Good morning everyone! Welcome to another edition of “The Daily Double Switch.” With the short slate yesterday, we took an off-day so we could rest up and keep you guys informed all week long. Hope everyone had a successful weekend! Here is looking to a successful Tuesday!

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Weather

There seems to be a bunch of weather concern across the nation today, so keep your eyes peeled on the radar screens. The worst of the weather appears to be at Yankee Stadium tonight, while the games at Turner Field and Busch Stadium also have some small concern.

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Positional Breakdown

Starting Pitchers

Tonight is one of those nights where deciding between which pitchers you feel safe using is a difficult task. There are a lot of plus arms on the mound, but not everyone is given a nice matchup. My favorite guy to use tonight is going to be Pittsburgh right-hander, Gerrit Cole. If you’re not familiar with Cole, he’s a competitor, and the guy who is going to lead this staff for a long time. He is striking out almost eight hitters per nine innings and gets a great matchup with the feeble Padres at Petco Park tonight. The other plus with using Cole; his price won’t kill you.

Some other arms in consideration tonight are James Shields, CJ Wilson, Zach Wheeler and Homer Bailey. For Shields, he hasn’t had his “Big Game” yet this season, but if you’ve been watching the Cardinals, it might come tonight. The Cards have been shut out in back to back games and simply look atrocious at the plate. It still doesn’t present itself as a great matchup, but Shields does carry a lot of upside as he is capable of strikeouts and going deep into the game. CJ Wilson gets the face an Astros team that has really shown us something in the last few weeks. With that being said, they’re still the Astros and still a young and relatively undisciplined team. For those reasons, Wilson should be on your radar. Wheeler gets to face the strikeout heavy Cubs and he brings great strikeout stuff to the table. He was excellent last start against the Phillies and will carry around a low price. Don’t sleep on Homer Bailey. He’s been better of late and he still has the potential to really shut down a team (see also: his two career no-hitters). I know the Giants are one of the best teams in baseball, but they need to truly put it all together to get things going offensively on a given night.

Catcher

Catcher is tough again tonight, as is customary on a nightly basis. At an initial glance, literally no one jumped off the page for me tonight. Digging a bit deeper, I found a nice platoon advantage I might want to take advantage of. Salvador Perez is a young guy that you should become aware of. He’s only 24 years old and is poised to help lead this team alongside Eric Hosmer for many years to come. Tonight, Perez faces left-hander Jaime Garcia at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. These two teams are fighting for the state of Missouri and despite the lack of offense in either direction, Perez is a guy I like. Perez is a career .331 hitter against left-handed pitchers and he’ll try to take advantage of that tonight.

First Basemen

First base made itself a little more known to me today. Looking over the games, you’ll notice that there will be games played at Coors Field in the next few days. That should have you on red alert when you’re scrolling through the player database looking at hitters. Tonight, Paul Goldschmidt takes the field in Colorado. Goldschmidt is a beast in every facet of the game, but he truly excels against left-handed pitching. Jorge De La Rosa has actually been really solid this year, but I don’t think that’s reason enough to stay off of Pauly. He sports a career .279 ISO against southpaws and gets the huge park shift tonight.

If you’re not into Pauly G tonight, perhaps you’ll take a gander at Adrian Gonzalez. Gonzo has slowly disappeared from the ranks and this column in the past few weeks, but he’s making his presence felt today. Hector Noesi is a bad pitcher and certainly not one that frightens me, nor this Dodgers lineup. I always am looking to find guys with nice platoon advantages and Gonzo fits that bill tonight.

Second Basemen

I’ve mentioned Neil Walker a bunch this season, and I’ll throw him out again tonight. Walker has been excellent and is a very underrated second baseman in this league. He had another three hits last night as the Pirates poured on ten runs at Petco Park to blast the Padres. Tonight he’ll be facing Jesse Hahn who is making his debut. Typically guys in their first starts have the upper hand over the hitters who have never seen them before, but I like what Walker brings to the table tonight. His price is just right across the sites as well.

Dipping back into the springs of Colorado, give me some Aaron Hill tonight. Hill is another player that doesn’t typically find his way into my lineup, but will do so casually tonight. This year he has been much better against left-handed pitchers and he presents a higher ISO and wOBA against them as well. The park shift is the biggest thing for me in this matchup as I think Hill becomes a great homerun candidate. How about two, anyone?

Third Baseman

And……I’m stumped. Third base has given me trouble all year long. I could take the easy way out and just tell you to play Miguel Cabrera where he is still third base eligible, but that wouldn’t be any fun. I guess truly the best way to roll this thing is to take advantage of a weak pitcher in Joe Saunders. I’m going to be picking on Saunders much more heavily when we get to outfield, but I’ll take a flier on Manny Machado as well. I love Machado as a player and he presents a ton of value on a night like tonight where his team has a great chance to score a lot of runs. He’s going to be hitting in front of Chris Davis, Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz, a terrifying trio for any opposing pitcher. Add in the fact that Machado has a better ISO, wOBA and wRC+ against lefties in his career, and I’m on board.

Shortstops

I guess I should note that Troy Tulowitzki is back at home and is automatically the number one play because of that. However, right behind him is a very solid 1A that really has my interest tonight. If you’ve been watching or following baseball recently, you’re hearing Xander Bogaerts name more and more. That’s because the kid is getting really good and he’s only 21 years old. He had some struggles in the beginning of the season, but he’s throwing that all away and is really honing in on what makes him such a good player. Tonight, he gets the ultimate matchup, the left-handed pitcher. Now, Bogaerts is hitting well against everyone, but he’s been a tad bit better against lefties this season. He’s sporting a jump in ISO and wOBA against southpaws and is one of my favorite plays tonight.

Outfield

This is where today gets easy in my opinion. I’m going to list for you two team outfields that are surely my favorite two on the day. 1) The Colorado Rockies. Corey Dickerson, Carlos Gonzalez and Charlie Blackmon will hopefully be the three that the Rockies run out tonight against young right-handed hurler, Chase Anderson. If this is the case and all three guys find their respective ways into the lineup, I’m totally in love with using all three of them. All three will possess the platoon advantage and a ton of power upside at Coors Field against a young arm.

Well, perhaps you buy into the whole “first game at Coors conspiracy,” so you want to use a different team. I plead with you to use the Baltimore Orioles. The O’s are going to have Nelson Cruz and Adam Jones out there tonight against Joe Saunders. I’ve mentioned it tons of times before, these guys are absolute monsters against left-handed pitching and have a prime matchup today. You can’t really find a better spot for them tonight against Saunders who I think will be exiting the mound before he wants to tonight; use these guys confidently.

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