The Daily Grind: The Next Papi

Words, it is said, can be used to draw one in, much as a spider waves its arms in invitation to all those dumb fruit flies. You are invited…

AGENDA

  1. This Guy
  2. Weather Reports
  3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
  4. SaberSim Says…
  5. TDG Invitational Is Off

1. This Guy

Has no idea what to think. When thinking about the next David Ortiz, the short list has to be headlined by Miguel Cabrera. Ortiz combined incredible hitting talent with a palpable joy. Miggy has many of those same characteristics. Here, he’s palpating a beard.

Cabrera probably should steal the nickname of Big Papi, mostly because he’s already been caught red handed steal Miguel Tejada’s nickname. Not that Miggy is terribly creative…

2. Weather Reports

Storms could mess with the action in Minnesota (early) and Atlanta (late). Be wary.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Early Slate: Six of 12 games are in the early slate. For once, they’ve included the late afternoon with the early afternoon. There may be a couple unavailable lineups at contest start.

Carlos Martinez at Philadelphia? Easy. CMart put up 70 FanDuel points against the Phillies on June 10 in a complete game, 11 strikeout gem. While he probably won’t repeat that, another 50 points is well worth the $10,400 investment. Unfortunately, he’s cheap enough for everybody.

Despite hitter friendly Miller Park, Ivan Nova at Chase Anderson offer a pair of interesting dice rolls. Anderson is on a five start hot streak over which he’s allowed four runs in 34.2 innings. He has 36 strikeouts during the run. Nova tends to be merely steady. His high floor, low ceiling approach is a tad risky when interacted with the Brewers volatile offense.

Fly ball pitcher David Paulino will almost certainly allow a home run. He also may whip together a quality start with a chance for victory. He should be unpopular too.

Speaking of unpopular, nobody wants to touch Zack Godley at Coors Field. Even at the scary venue, he’s much better than his $6,500 price tag.

Stack Targets: Nik Turley, Antonio Senzatela, Godley, Martin Perez, Paulino

Main Slate: The six game main slate is captained by Luis Severino. He’s hosting the Trout-less Angels. He’ll hope to hold them trot-less too. Severino isn’t quite as stable as most pitchers at his price point. He’ll mix some real duds in with his gems.

One of these days, Jake Arrieta is going to fire off an easy complete game like it’s no big deal. Probably not today, but it’ll eventually happen. I’m not keen to pay $9,500 for an injured pitcher (thumb).

Back when the win was everything (12 points) on FanDuel, I would have been all over Daniel Norris. He should have an easy victory opposite Andrew Moore. Norris also fans about 9.00 K/9. Alas, he struggles to prevent hits and runs, leading to short outings. The Mariners have a tough lineup.

Hyun-Jin Ryu is playing a Jekyll/Hyde game. In six of 12 appearances, he’s allow zero home runs. Four times he’s allowed multiple homers. The Mets are a difficult opponent. I could see this game sliding in either direction for Ryu. I’ll tell you this much though – I think he’s a better pitcher than Steven Matz, and he costs $1,700 less.

Stack Targets: Jeff Locke, Jesse Chavez, Matt Cain, Moore

4. SaberSim Says…

Today’s favored pitchers include Severino, Martinez, Matz, Jose Quintana, and Norris. I guess SaberSim doesn’t share my view of Matz as a mediocre starter. He’s hardly induced any whiffs through two starts. I ignored Quintana for many reasons. Ok, two reasons – rain and poor production.

The top hitters are Paul Goldschmidt, Edwin Encarnacion, Nolan Arenado, Manny Machade, and Matt Kemp. ‘Twould seem the corner infield is well represented today. The top 10 also includes Eric Thames, Jake Lamb, and Josh Donaldson. Look for Austin Barnes, he’s one of the best dollar-for-dollar values.

5. The Daily Grind Invitational

No Invitational today. Congrats to Sawyer77. He was one of six owners to benefit from Yasmani Grandal’s double donger. He also had competent pitchers, David Peralta, Miguel Sano, and Matt Adams to fuel his victory. Leaderboard.





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