The Daily Grind: 9-23-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Ball In Play Data
2. Daily DFS
3. Wednesday Picks
4. Table

1. Ball In Play Data

Mr. Brett Talley has been doing some fun research lately, which continued yesterday. Put simply, he identifies Jake Odorizzi as a potential sleeper. I agree. I’ll leave it up to him to explain the specifics.

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

It’s all late.

Ubaldo Jimenez was less than successful in his return to the rotation. The issue was command and control, or more specifically, walks. We can count on patience from the Yankees lineup, and the short right-field porch could also come into play.

Scott Carroll has the unsavory job of probably getting trounced by the Tigers. His combination of few strikeouts and some walks is not ideal.

Clay Buchholz is an enigma. He’s busted in several seemingly easy starts like today’s matchup with the Rays at Fenway. Likewise, he’s dominated some outings too, like his last matchup with the Rays at Tropicana Field (August 31). I’ll leave it up to you whether you want to gamble. With he way he’s been pitching, you’ll either get a lot of points or absolutely none.

The Twins have a few platoon happy righties who should like facing lefty Andrew Chafin. He was lit up at Triple-A, so there’s little reason to believe he’s ready for major league action.

The A’s have slumped hard these last couple months. They’ll face an exploitable pitcher in Wade LeBlanc if they can muster the energy to put up a fight. It’s really sad to see this happen as it’s easy to root for the scrappy Oaklanders.

3. Wednesday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Taijuan Walker oozes stuff and upside. While the total product is still a bit unrefined, he has the capacity to overwhelm lineups on a good day. With inexperienced pitchers, a meltdown is always possible. As such, owners who stand to lose in ERA and WHIP should be careful. If those categories are safe, then go for it.

Shockingly, Jake Odorizzi is still widely available (just not in any of my leagues). The righty should earn an easy victory against the Red Sox (see below).

Pitchers to Exploit: What has the world come to when Justin Verlander is a possible exploit. Actually, I think he’ll do just fine against the White Sox lineup, but fine is still considerably worse than previous expectations for Verlander.

If you picked up Twins to start against Chafin today, hang onto them for Vidal Nuno’s start tomorrow.

Here’s another if/then statement. If the A’s show some life against LeBlanc, then you can consider using them against Hector Santiago. Really, you should consider it anyway.

Odorizzi is opposed by Anthony Ranaudo, a pitcher with whom I’m thoroughly unimpressed. I just don’t see it. Maybe there’s a Nick Martinez in there, but I regularly exploit him…

I like targeting pitchers who didn’t succeed in the minors and yet are still starting in the majors. Corcino is one such pitcher.

Kyle Kendrick versus Brad Hand would probably be a high scoring affair if it weren’t the Phillies and Marlins lineups playing in Miami.

Similarly, Yohan Flande and Joe Wieland would yield a lot of runs against league average offenses. But the Padres and the Rockies (outside of Coors) have the two worst offenses.

Hitters (power): Trevor Plouffe and Kennys Vargas are probably the Twins I referenced.

The A’s righty stack of Derek Norris, Jonny Gomes, and Nate Freiman lives another day.

Perhaps Yasmany Grandal will enjoy the company of Flande.

Darin Ruf should see more action. Marlon Byrd isn’t a bad choice either.

Get comfortable with your local Matt Joyce.

Hitters (speed): Robbie Grossman is a leadoff hitter against an iffy starter (Lisalverto Bonilla). You can consider using him.

Gerardo Parra and Scooter Gennett aren’t great base thieves, but they aren’t power hitters either.

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.

As of this writing, there is a zero percent chance of rain tonight league wide. I’m excluding Miami’s stadium from that statement since it has a retractable roof.

The Link. It may be a clear evening, but it’s also shaping up to be a cold one too.

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