Sprizouse 500 Win Challenge Update: Victory

Two weeks ago when I thought up this idea of 500 wins in a month, late one night in chat with Frogman, I had big eyes and nothing more than wishful thinking going for me. Sure, I had proven I could build a competitive team. Yes, I had made a killing in July; but 500 wins? Who does that?! I mean, aside from Brodels, who topped out at close to 500 one month, it is to my understanding that no one has even come close. Now, as I said in my initial piece, 500 wins means very little to most people. Well, to those people, I challenge you: How about 500 wins…in 12 days. That’s right! I challenge you to compete with an average of 42 wins a day…oh, and might I add that you must remain profitable throughout this quest.

Now, as much of a brag blog as this is, and it rightfully should be, I’m not going to get into too much boasting. As I understand, the majority of my success was getting lucky with a save here and a strike-out there. I ran extremely well from August 1st until now, and rallied on my few down days to salvage pretty respectable numbers. To this point in August, I’ve had three losing days to my recollection, all of which I hit between 35 and 40%. I’ve had more than I can count days of 65 percent and up which have led me to writing this here. Now I fed mostly on low stakes action, and for that I am sorry. If you are new, or a low stakes player on Draftstreet and you were facing me during this challenge in one, or multiple leagues, I promise I’ll leave you be now. Honestly, before starting this, my bankroll wasn’t much bigger than yours. I didn’t think I’d be able to afford to do much more than scrape by with 500 wins over the course of 30 days, and hopefully make 50 or 100 bucks in the process. Needless to say, it all worked out and for now, I can claim success to the challenge. So, what’s next the Spriz?

Next up on my agenda is 1,000 wins. Just kidding… I don’t think I have the tenacity, nor balls to go for such a number. That’s not to say 13 days from now I won’t be eying that number closely. I’m very happy with meeting my goal, especially with so much time to spare. Now, after the tough grind of August, I’m going to look to take some time off. Not really… as there’s only so much time in a baseball season. In a way, it will be time off, as I should not have to spend countless hours of my day clicking every open league I can get and have every small-stakes and new player to the site hate me for it. By break, I mean taking on guys my own size, perhaps even bigger. I have my sights set on Dotz mainly, as he’s in a bit of a funk right now, and nothing would make me happier than to go after him with a full frontal assault. Overall, I want to improve my profit numbers on huge nights, like tonight.

Tonight, Friday August 12th, I had my best night ever on Draftstreet. Now I won’t claim it all to be a result of my genius, as I had a lottt of help from “The Godfather of Draftstreet”, but I will say we did what it took to get over the hump. I was Derek Jeter to those of yall questioning my A-rod; all Kobe babe, no LeBron James. Coming into the night I needed 62 wins. Due to me not being able to sit at my computer all day on Friday, I only got into 78 match ups. That meant I had to win 62 of 78 to hit my goal, and it’s not like all of my games were head to heads or even games I could realistically expect to win without a big night. Two were GPPs, and several more were multiple player tournaments with large enough fields that it’d take a truly spectacular night to have success. I was feeling antsy on Friday, and with the backing of the true professional, loved my chances in the GPP for the first time in forever. Therefore, I decided to enter the $55 70-man, $3,500 guarantee, as well as my usual $5 GPP.

The $5 sucked, as is to almost be expected, with me finishing in 24th of 275, just outside of the top 20 prize pool. The $55 however, was another story. Thanks to an early JJ Hardy home-run, I was at the top of the leaderboard the whole night and, as a result of having two pitchers throwing late, I was teased with countless opportunities to win it, up until the last 15 minutes or so of play. Ultimately, my guys left too many runners in scoring position and didn’t do what it took to get the victory. We did however pick up a top five finish, taking 5th for $275. Now as important as the $220 profit is to me, it doesn’t solidify 500 wins necessarily. Nevermind, yes it does, because I went with the same team in cap-games and that simply rocked.

Now if you’re still reading this, then maybe you don’t think I’m a complete dick, nor do you hate my guts for doing such a selfish and egotistical challenge. Perhaps, you even almost respect it. As I’ve said countless times before it took a lot of luck, and a tad bit of good fortune to get to this point. With this blog, I think I’ve gotten all of the “I did it’s” out of me and I can return to my daily grind of fantasy. I’ll look to play mostly $11s and $22s, with the $55s and $109s sprinkled in and the occasional $215 if I’m feeling lucky. That’s right, I was fortunate enough to win my first $215 tonight and boy are they fun. I’m not rolled for them yet really, but if Dotz is gonna take 10 of my 22s then I may as well play him in a $215 and save both he and I juice. Now, as I’ve said, my profitability becomes more of a factor. I don’t want to pay the vig of a $5 game, when I can potentially get the same, and even better match-up in an $11 or $22. I want to use the $5s as my chance to profit in bigger fields. For now, I’ll just mention 3-mans, 6-mans (or djm’s as I think of them) and 10-mans. Anyhow, my games per day should shrink drastically with me no longer entering 50 $5 games.

I truly am sorry for the ranting and raving and the hooping and hollering, but I’m feeling pretty decent right now. To make this blog not a complete waste of your time, let’s dive into some of the numbers behind my challenge, and end it with a dynamite can’t miss pick for tomorrow.

Those are are the numbers posted through today, and the numbers that I’ll officially go with for the 500-win challenge. For now I’m happy with sticking to the “Mr. 500” acronym and keeping my ever-so-lucky 500 avatar on Draftstreet. Tomorrow starts a new day, and a new beginning on DrafStreet. Judging by the first set of games I’ve gotten in tonight, Fredotz is out for vengeance. Let’s hope revenge isn’t sweet and that Saturday is even bigger than Friday and any other day of this amazing challenge!!!

Sprizouse Sports Lock of the Day

Justin Upton
Justin is on complete fire now, as he has been for as long as you or I can remember. He homered again on Friday, and even in his poor days, he’s still producing. Hix’s Arizona Diamondbacks are making a real push right now for the playoffs and their MVP Justin Upton is leading the way. On Saturday they get Mike Pelfrey, a guy who has been horrific on the road, and is pitching in a very hitter friendly ball park. I don’t expect Pelfrey to provide much of anything in the lines of defense, which should give Justin plenty of opportunities to provide on the offensive end. He’s a bit pricey, but still less than most of your premium guys, and he’s someone that can easily provide double digit points. Get this guy into you’re line-up’s on Saturday!

Now that the challenge is over, and that I’ve succeeded, I’ll do my best to keep churning out the wins, this time, at the expense of players at higher stakes. I’ve made quite a few haters over the past 12 days, and I’m sure with this rant I’ll make a few more, but that’s besides the point. Draftstreet is about fun, money, and #winning, and at Sprizouse Sports, we do it all: Go Big or Go Home!

-Spriz