The Daily Grind: McCullers, Flande, Elias, Paxton

Agenda

  1. Daily DFS
  2. SaberSim Favs
  3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Paxton, Hill, Raburn, DeShields
  4. Factor Grid

1. Daily DFS 

Yesterday’s Grind

Early: Today features a three game early slate, two in mid-afternoon no-man’s land, and 11 evening games. The first batch is headlined by Yordano Ventura and Lance Lynn. The easiest exploits are Ivan Nova and Chris Tillman although even they aren’t guaranteed to flop. It makes for an interesting contest that promises plenty of parity.

Late: The night crew has some dominant pitching. Madison Bumgarner heads the pool with a Clayton Kershaw-like price tag. You’ll find Jose Fernandez and Noah Syndergaard with more affordable ace pricing. It’s unclear how deeply either pitcher will be allowed to go tonight. Fernandez is returning from injury while Syndergaard is having his innings managed.

For just $6,700 on FanDuel, you can take a shot on Lance McCullers. His ceiling echoes the best pitchers of the day. Unfortunately, he’s much more likely to throw five or fewer innings than the aces – hence his price. He’s a good GPP play against the Angels, but he should not be used in cash games.

I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to use Yohan Flande. He’s basically the poor man’s version of Dallas Keuchel with a terrible home park. Tonight’s game is away at Safeco Field. The pitcher friendly stadium and left-handed lineup should help him to post solid numbers.

Opposite Flande is Roenis Elias. The lefty isn’t particularly good, but he’s facing perhaps the worst offense in baseball against southpaws.

Stack Targets: Jerad Eickhoff, Zach Davies, Jeff Locke, Tommy Milone, Jose Quintana, Williams Perez, Sean Nolin, Rubby de la Rosa, Flande

2. SaberSim Favs

I like that SaberSim rates Elias as the fourth best pitcher today. It’s definitely incorporating the Rockies poor performance against lefties. I do think they’re underselling Flande’s chance for a win, and thus overselling Elias. The game could be a sneaky pitcher’s duel. The Rockies bullpen does push things back in the M’s favor, but it’s not like Seattle’s pen has performed well.

If you can look past a recent cold stretch, Josh Reddick is a valuable pick against Yovani Gallardo and the Rangers. SaberSim projects Reddick as the fifth best hitter today. He costs just $2,400. The game is in Texas. He’ll be in my lineups.

3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Paxton, Hill, Raburn, DeShields

Pitchers to Start: James Paxton is finally back in action tomorrow. He pitched terribly while rehabbing. I’m not using him against the A’s tomorrow, but you’ll probably only get one chance to grab him for later.

Also consider: Raisel Iglesias, Jon Niese, Andrew Heaney

Pitchers to Exploit: The Red Sox have summoned Rich Hill for tomorrow’s game. Yep, that Rich Hill. He pitched decently over five minor league starts for the Red Sox with a 2.78 ERA, 8.07 K/9, and 2.1 BB/9. The lefty mashing Rays should have a field day. I miss field days…

Also consider: R.A. Dickey, Brad Hand, Drew Smyly, Matt Boyd, Ryan Weber, Aaron Harang, Colin Rea, Kyle Kendrick, Randy Wolf, Felix Doubront, Chi-Chi Gonzalez

Hitters (power): The Indians will face a couple bad lefties tomorrow – Matt Boyd and Randy Wolf. That means plenty of work for Ryan Raburn, Mike Aviles, Yan Gomes, and Chris Johnson. None of those names are overly attractive. You’ll be hoping volume makes up for a lack of quality.

Also consider: Seth Smith, Mark Canha, Drew Stubbs, Mike Napoli, Chris Coghlan, Hector Olivera, Brandon Guyer, Jayson Werth, Greg Bird

Hitters (speed): Delino DeShields is in competition for the best Rule 5 pick of last winter. Ironically, his competition is former Ranger Odubel Herrera. Both players could steal a base.

Also consider: Gregor Blanco (concussed), Rusney Castillo

4. 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.

No weather factors today. Do pay close attention to weather reports. As many as five games are at risk of postponement today.

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. 





You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam

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Cmon Dorn
8 years ago

Brad, what side of Ian Kennedy are you on today?