2014 Fantasy BaseballFront Office

2014 Fantasy Baseball: The Daily Double Switch for June 10th

Good afternoon everyone! Welcome to another edition of the Daily Double Switch. Hopefully everyone has been swinging away and crushing DFS as it’s been a busy last couple of weeks for Chris and I, but we should get back into the swing of things relatively soon.

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Weather

There are a bunch of games to keep your eye on tonight. The radar looks pretty ominous in Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chicago and Philadelphia. Monitor these games closely guys.

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Positional Breakdown

Starting Pitcher

I don’t think you have to do too much waffling back and forth when deciding who your number one pitcher is today. Adam Wainwright toes the rubber tonight against the Tampa Bay Rays as the Cardinals have headed to Florida. Wainwright is one of the best pitchers in the game and takes his tremendous stuff to a predominately pitchers park in Tropicana Field. His K/9 is at 8.58 and he is always traveling very deep into games, making him an elite play every single night, especially against a lackluster Rays offense that is missing some big bats. Waino is by far, number one today.

Should you look elsewhere, I think the obvious number two arm is Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner perhaps flies under the radar because of some of the once elite names of the San Francisco Giants starting rotation, but that rotation now belongs to him. The tall left-handed starter brings a lot of fantasy potential to the plate every time he steps on the mound. Bum has been fantastic in the recent goings and faces off with a Washington Nationals team that is without its’ best hitter. Factor in the ballpark, and Bum gets a nice bump tonight.

If you’re looking for some GPP upside, look no further than Corey Kluber. Kluber has been such a pleasant surprise this season and still manages to astound me every time he takes the ball. The strikeouts are just dripping off this guy and while he is facing the team that strikeouts the least (The Royals) I still like him tonight. I think a lot of people will pull off of him because of that Royals lineup, but let’s face it, there is no one in there that scares us at all. Hosmer and Billy Butler, the presumed 3-4 hitters have a combined 3 homeruns.

Catchers

By now you’ve read these names a billion times and they seem to always pop up thanks to the same reasons. That’s the case again tonight as I like Jason Castro against veteran right-hander Bronson Arroyo. Arroyo just hasn’t been a very good pitcher and Castro hits right-handers very well. He’s also going to provide you with a bit of salary relief to allow you to grab Wainwright and still a couple of big bats.

So you’re not a fan of the Astros, let’s try another cheapie catcher. Mike Zunino hasn’t homered since May 28th, but gets a very nice opportunity tonight against Vidal Nuno. Zunino has kind of bounced around the Mariners order and still hasn’t exactly become the offensive machine I believe many expected when he came out of Florida, but he’s certainly getting there. This isn’t an ideal play for cash games, unless you’re really punting, but presents you with a nice salary relief in GPPS and gives you that homerun potential with a big bat and the platoon advantage.

First Basemen

Oh, where art though, Crush Davis? Chris Davis simply never seems to play well when I play him, same goes for Jacoby Ellsbury. Chris has been quite a disappointment thus far, especially in terms of average, but I’m recommending him for his homerun potential. He’s got a few homers in his last seven days, but only nine on the season after dealing with some early injury troubles. He gets to face Brandon Workman tonight, a young right-hander the Red Sox are forced to put on the bump. This is a weather affected game, but Davis loves that short porch in right field at Camden Yards, just keep your eye out for him.

Yes games are still being played at Coors Field, so invariably I must recommend one guy per position there it seems. Freddie Freeman will be that guy tonight, despite essentially falling off the map of all DFS options I’ve considered this season. Freddie has been pretty consistent this season, despite dropping a hitless game on us in the first game of the series in Colorado last night. Tonight he faces Juan Nicasio as we head to game two, notoriously a higher scoring game than the first of a series in Colorado. I like a lot of bats in this one, but Freeman tops my list.

Second Basemen

I guess I should just default to Ian Kinsler here against the left-handed John Danks. Danks keeps getting people out and it’s making me mad, because I love to target as many hitters as I can against him. I don’t see him keeping up his recent performance as he’s shown us in the past he’s quite bad. Kinsler has been very good this season and has really made the Prince Fielder trade look real lopsided. He really crushes left-handed pitchers and should have no trouble tonight against the southpaw.

If you can’t afford to pay up for Kinsler, maybe you take a flier on Scooter Gennett. Scooter has been out of the lineup the last couple days, but I assume you’ll see him back in there tonight with the platoon advantage against Dice-K. We all know the Matsuzaka signing did not pan out, and he’s just kind of floating around this league, getting hit up and down, walking guys and essentially not being very good. Gennett hits right-handers very well and should be inserted in a good spot in that lineup today; use him confidently.

Third Basemen

Taking the easy way out here, give me some Miguel Cabrera. It’s John Danks, guys, don’t over think this. Miggy is the best hitter and baseball and perhaps one of the best right-handed hitters in the history of the game of baseball, it doesn’t make sense to not try and take advantage of this matchup. Danks just isn’t good and will come back down to Earth sometime, preferably tonight as we load up on Tigers right-handed hitters. Miggy is awesome, use him.

Everyone forgets about Trevor Plouffe. Probably because he plays in Minnesota, okay, mainly because he plays in Minnesota. Plouffe is actually a pretty solid hitter and a guy I look to use in GPP’s quite frequently because of his relatively low percentage owned on just about every single night. He doesn’t hit in a hitters friendly park, but tonight he gets to swing it at the Rogers Centre. He hits a lot of doubles and although the homeruns haven’t come yet, you might see one tonight against J.A. Happ. Another one of these oddball guys that keep defying their abilities and pitching above their means, Happ hopefully comes back down to Earth tonight as he faces some decent right-handed hitting Twins.

Shortstops

I miss recommending Xander Bogaerts, but I’m not going to tonight. I’m going to say two names, play one of the two. Jordy Mercer and Troy Tulowitzki. Merer is a left-handed masher, we haven’t been able to see that yet this season because he has gotten like zero chances against left-handed guys, but he does tonight at home against Travis Wood. He’s going to be dirt cheap and is really going to allow you to bolster the rest of your lineup.

If you’ve got the cash, spend it on Troy Tulowitzki. The Rockies lineup is falling to shreds thanks to injury, but Tulo still remains. He’s one of the best hitters in baseball right now and faces a left-handed pitcher at home, um, no brainer, right? I think so. Mike Minor is solid, but Tulo homered off him at Turner Field in his last start against them and gets the luxury of facing him at home in his cozy and humble abode, Coors Field.

Outfielders

Jason Heyward, Andrew McCutchen and Jose Bautista top my list today, fellas. Cutch has gotten pretty hot and most likely won’t slow down against the likes of Travis Wood. The Buccos are probably going to be pretty fired up with the call-up of super prospect Gregory Polanco, and I think Cutch will show him what he’s going to be seeing for a while. With Neil Walker down, Cutch will have to pick it up, and he’s shown no signs of ever slowing down with pressure. Heyward also sort of presents us with a no brainer type pick at Coors Field against Juan Nicasio. I like Heyward for his ability to swipe bags and get on in front of the core 3-4 hitters in the Braves lineup, but the fact that he’s at Coors really helps his chances of getting a long ball; use him confidently. Finally, we get to Joey Bautista, the guy who hits the ball really, really hard and really, really far. He’s playing at home tonight (check), he’s facing a bad pitcher tonight (check) and he’s been really good this year (check); use him guys.

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