The Daily Grind: After the Colon 2

Growing up, I threw a lot of balls in the dirt. So I became quite skilled at teaching my catchers how to smother the ball. Bartolo Colon uses a different approach to smother the ball.

He wound up tossing 7.2 innings of four hit, no walk, shutout ball. I’m guessing his belly is interesting colors today…

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. SaberSim Under the Hood

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

I thought yesterday was going to be my day. Thin slates are my specialty, and I had the lead when I went to bed. Alas, I woke up to find myself usurped by 8mileallstars (and seven others). Justin Bour was the difference maker. Congrats and Leaderboard.

We have a 30 entry contest tonight for Thin Thursday on FantasyDraft. Don’t worry, it’s not as thin as the Wacky Wednesday slate.

If you have not signed up for FantasyDraft, please use this referral link for tracking purposes. If I understand properly, by using the referral, you will receive a 10 percent return on any rakes you pay.

2. Weather Reports

Storms are a risk in Atlanta. Typically, they’re very spotty this time of year. Monitor closer to game time.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: Our nine game slate includes an ugly slate of pitchers. A cacophony of mediocrity. Cole Hamels ($21,200) is the top priced pitcher – mostly because he’s very likely to earn a win against James Shields and the White Sox. I’d rather not pay ace prices for mid-tier production.

Tyler Skaggs is the other pitcher over $20,000. Like Hamels, we’re looking at a mid-tier projection. Unlike Hamels, Skaggs doesn’t have an easy path to victory versus Chris Archer ($13,900). I usually try to avoid the Angels, but there’s some substantial upside built into Archer’s price. He’s as likely as anybody to post the top score tonight.

Prices quickly decline to, uh, David Price ($16,400). He’s third most expensive for an easy matchup against a garbage Orioles lineup. Kevin Gausman ($14,900) has pitched well enough to be used as a contrarian play. He’s mostly succeeded against middling and worse lineups. Boston will be a challenge.

To me, Chad Bettis ($14,900) probably projects similarly to the pricier options. He gets a bad rap due to injuries and a Coors Field home park. A visit to San Francisco should help him to supply 15 to 20 points. On the other side of this one is Jeff Samardzija ($13,700). He’s in the conversation for best value in the slate. Shark’s velocity has returned to normal. Now he just needs to show some sharper command.

So many other pitchers are playable: Vince Velasquez, Luke Weaver, Chad Kuhl, Jon Lester, Matt Boyd, Marco Gonzales, Andrew Triggs, Mike Soroka, and Aaron Sanchez in no particular order. Triggs is my favorite from that name dump. He’s bounced between gem and disaster. He’ll face the Blue Jays. All of these pitchers carry serious red flags with enough upside to produce GPP gold.

Stack Targets: Eric Lauer, Shields, Soroka, Gonzales, Samardzija, Triggs, Boyd, Velasquez, Weaver, Lester

No shortage of stack targets. Gonzales seems to struggle with the times through the order thing. Probably because he throws mostly junk. Soroka may be getting a bad rap being placed in the stack pile. The Cubs lineup is performing well, and Soroka has failed to escape the fifth inning in two of three appearances. The Braves bullpen is due for some serious regression (the bad kind).

4. SaberSim Says…

Hamels, Samardzija, Skaggs, Weaver, and Kuhl are favorites of The Sim. Shark is the value play of choice too. Can’t say I’m surprised. Joey Gallo, Kris Bryant, Mike Trout, Ronald Acuna, and Anthony Rizzo are the top rated hitters. Bargains include Matt Joyce, Tyler Flowers, Franmil Reyes, and Jose Martinez.

5. Sabersim Under the Hood

I wanted to demo a feature from the paid version of SaberSim. The tool shows the distribution of outcomes for every player. Here’s a mini tutorial video.

(The video had a couple audio glitches, but I’m not re-recording.)