The Notorious Experiment: Two Tuesday MLB Lineups
Today I’m going to try something a little different. I’m going to channel my inner evil scientist and try a little experiment to see just how unpredictable fantasy baseball can be. I am going to make two different teams using two completely different approaches and see which team ends up with a higher score. Obviously, this will be one isolated instance so any result from this won’t really mean anything, but the results should be fun to look at. Both teams are made on Draftstreet.
Team Notorious
My first team will be put together using my normal strategy that I take every day when putting together a team. I’m going to analyze the pitching matchups, look up pitcher vs. batter stats, compare lefty/righty splits, compare home/away splits, and look for players that are underpriced. If you are looking for any tips for your team tonight, then this will be the team that you want to check out. Without further ado, here is Team #1 with backup for why I chose each player. I’m really liking this team today so we will have to see how it stacks up with the other team.
| Position | Player | Salary | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | Victor Martinez | $7,455.00 | V-Mart has been incredibly consistent that last couple weeks. I like that from my catcher. |
| 1B | Todd Helton | $6,149.00 | Helton is due for a big game, I think that going home might be exactly what he needs. |
| 2B | Kelly Johnson | $4,091.00 | This is my one reach of the day. Gut feeling tells me he will have a big day. |
| 3B | Pablo Sandoval | $3,811.00 | Pablo is 6/12 lifetime against Lopez with 4 extra base hits and 6 RBI’s, plus he should be batting in the middle of the lineup. |
| SS | Yunel Escobar | $5,767.00 | Yunel is 4/5 against Correia and has had a hot bat at home. Plus he has Bautista and Lind to drive him in. |
| OF | Cameron Maybin | $5,610.00 | Maybin has been hot and I mean hot. Not only that but Paulino hasn’t been great on the road. |
| OF | Andre Ethier | $5,437.00 | Ethier hasn’t been great against lefties this year (.233) but at this price I couldn’t pass him up. |
| OF | Michael Morse | $6,279.00 | Morse Morse Morse, he’s been hot and is cheap. Easy enough. |
| U | Justin Upton | $8,161.00 | Justin Upton hits .355 at home and faces Tomlin who has given up 22 runs over his last 5. |
| U | Ryan Ludwick | $6,070.00 | Once again, I don’t trust Paulino on the road, even the Padres should be able to rough him up a bit. |
| SP | Michael Pineda | $13,710.00 | Pineda has a 1.99 ERA at home and faces the Braves who are in the top ten in strike-outs. |
| SP | David Price | $12,346.00 | David Price at home. Enough said. |
| RP | Huston Street | $2,447.00 | This game could go either way and as long as its close, Huston has a great chance of getting the save. |
| P | Gio Gonzalez | $12,572.00 | Gio has also been very good at home and averages 7 strike-outs per game in Oakland. |
| Total | $99,905.00 |
|---|
The Frankenstein Experiment
For my second team I am going to take the exact opposite approach. I am going to choose this team as randomly as possible. To do this I am going to take the top ten most expensive players at each position and let excel randomly choose one of the six as my starter for that position. For outfielders I will use the top 20 most expensive and randomly choose three of them. Then for the pitchers I will do the same thing but keep adjusting until I’ve almost spent the full salary. I got to say that the team doesn’t look too shabby. Here is team #2:
| Position | Player | Salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | Carlos Santana | $7,256.00 | – |
| 1B | Mark Teixeira | $8,391.00 | – |
| 2B | Jemile Weeks | $7,446.00 | – |
| 3B | Maicer Izturis | $6,509.00 | – |
| SS | Asdrubal Cabrera | $7,771.00 | – |
| OF | Jose Bautista | $9,594.00 | – |
| OF | Curtis Granderson | $9,278.00 | – |
| OF | Adam Jones | $8,017.00 | – |
| U | Rajai Davis | $3,465.00 | – |
| U | Jayson Werth | $4,695.00 | – |
| SP | Gio Gonzalez | $12,572.00 | – |
| SP | Felipe Paulino | $7,671.00 | – |
| RP | John Axford | $3,290.00 | – |
| P | Carlos Marmol | $2,499.00 | – |
| Total | $98,454.00 |
|---|
The Betting Lines Are Open
The opening line is Team Notorious (-215) over Team Frankenstein, so leave a comment and vote for which team you got your money on. Then make sure to come back tomorrow to check out the results. If the random team ends up winning then it either says something about my fantasy baseball skills or it says something about the unpredictable nature of day to day baseball.
PS – If there are any players that aren’t in the starting lineup, I will make adjustments and explain in the comments section.
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About the Writer: Derek ‘Notorious’ Farnsworth has been playing fantasy sports ever since he could walk. He loves sports so much he swears his first words were “Michael Jordan.” He recently graduated with a Master’s degree from the University of Utah and is excited for their entrance into the PAC-12. He was introduced to daily fantasy sports last year by clicking on one of Draftstreet’s famous referee ads, and quickly climbed the RotoGrinders Rankings towards the Top 25. He also loves betting on sports and the occasional craps table.