I've become an active player of RotoWire's new daily SnapDraft fantasy game. You can play for as little as $1 and win money each night. It really forces you to check out each night's lineup (deadline to enter is generally 7 pm ET each night).
Here's my lineup for Friday:
C Kurt Suzuki - OAK @ SEA - Fri @10:10 PM $1,470,000
1B Justin Morneau - MIN vs. KC - Fri @8:10 PM $3,260,000
2B Ian Kinsler - TEX vs. CWS -Fri @8:05 PM $2,340,000
3B David Wright - NYM @ PHI - Fri @7:05 PM $3,720,000
SS Orlando Cabrera - OAK @ SEA - Fri @10:10 PM $2,430,000
OF Matt Holliday - OAK @ SEA - Fri @10:10 PM $3,490,000
OF Jermaine Dye - CWS @ TEX - Fri @8:05 PM $2,740,000
OF Carlos Quentin - CWS @ TEX - Fri @8:05 PM $2,530,000
P Clayton Kershaw - LAD vs. SD - Fri @10:10 PM $1,410,000
P Roy Halladay - TOR vs. BAL - Fri @7:07 PM $3,150,000
It's a salary cap style game. Kershaw is very cheap at $1.4 million. Plus he has a good matchup tonight at home against the Padres.
In SnapDraft I generally look for hitters facing terrible pitchers or playing at Texas or at Colorado. Thus I took lots of A's vs. Carlos Silva, even with the game at Seattle. I also took a few White Sox at Texas (against Scott Feldman - a plus). And I took David Wright against Chan Ho Park. Second base and first base were quandaries for me since no player exactly fit my criteria. But Morneau gets to face Sidney Ponson (even though he's got a good track record against the Twins) and Kinsler gets to play at home in Texas.
Other things I'll be watching for in tonight's game:
-The return of Joe Mauer off the DL. The Twins kept three catchers on the roster, so is that a sign they're worried about his back or that they're high on Jose Morales? I think it's more than Morales is playing well.
-Jordan Zimmerman's third career start against St. Louis. His first two starts have been impressive. I took Morneau over Albert Pujols (and didn't spend $420K extra in salary cap space) in the SnapDraft game because of Zimmerman. I hope it pays off.
-Manny Parra and Andy Sonnanstine - are they finally going to round into form? Is Kevin Slowey going to finally get on a roll after his last strong start and become a breakout pitcher this year (I was really high on him based on his double-digit strikeout games last year which may show an uptick in his strikeout rate)?
-Jim Thome. He says he's going to play Friday despite a sore heel. Still, the risk of losing a player wasn't enough for me to take him in SpanDraft depsite a good match against Texas against Scott Feldman.
-Does Joakim Soria get the nod if there's a save situation for the Royals? He's supposed to be back from a sore shoulder.
-Will Pablo Sandoval return from a strained groin. He's supposed to, but let's double check. Ditto Randy Winn and his knee.
I'm sure I forgot some injured guy we should track. Who am I forgetting? And what lineup did you go with if you are in a daily league or playing a game like SnapDraft?