The Daily Grind: Laughter Ensues
In today’s Streaming Wars (picks for tomorrow), the Rays Form the Head. I see only one startable waiver pitcher, and even he’s a little iffy.
AGENDA
- TDG Invitational
- Weather Reports
- Pitchers to Use and Abuse
- SaberSim Says…
- Laughter Ensues
1. The Daily Grind Invitational
Garrick combined unpopular CC Sabathia with solo-owned Miguel Andujar for the victory. Nick Pivetta, Giancarlo Stanton, Nelson Cruz, Josh Harrison, and Kole Calhoun also chipped in. Congrats and Leaderboard.
As usual, we’re on FantasyDraft for a no rake GPP with a highly probable overlay. 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
The Nationals contest has a chance for late-arriving storms. As of now, it looks like they’ll fire after the game.
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
Early Slate: A four game afternoon slate includes basically all the interesting action of the day including dog days Globe Life Park, Coors Field, and a fun pairing between the Phillies and Diamondbacks. That latter game features two of the top available pitchers – Patrick Corbin ($21,600) and Vince Velasquez ($16,200). Both are priced to move. It’s the kind of slate where I’d consider using both of them.
That’s because Marco Gonzales is the only other “good” pitcher. His matchup against the Rangers isn’t ideal – they’re reasonably decent against left-handed pitchers. More to the point, their home park runs like a pinball machine this time of year. And a day game? Woof. Game time temperatures will be in the mid-to-upper 90s.
Your alternatives consider of Chris Archer ($13,800) visiting German Marquez ($14,000) and Jaime Barria ($12,200) hosting the Tigers. I think you probably know which I prefer. While Barria is the obvious bargain play, I’ll note that Marquez is running hot including some success at home.
Stack Targets: Yovani Gallardo, Blaine Hardy
Hardy makes short, effective starts. You’re actually targeting the Tigers bullpen here.
Main Slate: Clayton Kershaw leads the nine game nightcap. He’ll cost you $24,800 for a visit to Oakland. Although Kershaw hasn’t quite been in vintage mode since returning from the disabled list, he’s looked good enough to justify this price tag.
Next up, I’ve curated a slumpy Luis Severino for $23,000. He’s totaled about 10 points over his last four starts – outings that included a couple tough opponents (Red Sox, Indians) and a pair of scrubby teams (Royals, Rays). Severino should receive plentiful run support opposite Lucas Giolito, but he still has to pitch well enough to earn his contract. For what it’s worth, I expect a low ownership rate due to the recent performance.
Mike Clevinger ($18,900) is actually fourth priciest. I see no reason to consider rostering the third most costly pitcher so let’s just not even mention his name. Clevinger has a solid matchup against an unimpressive Twins lineup. He’s heavily favored to win.
Jose Quintana ($16,100) wanders between five and 25 point performances. A visit to Kauffman Stadium will hopefully push him towards the upper end of the spectrum. He’ll be popular due to the matchup.
Uh oh. Most of the remaining pitchers are scary to use. Jhoulys Chacin is probably the lone exception versus the strikeout prone Padres. He’s similar in quality to Quintana which feels like a weird thing to say.
John Gant ($12,700) could maybe return positive value opposite the Marlins. It’s a stretch… Trevor Richards ($15,200) may actually be the better play.
Stack Targets: Mike Hauschild, Lucas Giolito, Heath Fillmyer, Brett Kennedy, Andrew Cashner, Tommy Milone, Mike Fiers
Two pitchers are making their major league debut tonight. We’ll see how that goes. Kennedy seemingly has a shot to be somebody.
4. SaberSim Says…
Severino, Kershaw, Clevinger, Chacin, and Quintana are the top five pitchers. Yep. Playable bargains include Gant, Jake Odorizzi, Chacin, and Brett Kennedy. As for batters, Ronald Acuna, Mookie Betts, Anthony Rizzo, Bryce Harper, and Giancarlo Stanton lead the way. As solid as Acuna has been in his rookie season, I’m not sure he merits this bullish of a projection. Valueland consists of Branton Lowe, Anthony Rendon, Randal Grichuk, Ian Happ, and Acuna.
5. Laughter Ensues
When you’re not a good pitcher, you need to be careful when laughing at your friends on the other team.
I haven’t seen this since I figured out how to glitch the fielders in Ken Griffey Baseball.
I feel like baseball needs a ground rule re: this play/replay. The answer should not be that Soto is out because the umps made the wrong call and Soto correctly left the field of play.
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Re: The last gif. Soto was out because he and Turner were occupying the same base. Not because he left the field of play. As I understand it what happened was not an incorrect umpire’s call. It was, at most, a slow but correct call. By the 3B ump in this case. Then, the 3rd base coach failed to signal to Turner that he should have continued to run (or just stay on 2nd) … or possibly Trea wasn’t watching. Nationals fandom’s general sentiment puts this one on the 3rd base coach.
That’s still a bad call. Why were they on the same base? Because the ump got the call wrong so he didn’t continue to 2nd base and instead ran back to 1st, which is what he would have had to do because of the call the umps made. You can try and put this on the 3rd base coach, but following an Umpires instruction shouldn’t result in an out since it seems reasonable both players would have made it to 1st/2nd safely.
TL;dr- It’s a horseshit problem that is created by the umpires, not the players.
No. The ump didn’t get the call wrong. It’s not part of the above linked gif, but it was in some of replays actually shown during the TV broadcast of the game. The 3rd base umpire signalled that the ball was in play, and at an appropriate time. Trea didn’t see it, I guess, and the 3B coach did not signal to him what to do. Turner assumed “out” and returned to 1B, but not because he actually saw any of the umpires make a call that they did not.
I retract my calls of horseshit, and apologize for not looking into it beyond the video posted here.