I'm good with plants. I never knew I had a green thumb, but turns out I do. Thanks grandpa. I'm also pretty good at digging – see what I did there? – into the data. I've done just that in this piece as I've attempted to illuminate matchups for August 7th. 

* NOTE: Players are listed in alphabetical order for the sake of making them easily sortable/findable. The matchups are also generated based on Batter vs. Pitcher data. Just because a player is not listed does not mean that he is a bad or good play. The players listed below are mentioned merely because of the BVP data for the matchup.

DISH DIAMONDS – The Best Hitting Matchups of the Day
 
Gordon Beckham has hit .315 with two homers in 89 at-bats against lefties. He faces Roenis Elias Thursday. Moises Sierra has also hit .313 in 48 lefty battles while Tyler Flowers has hit .282 with three homers in 78 at-bats. 

Jacoby Ellsbury has seven hits in 10 at-bats against Rick Porcello. He's also taken the sinkerballer deep twice while stealing two bases. Ichiro, for what it's worth, has a .360 mark over 25 at-bats. 

Adrian Gonzalez has seven hits in 13 at-bats when facing the struggling C.J. Wilson (see this Mailbag piece). AGone has also been a big run producer with five RBIs. 

Adam Jones has a .462/.500/.538 line against J.A. Happ in 13 at-bats. Nelson Cruz has hit .323 with five homers in 96 at-bats this season against lefties while Steve Pearce is at .333 with six homers in 69 at-bats. 

Devin Mesoraco is batting .309 with 10 walks over 66 plate appearances against lefties. He faces T.J. House Thursday.

Daniel Murphy has hit .317 with three homers and seven RBIs against Jordan Zimmermann in 41 at-bats. David Wright has two homers, four RBIs an a .306 batting average in his 36 at-bats. 

Shark cam. Check out the great white. It's chasing you.

Giancarlo Stanton has four hits in eight at-bats against Edinson Volquez. One of the hits was a homer. Garrett Jones is only batting .231 with three hits against the righty, but all three hits are big flies. 

Kurt Suzuki has a tough matchup with Jon Lester but he's hit .333 with 15 RBIs in 97 at-bats against portsiders this year. 

DISH DISASTERS – Worst Hitting Matchups of the Day

Melky Cabrera has one hit in 10 at-bats against Miguel Gonzalez. Colby Rasmus is unbecomingly bad. He has but one hit in 14 at-bats with eight whiffs. Ugly. 

Carl Crawford has six punchouts an a .167 batting average against C.J. Wilson over 18 at-bats. 

Chris Davis faces the blah J.A. Happ but he's also hit .188 with 41 Ks in 112 at-bats against lefties this year. 

Lucas Duda has one RBI an a .190 batting average against Jordan Zimmermann over 21 at-bats.

Someone call the principle. Immediately 

Aaron Hill has two homers against Jeremy Guthrie but he's also hit .231 with a .279 OBP over 42 plate appearances. Not good. Mark Trumbo is worse with nine hitless at-bats. 

Derek Jeter had one hit in 15 at-bats against Rick Porcello as the ground ball pitcher has the advantage over the ground ball hitter. 

Kendrys Morales has hit a mere .250 with one homer in 52 at-bats against lefties this year. He faces Jon Lester of the Athletics. 

Eduardo Nunez has two hits, and five strikeouts, over 15 at-bats when Jon Lester is on the hill. 

Aramis Ramirez has five hits in 25 at-bats, one hit is a homer, when Jake Peavy is on the bump. Mark Reynolds is worse. He's hit .150 while striking out more than half the time with 11 punchouts over 20 at-bats. 

Bookmark the following four sources to check daily after you read this piece.

DFS PLAYBOOK

Fantasy Alarm Lineups

Batter Versus Pitcher

Daily Projections – For every single day of the season.

 

The 2014 Fantasy Football Draft Guide is HERE!! 210 pages of system breakdowns, offensive line breakdowns, injury reports, 30 proven winning strategies and of course over 550 players ranked. Sign up for a new DraftKings account to get the guide, the NFL in-season Assistant GM and all of our daily fantasy football tools for FREE!!!

MOUND MAVENS – Starting Pitchers to Target

Homer Bailey has lowered his ERA to 3.89, from 4.80, over his last six starts (four of those outings he's allowed one or no runs). Bailey has also held the opponent homerless in five of his last six outings. The game against the Indians will take place at home where he has a 5-2 record, 3.43 ERA and 1.20 WHIP on the year. 

Jacob deGrom starts against everyone right now. He faces the Nationals on the road. For more, see his Player Profile.

Collin McHugh faces the stink it up Phillies. When he's pitched away from Houston, like this outing will be, he's posted a 1.96 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in seven games. The Phils are also the worst team in baseball in OPS against righties. Well they are second worst, but since the Padres are like a Triple-A team I'm not counting the Phillies as the worst. 

Just cause. Too late to turn back now - Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose.

Wily Peralta faces the Giants at home. Peralta has allowed a total of six runs in his last four outings, all which have ended in a “W.” The Giants are also in the bottom quarter of the league in OPS against righties coming in at 23rd. 

Rick Porcello has allowed two or fewer earned runs in six of his last eight outings (one of the other two was a three run affair). Porcello faces the Yankees in New York and he's pitched very well this season away from Detroit with an 8-2 record, 2.73 ERA and 1.09 WHIP in 12 road starts. 

Adam Wainwright has people worried. Really? Sorry, but I just can't join you there. Unless he is hurt, and they haven't told us that is the case, what are you worried about? The guy has a 2.26 ERA and 1.01 WHIP over 22 starts. Don't tell me you thought he was going to post a 1.80 ERA this season. He faces the Red Sox in St. Louis. 

MOUND MESSES – Starting Pitchers to Avoid

Miguel Gonzalez faces a beat up to all hell Blue Jays club. Hurt are Encarnacion, Lind, Lawrie etc. Over his last seven starts Gonzalez has allowed more than three runs just one time. However, he does have only two punchouts his last two outings and he's allowed 11 homers in his last eight outings. Toss in a 4.12 ERA and 1.42 WHIP on the road this season and he's barely placed in the avoid column. 

Jake Peavy was perfect through six innings in his second Giants' start. He ended up allowing four runs in seven innings. Peavy has a 4.85 ERA, 138 WHIP and 2.27 K/BB ratio on the year. He has one win in 22 outings this season. Why would you be starting him on the road against the Brewers? 

Yohan Pino faces the Athletics in Oakland. Pino has a 6.28 ERA and 1.81 WHIP in three road starts and the A's are 7th in baseball in OPS against righties. 

Hang 10 buddy

Edinson Volquez faces the Marlins. The matchups isn't awful, but it's so hard to trust Edinson. Volquez as a 4.04 ERA and 1.36 WHIP at home. He's failed to deliver six innings his last three starts. He's permitted two homers and 23 hits over his last 15.2 innings. Did I leave out that he's also allowed 13 runs? 

C.J. Wilson faces the Dodgers. C.J. Wilson has a 12.50 ERA and 2.61 WHIP over his last five starts. 

M
ake sure you tune in to the Drive at 7 PM EDT, Monday through Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius210, XM87), to hear Ray Flowers pontificate about the world of sports.