The Daily Grind: A Sale on Klubots

The Grind – and all other scheduled RotoGraphs content – misfired yesterday due to a WordPress error. Apparently, we’ve all so grown to trust our back end that nobody even checked to see if their work was live until around 5:00pm ET. Today, I’m manually posting my content as soon as it’s done.

AGENDA

  1. Machado Heating Up?
  2. Weather Reports
  3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
  4. SaberSim Says…
  5. TDG Invitational Returns!

1. Machado Heating Up?

If you stuck around long enough to catch yesterday’s Grind, you’ll have noticed some words I said about Manny Machado. Specifically, the swings he’s been taking look like they’re geared for opposite field contact. Well, here he is pulling a deep fly ball on some kind of breaking ball.

My recommendation to major league pitchers still stands. Work him in on the hands with fastballs. Don’t hang breaking balls. Despite producing a good result, this wasn’t a great swing either – he’s kind of reaching for the ball and looks to have been slightly fooled. Better execution of the pitch (i.e. lower in the zone) probably results in a swinging strike.

2. Weather Reports

Keep half an eye on the weather reports out of Atlanta. There’s a small chance for a pop up storm. Otherwise, the league is looking dry – unlike the view outside my window.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: This is a big one… 15 games, several aces, and plenty of mid-tier targets. Despite the presence of Chris Sale on the slate, the cream of the crop is Corey Kluber. The strikeout numbers he’s posting are obscene. The Rockies offense is rather pitiful away from Coors Field. What I expected to be a murderer’s row entering the season has turned into two MVP caliber studs and a bunch of duds. Kluber is the safest bet in baseball for a double digit strikeout outing.

That said, Sale is mighty tempting. He’s visiting the Rays, a team that has some issues against left-handed pitching. Sale has faced them three times this season. In each outing, he’s tossed seven innings with 12 strikeouts.

The other ace of the slate is Dallas Keuchel. He has a friendly matchup against the White Sox. In two starts since returning from the disabled list, Keuchel has totaled just 5.3 DK points. If you’re looking for a contrarian play with a high ceiling, Keuchel is your guy. Otherwise, I’d spend an extra $1,400 for Kluber.

Jose Quintana is a tad too expensive at $10,500. The lefty has been oddly inconsistent this season. At the very least, a visit to San Francisco should help him keep the ball in the yard. I’d like to say he’s a high floor, mid-ceiling pick, but I just don’t have a read on him this year.

My good friend and personal savior Zack Godley is only $7,600 due to a fugly matchup against the Dodgers at Chase Field. Godley has pitched well against tough opponents, including a 20 point outing versus the Nationals, 27 points at Coors Field, and 20 points against the self-same Dodgists. I’ll bet on a quality start.

Deep in the bargain bin, you’ll find Matt Boyd. The lefty is occasionally decent. He generally works in the 10 to 20 point range, a reasonable payout for a $5,900 investment. A visit to Pittsburgh certainly sounds like the right time to give him a whirl. Aside from Andrew McCutchen (207 wRC+), the club isn’t very good versus southpaws.

German Marquez is your maximum volatility pick. For $7,100, you can reasonably expect anywhere between five and 30 points. A visit to sea level (Cleveland) may not be a net positive for Marquez due to the Indians deep offense. There are no easy outs in that lineup. Marquez is capable of double digit strikeouts in seven or more innings. However, you’re more likely to get a quality start with perhaps a handful of punch outs. Facing Kluber means he’s unlikely to win.

Stack Targets: Zach Eflin, Derek Holland, Chris Flexen, Vance Worley, Ty Blach, Austin Pruitt, Adalberto Mejia, Luis Perdomo, A.J. Cole, Boyd, Kendall Graveman, Sal Romano, Ariel Miranda, CC Sabathia, J.A. Happ, Parker Bridwell, Julio Teheran, Jeremy Hellickson

4. SaberSim Says…

SaberSim says Sale, Kluber, Quintana, Keuchel, and… Happ? I sure don’t know about that last pick. Happ has suffered from homeritis, and he’s set to face a homertastic Yankees offense.

Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, George Springer, Bryce Harper, and Ryan Braun are the top rated hitters. Yawn. Values include Jedd Gyorko, Neil Walker, Max Kepler, and Joc Pederson. Braun’s pretty high on that list too.

5. The Daily Grind Invitational

There was no Invitational yesterday due to the aforementioned WordPress error (I noticed it when I saw nobody had joined the contest). We’re on DraftKings today.





You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam

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sokpuppet
6 years ago

Would you go with Woodruff or Wojcie tomorrow for a spot start?