The Daily Grind: Deadline Trades and DFS Fallout – Part the First

My computer is flickering between “charging” and “on battery.” At least it’s not losing charge. It’s also not gaining charge. Gromble. Meanwhile, the part I ordered eight days ago still hasn’t shipped! I’m furious. Therefore, I vent unto you.

AGENDA

1. All Kinds of Trades
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. TDG Invitational Returns!

1. All Kinds of Trades

Chances are, you’ve read a word or three about the two big trades. J.D. Martinez is Arizona bound while the Yankees added to their impressive bullpen. From a daily fantasy perspective, we don’t really care much about real world swaps. Martinez is leaving a good situation in Detroit for a slightly friendlier setting. I’d prefer for Martinez to have the designated hitter role available to him. His new teammates probably benefit more than him.

Don’t run stacks against the Yankees. They basically have six top relievers plus solid lefty Chasen Shreve in that bullpen. Even if they’re getting skunked, the relievers will probably shut down the opponent. It was already a dicey proposition to target Yankees starters.

2. Weather Reports

Thumbs up.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Seven games are early and eight are late. DraftKings has excluded the Nationals-Angels game from the evening contest for reasons unknown and unknowable.

Early Slate: Carlos Carrasco is clearly the top arm in the slate, but paying $13,400 seems a tad excessive. He has enough clunkers mixed in with the gems to worry about a Kershawian price tag. Then again, he is visiting AT&T Park – the very best place to be a pitcher.

Undoubtedly, Jake Faria at Sonny Gray will draw plenty of attention with bets being placed on one or the other. Personally, I prefer to walk right by this game in favor of James Paxton at Charlie Morton. While they may cancel each other out when it comes time to earn a victory, they’re both much better than their $7,700 and $7,400 prices.

Speaking of much better than his price, Jose Berrios is only $6,700. Sure, he’s facing the Yankees, but he need only produce about 15 DK points to return value on this cost. This was a deep slate with Jon Gray, Dan Straily, Nick Pivetta, Jordan Montgomery, Mike Montgomery, Clayton Richard, and R.A. Dickey all some degree of usable.

Stack Targets: Matt Cain, Gray, Richard

Main Slate: Usually, when one contest is deep in pitching, the other is shallow. Not so tonight (except in a relative sense). Jacob deGrom and Zack Greinke headline an able group of pitchers. Greinke is my pick for top pick of the day.

Beyond the top two, only Drew Pomeranz ($7,200) is a nice mix of ability and price. He’ll face an inconsistent Jays lineup.

Riskier plays with upside include Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander, Kenta Maeda, and Carlos Rodon. Cole and Verlander could runaway with a complete game on any given day while Maeda and Rodon sometimes turn in six inning gems.

Stack Targets: Zach Davies, Kevin Gausman, Martin Perez, Tim Adleman

4. SaberSim Says…

deGrom, Carrasco, Straily, Greinke, and Verlander are the top ranked pitcher this fine day. I like the Straily play versus the Phillies, but they have enough ground ball hitters for me to worry. In fact, it seems to me that they’ve missed this fly ball revolution altogether. That leaves them well positioned to exploit guys like Straily.

Paul Goldschmidt, Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts, and J.D. Martinez are the top listed hitters. Values include Tommy Joseph, Shin-Soo Choo, and Mallex Smith.

5. The Daily Grind Invitational

Congrats to Boomer438 who oh-so-narrowly edged out schweitz1986 for first place. Nick Castellanos did the heavy lifting. Near as I can tell, nobody had the winning combination of Castellanos and Chris Davis. Leaderboard.

Back to DraftKings folks.