FanDuel Single Entry Series: Week 3 Recap
Week 3 of the FanDuel Single Entry Series, presented by RotoGrinders, came down to the final slate. As a result of two game slates full of offensive fireworks on the final day, the leaderboard underwent sweeping changes from Saturday night to Sunday night. The entry fee for the Week 3 contests was $5, which attracted 15,830 unique users across nine game slates.
It was a rollercoaster ride for RG member rjmazeika this past week, starting slowly and grinding steadily to the top of the hill, then zooming off to Nashville for the live final. Interestingly, most of the top performers either did really well the first few days and struggled the rest of the way, or, like rjmazeika, put up low totals on the first couple of days, followed by their biggest scores at the end.
Let’s take a look back at rjmazeika’s Week 3 lineups.
Monday, July 18
135 points, finished 2548th out of 6689
Winning score: 245.3
In the first contest of the week, rjmazeika chose four Tigers, two with ownership levels in the single digits, and a pair of Reds teammates. Joey Votto and Billy Hamilton scored 34.9 and 33.4 points, respectively, but five of the other six hitters scored three points or less. Rjmazeika paid $10900 for Chris Sale, who posted a solid 42 fantasy points (which could have been better, but the bullpen gave up four runs in the bottom of the ninth to prevent Sale from getting the 12 win points).
Tuesday, July 19
128.5 points, finished 1409th out of 5265
Winning score: 229.6
At pitcher, rjmazeika slotted Reynaldo Lopez into his lineup. Lopez was making his major league debut for the Nationals and was only 2.5% owned at his $7000 salary. My guess here is that rjmazeika chose his favorite hitters first and built from there, as he used six position players from the Rays-Rockies game being played in the hitter’s paradise, Coors Field. Four hitters, plus Lopez, exceeded 20 FanDuel points, but no one reached 28, and the other batters combined for just six fantasy points.
Wednesday, July 20 – Early Slate
Didn’t play
Winning score: 249.4 (3347 entries)
This was a high-scoring slate, with 133 teams breaking the 200-point barrier. Justin Verlander was on the winning team, and was 40.6% owned. Verlander generated 48 fantasy points for $9600, but Kyle Hendricks, Chris Archer, and Marcus Stroman all surpassed 50 points and were rostered by finishers in the top 10. Cubs hitters were popular and Anthony Rizzo owners (34.2%) likely did well, as he scored 40.9 points for $3600. The top performer of the day was Cleveland outfielder Tyler Naquin with 60.4 points at an ownership of 9.7%.
Wednesday, July 20 – Main Slate
256.2 points, finished 5th out of 4440
Winning score: 276.4
Rjmazeika was only 20 points away from 1st place on this slate, and outscored the winning total from the previous three contests. His Brewers stack, hitting first through fourth in the order, generated a whopping 99.2 points. Michael Pineda and Starling Marte were key cogs in this lineup as well, but I’m burying the lead. All the buzz belonged to Hanley Ramirez, whose three home runs launched his happy fantasy owners to the top of the leaderboard.
Thursday, July 21
130.9 points, finished 3078th out of 5780
Winning score: 257.4
Changing up his approach just a bit, rjmazeika opted to build his Thursday lineup around three Pirates and three Rockies. The only noteworthy performances were Matt Joyce’s 32.2 points for $2000 (2.5% owned) and Carlos Gonzalez’s 28.7 points for $4200 (42.9% owned). Rjmazeika’s pitching choice, Jerad Eickhoff for $8100, was a disappointment, only returning 18 FanDuel points.
Friday, July 22
121.9 points, finished 1214th out of 5151
Winning score: 224.4
On Friday, rjmazeika posted his fourth total between 120-140 points, and his Week 3 outlook wasn’t looking good. He employed another full stack on this slate, choosing Minnesota hitters who all came in with single-digit ownership levels, but only managed two runs as a team. Four of his eight hitters scored a goose egg. For $7700, Jon Gray was a terrific pitching choice, producing 54 fantasy points versus Atlanta at only 7% ownership (at Coors Field).
Saturday, July 23
163.9 points, finished 457th out of 4876
Winning score: 247.2
Rjmazeika build this lineup with three Diamondbacks and three Rockies, but one of those Rockies was a pitcher at Coors Field. For the second day in a row, a Rockies hurler returned nice value at low ownership. Additionally, the price savings allowed rjmazeika to squeeze some expensive hitters into his lineup. Fortunately, he chose Trevor Story, who lifted this team above the cash line. As you can see, aside from Story and Anderson, the rest of this team was unimpressive.
Sunday, July 24 – Early Slate
220 points, finished 128th out of 4587
Winning score: 277.3
Rjmazeika didn’t seem too concerned with ownership on this slate, choosing a trio of Houston hitters and a pair of Diamondbacks to build around. These five hitters, plus Ryan Schimpf, for only $2200, did the heavy lifting. By spending only $6800 at the pitching position, rjmazeika decided to select four hitters who cost $4000 or higher in hopes that his sluggers could carry the day for him, which they collectively were able to do.
Sunday, July 24 – Main Slate
198.5 points, finished 26th out of 2217
Winning score: 220.8
The final contest of the week only included three baseball games. Given his standing going into the final day, rjmazeika couldn’t worry about ownership in this spot; he simply needed to build a high-upside lineup and hope for a high-scoring slate. Since they had the highest projected run total on the board by a wide margin, it comes as no surprise that there are four Colorado hitters in this lineup. The Dodgers-Cardinals game started four hours after lineups locked, so Gonzalez, Piscotty, and Turner were not confirmed starters when this slate began. Most managers tend to play their regular starters in the nationally-televised Sunday Night games, so I don’t view these roster selections as super risky, but rather as savvy plays. Turner was red-hot coming into this game, Piscotty was facing a lefty, which means advantage, Piscotty, and Gonzalez had the lefty-righty matchup against a pitcher making his Major League debut. Everyone on this lineup contributed to rjmazeik’s 26th place finish. Getting close to 50% of his total score from the final two slates, rjmazeika finished with 838.6 points, 18.4 better than the second place finisher. Congratulations to rjmazeika on his Week 3 victory.
Final Thoughts
Going into Sunday, rjmazeika was 125.9 points behind the leader. He needed two great scores to move into contention, but the good news was that he had two sub-140 totals that he could eliminate from his top four, so the potential was there to boost his aggregate score substantially.
The lesson we can all learn from rjmazeika in Week 3 is to never give up in a contest like this. Don’t mathematically eliminate yourself by quitting after a bad start, but rather, keep grinding. Sometimes the MLB DFS rollercoaster is full of exciting surprises and other times a fun ride comes to a screeching halt (just like in this article).