It's Friday and I'm in Las Vegas for the first week of the NFL season with the Fantasy Alarm crew. Don't think I'm not still working hard on the case for all of you though. I still found the time to write up the Daily Trends piece for Friday, September 5th. I got you back.
* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data.
DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
Adrian Beltre has a .357 average and three homers in 28 at-bats against Hisashi Iwakuma. One of the few who has had any success against him is Beltre.
Marlon Byrd has a homer an a .353 batting average over 17 at-bats against Stephen Strasburg. He's also driven in six runs.
Chris Carter is hitting everything. He's also batting .417 with two homers in 12 at-bats against Jeff Samardzija.
Josh Donaldson has six hits in 13 at-bats against Brett Oberholtzer. That's a .462 average. He also has a home run on the ledger.
Torii Hunter has a .421 batting average, a big fly, and seven RBIs against the streaking Jake Peavy. Miguel Cabrera is batting .319 with three homers and 11 RBIs in 47 at-bats.
Austin Jackson has a .353 batting average and a homer in 17 at-bats with Scott Baker on the bump.
Garrett Jones has a .370 average, a homer, and six RBIs in 287 at-bats against Aaron Harang. Giancarlo Stanton has a .381 batting average an a homer in 21 at-bats.
DJ LeMahieu has a .389 average in 18 at-bats against Eric Stults. Nolan Arenado is at .400 in 15 at-bats.
Adam Lind has had a strong season when he's been in the lineup and he figures to be out there against Clay Buchholz considering that he's hit .347 with two homers and five RBIs over 49 at-bats.
Lyle Overbay hit .364 with six RBIs in 33 at-bats against John Lackey.
Don't know how this is possible, but Chris Owings has nine hits in 11 at-bats against Dan Haren. Aaron Hill is batting .323 with a homer and six RBIs over 31 at-bats.
Albert Pujols has three homers and 10 RBIs against Ricky Nolasco. He's also hit five doubles and batting .545 with a 1.704 OPS. Yowzahs. David Freese cannot hit anyone right now but history suggests he might Friday. He has seven hits in 15 at-bats in the matchup (.467).
Ryan Raburn is batting .304 with two homers and five RBIs against Chris Sale. He usually hits lefties well, even the best of them. Carlos Santana also has success hitting .375 with four runs batted in over 24 at-bats.
Ramon Santiago has 11 hits in 26 at-bats against Bartolo Colon. That's a smooth .423 average.
Mark Teixeira has 15 strikeouts in 48 at-bats against James Shields. Jacoby Ellsbury has hit .254 with a .290 OBP over 62 plate appearances in the matchup.
Ben Zobrist is batting .375 with a homer in 32 at-bats against Wei-Yin Chen.
DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day
Jose Altuve continues his march to 200 hits. Might be hard for him to rack up hits Friday against Jeff Samardzija whom he has hit .227 against in 22 at-bats. Matt Dominguez is 1-for-12.
Michael Brantley is having a great season. He's terrible against Chris Sale. Not that there is any shame in that. He has two hits and nine strikeouts over 19 at-bats.
Nelson Cruz hasn't had any success against Alex Cobb with a .429 OPS over 14 plate appearances. Adam Jones is worse. He's batting .190 with seven strikeouts in 21 at-bats.
Rajai Davis has zero base knocks in 10 at-bats against Jake Peavy. Don Kelly has one hit in 12 at-bats. Alex Avila is batting .208 in 24 at-bats.
Edwin Encarnacion has just three hits in 26 at-bats against Clay Buchholz. Two of the hits are homers to give him a wee bit o' value. Melky Cabrera has a homer in 33 at-bats, but he's also batting .226 with a .617 OPS.
Desmond Jennings is hurt, but even if he plays Friday he should be on the bench. He's hit .259 with one RBI over 28 at-bats against Wei-Yin Chen. Yunel Escobar has hit .118 over 17 at-bats. Wil Myers is at .111 over nine at-bats.
Is time travel possible? Maybe.
Brandon Phillips has about as many hits the last two weeks in the big leagues as I do. He's also hit only a mere single in 12 at-bats against Bartolo Colon.
Alex Rios has a .200 average an a .600 OPS over 20 plate appearances against Hisashi Iwakuma. Elvis Andrus has hit .231 with a .286 OBP over 28 plate appearances. Leonys Martin has two hits in 16 at-bats.
Jimmy Rollins has a .133 batting average and .421 OPS over 32 plate appearances against Stephen Strasburg. Chase Utley is at .136 and .310 over 23 plate appearances.
Christian Yelich has seven strikeouts an a .200 batting average in 15 at-bats against Aaron Harang. Casey McGehee has a .240 batting average and no runs batted in in 25 at-bats.
The most updated fantasy football rankings anywhere!! Over 600 players ranked with auction values, tiers and latest ADP data right there on the same page. It’s all a part of the 2014 Fantasy Football Draft Guide from Fantasy Alarm.
Bookmark the following four sources to check daily after you read this piece.
Batter Versus Pitcher
Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.
MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target
Alex Cobb dropped his ERA to 2.98 with his last start. He's been on quite the tear of late allowing just three earned runs over his last four outings. Further back we go. Over 10 starts he's permitted 11 earned runs. Start him with confidence at home against the Jays.
Hisashi Iwakuma is a must start at this point. He allowed one run over eight innings the last time he took on the Rangers and he owns a 3.34 ERA and 1.07 WHIP over 11 outings against the Rangers.
Vidal Nuno has just two wins this season but he's pitching pretty darn well right now. Not only did he hold the Padres to two runs over 7.1 innings on August 23rd but he's also allowed two or fewer earned runs in each of his last four outings during which time he's struck out 24 and walked just four batters. The game is in San Diego.
Michael Pineda has walked four batters in eight starts this season including three in his last five starts. In those eight starts he's allowed two runs or less every time out. He faces the Red Sox at home.
Rick Porcello tossed six shutout innings against the Indians in the last matchup. He has a 2.52 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 16 appearances on the road. He's also gone 9-3 with a 3.40 ERA in 20 career starts against the Indians.
Sometimes you just gotta say... wow, what courage.
Chris Sale has a 1.40 ERA and 1.01 WHIP over eight road starts this year. He's allowed four homers the last three starts. That should normalize. He also has 28 strikeouts and seven walks over 19 innings. He starts against the Twins.
Jeff Samardzija allowed two runs over eight innings on August 25th against the Astros. He issued one walk and 10 Ks. Interestingly, Astros have been the opponent of Samardzija in three of his last eight starts. Jeff has gone 22.2 innings in those outings with 23 strikeouts and three walks. The game is to be played in Oakland.
Matt Shoemaker has 14 wins, a 3.14 ERA and 1.06 WHIP. He also has a 5.48 K/BB ratio. That's elite stuff. He's also allowed zero runs in three starts and two in five outings. Oh, and how about six runs of the earned variety over his last eight outings. He starts at home against the Twins.
James Shields has a 3.32 ERA and 1.26 WHIP on the road this season. He has a 3.38 ERA and 1.24 WHIP on the season. In nine of his last 10 outings he allowed three or fewer runs nine times. The only time he didn't was when he allowed six runs to the Yankees on August 25th. Look for him to right that wrong.
MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid
Clay Buchholz has been on it the last two starts allowing three runs over 17.1 innings. But inconsistency has been his hallmark this season. He's also always getting ripped up by the Yankees. In his last outing against them he allowed seven runs over five innings (August 3rd) to run his career numbers against the Bronx Bombers to 5.62 ERA and 1.63 WHIP over 14 starts.
Wei-Yin Chen faces the Rays in Florida. He's basically been Mr. Quality Start but not much more. On the year he has a 3.83 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. In 12 road starts he's sporting a 3.88 ERA and 1.21 WHIP. However, in four outings against the Rays this season he's holding a 4.71 ERA, 1.57 WHIP and has been hit to the tune of a .301 batting average over 21 innings.
T.J. House has a 3.92 ERA and 1.44 WHIP over 15 outings. He faces the Tigers at home. He's hard to trust. Two of his last three outings he's looked sharp. The other time he allowed five runs in 4.2 innings. He's also had a hart time going deep into games with only two outings of six innings in his last seven starts.
Drew Hutchison allowed six runs in 5.1 innings on July 12th to the Rays. He then allowed one run over six innings on August 24th to that same club. His last two outings he permitted one run. The two starts before that he allowed 13 runs. And this is the problem with Hutchison. Can you trust him with the up/down nature he's shown virtually all season? I cannot.
Jake Peavy pitches against the Tigers in Detroit where the club has hit an AL leading .284. They have also hit an AL leading .273 against right handed pitching. Peavy has turned his season around with the Giants allowing just four runs over his last four starts, but he also allowed 11 hits and five runs over six innings the last time he took on the Tigers (May 18th).
Vance Worley has lost three of his last four outings. In that time he's permitted 33 hits over 23 innings with five of the hits being of the long ball variety. His ERA has also risen from 2.30 to 3.01. He takes on the Cubs in Wrigley, but without any appreciable upside, hard to trust he is.
Make sure you tune in to the Drive at 7 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87), to hear Ray Flowers pontificate about the world of sports.