The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for August 23

Agenda

1. Noon-Thirty Chat!
2. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard
3. Daily DFS
4. SaberSim Observations
5. Tomorrow’s Targets
6. Factor Grid

1. Noon-Thirty Chat!

I originally wrote a big honking story about DFS contest size diversity, but I decided it’s a standalone post. Since I’m not writing standalones on RotoGraphs at the moment, it will be a part of my 2016 postmortem series in which I celebrate my successes and analyze my failures.

In other news, I’ll be running today’s chat at 12:30pm ET. This may become the new regular time for the chat – I’m trying to reserve as much of my afternoons as I can for a non-baseball project. Here is a reprinting of my advice for getting your questions answered.

Some tips and tricks to have your comment selected include:

• Ask something that actually requires a second opinion and/or my expertise. I’ll ignore requests for handholding.
• Do not ask me to rank a list of players. I will ignore you.
• I appreciate non-baseball or real baseball questions as a change of pace.
• Ask your question right at 1:45 12:30.
• Don’t bother asking a question between 12:35 and 1:00. I probably won’t see it.
• If you miss the early window, wait for me to say something like “I’m way behind, I’m going to skip forward,” before posting your question.

On those final three points, I usually spend the first 20+ minutes answering everything that comes in. Then I notice the questions are from 1:50 and it’s already after 2:10. So I skip forward to the present. There’s usually one more skip later, but I can’t warn you ahead of time as to how to dodge it.

2. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard

New user Joestich31 won yesterday’s contest. Congratulations are in order. He leaned on Carlos Carrasco and Freddie Freeman for over half his production. Too bad Edwin Jackson turned in a negative value (the same goes for my pick of Zack Godley). The leaderboard is updated.

We’re back on DraftKings for another round today. Let me know in the comments or on Twitter if you would like to be emailed about future DraftKings contests.

3. Daily DFS 

Yesterday’s Grind

Madison Bumgarner and Jake Arrieta top the charts tonight. MadBum is opposed by Kenta Maeda and the Dodgers while Arrieta has the easier task of solving the Padres at Petco. Arrieta has looked suspiciously mortal lately. There were some injury red flags heading into the season. Perhaps those are finally catching up to him.

It’s hairy out there when you wander beyond the aces. A Maeda fade is viable, although he performs more like a second DraftKings pitcher than a featured back. He rarely pitches his way above the crowd. He’s reliable too, making him a good choice for 50/50s.

Danny Salazar was predictably rusty in his return from the disabled list last week. Perhaps he’s ready to recover today. I’m not expecting more than five innings out of him. For that reason, I almost prefer his less talented opponent Sean Manaea.

Like Salazar, Taijuan Walker probably won’t toss more than five-plus innings in his second start back from the DL. Otherwise, I’d love his matchup against the Baby Yankees.

Some mid-tier options with ceiling include R.A. Dickey and Kyle Gibson (complete game potential), Jon Gray (10 strikeout potential), Archie Bradley, and Joe Musgrove.

Last but certainly not least, the ever-enigmatic Carlos Rodon has an easy matchup against the Phillies. The club actually has some decent right-handed power hitters. Rodon has struggled with that split (1.57 HR/9 to righties), and the game is at power friendly U.S. Cellular Field.

Stack Targets: Derek Holland, Clay Buchholz, Andrew Cashner, Jake Thompson, Chase Anderson, Jon Niese, Christian Friedrich, Reynaldo Lopez, Rob Whalen, Ivan Nova, Anibal Sanchez, CC Sabathia, Dan Straily, Tyler Skaggs

4. SaberSim Observations

Arrieta, Rodon, Gray, Musgrove, and Bumgarner comprise the top five pitchers. I guess Maeda and pitching on the road cancel out a big chunk of Bumgarner’s upside. Stacks include Angels, Nationals, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Cubs, Blue Jays, Tigers, White Sox, and Orioles. Hell, the Indians, Rangers, and Reds work too.

5. Tomorrow’s Targets 

Pitchers to Start: Tomorrow is riddled with pitchers who, like Matt Shoemaker versus the Blue Jays, walk the fine line between ‘starter’ and ‘exploit.’ Matt Boyd is perhaps my favorite streaming option at Target Field. The Tigers southpaw has pitched well lately, although he remains homer prone. The Twins home park should help him to keep the ball in the yard – it’ll be up to him to do the rest.

Also consider: Jerad Eickhoff

Pitchers to Exploit: Matt Andriese is a really good multi-inning reliever. He’s a very bad starting pitcher. Both statements will probably regress to the mean in the future. However, I don’t expect a sudden studly start versus the Red Sox.

Also consider: Paul Clemens, Tim Adleman, Dillon Gee, Matt Andriese, James Shields, Tyler Duffey, Wade Miley

Hitters (power): I must have overlooked several qualified hitters because this list looks too small for a 15 game day. Ryan Howard has to homer against Shields at the Cell, right? He’s noshed five bangers in 40 August plate appearances.

Also consider: Mitch Haniger, Robbie Grossman, Derek Dietrich, Josh Bell

Hitters (speed): Michael Bourn is the latest baserunner to draw the Atlanta battery. Julio Teheran is a little better with base runners than some of his teammates. Since August 9, he’s slashing .333/.357/.444 with four steals in six attempts (58 plate appearances).

Also consider: Jorge Polanco, Cameron Maybin, Hernan Perez, Cesar Hernandez

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.

The Link.

This post is not brought to you by any DFS platform. The current author is quite pleased to present a DFS ad free environment.