SClement21 - Minor League Baseball and Major League Grinder
SClement21 – Minor League Baseball and Major League Grinder
At only the age of 22, Sean sclement21 Clement is sitting at #4 in the RotoGrinders rankings. Sean immerses himself in sports; Last summer he worked for an independent baseball league team and he is currently interning with the Beloit Snappers, a Class-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. As soon as the season is over, he plans on beginning a full-time career in the sports world. Sean told us that “baseball has always been his passion”, but that he tends to develop an “obsession with whatever sport happens to be in season, college or pro.” Sean currently resides in Libertyville, Illinois making him partial to Chicago and Milwaukee’s pro teams – namely the Cubs, Bulls, Blackhawks and the Packers. Recently graduating from Iowa State, Sean is also an avid Cyclone fan. Though his personal “playing days have pretty much come to an end”, Sean does plan to make one last run at a professional sports career by becoming a “world-class men’s softball player some day.” With classes and intramurals now behind him, Sean has the option to apply his passion for sports to all facets of the industry. We had the opportunity to talk with Sean ‘sclement21’ Clement recently to discuss how he applies his passion to Daily Fantasy Sports.
How long have you been ‘grinding’ daily fantasy sports?
I started playing daily fantasy towards the end of last football season, at the suggestion of one Kaiseroll13. He and I went to the same high school and had been in some March Madness pool and poker tournaments together, but oddly enough, didn’t talk much until he referred me to FSL. I definitely owe him credit for accelerating me through the learning curve of the daily game. I was pretty cocky when I first started but was getting beaten consistently and almost lost my whole bankroll. Kaiser gave me some pointers and I took off from there. Over the past year I have played pretty much every day and Kaiser and I often discuss lineups, trends in game logs and everything else under the fantasy sun. I was lucky to have the best daily player around to mentor me early, but I’d like to think I’ve given him some good tips since he took me under his wing as well.
How many contests do you participate in each week and across which sites?
I’d say I play about 100 contests a week. The majority of which come on FSL but I have been playing more and more on FD. I am off to a good start on DraftZone but am new to that site.
What is your typical buy-in range? Do you have any specific Bankroll strategies?
I have stayed pretty disciplined, sticking to lower buy-in contests for now. You can usually find me playing in the $1 to $11 range. Even though I have had success, I am still on a ‘college-student’ budget so I try to stay within myself. Luckily I’ve never had to re-deposit on any site and have been making money consistently. My bankroll strategy is pretty basic. The best thing I do is vary my opponents and stick to my core group of players on a given day while adding some variance in my lineups by playing at different caps. This way, I am not staking too high of a percentage on one lineup versus one opponent. At the same time, I think it is much more profitable long term to stick to a core group of players on a given day rather than having huge differences on your rosters. This carries some more inherent risk but I think is the only way to make money, especially with rake levels where they currently stand. I have been testing the waters in higher-entry contests lately because I need to keep improving my grinders ranking!
What is your best sport for daily fantasy?
I definitely found my groove in daily basketball. By the middle of the season, I had internalized teams, players, matchups and statistics well enough that I was really only doing research to confirm my initial lineups. Kaiser and I would chat online in the mornings and often have identical lineups before even talking. I know not everyone has the luxury of a friendship with a world-class fantasy mind, but I highly recommend using a knowledgeable friend as a sound board. It certainly doesn’t mean you have to play the same lineups as each other but at least you have someone to talk through picks with and someone that can challenge your reasoning so that you can provide sound argument for why your pick is a better bet.
At the time of this interview you are 6th on the RotoGrinders Rankings and 8th on the Fantasy Sports Live overall rankings. What do you attribute this success to? (Note: From the time of this interview, SClement21 has risen to 4th in the RotoGrinders Rankings)
I’d say it’s a pretty healthy mix of work, luck and a short memory. I don’t think there are many people out there that put together a more comprehensive research method than I do and I think it shows pretty clearly when opponents have players out of the lineup on a day or a guy with terrible splits on the road or whatever it is that day. Coupling this research with my competitive spirit is where the short memory comes into play because it can be frustrating when an opponent plays Jason Bartlett, who isn’t even starting that day, and he hits a pinch-hit grand slam to beat you. To have longevity in this game you have to understand you’re going to make bad picks sometimes and other times ‘bad’ picks by an opponent might beat you. In the end, a grinder who does their homework will win more than they lose against these ‘bad’ picks. And again, I was lucky to have Kaiser help me avoid some of these ‘bad’ picks early so I could keep a bankroll during my learning process.
Can you elaborate on any of your favorite strategies or do you have a favorite method of research?
I will talk a little about my baseball strategy since it is that time of year, but the idea carries over to other sports. For starters, I don’t limit my research to only batter v. pitcher history and I get the sense that a lot of players are doing that. I fell victim to putting too much emphasis on that early on and now just use that type of history as supplement to other information. Mostly because batter v. pitcher stats usually have too small of sample sizes and tell nothing of how a batter has hit the past month, or if the pitcher has developed since a batter hammered him once his rookie year, just to name a few examples. There are elements of statistics and feel for any pick I make. I like to make an initial list of guys that I like and playable guys that I want to stay away from on that day based on their matchups. Dailybaseballdata.com is one good place to get lots of that type of information; waiverwire aka zoobird has done a great job compiling valuable information there. And if gets down to the end and two players are similarly priced and I have them ranked similarly, I will just go with my gut from there.
Do you play any fields sizes other than heads up? What are your thoughts on larger fields sizes?
I play in 3, 5, 6, and 10 player fields regularly. I also played in 25 and (I think) 50 player fields on FSL during football season. Clearly, the more players, the more money you can win so I try to get in big fields whenever I can and look forward to sites making bigger fields available in the near future. I think the lure of bigger prizes can attract some new talent to the industry and the more, the merrier as far as I am concerned.
What do you have envisioned for the future of Daily Fantasy?
The last time I checked, the daily fantasy scene had just 1% of the total revenue and user numbers compared to the fantasy industry as a whole. As more daily sites come into being, the current sites improve marketing efforts and word of mouth referrals continue to pour in, the growth potential is enormous. The market for our game is largely untapped, and simply put, the awareness just isn’t there yet. In Bill Simmons most recent article he speaks to the increasing parody in full season fantasy leagues due to the deluge of information available for the casual player. The skills it takes to be a good daily player might offer the perfect outlet for the full-season player who is looking for new challenges. I’m also hoping sites start developing mobile apps because even my beloved Droid doesn’t let me wheel and deal as well as I’d like.
What aspect of Daily Fantasy Sports do you think sites could improve on making better?
I’ve already touched on high rakes, lack of marketing, and my personal conquest for mobile applications so I won’t dwell too long on that. As has been discussed on the grinders forums, rake levels need to decrease to make the industry more sustainable long term. As far as marketing, I think sites are starting to do a better job with promotions and I don’t fore see this being a problem for much longer. I love the way FD adds camaraderie to the game with their live chat and I hope other sites catch on to the benefits a feature like that brings.
Since you work closely with the minors, give us a deep sleeper pick you’ve got to see that is on no ones radar right now for the 2014 MLB season
I’ve gotten to see some top prospects play this season like Shelby Miller, Hak Ju Lee, Mike Trout and Aaron Hicks but I guess those guys are already on a bunch of radars. Angel Morales is my dark-horse pick. With Ben Revere and Aaron Hicks getting most of the attention as far as Twins top outfield prospects, Morales gets overlooked. He is definitely a five-tooler though and I think you better keep your eyes out for him…in four years.