy has fallen through the cracks all season. For a start at Tropicana Field, he looks like a $20 pitcher.

Kyle Hendricks isn’t a 2.38 ERA pitcher. Even factoring in regression, his start against a limp Reds offense looks especially good. He has a very good shot at a win.

If Carlos Carrasco is still on your wire, remedy the situation. I didn’t think he’d maintain his reliever peripherals as a starter. In fact I recall noting that once and awhile, a starter will go to the pen and discover himself. Then I rejected the possibility it would happen with Carrasco. Whoops.

Mike Fiers doesn’t have to worry about home runs with a start at Busch Stadium. Well, he doesn’t have to worry as much.

Derek Holland has been kind of amazing since returning from the disabled list. The Rangers ought to buy him a new, stairless house so they can get this all season. The A’s shouldn’t be an easy matchup, but they have been lately.

Pitchers to Exploit: Carlos Frias has seen some success out of the Dodgers bullpen, but a start at Coors Field is another matter entirely. He got nailed with a 5.01 ERA in the PCL and Coors is decidedly PCL-ish.

I’m still very skeptical of Randall Delgado’s ability to throw enough strikes as a starter. The Giants chased him in four innings last week. Expect another short outing in the rematch.

J.A. Happ is away at Baltimore. He’ll be asked to survive an awful lot of very good right-handed hitters.

Daniel Corcino is a soft-tossing righty. I haven’t seen him nor can I get much of a read as to why he’s in the majors now. As best I can tell, he’s been ceaselessly mashed over his past two minor league seasons. I don’t think the Cubs are going to go easy.

James Paxton gets to solve the Halos. Lucky him.

Hitters (power): Darin Ruf has a decent matchup with Eric Stults (good!) and Petco Park (bad!).

The A’s righty stack is in play, aka Jonny Gomes, Derek Norris, Nate Freiman, and friends.

C.J. Cron has some grown man strength.

Steve Pearce should have received more recommendations this year. I sometimes forget he’s available since I own him in most of my leagues.

Hitters (speed): Arismendy Alcantara and any other Cub you can get your hands on will see Corcino.

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 only hint of rain is at domed stadiums. Looks like we’re fine today.

The Link. It looks like yesterday except with more pitcher parks.

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