The Daily Grind: 4-12-14 – Presented by FanDuel

Agenda

1. 1. Ramiro Pena is not the answer
2. 2. DFS firing solutions
3. 3. Sunday pitchers
4. 4. Das Table

1. Go easy on the true scrubs

Yesterday, Ramiro Pena was one of the best players you could pick. I briefly considered him due to his extremely cheap cost. Ultimately, his poor skill set and eighth position in the lineup convinced me to upgrade. Whoops. Of course, Hanley Ramirez nearly matched Pena’s production, the bigger problem with my team was Buster Posey, Chris Davis, and the Rick Porcello.

Don’t get me wrong, the Pena’s of the world have their place, especially if you’re trying to squeeze a super pricey pitcher onto the roster while fielding a couple stars in the lineup. I felt comfortable with Porcello yesterday, so I didn’t need to go that route.

2. DFS Time

Let’s look at stacks today.

Early: We have six early games today.

The Tampa Bay Rays visit Alfredo Simon in Cincinnati. It’s one of my green light parks for power and the Rays do have a few key role players at affordable prices. Simon is a righty, so go hunting for lefties.

Felipe Paulino is the obvious target for today. He has the talent to shutdown the Indians, but he’s just as likely to get blown out of the water by the fourth inning. As always, U.S. Cellular Field is a great place for the long ball.

On the other side of that matchup is a much better pitcher – Justin Masterson. He’s not bulletproof, which makes the White Sox a high risk, high reward stack.

What chance does Carlos Villanueva have against Adam Wainwright? It’s not that I think Villanueva will get crushed by the Cardinals – he’s usually a quality start kind of guy. But really, what are the odds of a Cubs win here?

Brett Anderson and Matt Cain are both high risk, high reward types. I’m staying away from both sides of this game.

Late: The other nine games will be played at night.

Drew Hutchison will face Bud Norris at Camden Launching Yards. If I had time to build a late lineup today, I would stack the crap out of this game.

Jonathan Pettibone will return from the disabled list to face the Miami Marlins. Usually that is an easy assignment, but Pettibone is a fringe talent who might be a little off his game. Get Stanton in there.

The Astros face Tanner Scheppers in Texas. It doesn’t matter which Texas stadium they’re in(it’s Arlington), since they both benefit hitters. Scheppers needs to turn it around quickly if he wants a future in the rotation.

You can go with Tigers lefties against Ian Kennedy. Petco is good for them.

3. For Traditionalists

To Start: It’s possible to benefit from either side of the Corey Kluber versus Jose Quintana game. Just watch out for the Cell. Kluber has shown home run problems in the past while Quintana has to face a gritty lineup.

I’m not a fan of Jason Vargas, but he should be fine against the Twins offense.

Tim Hudson isn’t a typical streamer candidate due to his low strikeout profile, but I sure do love him for his home games this season.

To Exploit: Cesar Ramos is a fine reliever, but he’ll be starting tomorrow against the Reds in what should amount to a bullpen game.

Both Kyle Kendrick and Henderson Alvarez have the ability to shutdown an offense. But they also can get utterly destroyed. I’m targeting Kendrick more than Alvarez.

Kevin Correia is usually exploitable and that will probably continue tomorrow against the Royals.

The Rangers are the latest team to face Brett Oberholtzer. My stacks against him have been somewhat disappointing to date.

Tyler Chatwood debuts tomorrow. I like to bet against guys coming off the disabled list, especially when they were marginal in the first place.

Chris Young sighting! And not the outfielder. I don’t even know what to do with this.

4. Table

The table below indicates which stadiums have the best conditions for hitters today. The color coding is a classic stoplight where green equals go for hitters. The weather conditions are from SI Weather’s home run app. A 10/10 means great atmospheric conditions for home runs. A 1/10 means lousy atmospheric conditions.

It’s a beautiful day for baseball across the league. Except maybe in Milwaukee, but they have a retractable roof.

The Link. The weather app says that 69 and sunny is a 1/10 in New York. I think that’s a bug. Otherwise, there are a lot of great games for offense. Only a couple really lean toward the pitcher.

This post, covering one of the leading sites for daily fantasy, is sponsored and made possible by the generous support of FanDuel. FanGraphs maintains complete editorial control of the postings, and brings you these posts in a continued desire to provide the best analytical information on the latest in baseball.