The Daily Grind: 9-5-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. Rookie Strikeouts
2. Daily DFS
3. Saturday Picks
4. Table

1. Rookie Strikeouts

Don’t sweat the strikeouts says Scott Spratt. Rookies like George Springer and Javier Baez have a lot of whiffs, but they’re in keeping with historical precedents. Spratt points to hitters like Mark Reynolds, Pedro Alvarez, and Giancarlo Stanton who have been valuable fantasy players despite high strikeout rates. As one commenter points out, with league wide batting average down, a high strikeout power hitter hurts a little less.

2. Daily DFS

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: Vance Worley and Tsuyoshi Wada meet early. Sorry DFSers.

Late: Jake Peavy has pitched well since moving to pitcher heaven, but I worry about his matchup with the Tigers. At this point in his career, Peavy is a mid-tier fly ball pitcher. The Tigers have quite a few power hitters who could light him up.

The Ranger of the Day, brought to you by Walker Texas Ranger, is Scott Baker. The righty has two solid starts since returning to the rotation, but his peripherals are uninspiring.

Eric Stults versus Tyler Matzek should provide plenty of opportunity for power in Denver. Given that the Padres lineup is terrible, you may want to target Rockies hitters.

Rapid Fire: Don’t buy into Jerome Williams’ 2.03 ERA with the Phillies – he’ll regress. Any guesses what we’ll get from Clay Buchholz? Ricky Nolasco isn’t as bad as his 5.96 ERA, but he draws the Angels juggernaut today.

3. Saturday Picks

Pitchers to Start: Brandon McCarthy has been a favorite of mine all season. You have to watch out for home runs with that short porch in play. The Royals are a tough matchup because they put so many balls in play. His strikeouts might be a bit down as a result.

Pitchers to Exploit: The Orioles have some of the top right-handed hitters in the league. Platoon happy Drew Smyly looks quite dangerous tomorrow, even with Tropicana Field on his side.

I don’t usually care for recent trends, but I’ll point them out all the same. Scott Kazmir has been bad in recent outings. I think he’ll bounce back, but I’d understand if you want to grab Astros hitters for tomorrow. Scott Feldman is on the other side of this one.

Felix Doubront had a successful Cubs debut, but I’m not expecting great things for the fly ball pitcher. At least not at Wrigley Field.

Cory Rasmus is only expected to throw a few innings for the Angels tomorrow. That should open the door for Twins against some of the weaker relievers on the Angels expanded roster.

Ranger Watch: Nick Martinez will start.

Hitters (power): This is pure guesswork – Joc Pederson might start against Chase Anderson.

Yangervis Solarte and Yasmani Grandal are two Padres to consider.

Dustin Ackley and Kendrys Morales earn another recommendation despite that the latter hardly does anything these days.

Kennys Vargas will face the Angels bullpen day.

Hitters (speed): Robbie Grossman and Dexter Fowler could benefit if Kazmir struggles again. I’ll reiterate that I think Kaz is fine.

One of Norichika Aoki or Jarrod Dyson should be at play against McCarthy.

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.

There are a lot of scattered storms today. Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Detroit, and Colorado all have some risk of being affected. Check closer to game time.

The Link. It looks like a typical day across the league. Except for the storm risks.

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.