Your three-day weekend may have come to a close, but the fun doesn’t need to stop, does it? Some great match-ups today for daily fantasy baseball salary cap games and there are plenty of great choices both on the mound and at the plate. You’ve got aces that are missing a ton of bats and surging hitters just tearing the cover off the ball. You can go with some marquee names or dig deep for a few bargain sleepers. Here’s a look at some of the data from a few of the games that might interest you.
Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates (7:05pm ET)
Right-hander Homer Bailey is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA over his last three starts but faces a Pirates team that is surging as of late. Andrew McCutchen is batting .353 with a pair of double sin 17 at-bats against Bailey while Garrett Jones is batting .316 with one home run over 19 plate appearances. For the Pirates, veteran righty Charlie Morton is on the hill and while he’s held Joey Votto to just one double and a .250 average over 24 at-bats, the usually batting average-challenged Drew Stubbs is hitting .391 against him with a home run and a double. Also watch for Brandon Phillips who is batting .320 with a pair of doubles against Morton over 25 at-bats.
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Baltimore Orioles at Toronto Blue Jays (7:07pm ET)
Orioles starter Jake Arrieta has struggled in three of his last four outings but is 3-1 with a 3.80 EAR over his last four starts against the Blue Jays. He does a great job of stifling right-handed hitters, so the Jays could find things a bit slow-going to start the game. Yunel Escobar , who is considered questionable with a groin issue, is the player who’s given Arrieta the most trouble (6-for-12, 1 HR). Beyond that, there’s minimal experience and a whole lot of 0-for’s. The Jays will send trusted lefty Ricky Romero to the hill and while he holds Matt Wieters (.217) and J.J. Hardy (.133) in check, he does have his difficulties with the hot-hitting Adam Jones who is batting .297 against him with a home run and two doubles over 37 at-bats.
Detroit Tigers at Boston Red Sox (7:10pm ET)
It’s always a tough match-up for hitters when the Tigers have Justin Verlander on the mound and it’s no different for the Red Sox. Dustin Pedroia and Jarrod Saltalamacchia are a combined 0-for-22 against the dominating right-hander while Adrian Gonzalez is batting just .111 with one home run. Keep an eye on David Ortiz though, as he is batting .286 against Verlander with two home runs and a pair of doubles as well. The Red Sox will send Daniel Bard, who has been running hot and cold lately, to the mound. He’s only faced the Tigers in a relief capacity, and while he’s had success against them, starting is a different story. His biggest issue has been his command with a 29:28 K:BB ratio, but since the Tigers run near the bottom of the majors in walks drawn, that might not be an issue. What will be an issue is that Detroit is batting .274 with 31 home runs against right-handed pitching, so he could have reservations about giving them too much to hit which could lead to a number of walks issued.
St. Louis Cardinals at Atlanta Braves (7:10pm ET)
Veteran right-hander Jake Westbrook takes the mound for the Cardinals as he looks to rebound from his worst start of the season where he gave up six runs in just 3.2 innings. He does a good job against table-setter Michael Bourn, holding him to a .200 average with no walks and against Jason Heyward who is batting just .173, but struggles to contain Dan Uggla and Eric Hinske who are batting .444 and .357 respectively. The Braves will counter with rookie right-hander Randall Delgado whose splits show a much better home ERA (3.33) than on eon the road (5.68). Also working in Delgado’s favor is that he is holding right-handed batters to a .204 with just one home run over 93 at-bats this season.
Washington Nationals at Miami Marlins (7:10pm ET)
Though he is stuck on just one win for the season, Edwin Jackson has pitched fairly well as of late. In fact, over his last four starts, he’s got a 3.00 ERA with a 21:4 K:BB ratio and has only suffered from a lack of run support. But while he has contained Hanley Ramirez in the past, Omar Infante and John Buck combine for .450 average with Buck taking him deep once. Marlins right-hander Anibal Sanchez takes on the nationals here so run support from the Nats could be tough to come by yet again. Ryan Zimmerman has one home run but is hitting just .256 while Danny Espinosa is batting just .077 and Adam LaRoche is stuck at .222 with no extra-base hits.
Seattle Mariners at Texas Rangers (8:05pm ET)
The Mariners will send lefty Jason Vargas to the mound against Texas and hope that he can contain one of baseball’s most powerful lineups. He’s actually had mixed results, so they’re really just hoping for more good than bad. While Josh Hamilton has two home runs against Vargas, he is only batting .150 and Elvis Andrus is hitting just .208 with only one extra-base hit. meanwhile, Mike Napoli is batting .308 with two home runs and Ian Kinsler is crushing it at .435 with a home run and four doubles over 23 at-bats. The Rangers will go with Scott Feldman who has struggled since rejoining the rotation and gave up five runs over four innings against these same mariners just a few games ago. In that outing, both Justin Smoak and Alex Liddi took him deep while Ichiro Suzuki cruised with his career .290 average against Feldman.
New York Yankees at Los Angeles Angels (10:05pm ET)
We’ve got a vintage match-up here that pits Andy Pettitte against Dan Haren, two longtime top-rated pitchers. Though it was back when he was with the Astros, Pettitte has done a good job containing Albert Pujols who has been a beast over the past two weeks. He holds the Angels slugger to a .217 average and has yet to give up an extra-base hit to him. Meanwhile, Erick Aybar seems to have the southpaw’s number as he is batting .391 with two doubles against him. On the other side, both Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson are batting .219 over 32 at-bats each, but Tex has three home runs to Grandy’s two. Alex Rodriguez has just one long ball against Haren, but is batting .300 over 20 at-bats.
Arizona Diamondbacks at San Francisco Giants (10:15pm ET)
The last time Joe Saunders faced the Giants, he coughed up six runs on 10 hits and a walk through five innings of work. He’s looking for a little redemption now, but will have to contain Aubrey Huff whose .423 average against him warrants the start. His match-up against Melky Cabrera, arguably one of the hottest hitters in the game right now, should be interesting as Saunders holds Cabrera to a .231 average with just one extra-base hit. The Giants will go with Ryan Vogelsong and his 1.32 home ERA. He’s only had three starts against the Diamondbacks but carries an impressive 2.33 ERA against them and holds Justin Upton to a .167 average and Chris Young to a .125 mark.
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Howard Bender has been covering fantasy sports for over ten years on a variety of web sites, including his own, The Fantasy Baseball Buzz. You can follow him on Twitter @rotobuzzguy or you can email him at rotobuzzguy@gmail.com.
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