The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for May 27

genda

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

1. Podcast and Weekend

Dylan Higgins and I will be hosting the live Field of Streams video podcast at 11:00 AM ET today. The podcast itself will be posted after we record, but you can watch the whole process while it unfolds. It’s a hitherto unseen glimpse into the glamorous lives of a fantasy baseball analyst. Well, I guess it’s been seen. We do it every week after all.

Mr. Higgins will also be filling in for me over the weekend. I’ll be in the wilderness sans computer. My goal is to strike the perfect balance between too much and too little accelerant in the fire.

2. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard

Yesterday’s winner was jschweitzer who parlayed 70 percent owned Matt Wisler, with Tyler Flowers, David Ortiz, George Springer, and Carlos Gonzalez into a big night. Hopefully he had some GPP entries too. The leaderboard is updated.

Let’s go back to FanDuel again for a $2, 20 team contest.

3. Daily DFS 

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: The Cubs are hosting a day game at Wrigley Field. They’ll face Phillies lefty Adam Morgan. Too bad you’ll miss out on this stack. The Jon Lester start would have been interesting too.

Late: The other 14 games are in the evening. Julio Urias is the elephant in the room with a $6,900 price tag on FanDuel. Despite a theoretical ceiling capable of pacing with any non-Kershaw, Urias will be handicapped tonight. The Dodgers have yet to throw him more than six innings or 82 pitches per Eric Longenhagen’s report. Said report also notes his occasional loss of command within the strike zone. He’s gotten away with it in the minors, but major league hitters won’t be so kindly. I’ll predict five innings, five strikeouts, two runs, and a no decision (24 FD points).

Among the aces, Max Scherzer against the Cardinals and Cole Hamels versus the Pirates have the easiest paths to victory. Scherzer’s on top of his game while Hamels should receive a ton of run support. Both are costly. I do wish Hamels was a little cheaper – the Rangers don’t usually let him throw more than seven innings.

Adam Conley is the king of the high variance column. Bouts of wildness occasionally ruin his night. Last time out, he walked seven Nationals. He handed out just four free passes in the previous 15.1 innings. Before that, a couple four walk games. If the non-wild version of Conley shows up, his matchup against the Braves is in demand.

Last but not least, Robbie Ray is $100 less than Urias. While he may be no more likely to pitch beyond the sixth inning, at least he’s allowed to do so. Ray has his share of command issues with 9.89 K/9 and 4.56 BB/9. The Padres have the third highest strikeout rate versus southpaws and a league average walk rate.

Other viable choices include Masahiro Tanaka, Chris Archer, Mike Fiers, and Jaime Garcia

Stack Targets: Joe Kelly, Tyler Chatwood, Trevor Bauer, Matt Shoemaker, Jon Niese, Miguel Gonzalez, Danny Duffy, Williams Perez, Mike Wright, Pat Dean, Matt Cain, John Lamb, Christian Friedrich, Sean Manaea

4. SaberSim Observations

Well there goes my sneaky Ray pick. SaberSim thinks he’s the second best pitcher in the entire slate. While I can certain see getting 54 points out of him for a song, he has meltdown potential against any opponent. Three of his nine starts haven’t lasted five innings. Only four have reached the six inning threshold. He’s a clever way to get big hitters on your roster, but let’s not get carried away projecting him to outperform Felix Hernandez, Tanaka, and Jacob deGrom. Urias and Conley are also in the top 10.

The Coors game, Diamondbacks, Rangers, and Reds appear to be the favored stacking options.

5. Tomorrow’s Targets 

Pitchers to Start: Yu Darvish isn’t actually available in your league (90 percent owned), but he’s worth a mention in his season debut. And now, a reading from scripture.

Cursed are the Yankees, for they had this coming. Delight in their palpable anguish; their miasma of distress borne of myopic destiny. Lo! the creatures come to roost and make of Yankee Stadium a home away from home. The birds, chiefly Orioles and Blue Jays. The Rays and skates. Even dirty Red Sox, made animate through foul sorceries.

Tomorrow it’s the Rays at home against the Yankees. Interpreting the above, perhaps Matt Moore is a useful option versus a team that doesn’t hit lefties very well (78 wRC+). However, I’m also keen on Michael Pineda whose suffered an unceasing assault of misfortune. His 3.53 xFIP is nearly three points below his 6.34 ERA.

Also consider: Jerad Eickhoff, Wei-Yin Chen, Wade Miley

Pitchers to Exploit: Alfredo Simon is pooey.

Also consider: Jesse Hahn, Ubaldo Jimenez, Chase Anderson, Aaron Blair, Chris Rusin, Juan Nicasio, Adam Wainwright, Jered Weaver, Phil Hughes, Cesar Vargas

Hitters (power): The Indians were foolish to let Robbie Grossman walk. Now with the Twins, he’s hitting .444/.545/.722 in 22 plate appearances with four walks and two strikeouts. His new less passive approach is doing wonders.

Also consider: Chris Herrmann, Seth Smith, Adam Lind, Aaron Hicks, Trevor Brown, Derek Dietrich, Justin Bour, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Adam Duvall, Danny Valencia

Hitters (speed): Danny Santana bats ninth for the Twins. Normally we’d dismiss this as a bad role. With Minnesota, it means he has a green light to create run opportunities whenever he reaches base. He has 10 steals in 15 attempts.

Also consider: Tony Kemp, Rajai Davis, Eduardo Nunez

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.