The Daily Grind: Meager Monday

Today’s edition comes equipped with an excerpt for certain RotoGraphs delivery devices.

AGENDA

1. It’s Happ-ening
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. Hitters to Use
5. SaberSim Says…
6. TDG Invitational Returns!

1. It’s Happ-ening

What a lazy pun, amirite?

Ian Happ hammered a couple home runs yesterday. They were very well-timed for his continued employment with the most major of leagues. Prior to the offensive outburst, he was slashing .114/.205/.143 over his previous 39 plate appearances.

Strangely, Happ “earned” a promotion atop the order during the midst of this slump. Well… technically Kyle Schwarber was demoted and somebody had to hit leadoff.

2. Weather Reports

The Phillies-Braves game is looking like a coin flip to happen. There’s a 50 percent chance of storms in Atlanta all night. Storm cells are typically very spotty in Atlanta, but they also don’t budge. One place can be dry while an inch of rain falls a couple miles away.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: Carlos Martinez is the guy you want to own, except anything can happen in Cincinnati. CMart has six straight outings of 40 or more FanDuel points including a spin at Coors Field. If your hitters allow you to, I highly recommend ponying up the $10,000.

Plan B is Jeff Samardzija. In typical Samardijon form, he’s mixed brilliance with disaster. Today he’s visiting Team Volatility – the Brewers at Miller Park. They’re a powerful, strikeout prone lineup capable of making or breaking a DFS pitcher’s score. Samardzija is one of only a few pitchers who has a chance to go the distance on any given day.

The Dodgers have a reputation as lefty-prone. It’s a carryover from 2016. By their 102 wRC+ versus southpaws, they are the ninth best at lefty mashing. This has mostly been accomplished without Logan Forsythe who was specifically acquired to help fix this problem. In any case, the Dodgers face erratic southpaw Gio Gonzalez. Much to my general shock and surprise, I discovered yesterday that Gonzalez hasn’t been terrible for the last decade. It’s only this season that he’s begun to look unusable in traditional fantasy formats.

Dan Straily is a fly ball pitcher visiting Wrigley Field. A quick perusal of the prevailing winds indicate stiff 15 mph gusts. Good news though, the wind is blowing in. Straily has buffed his strikeout rate to match his always shiny swinging strike rate. He’s a good contrarian play against an over-feared Cubs offense.

Bargains include Hyun-Jin Ryu and Nick Pivetta. Ryu has scuffled with a home run problem, and his command is a full grade worse than his heyday. Pivetta is a massive risk, medium upside play. Select him if you want to gamble that 20 pitcher points and a potent offense is all you’ll need tonight. In these small slates, sometimes the few quality pitchers all produce a dud. Also, a fruit fly keeps buzzing my eyes, and I will kill it.

Stack Targets: Asher Wojciechowski, Asher Wojciechowski, Asher Wojciechowski, Pivetta, Bartolo Colon, Eddie Butler, Ian Kennedy, Mike Fiers

4. Hitters to Use

Asher Wojciechowski. The extreme fly ball pitcher is also quite homer prone. He faces the Cardinals at the Great American Smallpark. Matt Carpenter, Jedd Gyorko, Tommy Pham, Paul DeJong, Dexter Fowler, and anybody else are all promising options.

Personally, I’m looking to Miller Park for my catcher – Buster Posey, Jett Bandy, or Manny Pina. Alternatively, Austin Barnes will probably start versus a southpaw, and he costs nothing. Well, technically he costs $2,000.

I recommend using a first baseman. Pretty much all of them are very good and have a positive matchup.

Jose Altuve, George Springer, and other Astros are desirable despite Kauffman Stadium. Kennedy has had some issues this season.

I like using Corey Seager against left-handed pitchers because other people avoid him. Elsewhere, I love using Brandon Crawford at tiny venues like Miller Park. Like it, love it, but who’s the gotta have it?

Khris Davis? Giancarlo Stanton? They’re the top double donger threats.

5. SaberSim Says…

Gonzalez, Samardijon, CMart, J.A. Happ, and Ryu make up the top five pitchers. Pivetta is number six. I failed to mention that I see some statistical parallels between Pivetta and 2016 Jose Berrios. Pretty sure that’s a bad thing – at least in the short term. Eric Thames, Brandon Belt, Anthony Rizzo, Buster Posey, and Jedd Gyorko are the top five rates hitters. Did I mention Asher Wojciechowski?

6. The Daily Grind Invitational

Charliebowties rode Clayton Kershaw, Nick Castellanos, and Allen Cordoba to victory. They accounted for 117.1 of his 150.3 points. Congrats and Leaderboard.

We’re on FanDuel tonight.

I didn’t kill the fruit fly. Yet…