The Daily Grind: Holding Down The Fort II

FanGraphs is mostly dark for a second straight day. And I’ll be using it as an excuse for a truncated column. I’m saving my efforts this day for a Peripheral Prospects post.

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. Life

1.The Daily Grind Invitational

Johnson119 didn’t even need Danny Jansen‘s double-dong to win last night. A fiery Braves stack was more than enough including Dansby Swanson’s double-dong. All told, there were three double-dongs in just four games. Nobody rostered Rougned Odor. Congrats and Leaderboard.

We’re on FantasyDraft for a normal 13-game slate. I’m expecting another large overlay – we had only 35 entries last night.

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2. Weather Reports

While not quite all clear, we shouldn’t see anything that causes a delay.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Let’s just step through some buckets today. The pricey studs are Justin Verlander, Jacob deGrom, and Clayton Kershaw. I’d pass on Kershaw at his price but have no issue with using the others. None have desirable matchups.

The upper mid-tier is Zack Greinke, Masahiro Tanaka, and Jordan Yamamoto. Greinke looks like an excellent value opposite the sea level rockies. Yamamoto is a HARD pass. In fact… see below.

The normal mid-tier is composed of Eduardo Rodriguez, Dylan Bundy, Austin Voth, and Michael Pineda. Pass on Pineda, soft pass on Voth who has a nice matchup against the Royals but is fairly unimpressive. Yes please to ERod in Detroit. I’m undecided about Bundy who remains homer prone but has otherwise righted the ship. The Blue Jays lineup does struggle more often than not.

The bottom of the barrel is crowded. Marcus Stroman, Dakota Hudson, and Julio Teheran stand out both for possessing decent ceilings and pairings against scrubtastic opponents.

Favorite Plays: Verlander, Greinke, ERod, Hudson

Stack Targets: Yamamoto, Pineda, Noe Ramirez, Yusei Kikuchi, Ryan Carpenter, Antonio Senzatela, Steven Brault, Zach Davies, Eric Lauer, Brad Keller, Brett Anderson, Adrian Sampson, Vince Velazquez

So, uh, offense gonna go off tonight, huh?

4. Life

An exciting finish in Florida. Lowe brushed the black of the plate with his fingertip then Joey Wendle scored on a ball through Gary Sanchez’s five-hole. In the top of the 10th, DJ LeMahieu delivers another clutch hit followed by redemption for Sanchez.

The Cardinals seem to like Tommy Edman.

We’ve been waiting for life from Jansen all season.