The Daily Grind: Super Benintendo
In my home league, I adopted the team name Benintendo 64 as soon as Andrew Benintendi was promoted. In this way, I consider myself a first mover and therefore privileged to continue using Benintendo puns.
AGENDA
- Super Benintendo
- Weather Reports
- Pitchers to Use and Abuse
- Hitters to Use
- SaberSim Says…
- TDG Invitational Returns!
1. Super Benintendo
Yesterday, I learned you should not throw belly button high fastballs to Benintendi.
2. Weather Reports
St. Louis is the riskiest locale tonight. There’s roughly a 60 percent chance for storms at this time. Minnesota and Washington D.C. may also see storms. The weather should clear out of Texas by game time.
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
Early Slate: There’s a tiny three game early slate. Frankly, all of the pitchers are usable. The two best are opposed in New York where Michael Pineda hosts Marco Estrada. They’re both mired in mucky slumps. Estrada’s command is completely shot to hell.
Sonny Gray should be extremely popular, if only because the White Sox are visiting Oakland. They’re terrible versus right-handed pitching. Gray is, indeed, right-handed. Beyond that, he’s also pitched quite well this season aside from a couple clunkers.
Stack Targets: Mike Pelfrey, Blake Snell, John Lackey
Main Slate: Jacob deGrom ($10,900) is the pricey play, but I’m not sure why I’m being asked to pay $1,500 more for him than Alex Wood ($9,400). Wood is at home against the Diamondbacks whereas deGrom is visiting a tough Nationals offense. Unless you’re trying to go expensive-contrarian, I’ll take the home field advantage plus $1,500 gold pieces.
Perhaps Wood is cheaper because Zack Godley has been so effective. He has the vaunted combination of strikeouts, low walks, and many ground balls. The Dodgers offense can be a nightmare, and it’s difficult to outperform Wood.
How familiar are you with cliffs? The rest of the pitching slate fell straight off the side of one. We’ll need to descend to the misty depths if we want alternatives. Oh look! Gerrit Cole is hanged to the edge by his finger nails. He’s opposed by a below average Phillies offense. Cole is fast becoming the next Ubaldo Jimenez. The stuff is so visually impressive, but he just can’t eek out consistently positive results. Over his last six starts, he’s thrice allowed seven runs and thrice allowed one. How’s that for volatility?
All the way at the bottom of the cliff, it looks like Doug Fister landed on top of everybody else. The formerly useful command and control pitcher is throwing slightly harder this season, and he has the Red Sox offense on his side. A quality start isn’t a huge stretch of expectations. Don’t come at me if he flops – we found him lying at the bottom of a cliff.
Stack Targets: Jayson Aquino, Fister, Andrew Cashner, Jon Gray, Scott Feldman, Parker Bridwell, Ben Lively, Luis Perdomo, Daniel Norris, Matt Garza, Joe Musgrove, Jaime Garcia, Ty Blach
4. SaberSim Says…
The Sim likes Wood. Heh. Also Trevor Bauer, deGrom, Pineda, and Cole. I’m torn about Bauer. On the one hand, the Padres. On the other hand, Bauer. Yuck. Bats include Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, Andrew McCutchen, Miguel Sano, and Joey Votto. Albert Pujols, Odubel Herrera, and Manny Machado are among the most interesting bargains.
5. The Daily Grind Invitational
Remember when we last played on Friday? Bigwig500 rode 50.9 points from Robinson Cano to victory. He and Mike Foltynewicz provided over half of Mr. Wig’s production. Leaderboard.
We’re all askew this week so I’m just going to stick to FanDuel.
You can follow me on twitter @BaseballATeam
I started calling him Nintendo when he was drafted. I am the first.
Well, I’m not claiming to be first, merely an early adopter. I will say, I came up with mine without seeing it elsewhere first. Not that it’s a huge jump from Benintendi to Nintendo.
Considering the NES is much older than Beni. I doubt either of you are in the same decade as the “early adopters” of a very obvious NN.