You know the MLB season is in full-swing when Interleague Play begins. I’m not going to go into a big spiel about all the minor effects this will have on Fantasy Baseball. I’m sure you guys can all figure that out, if there really is much of a difference. But it’s definitely worth thinking about and Interleague definitely makes things interesting. I’ve always been an advocate of Interleague Play and think there should be no question that it should happen every year. I just don’t see what the big deal is. So on that note, let’s jump right into the picks for tonight! Read More

St. Augustine wrote a book called the “Confessions,” not as an admission of guilt, but as an impassioned defense of Christianity. Might it be possible to do the same, in blog form no less, for my use of STACKING in daily fantasy baseball??? Like you, I once felt all of the above things towards the hated STACKER and could never envision stooping so low in my own daily gaming. After all, it is a process of l/u selection in which paying attention to the various individual hitter predictor variables is a waste of time. “Sure, Alex Rodriguez is 1-20 lifetime against that SP, but I’m STACKING Yanks baby, and A-Rod hits cleanup. So, I’m taking him!” Read More

Well Rickie “The Thing” Fowler almost pulled off back-to-back tournament wins, but in the end Matt Kuchar came up all smiles nabbing his career 4th PGA win. Zach Johnson, Ben Curtis and Martin Laird all joined Fowler in second place but even some remarkable late runs couldn’t stop Kuchar from winning the event. Kevin Na put on an epic choke job. He came into the final day in the lead at -13 but finished -8. Not the first time Florida residents have seen a choke job in the 4th quarter of a sporting event in the last year. The crowd even let him have it “Na, Na, Na, Na – Na, Na, Na, Na – Hey, Hey – Goodbye.” Bush league, but still funny. Read More

The course will be playing 7,166 yds to a par 70. Sure, only having two par 5s instead of the traditional four cuts down on some of the length, but overall this is a fairly short course by the standards of today. One of the most important things to factor in this week will be the wind/weather. If it comes, it could cause some unfavorable conditions and having players that avoid it, could be the key to your guys making the cut. That will definitely be something to look for late Wednesday before you click submit for the last time. So with the course not terribly long, and possibly windy conditions, I would look for solid ball strikers at this course. Let’s take a look at a few players: Read More

Not every Daily Fantasy Site utilizes reliever spots, but for the ones that do, it could mean the difference between a win or a loss on any given day. It’s essential that you have some idea which closers are more likely than not to pitch each day, but this year we’re not even sure who the closer is on some teams. Don’t feel bad because some managers don’t know who their closer is themselves. It’s just the middle of May and already near half the league, through injury or ineffectiveness, has had some sort of turnover in their stopper role. Read More

First of all, I want to say what a great job Draftstreet did at pricing this tournament. Tiger and Phil are realistic picks this week with the prices, and guys like Johnson Wagner, Chez Reavie, and Henrik Stenson are just over 10k. You really have an opportunity to create any type of card you want, and have a realistic chance at winning. It’s not like some past tournaments where you could take an elite golfer but would have to get lucky with lower priced guys. This week all kinds of possibilities are available and it should make for fun GPPs. I can’t wait to see how guys that I respect fill their cards for the Players. Read More

An hour after Rickie Fowler, all decked out in his orange outfit, won his first-ever PGA event I was sitting at the movies watching The Avengers. Then it dawned on me, Rickie was not just making a statement to the other PGA golfers that he has arrived, but also making his rightful bid to star as The Thing in the “New Avengers” movie that is bound to be made at some point. Now all he has to do is win at Pebble Beach and the audition is over and he will be a lock. For good reason too – the regular Avengers were MIA last weekend. He beat out “Ironman” (Rory MclIroy) in a playoff and “Captain America” (Phil Mickelson) shot -6 for T26. The god of Thunder (Bubba Watson) didn’t even suit up. “Hawkeye” (Johnson Wagner) was left at +1 T65 and Tiger Woods, the Dr. of Technique . . . well lets just say you don’t get to see him when he’s angry. Read More

America is a country that revels in the rebel. It started with the Boston Tea Party and has carried on from there. From John Wayne to James Dean, we have admired the man who can cut loose from the pack and blaze against the grain with reckless abandoned. Why then in the world of daily fantasy do we see so much similar play? Last week’s DFBC was wild to say the least and while I am upset that my last article was proven wrong by a load winning this qualifier, I am happy that the outcome supports what I want to talk about this week. Read More

We have a big night ahead of us, with 15 games scheduled tonight. So, let’s get right to the picks! Just a reminder first… Since this is my first blog of the season only about player picks, I just wanted to remind everyone that when I mention things like a player’s specific matchup against a certain pitcher or that player seems to perform better against a certain team or at a certain stadium, I am just saying that these things are indicators of a strong performance. I’m never saying only to look at matchups or only to look at one particular stat. I just can’t write a whole page about each player, and I know I tend to err on the side of writing a novel about each player as it is! I titled the article “Values and Sluggers” because I feel you often have to have a few high-priced sluggers on your team to keep up with the pack. Read More

Kobe Bryant – When in doubt grab a stud and get value in other positions. He is one of the only sure thing shooting guards on the board in this player pool. Kobe simply can take over games and seems to enjoy the home crowd averaging 45.5 fantasy pts at Staples Center. Play the studs! Read More

Ernie Els was a stallion for me last week, finishing 2nd at 19 under par. Sadly, I had him paired with Nick Watney and Nathan Green, who both missed the cut. On my other team, I paired Jason Dufner, tourney winner, with (insert the names of any four golfers that all missed the cut here) and ended up with a short-handed team that stood no chance of finishing in the money. Read More

Three out of the first four seats for the DFBC have been won this year with non-stacks which seems to suggest a trend away from stacking and beckons the question of why? Certainly the rule changes have had some effect on this downward spike. You will never again see a full load of the Yankees. I do not even think a half stack of the Yankees is possible at their current price. However, I think the biggest factor in the shift of success for this approach is the increase in the number of entrees. The DFBC has doubled in size and now more than ever you really have to ace every position in order to win. A great roster is no longer enough. Read More

I’ll give you a brief overview of my draftstreet history to give the reader an idea if the writer knows what the hell he is talking about. January played 20 contests on draftstreet all low stakes and cashed 54% mainly playing 50/50s if I recall correctly. February was better 87 contests for 65.5% cash rate. March was brutal as whatever momentum I had I quickly lost as I played 50 contests and only cashed 44%. I have only played 1 contest since and that was a DFBC baseball satellite. I’m looking forward to getting back on Draftstreet thats for sure – I have a clear NBA mind – the most frustrating NBA regular season from a fantasy perspective is over with and the NBA playoffs adds some sense of normalcy. Read More

This week sure does have a feel of a major. Tiger, Rory, Phil, and Westwood are all in the field along with quite a few other elite golfers. This course is long and tough to hit the fairways. Statistically it is one of the hardest golf courses to keep it in the short grass. What does this mean? Chipping and putting is at a premium this week since greens will be missed. Check those up and down, sand saves, and strokes gained putting stats all you want because that is where the winner is likely to come from. Read More

Tony Parker destroyed Utah in Game 1 [called it in my blog but wasn’t approved in time – I’ll be releasing a special blog – CB35: The Lost Years – check amazon.com]. Not exactly going out on a limb – Parker is the #1 Option in San Antonio and Utah is poor defending the backcourt. I like him for 25 pts and 10 dimes tonight. Read More

It seems like every off-season we’re continually WOW’ed by the contracts handed out by major league baseball teams and it seems that inevitably, more of them crash and burn than not. This winter was no different as there were not only several $100 million, but also $200 million free agent contracts and extensions signed to go along with a blockbuster trade or two. Through the months of February and March, I previewed most of the players moving to new teams (but not the ones who signed big extensions with their current team). Let’s see how some of the bigger moves of the off-season have panned out so far through the 1st month of the 2012 season. Read More

When you and I sit down to create lineups for the day, we slice and dice any of a couple dozen different factors. Some lean heavily on batter v. pitcher stats. Others completely abhor them. Others dive into Saberbmetrics and, I’m sure, somewhere, someone is drawing numbers from the proverbial hat or reading Tarot cards. The truth is, Daily Fantasy Baseball players, I’m sorry, but there is no magic bullet. There is no one angle or measure or score or factor that you can religiously turn to when setting your lineups. Some data may purport to be more predictive than others, but there is no magic system. You see, in baseball, everyday is a new puzzle to decipher. Today, I’m going to take you through the things I look at when setting my lineup. Your mileage may vary. Read More

All 3 of Monday’s games are the 2nd of their series. Let’s take a look at how each game 1 went and project what will happen in their game 2s. Knicks vs. Heat This game really wasn’t a game at all. The Heat had something to prove and they did just that. Fresh off the news that Rose would be out for the rest of the Playoffs the Heat knew the East was theirs for the taking. LeBron also wanted to prove that he means business this postseason and that he could continue his amazing play from the regular season. The Heat used a 32-2 run to completely wipe the Knicks off the court. Read More

Well as I’m writing for the May 1st games – lets just say my April 30th picks weren’t great – D. Wade aside – everyone else is in the proverbial tank. Daily fantasy – it is a new day and Mom’s birthday – Happy Birthday Mom! Lets recap quickly – two studs are out: Derrick Rose (torn ACL), Rajon Rondo (idiot) this means value as those minutes have to go somewhere and this is a critical time of year. The major problem with both of these situations they occurred at the end of the game so tough to tell who does the coach really trust. Read More

As a philosopher and lifelong critical analyst I can’t help but think of ways in which I could change (hopefully for the better) the things I interact with on a daily basis. Now that DFS has become a large part of my daily life I have decided to take some time brainstorming ways in which I think the experience could be dramatically improved for the majority of players. Read More