The Daily Grind: New Section Alert

New Section!

AGENDA

  1. Self Preservation
  2. Weather Reports
  3. Perfect Lineup
  4. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
  5. Hitters to Use
  6. SaberSim Says…
  7. TDG Invitational Returns!

1. Self Preservation

If you weren’t watching Chris Archer’s gem last night, then you probably didn’t notice that it almost didn’t happen. Check out this smooth move in the second inning. Unfortunately, MLB.com didn’t deign to make it embeddable.

Archer finished the night with eight innings, 11 strikeouts, and no runs on five hits and no walks. It’s his second straight 11 strikeout game. Is the 2015 Archer back?

2. Weather Reports

There’s a 50 percent chance for rain in the nation’s capitol pretty much all day. The rest of the league is dry.

3. Perfect Lineup

If you wished for perfection on DraftKings yesterday, you better have used the following…

Chris Archer
Kenta Maeda
Yadier Molina
Rickie Weeks
Brandon Drury
Jedd Gyorko
Nick Ahmed
Corey Dickerson
Colby Rasmus
Yasmany Tomas

The above were good for 233.2 points.

4. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Two games are early, leaving us with nine for the main slate tonight.

Main Slate: Dallas Keuchel is easily the top pitcher, but it’s not all roses for him. Visiting the Bombers at Yankee Stadium is one of the toughest matchups out there. It’s unnerving to recommend a pitcher in a venue where should-be outs are frequently home runs. Keuchel racks up enough ground balls to make this work.

Keuchel is opposed by Michael Pineda who, despite my frequent proclamations against him, has pitched masterfully. Why has Pineda succeeded? It’s because his godawful cutter has performed as an average offering (.271 AVG, .441 SLG). It was much worse last season. The slider has always been an near-elite pitch. He’s buffed its usage up to 40 percent.

Michael Fulmer picked up where he left off last season. Once again, he has a near-3.00 ERA with solid but unspectacular peripherals. A visit to the Angels is good for the ‘ol stat line.

J.C. Ramirez is doing a Pineda impression. He’s using his slider nearly as often as his fastball. The resultant 3.74 ERA with 8.82 K/9 and 2.94 BB/9 is looking more and more genuine. For him, I think the challenge may be in maintain the walk rate while increasing his slider usage above 50 percent.

I honestly think Hyun-Jin Ryu is good enough to survive a Coors Field start. Still, the only reasons to consider him are contrarianism and a tiny $5,500 price tag. That’s room for an awful lot of big boppers.

Stack Targets: Gerrit Cole, A.J. Cole, Derek Holland, Martin Perez, Bronson Arroyo, Phil Hughes, Chase De Jong, Tyler Anderson, Ty Blach

5. Hitters to Use

If Austin Barnes is starting in place of Yasmani Grandal, then yes, do use him. Chris Taylor is my favorite new under the radar Dodger. There’s a whole slew of righties to spin up at Coors Field. I’m over this whole “they can’t hit southpaws” nonsense. (Should I tell that to their 87 wRC+?)

Austin Hedges has that sweet fly ball swing opposite ground balling Martin Perez. Yakkers await.

Paul Goldschmidt, A.J. Pollock, and Chris Owings, ought to combine for at least three steals. Assuming any of them can reach base versus Cole. Chase Field will help.

Miguel Sano, Destroyer of Worlds.

Billy Hamilton is visiting AT&T Park which is usually a red light for hitters. In the case of Hamilton, we’re obviously not playing for home runs. Nor is he deterred on the bases by any pitcher-catcher matchup.

6. SaberSim Says…

Zack Greinke, Pineda, Fulmer, Cole, and Keuchel are the top rated pitchers per the Sim of Saber. Personally, I’d rather avoid BABIP inflating Chase Field. I even listed Cole as a stack target – purely because he’s so stolen base prone. Certain popular Diamondbacks like to steal.

Top hitters are Nolan Arenado, Justin Turner, Franklin Gutierrez, Yasiel Puig, and Bryce Harper. Coors Field does a lot for one’s projections.

7. The Daily Grind Invitational

Congrats to galtocean for securing the win. I’ve seen this name race out to early leads over and over again without closing the deal. Well played! Archer and Rasmus did the bulk of the work, although the whole unit chipped in with something. The leaderboard is updated.

We’re on FanDuel the next couple days.





You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam

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kevinthecomic
6 years ago

I respectfully disagree with using Martin Perez as a stack target. He is facing the Padres, and they make most pitchers look like Cy Young.