The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for May 24

Agenda

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

1. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard

TexasHoosier18 pulled out a big victory by using every spot in the lineup. I’ve updated the leaderboard. We haven’t fallen short of filling a contest recently, so I’m bumping it up to 35 users. It goes without saying that we’re on DraftKings today since FanDuel caps at 20 users.

2. Daily DFS 

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: The Rays and Marlins are off on their own today. No Jake Odorizzi or Tom Koehler for you.

Late: Chris Sale is the obvious top pitcher of the day. He’s matured this season, intentionally trading max effort strikeouts for low effort soft contact. Theoretically, this should only help him to work deeply into games. Unfortunately for DFS participants, he’s not less likely to post one of those ridiculous nine inning, 15 strikeout games. The Indians will probably hand him an easy win today.

Johnny Cueto continued his dominance of the Padres. He’s up to 27 innings and three wins in as many starts versus the Pad People. Jeff Samardzija isn’t as talented as Cueto, but he could keep pace. Last time out, he worked eight innings with eight strikeouts and a win. He’s thrown 7.2 o more innings in five of his last six starts.

David Price and Stephen Strasburg are also pricey, high upside plays. Price has looked fine in four of his last five outings while Strasburg’s rolled over everybody.

A couple veterans offer cheaper alternatives with a solid upside. Jeremy Hellickson has a tough matchup against the Tigers. Ervin Santana should have an easier time containing the Royals. If you want an expensive stack like the Red Sox, you’ll have to bite the bullet with a dangerous option. I’d be a stronger advocate for Jimmy Nelson opposite the Braves if he cost less on either site.

Stack Targets: Kendall Graveman, Daniel Wright, Jorge de la Rosa, Mike Bolsinger, Jhoulys Chacin, Andrew Cashner, Shelby Miller, R.A. Dickey, Doug Fister, Matt Harvey, Martin Perez, Julio Teheran, Josh Tomlin

3. SaberSim Observations

Sale, Price, Strasburg, Francisco Liriano, and Justin Verlander round out the top five. After Shark (sixth best), Nate Karns, Bolsinger, and Teheran offer a few quality projections. I don’t hate the Karns pick. I’ll pass on the other pair.

The Cubs, Red Sox, Astros, Angeles, Orioles, Pirates, Twins, and White Sox all appear multiple times near the top of the projections. To me, this means there are no must-stacks.

4. Tomorrow’s Targets

Pitchers to Start: I’m not on the Colby Lewis bandwagon. Yes, he’s done well to keep runners off the bases, but he’s still a homer prone pitcher. Eventually, those long balls will come back to roost. As a command and control guy, I do think he can avoid Mike Trout’s bat by virtue of throwing balls. He can avoid the other eight Angels simply because they’re terrible.

Also consider: Tyler Duffey, Steven Wright, Junior Guerra, Matt Andriese

Pitchers to Exploit: “You’re going to die in this house,” is something I heard yesterday whilst the lady of the house watched Real World. It’s possible, if not likely, that the phrase was directed at Justin Nicolino who somehow has to survive the lefty mashing Rays. Nicolino is a unique brand of terrible with 1.84 K/9 and 3.38 BB/9. I’m not convinced he’d be above average in my men’s league.

Also consider: Anibal Sanchez, Dillon Gee, Jake Peavy, Jeff Locke, Mike Foltynewicz, Tyler Wilson, Collin McHugh, Zack Neal

Hitters (power): There’s no shortage of power bats for tomorrow including a free, high value Rays stack. If he’s still available in your league, I’d reach past the Rays for Michael Saunders. He’s batting fourth or fifth for the Blue Jays while they experiment with Jose Bautista in the leadoff role. With the help of a .408 BABIP, Saunders is hitting .322/.388/.570. He’ll face Ivan Nova.

Also consider: Tommy Joseph, Ryan Howard, Brandon Guyer, Steve Pearce, Taylor Motter, Curt Casali, Adam Duvall, Chase Utley, Seth Smith, Adam Lind, Mike Mahtook, Brandon Drury, John Jaso, Brett Wallace

Hitters (speed): Remember last year when everybody overdrafted Danny Santana as a “sleeper.” Now no one will take him to the dance even though he’s among the league leaders in stolen bases. If Jarrod Dyson is rosterable to you, then Santana is an upgrade. He’s opposed by Gee.

Also consider: Tony Kemp, Aaron Hicks, Rajai Davis, Cesar Hernandez, Eduardo Nunez

5. 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.