Again I am going to try to kick off a blog and hope I stick to it. No guarantees I will. This time I will at least be writing about something I have become passionate about, Fantasy Sports. Not that I am not passionate about writing book and movie reviews, but I am not good about keeping spoilers a secret and writing reviews. I will give this a go, giving my thoughts on who to start and sit for fantasy baseball and who I will pick and play for Daily Fantasy Baseball. I will also give my results on the previous day, good or bad.
I have been playing daily fantasy baseball over the past week and plan on keeping playing one dollar leagues until I cannot justify dumping money into the fruitless enterprise. I am also currently playing in five fantasy baseball leagues. Two standard mixed AL and NL fantasy leagues with categories, one head to head league, which my nine year old son drafted and I am helping manage, and one NL and AL only fantasy league. I am not a fantasy genius nor a professional, but I do love playing and hope by doing this can help me do better in my leagues and maybe (big MAYBE) help others.
Today is a light day in the MLB only seven games. Which should make my post short today, guess will see how long and these puppies will get when we get a full slate of 15 games tomorrow.
Starting Pitchers:
The Obvious:
Yu Darvish and Sunny Grey, if you have them start themJ. They are expensive in the daily game and I am staying away from both of them to be able to pay for better hitters. They are both going to pile up the strikeouts and go deep into the ballgame.
Second Tier:
Samardzija, if you have him in a fantasy league I would start him, in fact I have him in 3 of my 5 leagues and am starting him in all of them. He has been great all year, even if his strikeouts have gone down. The only hesitation I have in using him in the Daily leagues, or starting him is his record at Great American Ballpark. He does not seem to seem to pitch well in Cincinnati. From 2011-2013 in 28.1 innings, some of his appearances where out of the bullpen when he started his career, he has a 4.76 ERA and has given up 7 home runs. He has 29 K's in his 28.1 innings pitched which means he is good enough to start in my yearlong leagues, but I'm staying away from him in the daily Game
Simon: I would love to start Simon in the daily game tonight. He is facing the Cubs who couldn't hit him on April 18th in Chicago. He pitched 6 innings, gave up one run on 4 hits. He has pitched at least innings in each of his starts this year, and until he shows some regression I would use him in favorable matchups, and my beloved Cubs are the Cubs. For some reason Draft-Kings does not have any 50-50 daily games where I can start him or he would be one of my starters.
Gallardo: He has been nails this season, almost wished I would have picked him and drafted him in a few leagues. I didn't because I did not know if it would last and it still may not. He has gone at least 6 innings in each start and not given up more than 2 runs. My only hesitation is in his performance in Busch II, since 2011 in 6 starts and 32.1 innings he has a 6.12 ERA and given up 4 long balls, not horrible but the amount of runs given up is. If I owned him in a fantasy league I would start him and hope he is having a bounce back season, but I would stay away in the daily game.
Wacha: Has been great, even if his last start was a little shaky. He only went 4 inning, but had 10 K's and gave up 2 ER. I will take those numbers in fantasy. I am not playing him because he is too expensive in the daily game. If you have him in the standard leagues he is a start.
Bumgarner: He is Bumgarner, he has been good all year, even in Colorado. He gave up 4 ER's in 6 innings but still stuck out 10. He is a must start in standard leagues, and I will be using him tonight in Daily leagues since he is facing he Padres. Who don't have a great offensive team collectively and are batting .242 against him. He has an ERA of 3.62 against them since 2011, but I will roll the dice.
Masterson: This is my other starting pitcher for my daily leagues. He has been solid in his two outings going at least 6 innings and giving up 2 ER in each start. My thought with going with him is that he is a cheaper option than Gallardo and Wacha and he is facing an Angels coming back from a long road trip and a late night East Coast game. It may be superficial but I will take my chances that some of the older Angles hitters will be tired and not have their best games tonight. He really is my third option tonight, I would much rather start Simon if I could.
Ross and Skaggs: Ross and Skaggs are interesting picks, since I am going with Masterson and Bumgarner I am not taking them. If you have them in standard leagues you would pitch them. I am thinking because of the travel for the Angels Skaggs is not a good option and I think Ross will struggle to get the W against Bumgarner with little to no run support.
Third Tier:
Odorizzi, Rienzo, Morales, and Miley. Not sure why anyone would start them in the daily game. Morales would be a maybe because he has looked good in his last few starts, but only in standard deep leagues and NL only leagues. Miley has been Arizona's best pitcher, and still has a 4.5 ERA for the year. If you have him in a mixed or standard league I am not sure I would start him against a red hot Colorado team. They have been hitting even away from Coors. Look at the series against the Dodgers from the weekend. Odorizzi and Rienzo are not really worth mentioning. If I still owned Odorizzi in a standard league I would sit him until he shows some signs of progress. Rienzo I am not sure if anyone owns him except in extremely deep AL only leagues, and if you are in one of those I doubt your reading my blog.
Hitters:
Ok just a few hitters. Not sure how I am going to do this since I spent so much time on pitching. I am starting Brandon Moss at 1st in my daily leagues. He has been good against Darvish with an average of .333 in 18 at bats and 4 long balls. I also like anyone from Tampa Bay who has been hot recently. Zobrist, Joyce, and Longoria are three that I am using in the daily game because of the poor pitching matchup. I thought about using some White Sox hitters, but they scare me with their inconsistences for the daily game. Chris Denorfia is solid against Bumgarner batting .341 in 44 at bats, not any home runs, but for a cheap option in the daily game I will give him a try. I am using Charlie Blackmon tonight and Mike Trout in another lineup. Will see how they do. It looks like weather could be an issue in Chicago and Cincinnati.
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