The Daily Grind: Bettis, Anderson, Venable

Agenda

1. Trading For Closers
2. Daily DFS – Bettis, May
3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Anderson, Danks, Davis, Venable
4. Factor Grid

1. Trading For Closers

In my experience, trading for a closer is possibly the hardest type of deal to consummate. If you want to swap straight up, be prepared to pay $1.40 on the dollar. Strangely, if you’re able to craft an acceptable blockbuster, you can sometimes get a decent closer as a throw-in.

Yesterday, I tried to trade Chase Headley for Fernando Rodney in a 12-team league with corner infielders. Headley isn’t a sexy asset, but he’s just good enough to be owned. Meanwhile, Rodney is, well, Rodney. He’s not even a closer at the moment. I thought for sure I’d get this offer pushed through.

Sometimes, it’s advantageous to approach your targets obliquely. This particular owner is mistrustful of any offer I make (I once traded him a $50 Evan Longoria for an $8 Jose Bautista prior to his breakout). If I had started by offering Headley for a Jimmy Paredes-type, I could have tried to position Rodney as an attractive alternative.

For what it’s worth, my team is deep in the basement. I’m just trying to rehabilitate assets prior to the trade deadline. The Mariners seem edgy about using Carson Smith in the ninth inning. If Rodney continues to toss scoreless innings, he might get his old job back.

2. Daily DFS – Bettis, May

Yesterday’s Grind

There are a couple cheap pitchers to try today if you’re up to it. At the top end, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Johnny Cueto, Jake Arrieta, and Francisco Liriano promise 20 point upside on FanDuel. All five cost $9,900 or more.

The fourth least expensive pitcher, Chad Bettis, is available for just $6,200. Bettis is no Scherzer, but he’ll be opposed by a battered Giants offense at AT&T Park. A six to eight inning performance with five to seven strikeouts seems likely. We’re looking at somewhere between eight and 16 FanDuel points.

For $200 more, you can own your very own Trevor May. He comes equipped with promising matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers (Bettis just posted a 14.33 point night against them). May doesn’t usually pitch too deeply into the game. Count on five to seven innings with five to seven strikeouts. He also looks like an eight to 16 point performer.

Stack Targets: Nick Martinez, Mark Buehrle, Justin Nicolino, Rick Porcello, Alex Colome, Kyle Lohse, Nate Eovaldi

3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Anderson, Danks, Davis, Venable

Pitchers to Start: The streaming targets for tomorrow are a little scary. Cody Anderson interests me as somebody with a hint of ceiling. In his debut, he went 7.2 innings with four strikeouts, one walk, and six hits allowed. He induced eight whiffs in 94 pitches. The PITCHf/x data indicates that he may have a plus-plus changeup. He has a tough matchup against the Orioles.

Also consider: Jeremy Hellickson

Pitchers to Exploit: This John Danks versus Kyle Ryan game promises boredom. Both soft-tossing lefties are prone to meltdowns. Of course, Danks has the difficult job of surviving a lefty-mashing Tigers offense. Ryan just has to skate past the league worst offense against southpaws.

Also consider: Todd Redmond, Matt Garza, Adam Morgan, Chris Rusin, Michael Lorenzen, Tom Koehler, Wade Miley, Chris Tillman,

Hitters (power): Ike Davis has a sky high ground ball rate. As our research into GB/FB ratios has shown, ground ball hitters usually do well against fly ball pitchers. Davis will be visited by the mack daddy of fly ball pitchers – Chris Young.

Also consider: Yonder Alonso, David Peralta, David Murphy, Logan Forsythe, Brandon Guyer, Chris Young, Chase Headley, Justin Maxwell, Kelly Johnson,

Hitters (speed): Will Venable has recaptured his platoon role with the Padres. He’s hitting a healthy .264/.325/.416 on the season with five home runs and six stolen bases. The combination of power and speed makes him an easy streaming pick against right-handed pitching. His playing time should be unchallenged with Wil Myers sidelined.

Also consider: Brock Holt, Rajai Davis, Jace Peterson, Eddie Rosario

4. The Factor Grid

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 couple storms wandering wild, but they look like temporary distractions rather than game end deluges. Make sure your pitchers won’t be affected.

The Link.

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