The Daily Grind: Regular Everyday Monday Guys

With Dexter Fowler out for the foreseeable future, it’s time spin up full time shares of Tyler O’Neill and Harrison Bader. Find this and other waiver wire advice in today’s Streaming Wars.

AGENDA

1. 1. TDG Invitational
   2. Weather Reports
   3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
   4. SaberSim Says…
   5. The Melk Man Cometh

1. The Daily Grind Invitational

Niffoc4 crushed the field last Friday via a popular combination of Vince Velasquez and Rougned Odor. The difference maker was his top performer – eight percent owned Anibal Sanchez. Congrats and Leaderboard.

Once again, we’re on FantasyDraft. And once again, we’ll have an overlay on our $2 no rake GPP. See ya there.

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

Beware! Storm risks lurk in Cleveland, Chicago, and Denver. Check with a better source closer to game time. I use/recommend Kevin Roth.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Main Slate: Three aces to rule them all – Trevor Bauer ($24,100), Charlie Morton ($21,100), and Noah Syndergaard ($18,700). I’m not sure I see a justification for any of them to cost differently. Thor might be limited in pitch or inning count, although he fired off seven frames in his last outing with no ill effects. Bauer probably has the toughest matchup of the bunch against Kyle Gibson ($16,700) and a not-terrible Twins offense. My only qualm with Bauer is his relative price to Morton and Thor. Otherwise, he’s a good value. Morton’s a flat out steal at AT&T Park. The biggest worry is a pinch hit opportunity in the top of the sixth.

Cole Hamels ($17,800) is going back to the American League for a round against the Royals. To quote Candy Crush, delicious. Whole Camels pitched brilliantly last week, although I’ve seen his changeup heavy approach struggle against bad opponents.

Zack Godley ($17,100) is mid-rebound. He was good. Then he was bad. Now he’s back to pretty good. Walks are still his greatest weakness. Patience is the Phillies strength. Sort of. They have a weird blend of almost passive sluggers mixed with ultra-aggressive tryhards. I’m not sure how to handicap this one. I’ll shirk my duty as a prognosticator and call it high risk, high reward.

I’d rather avoid venturing into the value bin today. Several pitchers are playable, but they all have problems. Too obvious exceptions are Luke Weaver at Miami and Nick Tropeano hosting the Tigers. These are some of the softest matchups possible for two good but slumpy pitchers. Their recent performance should depress their ownership rates.

Stack Targets: Dylan Covey, Wei-Yin Chen, Martin Perez, Joe Musgrove, Homer Bailey, Jakob Junis, Matt Boyd

There is a Coors game tonight, but I did not list Rockies starter Kyle Freeland among the stack targets. Nor do I find him to be a safe start. At $12,600, he’ll probably return some value. He lacks the ceiling of other pitchers in this slate.

4. SaberSim Says…

Bauer, Morton, Syndergaard, Hamels, and Godley are the top arms. As I thought, the big three are projected for between 20.79 and 21.12 points. That’s the same. Tropeano, Chen, Weaver, Musgrove, and Thor feature as values. In batland, Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, Nelson Cruz, Charlie Blackmon, and Starling Marte are mighty attractive tonight. Bargain hunters shall set their eyes upon Wilmer Flores, Jeff McNeil, Michael Conforto, Albert Almora, and David Fletcher.

5. The Melk Man Cometh

This looked like a little nothing trade, but it’s already reaped a victory for the Phillies.

Jose Ramirez’s huge season can be summarized thusly: he’s mashing mistakes. He receives so many mistakes because he works the count so well.

Here’s defensive All Star Melky Cabrera in action. In all three instances, an actual good outfielder would have made those look easy.