The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for April 21

Agenda

1. TDG Leaderboards
2. TDG Invitational
3. Daily DFS
4. SaberSim Observations
5. Tomorrow’s Targets – Nola, Gray, Utley, Rickard
6. Factor Grid

1. TDG Leaderboards

As you may have noticed, I’ve started creating $2 daily leagues for our readers. These are just a friendly little competition. If you think you’re a ringer who can make your fortune playing fantasy games, you should head over to the GPPs.

As the section heading indicates, I have created rudimentary leaderboards for our contests. I’ve opted to create separate boards for FanDuel and DraftKings. I’ll be tracking three things – dollars won, points, and wins. Points are calculated similarly to roto-scores. I only award points to owners who placed. Wins are awarded to anyone who makes money.

I will not be tracking how much you spend. This won’t be a perfect indication of skill. It’s just for a bit more fun and bragging rights.

2. The Daily Grind Invitational

It took some effort to fill yesterday’s 30 player contest. Since I’m only planning to play FanDuel today, we’ll do a $2, 20-teamer tonight. Here’s the link for the league. We can try another 30 person game tomorrow. If you need a FanDuel referral link, please drop a note in the comments or on Twitter.

Yesterday blended my two least favorite aspects of DFS. On DraftKings, I had enough money for Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo, so I upgraded from Chris Carter and Domingo Santana. Doh. I was also an early point leader before my roster stalled out around 8pm. There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing your name atop the leaderboard then finishing in the bottom half.

Congrats to Perge who heroically chose both Drew Pomeranz and Rick Porcello. Only two owners used point leader Mookie Betts. Perge was one of them.

3. Daily DFS – Aces

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and David Price? Oh my. Johnny Cueto’s a less expensive alternative to the top names. I could also see using Jake Odorizzi.

It’s going to be hard to win anything if you don’t pick one of the Five Guys. Seriously, check out the stack targets. It’s literally a list of all the other pitchers throwing early.

Stack Targets: Matt Wisler, Ricky Nolasco, John Danks, Cody Anderson, Tom Koehler, Taylor Jungmann, Shelby Miller, Jered Weaver, Nate Karns

Late: Dallas Keuchel’s velocity was still down in his latest outing, but at least he looked more Keuchelly than his first two starts. That said, I’m not paying out the nose for a start against the Rangers. If I have the cash, I’ll absolutely drop 12 G’s on Jake Arrieta. That’s still a steep price for the top matchup of the contest.

Gerrit Cole is a high risk, high reward play. The Padres are terrible but Cole has struggled to get past the fifth inning. That’s not what you want from your ace. Vintage Cole would be a threat for eight innings, 12 strikeouts, and an easy win. It’s anyone’s guess what the current version will do.

As with the early contest, the options beyond the aces are cringe worthy. Luis Severino hasn’t pitched very well. He has one of the better matchups opposite the Athletics. If the game was in Oakland, I’d be all over Severino. They have enough lefties to touch up Sev for a couple home runs.

The other side of that one is the Rich Hill enigma. The Yankees lineup is mostly cold (and old). Hill offers comparable risk and reward to Cole at just a fraction of the price. As with Severino, Hill has to face a few too many lefties for comfort at that venue. Hill could make his pitch, fool the hitter, and still get burned.

Stack Targets: Mike Pelfrey, A.J. Griffin, Chris Tillman, James Shields

4. SaberSim Observations

Shockingly, SaberSim also believes you should roster an ace. Hill, Severino, and Brandon Finnegan are the top rated non-aces. While Finnegan has shown some upside, I’m worried about the Cubs offense, Great American Ballpark, and a forecast for intermittent rain.

Stack Angels and White Sox versus Dank Weaver. You didn’t need my (or SaberSim’s) help on that one, huh? The Toronto-Baltimore matchup could provide more fireworks today. Red Sox and Mariners hitters are also values.

5. Tomorrow’s Targets – Nola, Gray, Utley, Rickard

Pitchers to Start: I originally listed Aaron Sanchez here, but it turns out he’s 85 percent owned. I guess my colleagues have sold you all on his virtues. I’m still warily optimistic.

Instead of Sanchez, try Aaron Nola. He’s slightly over-owned for inclusion here, but I don’t have much to work with tomorrow. He had a rough go of it against the Nationals. He should rebound opposite the Brewers at Miller Park. This game is not without risk.

Also consider: Nick Tropeano

Pitchers to Exploit: So many exploits tomorrow. Jon Gray will bounce between the “to start” and “to exploit” sections of this post. Tomorrow, he’s at home against a solid Dodgers offense. Please exploit him.

Also consider: CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Josh Tomlin, Jon Moscot, Bud Norris, Martin Perez, Zach Davies, Collin McHugh, Chris Young, Yovani Gallardo, Scott Kazmir, Jarred Cosart, Andrew Cashner

Hitters (power): Boring old Chase Utley leads off for the Dodgers against right-handed pitching. L.A. is scheduled to face three righties at Coors Field this weekend. Now is a good time to take a flier on Utley. His power has mostly disappeared, but he’s still hitting for a BABIP-fueled high average and OBP. Coors Field, aka the Fountain of Power, could temporarily restore the old Utley.

Also consider: Jeremy Hazelbaker, Seth Smith, Adam Lind, Brandon Drury, Mark Reynolds, Ryan Raburn, Scooter Gennett, Avisail Garcia, Aaron Hicks, Steve Pearce

Hitters (speed): Since MLBTV has mistakenly put me in Philadelphia’s viewing territory, I can now watch Orioles and Nationals games. The O’s tend to produce an enjoyable viewing experience. Their offense has plenty of thump, the rotation gives everything right back, and the bullpen makes up for it with pure dominance.

While watching Baltimore, I’ve been exposed to Joey Rickard. The contact-hitter is one of those weird righty-swinging, lefty-throwing combinations. Kinda backwards, huh? He’s tenacious at the plate, making pitchers work for their outs. If nothing changes, he’ll eventually regress into oblivion. I’ve seen enough to expect some meaningful adjustments – especially in walk rate. I could see him becoming something like a faster Brock Holt.

Also consider: Angel Pagan, Jarrod Dyson, Odubel Herrera, Cesar Hernandez, Jonathan Villar, Brandon Guyer, Desmond Jennings

6. 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.

Games in the middle of the country all seem to have a rain risk. At this point in the day, it doesn’t look like we’ll have any rain outs. Some of these games could be soggy.

The Link.

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