The Daily Grind: An Announcement and a First Take

Shaking things up just in time for the weekend.

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. DFS First Take
3. Weather Reports
4. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
5. SaberSim Says…
6. Announcement!

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

Congrats to cubbieblues. A well-timed hot streak has moved him to second place on the Leaderboard. Yesterday, J.D. Martinez and Wilson Ramos were the carrying forces in his lineup.

Today is the final DraftKings contest for the foreseeable future. We’re moving on to bigger and better things. On the way out, let’s fill a 40 entry, 14-game slate.

PS – New users who deposit with my referral link get 25% bonus cash after jumping through a few hoops. I also get 25%. Conditional referral bonuses suck, but I guess they’re better than no bonus.

2. DFS First Take

I’m trying something new. The following is a 10 minute video of my gut reactions to tonight’s slate. Let me know what you think.

3. Weather Reports

Storms are possible in Pittsburgh, Boston, and Cleveland. Check back closer to game time. None of them are automatic postponements.

4. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: A tri-ace leads the way – Corey Kluber ($12,900), Jacob deGrom ($12,400), and Stephen Strasburg ($10,800). The latter is the weakest of the trio. Strasburg is the only one with a semi-difficult opponent Zack Godley ($8,600). The Nationals lineup is still a few cards short of a full deck. All four of these guys are perfectly rational plays.

I like the new Hyun-Jin Ryu. He’s not that new. If we were to use software versioning to identify pitcher identities, Ryu would have have upgraded from v2.1 to v2.2. Version 1.xx was pre-injury. In any case, I’m not paying $11,100 for a probable six inning outing, even if it is against the Giants at AT&T Park.

Luis Severino is a little too high risk for his $10,400 price tag. The Angels are a tough opponent because of this Mike Trout guy. He’s practically matchup proof. I’d shift gears and use Severino if I thought his ownership rate would be below 10 percent. He has as high a ceiling as anybody in the slate. The Angels have a 19.4 percent strikeout rate.

Aaron Nola ($9,300) vs. Julio Teheran ($6,500) Round Three continues to favor Mr. Nola. The Braves avoided strikeouts last time around. Teheran, while usually a hot mess, always seems to hold his own against the Phillies.

Rodrigo Lopez ($7,800) gets to face all the scrub teams. He’s a savvy (hopefully) low ownership play against the feckless Royals. Sean Manaea ($8,400) may seem cheap after tossing a no hitter. Beware the .135 BABIP. He’s opposite the Astros. Tyler Anderson draws the Marlins tonight. Dammit, I already used ‘feckless’ to describe an offense.

Other options include Miles Mikolas (PIT), Drew Pomeranz (TB), Blake Snell (BOS), Danny Duffy (CWS), Marcus Stroman (TEX), and Mike Fiers (BAL).

Stack Targets: Steven Brault, Chris Tillman, Erasmo Ramirez, Clayton Richard, Jose Urena, Andrew Heaney, Phil Hughes, Derek Holland, Fiers, Teheran

We’ve seen two iterations of Tillman this season. The first couldn’t throw a strike. The second can throw a strike but allows home runs at an absurd rate. I wonder which the Tigers will see…

5. SaberSim Says…

deGrom, Strasburg, Kluber, Severino, and… Stroman??? are the top ranked pitchers. Ok. Richard, Urena, Stroman, Duffy, and Holland are the values. I only like Stroman and Duffy as viable picks.

Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Votto, Aaron Judge, Mookie Betts, and Brian Dozier are the beefiest bats. Bargains include Logan Morrison, Pedro Alvarez, Austin Jackson, and a slew of Reds. Basically every Red including Votto.

6. Announcement!

Next week, we’re moving The Daily Grind Invitational to FantasyDraft. Monday through Thursday, the site will furnish us with a private freeroll. They’ll put up a small prize for the winner(s). Free money is cool. More importantly, the freeroll will be used to gauge interest in a no rake GPP for TDG readers. Allow me to emphasize – no rake! These will begin Friday.

If you want to preemptively sign up, please use this referral link for tracking purposes.

The platform is very similar to DraftKings. Scoring is nearly identical, except hitters lose two points if they’re caught stealing and pitchers get twice as many points for a no hitter. The salary cap is higher at $100,000. Correspondingly, players basically cost twice as much as they do on DraftKings. Instead of drafting specific positions, we’ll select two pitchers, three infielders, three outfielders, and two utility fielders.

Anyway, I’m excited. The more enthusiastic you guys are about participating in the freerolls, the larger the no rake GPP! As an added bonus, the contest will be multi-entry (two max). That’s two neutral EV chances to beat your fellow TDG competitors.