The Daily Grind: Challenging Challenges

Tomorrow features one nearly useless doubleheader and at least one very useful singleheader. It’s Streaming Wars.

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. Have Your Awards And Eat Them Too

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

The path to victory yesterday involved avoiding Corey Kluber and any of the Phillies/Nationals. Which is a shame because my two rosters were a Kluber and a Philly/Wash doublestack. Jaymcstell pulled the trick with Lucas Giolito, Sean Newcomb, and a whole slew of useful hitters – mostly at Coors Field. Congrats and Leaderboard.

As usual, we’re on FantasyDraft tonight. We lost some momentum so let’s try to regain it tonight.

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2. Weather Reports

The Phillies and Nationals are playing a doubleheader today. There’s some risk of postponement for one or both games. Neither are a part of the FantasyDraft slate tonight. Baltimore, Boston, and New York aren’t entirely safe either, although they’ll probably play.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: Jacob deGrom ($26,400) is back at an exceptionally high price. Whereas yesterday we had a bargain Giolito to pair with deGrom, the cheapos tonight are fugliness personified. Marco Gonzales ($11,300) in his return from the disabled list looks like the top pairing. He’s opposed by the Padres. The next best option is deGrom’s opponent – Jose Urena.

YOU DO NOT WANT TO USE CHRIS SALE ($26,300). He’s expected to be used as an “opener.” I’m not sure why everybody uses quotation marks when referring to openers.

Mike Foltynewicz ($21,100) is fairly priced for a visit to AT&T Park. He offers a combination of strikeouts and longevity versus a crumbling offense.

Either side of Joe Musgrove ($17,800) at Miles Mikolas ($14,700) is playable. Mikolas is obviously the better value, especially because I expect him to outperform Musgrove by a modest amount.

NuMike Fiers ($17,600) is a mixed bag at Camden Yards. I worry he’ll be a mite homer prone with his right-handed Rich Hill routine. I still figure he’s one of the better values available, I’m just more aware of the downside than normal.

Shane Bieber ($16,400) is visiting Tyler Glasnow ($16,900). I like the Bieber side of this coin. I suspect we’ll see a lot of both of them. Bieber is the Indians future ace, but he’s got some growth spurts to survive first. Glasnow figures to be a little more enigmatic. Perhaps an AL East version of Vince Velasquez?

Zack Greinke ($15,400) is always playable at this price – even at Coors Field. His last visit to Colorado returned 14.75 points. And the last time he hosted the Rockies, he fired up 44.20 points. Expect closer to the lower end of that range…

Stack Targets: Jose Quintana, Jhoulys Chacin, Sonny Gray, Andrew Suarez, Dylan Covey, Alex Cobb, Brad Keller, Byran Mitchell, Adrian Sampson, Antonio Senzatela, Ryan Borucki, Odrisamer Despaigne, Tyler Duffey, Jim Johnson

Whoever complained about the three stack targets yesterday should be happy today. Quintana and Chacin are only targets if the wind is still blowing out at game time.

4. SaberSim Says…

deGrom, Sale, Folty, Bieber, and Gonzales are the top-rated pitchers. The Sim doesn’t know Sale is restricted. Be careful with Gonzales too. Values include Gonzales and Bieber. SimSim doesn’t think much of the bargain opportunities tonight.

Over in Hitterland, J.D. Martinez, Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt, Giancarlo Stanton, and Mike Trout lead the way. Logan Forsythe, Ramon Laureano, Joe Panik, Chris Davis, and Andrew McCutchen are the prefered values. Seems like a hard slate to me…

5. Have Your Awards And Eat Them Too

Have you ever wanted to have your awards and eat them too? Me neither.

Here’s Bryce Harper awkwardly pretending to help. He realizes almost immediately that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. So naturally he sprinkles a few crumbs of dry dirt to disguise his unease. For full video analysis, check out my brand new Surreal MLB project.

Sometimes it’s not good to miss your spot by four feet.