The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for June 13

Agenda

1. Hamstrings and the Week Ahead
2. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard
3. Daily DFS
4. SaberSim Observations
5. Tomorrow’s Targets
6. Factor Grid

1. Hamstrings and the Week Ahead

The next week to 10 days are going to be quite hectic. In addition to doing some substitute work for travelling folks today and tomorrow, I need to relocate my body from NC to NJ on Wednesday, NJ to NYC on Friday, NYC to NJ on Monday, and finally NJ back to NC on next Wednesday. And I won’t be working while in NYC.

All told, that’s a lot of prime work hours lost to travel. On top of it all, I’ve joined the epidemic of hamstring injuries in baseball. I suffered an as yet undiagnosed Grade 2 strain of my right hamstring. I can’t tell if just one or two of the three hamstrings are affected. What I can tell is that I can’t stride forward. I suffered an identical injury in my left leg two years ago. I “rehabbed” (aka, foolishly started playing baseball again in 5 days) without the help of medical professionals. This time around, I’m going for a rehab script as soon as I’m done writing this.

So why share? This will affect you guys too. I’ll be removing some bits from today’s column. My availability on the next two Wednesdays is in question – I’ll probably post a rapid fire column. The same goes for Friday. Saturday and the following Monday will not have posts from me. Since most of the FanGraphs staff will be in NYC, I’m not confident about scaring up a volunteer replacements.

2. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard

Saturday’s freebie was won by airfigaro. He was one of two owners to eclipse the 200 point threshold with the help of Danny Duffy, Kris Bryant, Manny Machado, and Jay Bruce. Congrats! I hope you entered some GPPs too.

We’re doing our normal thing on FanDuel again – $2 and 20 users. Here’s the link.

3. Daily DFS 

All 10 games are in the main stack. Max Scherzer versus Kyle Hendricks is the rubber match. I’ve been using Hendricks often. Visiting Scherzer and the Nationals makes for a tough opponent. Hendricks’ price is still viable, especially in a GPP where a little extra risk makes sense. Scherzer may be a bit pricey, but that also serves to depress his ownership.

Zack Greinke appears to be back in top form over the last month. He’s coming off a complete game win against the Rays. The red flag? He only struck out two guys on a strikeout prone team. Greinke, like Hendricks, has the potential to be a top play tonight. It’s too easy for me to see where he might fail versus the Dodgers.

Carlos Carrasco is finally free of constraints. He pitched well against a tough Mariners lineup last week. The not-so-tough Royals unit looks like an easy seven innings with an even shot at a victory. The Royals do avoid strikeouts, reducing their value as a DFS target.

Digging deeper, you’ll find…well…uh…on second thought, just use one of the four pricey guys. R.A. Dickey has the Phillies. On the other side of that one is Jerad Eickhoff. He generally pitches well against righty-heavy lineups. He even shut down the Cubs last week. Edinson Volquez and Wei-Yin Chen are also startable.

Stack Targets: Daniel Wright, Aaron Blair, Colin Rea, Cesar Ramos, Mike Bolsinger, Sean Manaea, Matt Boyd, Ricky Nolasco, Matt Cain, Jered Weaver, Chase Anderson, James Shields, Dickey, Eickhoff

4. SaberSim Observations

SaberSim is not a fan of my Hendricks pick. He’s somehow ranked as the third worst pitcher in the slate. The rest of the choices add up – Scherzer, Greinke, Carrasco, Chen, and Dickey form the top five. It’s a steep drop from there.

The stack men include the White Sox, Marlins, Tigers, Bluye Jays, and Diamondbacks. There’s even a couple Athletics.

5. Tomorrow’s Targets 

Pitchers to Start: Phillies prospect Zach Eflin has been handed a rough debut opportunity at Toronto. The Blue Jays lineup isn’t firing on all cylinders, but there’s no denying the explosive potential. Eflin is a guy who frequently pitches within the strike zone. That skill set usually requires an adjustment period in the majors while the pitcher in question learns to also throw outside of the strike zone for positive effect.

Also consider: Brandon Finnegan, Juan Nicasio, Josh Tomlin, Ervin Santana

Pitchers to Exploit: Nathan Eovaldi often appears here as a starter to use. I’ll take a hard pass on an appearance at Coors Field. He should have an easy victory opposite de la Rosa if you want to walk on the wild side.

Also consider: Chris Young, Doug Fister, Jorge de la Rosa, Jhoulys Chacin, Martin Perez, Eric Surkamp, Tom Koehler, Matt Garza, Miguel Gonzalez

Hitters (power): Ryan Rua has a lovely .375/.455/.521 line against southpaws in a small sample. He’s opposed by a bad one tomorrow – Surkamp. Rua’s success versus lefties is two parts BABIP (.472 BABIP) and one part plate discipline (20 percent strikeout rate).

Also consider: Jarrett Parker, Jon Jay, Danny Valencia, Max Kepler, Chase Utley, Mike Napoli, Seth Smith, Adam Lind, Jeff Francoeur, Michael Saunders

Hitters (speed): Historically, Aaron Hicks has performed well against left-handed pitching. It’s not really happening this year. He should still get the start tomorrow at Coors Field.

Also consider: Whit Merrifield, Rajai Davis, Tyler Naquin, Cameron Maybin

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.

As I warned, some content was cut – namely the weather ratings. Only the Chicago game is a storm risk, and it’s a low one.

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.