The Daily Grind: NotGraphs, Peralta, Greene
Agenda
- Description Seeking Player
- Daily DFS – David Peralta
- Tomorrow’s Targets – Greene, Sabathia, Vargas, Bourn
- Factor Grid
1. Description Seeking Player
NotGraphs aficionados may recall the “Nickname Seeking Player” feature. What you find before you is similar in nature except where it is obviously different. So, I present today’s Description Seeking Player:
“He throws like a tolerant Nazi.”
Three questions spring to fore. What characterizes a tolerant Nazi? Is he or she tolerant in the truest sense of the word or merely relatively tolerant? How does one encapsulate Nazi-like tolerance in the medium of throwing baseballs? Answer these questions and you may well be no closer to the player we seek.
2. Daily DFS – David Peralta
Yesterday was the time to use Peralta. He went 1-for-4 with a home run, two runs, and three RBI all while batting cleanup for the Diamondbacks. That’s a tidy little game in DFSland. He’ll face an even weaker pitcher today in the form of Chris Heston. The Diamondbacks have one of the better parks for offense, and I can easily see this being a high scoring affair.
Perhaps you know Peralta’s story. The former pitching prospect left professional baseball after the 2007 season. Arizona then signed him out of amateur ball during the 2013 season. He quickly ascended the ranks to the majors where he’s held his own.
Peralta is an aggressive hitter with some pop and speed. That makes him useful in almost any fantasy format. He’ll participate in a straight handedness platoon. He could lose late game plate appearances as a result.
Stack Targets: Chris Heston, Jeremy Hellickson, Aaron Harang, Scott Feldman
3. Tomorrow’s Targets – Greene, Sabathia, Vargas, Bourn
Pitchers to Start: Finally, a good day for streaming. Despite only nine scheduled games, the field of waiver wire pickups is wide and varied. One of the best options is Shane Greene. Our own Ben Duronio recently wrote about Greene. In short – he has good rate stats, run support, and a neutral home park.
The Twins lineup looks like an easy exploit at first glance. It’s not. They aren’t a powerful club, but they have the necessary pieces to drive in a lot of runs. I expect this start to be a battle. He’s opposed by a similar pitcher in the form of Kyle Gibson.
Also consider: A.J. Burnett, Trevor Bauer, Kendall Graveman, Daniel Norris
Pitchers to Exploit: CC Sabathia has emerged as a semi-popular rebound candidate. Once he showed better velocity this spring, fantasy owners started jumping on the bandwagon. I remain noncommittal.
At Yankee Stadium against the all-powerful Blue Jays, I’ll happily target Sabathia. The primary dealers of damage – Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Josh Donaldson – obviously won’t be available on the wire. However, some lower upside plays like Dioner Navarro, Dalton Pompey, and Devon Travis are floating around.
Also consider: John Danks, Nick Martinez, Asher Wojciechowski
Hitters (power): Kennys Vargas will face Greene. While it’s not an ideal matchup, Vargas remains widely available (23 percent owned in Yahoo) and has 30 home run upside. He’s capable of squaring up a ball on any day.
Also consider: Kendrys Morales, Luis Valbuena, Ike Davis, Navarro
Hitters (speed): Michael Bourn is a difficult player to analyze. He was a fantasy beast in 2012 – his last fully healthy season. Now it’s unclear if he’ll even attempt to steal. Considering that speed is his main source of value, it’s a concerning problem. Bourn remains the Indians leadoff hitter…for now. He’s a low OBP hitter, so he’s no better suited to the task than Jose Ramirez. Tread lightly.
Also consider: Pompey, Travis, Odubel Herrera
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.
There’s a lot of rain in the forecast. The three northeast games, Cincinnati, and Kansas City are all at risk. Monitor the situation.
The Link. Milwaukee, Phoenix, and Houston are the safest locations for power today.
This post is not brought to you by any DFS platform. The current author is quite pleased to present a DFS ad free environment.
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For speed, Eric Young with a RHP on the mound and Salty (terrible, terrible, terrible at controlling the run game) catching him = strong SB potential.
True, he’s at least as good a play as Bourn.
How about anyone with speed against John Lester? The guy literally cannot throw to first base. KC exposed him in the WC game…
“He throws like a tolerant Nazi.”
Jake Peavy? I always thought he looked violent yet tolerant when he throws a baseball.
Reds are “green” w/ 50% chance of storms – is that correct? Today looks like a mess in the NorthEast/Midwest. Shame that West Coast stadiums like SD, COL, SF, LAA and TEX are empty right now, and a dome in Toronto.
When the forecast is “scattered storms” I usually have the color rating reflect clear skies. I’ll leave it up to you to interpret the weather report around game time.
Brad don’t tease us like that.
I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one that thought this was going to contain an announcement for Notgraphs’ return.
I’ve merely captured the ghost of NotGraphs in an ectoplasmic containment unit.
Brad, do us all a favor and shut off the power. Cite some health and safety concerns to make it look legit.
at least Rotographs has a sense of humor.
“He throws like a tolerant Nazi”
This needs to be a guy with underwhelming stuff that he pounds the zone with.
First two guys I thought of for this was Tommy Milone and Bartolo Colon.
I was sort of thinking the opposite. Like a guy with the talent to be a horrific murderer, metaphorically speaking, but just hasn’t/doesn’t put it together. Trevor Bauer?
My interpretation was a guy who pounds the zone because, you know, Nazi’s are very orderly. But, because he’s tolerant, he lacks the fire of his peers, thus has an underwhelming fastball.
But in your example, perhaps Yordano Ventura?
I would also vote for Bartolo Colon for the reasons above, plus he was once punished for abusing the juice.
Love the updated park factors. Wouldn’t it make sense to include the visiting team in the spreadsheet?
“He throws like a tolerant Nazi.”
any pitcher that gives ryan braun a fair chance to hit?
What’s your take on the DBacks OF playing time situation? I figured that Enciarte wouldn’t get much playing time, but he’s started both games so far. Is he worth a roster spot in deeper leagues for his SB potential?
It seems like they want to use him regularly. Probably as much for defensive value as anything else. I can’t really figure out how they plan to manage the platoon. Personally, I would go Peralta-Pollock-Trumbo with Inciarte on the bench (or better yet, trade Trumbo somewhere he won’t suck via fielding).
Who needs a DH or 1B and is in a position to buy? Maybe SD? Their mantra this year seems to be ‘needz moar RH powah!’and Yonder doesn’t seem like he’s going to break out any time soon.
Half the AL would benefit from Trumbo, although some don’t have the right stadium (like KC).
If the Rays looked like they were going to compete, that might be the best fit given their DH by comittee, but with a crap committee. The Jays would be excellent if they wanted to get an offensive upgrade from the Smoak and mirrors they’re (probably) deluding themselves with.
“He throws like a tolerant Nazi”
What characterizes a tolerant Nazi?
It’s an oxymoron. The very essence of Nazism is xenophobic intolerance. Three possibilities: he is schizophrenic/multiple personality disorder; he is posing as a Nazi but actually troubled by the regime (either way could be Rommel); or he is a Nazi but also a pacifist, so he believes in merely expelling Jews and others rather than killing them.
Is he or she tolerant in the truest sense of the word or merely relatively tolerant? If not simply insane, he must only be relatively tolerant.
How does one encapsulate Nazi-like tolerance in the medium of throwing baseballs?
Pure hatred of the batters and willingness to come inside, but not actually trying to hit anyone. Also highly effective.
Or, he’s schizoid in the sense of being totally unpredictable, likely killer tools and no focus or no consistency.
Or he could just be a knuckleballer.
“He throws like a tolerant Nazi”
Must be a rival of the “Reds” preferably a Brewer. Should be effective, but bad, though not overly so. Kyle Lohse.
Brad-
Any thoughts on Kiermaier?
He’s available in my 20 team league and I was thinking about swapping Torii Hunter for him on my bench.
I like Kiermaier, and it’s shocking he’s not owned in a 20-team format. He’s a 10/10 guy with some production in other categories. I’m not sure I’d drop Hunter for him, but it might be worth the gamble. I have to imagine you have worse players.
Yeah I know. La Stella is my weak link but the league is real thin at 2B (have Walker as a starter) Other bench guys are Ike Davis, and Freese. Trying to swap Davis for Lind from waiver.
I’m actually a little bullish on La Stella but I’m also blinded by Cubs homerism.
Brad, when you are discussing the ‘also consider’ targets, they seem to be listed alphabetically. Is that the case or are they listed by some sort of rank? For example, would you stream Graveman before Norris tomorrow?
They’re not intended to be in any sort of order. If you want K’s Norris is the better play. Graveman is high floor, low ceiling.
Mike Pelfrey. The poster boy for “Tolerant Nazi.”
I decided to try the daily fantasy thing and invested $25 initially on draftkings and won $7 betting $0 on opening day, so it was pretty fun. But I’m not sure how to approach it in terms of what to spend my money on. Right now I put in about 5% of my bankroll, which is about a 1.50. I play 1 .25 cent more topheavy guaranteed prize leagues and then do 1 $1 double up leagues (as that seems more consistent to build a bankroll off of) so I place about $1.25 a day.
My question is, how should i be allocating my plays each day – are the 50/50 leagues a good idea, or should i be doing the cash leagues that pay out to top 50 of 235 participants, or should i be doing the slightly bigger leagues? Whats optimal?
Bring back notgraphs.