The Daily Grind: Back, Back, Back

I’m back! (Did you know I was gone?)

You may recall I posted a small job last week. I’m still in the process of reviewing candidates. Since I received applications from about five people I want to work with, I’m trying to let some ideas percolate. No promises.

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. Counting to Six

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

Due to a road trip and rehearsal dinner, I sat out Friday’s contest. If somebody would like to post the top five performers, I’ll add them to the Leaderboard.

We have an interesting nine game slate tonight on FantasyDraft. Single-entry for 30 people.

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

We’re probably going to be alright on the weather front tonight. Storms lurk in the Midwest, but they should clear by early evening.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: Zack Greinke ($23,100) draws top billing, but I prefer Gio Gonzalez ($23,000) tonight. He’s hosting the strikeout prone Padres. One guy he’ll want to avoid is lefty masher Christian Villanueva. The rest of the Padres lineup isn’t very fearsome. Gonzalez is mostly making five inning starts this season which is obviously a problem for DFS participants.

Getting back to Greinke, he should perform relatively well against a solid Brewers offense at now-pitcher-friendly Chase Field. Greinke is much more likely than Gonzalez to throw at least six innings, but there’s perhaps a little less upside for a superlative performance.

Walker Buehler ($17,700) will be the most popular pitcher tonight. I don’t like his short outings or low swinging strike rate, but he’s racked up the strikeouts anyway. The Rockies offense includes some real scrubs around two of the top 15 hitters in the league. Importantly, the game is in Los Angeles.

Miles Mikolas ($18.800) is usually a steady performer. With a pairing opposite a terrible Royals lineup, he should supply six or seven innings of low-run, low-strikeout baseball. I doubt he’ll lead the day, but he may be the least likely to bomb.

Mike Foltynewicz ($18,700) will visit Nick Pivetta ($17,500) at homer friendly Citizen’s Bank Park. It’s a battle for first place in the NL East. Both pitchers tend to mix strong outings with serious clunkers. The risk is high but so is the reward.

Masahiro Tanaka ($17,200) could be overlooked due to tepid early-season numbers. He’s had a number of very tough matchups. The Rangers are one of the weakest opponents he’ll face. Other options include Jose Berrios ($16,200) in what should be an easy win against the Tigers and, uh… Yea, that’s the only other option unless you feel like potentially bombing your lineup with Chase Anderson, Ian Kennedy, or Robbie Erlin.

Stack Targets: Blaine Hardy, Erlin, Elieser Hernandez, Jason Vargas, German Marquez, Kennedy, Hector Santiago, Andrew Cashner, Anderson

You may recognize Hardy as a LOOGY reliever. Accurate. He’ll probably toss one or two innings as part of bullpen game tonight.

4. SaberSim Says…

Buehler, Greinke, Gonzalez, Berrios, and Tanaka are the top rated pitchers today. Sounds about right to me. Vargas and Erlin rank highly among the bargains because they’re very cheap and might not completely suck. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, and Gary Sanchez earn top billing among the bats. I’m not sure I’d go whole hog versus Bartolo Colon. Wilmer Flores, Adam Jones, Michael Taylor, and Marcell Ozuna are some of the top values.

5.Counting to Six

One, two…

Three…

Four…

Five, six…

Homer number five was absolutely ridiculous.