Back to a full slate of games here on Wednesday and it should be an interesting day for daily fantasy baseball salary cap teams. There’s an amazing amount of quality hitting from which to choose and it can be found in both marquee names as well as a few “nobodies” lurking about. Pitching might be a little harder to come by, but there are still a few sound choices. Might be a little more expensive in relation to your fantasy budget, but still well worth it.
San Francisco Giants at San Diego Padres (6:35pm ET)
Lefty Madison Bumgarner may be having another strong season, but there are still a few Padres out there that give him fits when they square off together. Chris Denorfia is batting .429 over 21 at-bats while Chase Headley is batting .333 with one home run in 15 trips to the plate. For the Padres, left-hander Clayton Richard is on the hill. He does a great job holding Angel Pagan to a depressing .214 average, but has allowed Melky Cabrera to hit .333 against him with a pair of doubles over a dozen at-bats. Look for Aubrey Huff to get the start at first as he is also batting .333 with a pair of doubles over 21 at-bats.
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Los Angeles Dodgers at Philadelphia Phillies (7:05pm ET)
Chris Capuano continues his career resurrection with a start against the Phillies, a team he has maintained an ERA of 1.64 against over his last two starts, including one at hitter-friendly Citizen’s Bank Park. But Jimmy Rollins has a home run against him along with a .267 average and keep an eye out for Juan Pierre who is batting .346 over his career against Capuano. For the Phillies, Kyle Kendrick makes the start and has been absolutely sensational over his last four starts. However, his numbers against these Dodgers have little to be desired as both James Loney (.571, 2 HR) and Andre Ethier (.385, 2 HR) hit him plenty hard.
Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers (7:05pm ET)
While Indians starter Jeanmar Gomez does a great job against left-handed hitters, it’s the Detroit righties that he’ll need to worry about. Miguel Cabrera owns a .300 average with a home run and a double against him and Delmon Young is 6-for-9 (.667) with a home run, three doubles and five RBI. Tigers right-hander Max Scherzer does a solid job containing the likes of Carlos Santana (.083) and Michael Brantley (.133), but has a tendency to serve up the long ball to lefties. Shin-Soo Choo, for one, is batting a ridiculous .571 with a home run, a double, and a triple in 14 at-bats while Casey Kotchman is batting .286 with a home run of his own.
Tampa Bay Rays at New York Yankees (7:05pm ET)
Yankees right-hander Ivan Nova has been surprisingly successful against the Rays here in the early goings of his career. He does a good job of keeping the ball in the yard and is holding the likes of Ben Zobrist (.200), B.J. Upton (.154) and Matt Joyce (.077) in check most of the time. Even Carlos Pena (.167, 1 HR) has found it difficult to be consistently successful against him. Tampa will counter with rookie Alex Cobb who is 2-1 with a 3.47 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 17 innings. He’s killing lefties, currently holding them to a .194 average, but in a ballpark that favors left-handed power, he’s going to have a tough battle with Curtis Granderson who is batting .261 with 2 home runs over the last seven days. And although he’s slumped recently, Robinson Cano is always a tough left-handed out.
Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox (7:10pm ET)
Wei-Yin Chen makes his second career start against Boston on Wednesday and looks to improve on the three run, five inning performance from the last time. He’s keeping right-handers at a .243 average, but that’s also where he gives up the most home runs. Dustin Pedroia is back from his thumb injury and the Sox are getting Will Middlebrooks as many at-bats as they can, so keep an eye on both of them as they accounted for some of the runs against Chen the first time around. Josh Beckett will be on the hill for Boston and that suits the Orioles just fine as they’ve done some damage to his ratios in the past. Adam Jones is batting .314 with a home run and two doubles through 35 at-bats, Mark Reynolds has a pair of home runs in 12 at-bats, and both Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy have taken him deep one time each and are both batting .313 against him.
Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers (8:10pm ET)
Veteran lefty Paul Maholm looks to stop the Brewers, an all too familiar foe, but will have a very long hill to climb if he is going to be successful. Corey Hart has a .326 average with three home runs, four doubles and a triple against Maholm, while teammate Ryan Braun is batting .343 with one home run and a pair of doubles over 41 trips to the plate. Brewers ace Zack Greinke takes the mound here and is sporting a 1.30 ERA at home this season. In fact, he’s 14-0 in his last 20 starts at Miller Park. It should be a solid test for him as Starlin Castro is batting .33 against him with a double and Ian Stewart is hitting a robust .571 with a double and a triple to his credit.
Minnesota Twins at Kansas City Royals (8:10pm ET)
Twins right-hander Nick Blackburn brings his 8.37 ERA to the mound as a replacement for the injured Carl Pavano. Lefties, righties, it doesn’t matte rhere as everyone this season hits Blackburn hard. Billy Butler, a.k.a. “Country Breakfast”, may only be hitting .267 against him, but he’s also the only active Royal to have taken Blackburn deep. Alex Gordon has a .313 average against hom and look for lefty Mitch Maier to get the start possibly as he is batting .273 with a double over 11 at-bats. Felipe Paulino gets the nod here for the Royals and while he had some trouble with the Twins during interleague while he was with Houston, you can’t ignore the fact that he has yet to give up a run over 19 innings at Kauffman Stadium. Right-handers have given him some trouble, relatively speaking, so look at Josh Willingham who saw Paulino a few times during their NL days and has taken him deep once.
Texas Rangers at Oakland A’s (10:05pm ET)
Colby Lewis may have a worse ERA on the road than at home (4.04 vs 2.73), but spacious Overstock.com Coliseum in Oakland can always help that out. Though Jemile Weeks has a .583 average with one home run, a double and a triple over 12 at-bats against him, Lewis does a good job containing hitters such as Cliff Pennington (.233) and Kurt Suzuki (.174). On the hill for the A’s will be veteran right-hander Bartolo Colon who may hold a guy like Ian Kinsler to a .143 average, but Michael Young is mashing with a .357 average with a home run and three doubles over 42 at-bats while Adrian Beltre is hitting .333 with four home runs and six doubles through 52 trips to the plate.
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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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