The Daily Grind: Pitchers, Pitchers, Pitchers

My headline is Span-ish for today’s Streaming Wars.

AGENDA

1. TDG Invitational
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. SaberSim Says…
5. Pieces

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

Last Friday, rojito rode a productive combination of Blake Snell, Felix Pena, Marcell Ozuna, Eddie Rosario, and Shohei Ohtani to a very narrow victory (just 0.10 points over second place). Congrats and Leaderboard.

We have the usual parameters on FantasyDraft tonight. I know some of you are increasingly distracted by footbal. It’s important we finish strong so we can get more no rake GPPs next season.

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

Weather could play a major role in the upcoming week, starting with a couple risky games in Philadelphia and New York. The Nationals-Phillies game looks to have about a 50/50 chance to play. The Marlins-Mets contest will almost certainly be postponed.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: Ten games are available tonight. Two are just a little too early to be included (hey! two, too, to). Jacob deGrom ($26,400) is unplayable. The rain you see. Also, that’s a lot of money for a start that projects to better Corey Kluber ($21,100) by a point or two. Speaking of Kluber, he’s opposite a Diego Castillo bullpen game in Tampa Bay. I’ve lost track who’s riding second saddle tonight for the Rays. Kluber looks like a steal of a deal to me.

Trevor Williams is third most expensive at $18,000. That’s ridiculous. He’s likely to win against the shattered sell of Adam Wainwright (don’t the Cardinals realize they’re in a pennant race?). Still, I can’t get behind Williams’ bland numbers for a pricey DFS start. Use him all you want in traditional fantasy.

Next up is German Marquez ($17,700). He’s hosting Zack Godley ($13,100) at Coors Field. Godley is rightly very cheap. I have serious doubts he’ll survive tonight’s outing. There’s a chance for a surprisingly strong performance, making him a viable GPP dart throw. Marquez is everybody’s darling these days and could be very heavily owned.

J.A. Happ ($17,600) is visiting Kyle Gibson ($16,100). Aside from one recent outing (which I foolishly called an automatic win), Happ has consistently earned about 20 points per start. This is a great price. Gibson seems to be losing his strikeout stuff.

Dereck Rodriguez ($17,100) will undoubtedly be popular for a start against the Braves at AT&T Park. I still worry about his high hard contact rate. That’s got to bite him eventually. Right? Sean Newcomb ($14,400) is the better value in this matchup, assuming he can hit the strike zone. Newcomb has ace-like upside with very painful downside. i.e. he’s a GPP play but you should skip him in shallow formats.

Jakob Junis ($16,000) has some big point totals in his recent past. The White Sox are strikeout prone and Kauffman Stadium is pitcher friendly. All the ingredients are there. I’ll also point out Lucas Giolito ($9,000) who looks like an impossible bargain to pass opposite the lowly Royals. The only reason to not use Giolito is that he might appear on more than 100 percent of rosters.

Mike Minor ($16,000) is starting to look like a reliable mid-tier asset. He’s opposed by a less consistent but still good Jaime Barria ($14,900). Both sides of this one look like par value which might not be good enough in light of Junis, Giolito, Happ, and Kluber.

Wade Miley ($14,900) is visiting Jon Lester ($15,000) with the wind blowing in. I prefer the Miley side of this one. Is that crazy? It sounds kinda crazy.

Jake Arrieta ($12,900) sure isn’t my favorite pitcher, but he could very easily outperform this bargain basement price tag – assuming the rain gets out of the way. A win is very likely so long as he pitches decently.

Stack Targets: Erick Fedde, Jeff Brigham, Wainwright

Most of the pitchers are either good or not bad tonight.

4. SaberSim Says…

deGrom, Kluber, Newcomb, Junis, and Marquez are the preferred arms. Sorry for ya deGrom. Giolito, Newcomb, Arrieta, Kluber, and Junis are the top bargains. That’s… expected. Premium hitters include Paul Goldschmidt, Charlie Blackmon, Mike Trout, David Peralta (day-to-day, ankle), and Nolan Arenado. Hi Coors Field. Nicky Delmonico, Logan Forsythe, Gary Sanchez, and Willians Astudillo! are potential values.

5. Pieces

I wrote some potentially useful stuff this weekend.

Willians Astudillo!  <—That’s a video link