The Daily Grind: Yonder I Wander

Another day, another grind, another bowl of congealed oatmeal.

AGENDA

1. Yonder I Wander
2. Weather Reports
3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse
4. Hitters to Use
5. SaberSim Says…
6. TDG Invitational Returns!

1. Yonder I Wander

One drawback to moving my streaming content into a different apartment (you can find my streaming picks on RotoBaller and Rotoworld) is that I don’t get to hammer the RotoGraphs crowd over the head with certain players. Last year, I shouted at you to pick up Jonathan Villar. It took about a month to sink in globally. This year, I’m bludgeoning readers with Yonder Alonso.

Last night, Alonso supplied a two home run night. It was his second multi-homer game in four games and his seventh home run over the last eight games. Somebody’s feeling a little toasty. For the season, Alonso is slashing .309/.385/.709. Even with a ton of fly balls and a 41 percent hard contact rate, he won’t maintain a 29.7 HR/FB ratio. Still, that’s the only fluky looking number in his inventory. A .290/.370/.500 appears to be more than feasible.

Sadly, MLB.com didn’t make embeddable video of Alonso’s boppos. He hit a couple “just enough” shots yesterday. However, they were to left-center and center-center. And, frankly, they weren’t very well struck. It’s amazing when a hitter misses a ball and it still goes out. I pop out to second base when I miss like that.

Eno Sarris gets full credit for the discovery of Alonso’s new mechanics. Me, a sucker for said mechanics, took an instant interest in him. And when good results were immediately present, I climbed up on top of the bandwagon and shove Eno off the side.

2. Weather Reports

If the weather reports are to be believed, they ain’t playing any baseball in Chicago tonight. It’s fine, the Twins and White Sox will meet again. The Rockies game has storms forecast too. As always, they’ll be spotty. There’s some incentive to squeeze this one in since the Cubs won’t be visiting Coors Field again. And it’s getaway day.

3. Pitchers to Use and Abuse

Early Slate: Five games are early including that storm-threatened Rockies shindig. Good luck picking pitchers. Andrew Triggs is clearly the best of the bunch. Eno asked what is a Triggs a few days ago. The answer, he’s his own unique beast. So far, it’s working.

You can’t use Kyle Hendricks because Coors and lightning bolts. Maybe try Jesse Chavez opposite Alonso and Triggs. Sounds scary. Regression will hit Zach Eflin like a sack o’ bricks either today or in the near future. I prefer my sacks to be o’ subs. Joe Musgrove and Jaime Garcia are the other tolerable names.

Stack Targets: German Marquez, Tommy Milone, Eflin, Matt Cain, Garcia, Mugrove, Hendricks, Yovani Gallardo, Chavez (everyone but Triggs)

Main Slate: The main slate is the polar opposite of the early contest. Chris Archer, Yu Darvish, Stephen Strasburg, and Danny Salazar headline the slate. All but Strasburg have what should be gimme matchups. And the DH-less Orioles aren’t super scary either. The aces come with ace prices.

For around $2,000 less than the aces, you can spin with quality start machine Lance Lynn. He’ll see the Marlins. I thought the league would have caught up to Lynn’s barrage of high fastballs and little else. I guess not. I still worry he’ll turn pumpkin. His velocity is down one mph from 2015.

If Matt Boyd wasn’t pitching in the desert, he’d be a good bargain for $5,900. Alas, balls in play are anathema to success at Chase Field. Another bargain, Luis Perdomo, is nullified by Darvish. Perdomo doesn’t have great results, but his mix of strikeouts and ground balls speaks to a bright future.

Stack Targets: Zack Godley, Kyle Kendrick, Chad Kuhl, Boyd, Perdomo, Phil Hughes, Chase Anderson, Tom Koehler, Jason Hammel

4. Hitters to Use

It’s a good day to try Christian Yelich. Lynn likes to work up in the zone. Yelich’s ground ball tendencies should lead to some optimized launch angles. Rockets engage!

Oh boy, Eric Thames against Kyle Kendrick? Sign me up! Kendrick is the most KBO pitcher in the majors, and we know what Thames did to KBO pitchers. Also, every other Brewer please and thanks.

If Coors Field happens, all of them. ALL OF THEM. MWUHAHAHA.

Last year, Great American Ballpark was my favorite venue to target. This season, I find myself drawn to Chase Field again and again. The Tigers lineup lacks many choices. Nick Castellanos may be a good mix of potent and unpopular. Mostly, I like powerful ground ball hitters like Chris Owings, A.J. Pollock, and Paul Goldschmidt. The park inflates their BABIP and then they run around on the bases. And they can homer too.

5. SaberSim Says…

Archer, Strasburg, Darvish, Salazar, and Kenta Maeda are the top ranked pitchers. I have some guys I prefer to Maeda, although I don’t see any reason to belabor the point. If I pretend the Coors Field game won’t happen today, Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt, Andrew Benintendi, Jonathan Villar, and Thames are the top ranked hitters.

6. The Daily Grind Invitational

Congrats to Grbactacular for his choices of Carlos Carrasco, Alonso, Robinson Cano, and Carlos Correa. Cano left the game with a quad injury, but not before doing some damage. The leaderboard is updated. 

The optimal lineup was worth 305 points.

Carlos Carrasco
John Lackey
Salvador Perez
Yonder Alonso
Javier Baez
Kris Bryant
Didi Gregorius
Ben Gamel
Keon Broxton
Mookie Betts

See ya for one more on DraftKings.