The Daily Grind: Full Friday

After half a decade of active use, I have most of non-baseball twitter good and thoroughly muted. Occasionally, weird things still get through to me such as whatever the blazing balls this is. It’s obviously a hoax – the answer is 420.

AGENDA

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

1.The Daily Grind Invitational

Roc-pile piled on the points. Jakob Junis and a scarcely used Brewers stack carried the day. Congrats and Leaderboard.

It’s a full 15-game contest tonight on FantasyDraft. 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

Nope.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

I’m not feeling well today so I’m going to gloss over some of the details. Patrick Corbin ($21,200) heads the price list. He’s visiting Cincinnati. On the plus side, they’re pretty bad against leftist pitchers. Then again, anything can fly out of Great American Ballpark. I’ll call this par value. Tyler Mahle ($12,200) is a playable bargain.

Chris Sale ($21,100) got bumped to today. Like Corbin, I think this is a roughly fair price against a diminished Yankees offense at a hitter friendly venue.

Brad Peacock ($19,600) is third-most expensive? Well that’s just wrong… I’ll pass on Mike Fiers ($15,500) too. They’re both a good $3,500 overpriced.

Kenta Maeda ($19,500) and Jake Arrieta ($17,100) must solve extremely difficult opponents at Citizen’s Bank Park. Why are all the games at hitter venues? This slate is going to be ridiculously high scoring.

Caleb Smith ($18,800) is a solid gamble opposite the Padres. Joey Lucchesi ($16,700) is also well-positioned to rack up 20 points. While I usually avoid using two pitchers from the same game – especially in a large slate – I might consider it as a pseudo-contrarian play.

German Marquez ($18,500) catches flak for home/away splits. It’s all BABIP. While Coors Field does help fuel hits of all types, a .370 BABIP looks like purely bad luck. Especially when all his other peripherals are static. His only real issue has been with left-handed hitters. So consider an unpopular Marquez against a fairly right-handed Toronto lineup. Yep, it’s at Coors Field.

Trevor Bauer is slumping. Trevor Bauer costs only $17,800 against a strikeout prone, low-walk White Sox offense. Trevor Bauer is GO!

I believe it’s Jalen Beeks ($14,900) day in Tampa. I’d prefer to fire up Jose Berrios ($17,600). And what a lovely price too!

Zack Wheeler ($16,900) is a upper-mid-tier pitcher on a middle-mid-tier price tag. The Diamondbacks are banged up too. At least they’re using some interesting new players.

Mike Foltynewicz ($16,300) got his groove back last week. Specifically, his fastball has jumped from 94 to 95.9 mph. While it’s not quite the 96.4 mph he average last season, it’s trending in the right direction. I have no qualms with using him against the Tigers. I have some qualms about Spencer Turnbull ($16,000). Specifically, the Braves have a scary offense.

Others to consider include Chris Archer ($14,400), Yu Darvish ($13,600), and Danny Duffy ($14,900).

Favorite Plays: Bauer, Smith, Luchchesi, Marquez, Folty

Stack Targets: J.A. Happ, Edwin Jackson, Dylan Covey, Ariel Jurado, Jhoulys Chacin, Drew Pomeranz, Andrew Cashner, Miles Mikolas

4. SaberSim Says…

Bauer, Sale, Corbin, Smith, and Wheeler are the top-projected arms. Sure. Bauer, Chacin, Darvish, Mikolas, and Wheeler are the preferred values. Folty is sixth on both lists. On the hitting side, Trevor Story, Nolan Arenado, Christian Yelich, Mike Trout, and J.D. Martinez lead the way. Danny Jansen, Tyler White, Derek Fisher, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Randal Grichuk form the rearguard.

5.Moose Tacos

I wrote about Tim Locastro is some modest detail (paywall) yesterday. Here he is earning play time with his defense.

SHIT! IT WASN’T A CUTTER.

Moose Tacos was a big reason why roc-pile won yesterday’s TDGI.