RotoTalk: No Time? Build a Winner Anyway

by Kevin Dahle (rotokevin) Last Updated 2012-05-15 22:09:26

As Grinders, we often dedicate significant time and effort into building our daily fantasy baseball lineups. We’re serious. We want to win every day. Sometimes, though, you just don’t have the time to scour all of the stats and angles before the lineup deadline. That doesn’t mean you can’t still field a lineup and get a little action on the day. Today, we’ll discuss a no-frills approach that, while unlikely to field the day’s optimal lineup, is likely to give you a competitive squad.

Pick a Pitcher

We’re going to build this lineup in much the same fashion as we normally would, starting with a pitcher. With the win being worth 7 big points at Daily Joust, it’s critical to grab a starter with a good chance at victory. How do we quickly identify those? Hello, sportsbook! Go to your favorite source for wagering data and compile a quick list of heavy faves. Award extra points for those playing at home. Tuesday’s top candidates: Josh Johnson (-200) v. Pittsburgh, Colby Lewis (-240) v. Kansas City and Josh Beckett (-200) v. Seattle. From there, you probably possess a little institutional knowledge that may make the decision for you. You know, like Pittsburgh strikes out more than any team or that Seattle just can’t hit the ball. You’ve already locked onto the day’s most likely winners, so pick one however you see fit.

Hitting the Lineup Card

Since we’re under the gun and trying to put together a lineup just before gametime, most of the lineup cards should be available on the RotoGrinders lineup page. That’s awesome. You may not have a ton of time to research, but at least you’ll know everyone on your team is playing. When selecting your hitters in a quick fashion, you’ll want to attempt to maximize your team’s opportunities to score. How do you do that? Stick to batters near the top of their real team’s respective batting order. A guy hitting first or second is likely to get one more plate appearance than a guy hitting 7th or 8th. In a game where most guys only get 3 or 4 shots at the plate, a lead-off guy getting 4 or 5 ABs gives him 25%-33% more opportunities to accumulate points. Sure, if you’re taking Austin Jackson it also gives him another shot to strike out, but we’re talking about maximizing opporunity, whether or not your hitter executes in those situations is another matter.

Anyway, when crunched for time, focus on players near the top of the order. You can also skew your lineup toward players on the road, since they are guaranteed to hit in all 9 innings whereas home hitters will only hit in the 9th if they are trailing. It’s a minor impact, but every little bit counts. Since you’ve already nailed down your starting pitcher, you know exactly what you budget is for the remaining roster slots. Leverage the lineup grid and pick the guys that fit the budget and appear to have good matchups. DailyJoust really simplifies the matchup part for you with games logs and batter v. pitcher data available during lineup selection. Simply mouse over the matchup and if the batter and pitcher have met before, you’ll see the numbers. Oh hey, Jose Bautista is 10-28 against David Price he has 3 homers in his last 4 games. Maybe he’s worth a shot. You’ll have to rely on your knowledge base a bit too…like, remember how well Price threw his last couple of outings?

The Disclaimer

No one would advocate using this streamlined approach to build all of your lineups everyday. Surely your better prepared opponents would grind your bankroll to dust in short order. But in the high variance world of single-day fantasy sports contests, you can catch lightning in a bottle and win with minimal prep time. Just take a couple simple steps to filter out a large portion of likely low-yield plays and you’ve got a chance. The steps above are likely to do just that…all in 15 minutes or less…or your next edition of RotoTalk is free.

And now, a lineup…

Press time for RotoTalk is well before lineups are posted, but let’s try to put this to good use. For fun, let’s say this lineup is being entered into round 1 of tonight’s $550 King Richard’s 50/50 Survivor Tournament. We’ll cover that tournament style and applicable strategy next week. If you’re new to Daily Fantasy, you could try a lineup similar to this out in the new $1 contest, the Page Thomas Daily MLB Tournament. It’s low-cost to join, and the winner also gets a seat in the “All Star Joust” where you will have a shot to win 2 tickets to the MLB All Star Game and $1,500 cash. Click any of the Joust links to join!. There’s also a 40% Deposit Bonus on your first deposit.