The Daily Grind: DFS, Streaming, and More for May 6

Agenda

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

1. Join Our Live Video Podcast

Today at 11:00 ET, Dylan Higgins, Alex Chamberlain, and I will be running a live video podcast. I’d say to come check out my beard in all its splendor, but I shaved it off a week ago. Instead, we’ll be offering DFS picks, general fantasy baseball advice, and answering (some) of your chat questions. If you want your question tackled, I suggest you propose something thought provoking rather than a ‘should I trade X for Y’ scenario.

As of this writing, the actual post with directions to the podcast isn’t up yet. I’m sure it is by now. I play a weird game of time travel every day in which I write this at 7:00am, and it isn’t allowed to go live until 10:15.

2. The Daily Grind Invitational and Leaderboard

I’m beginning to hate DFS this year. I wake up to this picture all too often…

Southie777 should be feeling much more magnanimous. He won yesterday’s invitational. Fronski33 and rpimble also cashed. They have a deathlock on the FanDuel leaderboard. We’re heading back to DraftKings today with a $2, 35 user game.

3. Daily DFS 

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: The Nationals and Cubs are all on their lonesome this afternoon. At least we get to watch Max Scherzer and John Lackey.

Late: Of course you’re going to use Noah Syndergaard against the Padres. We recently saw what Clayton Kershaw did to them – Syndergaard is nearly Kershawian. There’s a but – the forecast includes a 50 percent chance for rain in San Diego. It’s ok, you wanted to fade anyway.

Madison Bumgarner is your alternate ace. He has a sea level game with the Rockies at AT&T Park. He should be much less popular than Syndergaard and projects to do only slightly worse.

Chris Archer has a nice price tag on DraftKings today. When he’s on, he has the stuff to run away from the competition – even Syndergaard. The Angels lineup is piteous aside from a certain man-fish. The upside is something like eight innings and 15 strikeouts. That’s 81 FanDuel points less three points per run. Remember, that’s the upside.

The day is riddled with quality pitchers, any one of whom could be the guy who outplays the top arms. It’s a good time to play the DFS lottery. Check out the list: Zack Greinke, Jordan Zimmermann, Cole Hamels, Francisco Liriano, Carlos Martinez, Francisco Liriano, Danny Salazar, Vince Velasquez, Taijuan Walker, Kenta Maeda, Marcus Stroman, Rick Porcello, Rich Hill, and Wei-Yin Chen. Whew…

Stack Targets: Tyler Cravy, Cory Rasmus, Aaron Blair, Tim Adleman, Ricky Nolasco, Doug Fister, Ubaldo Jimenez

4. SaberSim Observations

Per SaberSim, Hill (fourth), Chen (sixth), and Michael Pineda (10th) are the stealthy upside plays tonight. The highest rated one, Hill, is projected for 12 fewer FanDuel points than Syndergaard.

The top stacks include the Reds, Brewers, and Blue Jays. There are only a few blatant targets tonight.

5. Tomorrow’s Targets

Pitchers to Start: Jonathan Gray morphs into a good pitcher at sea level. In his easiest matchup of the year, Gray fanned 11 Padres over six innings of work. He also took the loss because the Rockies couldn’t give him two runs of support. The Giants make for a tougher challenge tomorrow, but I expect he’ll rise to the occasion with AT&T Park on his side.

Also consider: Jesse Hahn, Nate Karns, Jeremy Hellickson, Bartolo Colon

Pitchers to Exploit: I’ve been playing it cautiously because Adam Wainwright looks fine-ish. But the results sure aren’t there. His command isn’t sharp, he’s not inducing whiffs, and opponents are punishing his fastballs. The Pirates have a dynamic offense. They’ll disassemble Wainwright tomorrow.

Also consider: Ross Stripling, R.A. Dickey, A.J. Griffin, Mike Pelfrey, Jeff Locke, Cody Anderson, Mike Wright, Ervin Santana, Shelby Miller, Julio Teheran, Tom Koehler, Jered Weaver

Hitters (power): Cold versus cold. Franklin Gutierrez has a terrible triple slash this season, but he’s hitting the ball very hard. His 50 percent hard hit rate would rank second in the league if he qualified, and he has a 30 percent line drive rate too. It’s going to break right for him eventually. Perhaps the pumpkin version of Dallas Keuchel will cough up a homer.

Also consider: Ryan Howard, Derek Dietrich, Adam Duvall, Jake Lamb (or Brandon Drury), Nick Markakis, Jed Lowrie, Stephen Vogt, Chase Utley, John Jaso, David Freese

Hitters (speed): The Rays are the latest team to draw Jamie Moyer Jered Weaver. Brad Miller has shown signs of life recently, going .318/.400/.591 in his last eight games. He’s moved up to second in the order against right-handed pitching too. Miller isn’t a big power or speed threat, but he can do a little of each.

Also consider: Cesar Hernandez, Leonys Martin, Jonathan Villar

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.