The Daily Grind: Draft Day Special

Draft Day! Get all your coverage elsewhere on FanGraphs.

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. Cheeky Baseball

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

Nicemamut rocked the Invitational last Friday by being the only user to roster Mike Foltynewicz’s gem. He combined it with 30 point performances from Chris Taylor and Yasiel Puig. Nobody was an utter zero. Congrats and Leaderboard.

Here’s today’s contest on FantasyDraft. I love these tiny slates. See ya there.

If you have not signed up for FantasyDraft, please use this referral link for tracking purposes. If I understand properly, by using the referral, you will receive a 10 percent return on any rakes you pay.

2. Weather Reports

Thankfully, weather should be a non-issue today.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: It’s a miniature four game slate. Sadly, we miss out on Luis Severino. He’s pitching the front half of a doubleheader. No pitcher costs over $20,000, and all of the parks are neutral or worse for hitters. Since it’s a small contest, it’s all hands on deck.

While Zack Godley is perhaps appropriately priced at $19,400, he is not my favorite pitcher in the slate. The righty has struggled with walks in recent weeks as opponents realize they should just never swing at his ludicrous curve ball. On the plus side, the game is at pitcher friendly AT&T Park. And he should receive run support opposite Derek Holland ($10,900).

Julio Teheran ($18,800) is pricey against the strikeout prone Padres. With his penchant for allowing hard contact, I have some reservations about Teheran’s ability to handle the Padres lineup. Since I’m always looking to be contrarian, I’m tempted to stack against him. Clayton Richard ($12,000) has turned into a two-pitch guy. He’s recording more strikeouts as a result. Lately, he’s averaged over seven innings a start. He even had a double-digit strikeout game mixed in.

The second half of the doubleheader features Domingo German ($17,000) and Mike Fiers ($10,300). German throws fewer than 50 percent fastballs, instead leaning on frequent curves and changeups. We can probably count on a strikeout per inning opposite the Tigers (Miggy is back so they’re Tigers again). German has struggled in his starts, making this a high risk, high reward play. On the opposite side of the equation, you’re unlikely to find value with Fiers. He’s still a fantastic play in deep GPPs – just in case he does well.

Nick Tropeano ($16,300) may be the best option in the slate. The fly ball pitcher is opposed by a soft Royals offense. Many of their best hitters like Mike Moustakas are fly ball guys. This favors Tropeano. Royals starter Danny Duffy ($9,000) has shown better velocity recently. If Mike Trout gets an off day for his bruised knee, Duffy could be a savvy play.

Stack Targets: Duffy, Fiers, German, Teheran, Richard, Godley, Holland

Everybody but Tropeano seems stackable to me. Which means Trop may be the most valuable stack in deep GPPs.

4. SaberSim Says…

The Sim currently excludes the Tigers-Yankees game from its projections. Teheran, Tropeano, Godley, Holland, and Richard are the top five for now. Trout, Moustakas, Justin Upton, Paul Goldschmidt, and Freddie Freeman are the preferred bats. Jarrod Dyson, Raffy Lopez, Nick Ahmed, and Jefry Marte are among the best bargains.

5. Cheeky Baseball

I feel like most of the home runs we see are mistakes over the plate. Especially when we’re looking at multi-homer games. Here’s Eddie Rosario mashing three pretty well-located pitches.

This is how you play cheeky baseball. Personally, I’ve been waiting to do this for years.

Bradley Zimmer is approximately 33 feet tall.