Interview w/ 2019 DraftKings FBWC Runner-up KirkDiese
DraftKings just wrapped up their 2019 Fantasy Baseball World Championship live from Chicago, where CosaSpeciale was crowned the champion and winner of the $500,000 first-place prize.
CosaSpeciale happened to be only competitor able to best long-time RotoGrinders contributor KirkDiese as he headed back to his hometown of Boston as the runner-up and owner of a giant $350,000 check for his second-place finish.
You’ve likely watched him on GrindersLive shows for quite some time and KirkDiese (Chris) was kind enough to share his thoughts on the live final, a glimpse into his background, his daily DFS approach, and more.
RotoGrinders: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from? What’s your background?
Chris – Been in Massachusetts all my life. Grew up in a town called Longmeadow, MA, which is right next to Springfield. I went to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and graduated with an economics degree. After college, I started off working in financial services in Springfield and then moved to Boston when an opportunity came up. I’ve been living in Boston ever since.
RotoGrinders: How did you get started in DFS?
Chris – I was playing a lot of online and live poker around the time Black Friday happened, which was around the time DFS started gaining popularity and since I‘ve always been a big sports fan, daily fantasy was a natural fit.
RotoGrinders: Which tools, articles, or shows do you find most helpful when preparing to build your lineups?
Chris – I enjoy most of the content and have always watched GrindersLive since I found RotoGrinders, but the one piece of content I never miss is Million Dollar Musings by CheeseIsGood. Whether I end up agreeing or disagreeing with his opinions, it’s a stellar overview of the slate and gets me thinking about how I’m going to attack it. The tool I use most is definitely PlateIQ.
RotoGrinders: Do you have a particular baseball stat that you weigh the most heavily when making your DFS MLB lineups?
Chris – Well, I wrote an article earlier in the season about exactly how I build my main lineups. I’m basically looking for upside with strikeouts for pitchers and home runs for my batters. Rocket science, I know.
RotoGrinders: What’s your average day of research look like? Do you start at a certain time? How much time do you spend?
Chris – I have a process I go through that lays out the slate for me, pretty much as soon as I wake up. I then read the Musings, start aggregating the different projections I use, dig into batters and pitchers that I’m most interested in using, work on different lineup builds, and make sure I’m entered in the contests I want to play that day. After that, I usually take a long afternoon walk with my two dogs while listening to various MLB podcasts. Then I settle in for the various shows for the day that we have on RotoGrinders.
RotoGrinders: You’ve been a staple in the top-200 of our rankings for years and, from looking at your RotoGrinders profile, you grind pretty heavy volume in multiple sports. Which DFS sport is your favorite and why?
Chris – I always tell people that MLB is my best sport, but I enjoy it the least because of the variance and amount of negative outcomes, for instance watching your batter strike out three times in a row. NBA is my favorite by far, because it’s the sports I’ve always been fanatical about. I truly love the game and try to watch as many games as humanly possible. I even used to play NBA fantasy leagues when I was a kid with friends where we would have to dig through box scores from the sports section in the daily newspaper.
RotoGrinders: On a typical MLB slate, can you tell us a bit about your bankroll management? Do you play a certain percentage of your bankroll every night? Does it vary depending on feel? What mix of cash games vs GPPs do you typically aim for?
Chris – I have no set formula, I play a mix of cash and GPP and honestly that depends on the slate. Bankroll management isn’t my strong suit, I’m aware of the Kelly Criterion and various strategies that were foundations from online poker, but in all honesty, I have too much gamble inside of me, so I take plenty of shots when I like a slate.
RotoGrinders: Who is your favorite sports franchise outside of DFS? Favorite Athlete of all time?
Chris – It shouldn’t shock anyone that I love my Boston sports teams and that starts with the Celtics. My favorite players of all time are Allen Iverson, Ken Griffey Jr., and Richard Hamilton – because of my best childhood friends started for the UConn Huskies with him during their championship title, so I will always be a Husky fan.
RotoGrinders: Most Grinders have never been to a live DFS final. Can you share some of your favorite experiences from the DraftKings World Championship in Chicago (aside from the second-place finish, of course)?
Chris – I don’t normally enter qualifiers, but this was my second live final. The first one I made was for FanDuel’s MLB in 2016 where I actually first met the team from RotoGrinders. I also let a former RG character influence my lineup build that year and finished pretty close to the bottom, so this live final was personal for me. No matter what I was going to use my process and stand with my decisions, so I was pretty much all business. We got to spend time on Wrigley Field and had a cool tour of the stadium, but the best part of the weekend was DraftKings organizing a celebratory party with a table at a club next to Snoop Dogg, who also ended up performing. I’m glad I got to enjoy it with both Cal Spears and Tony Niehaus from RG. A night I certainly will never forget!
RotoGrinders: You undoubtedly left Chicago with a smile on your face last weekend with a six-figure check. Do you have any lavish purchases planned?
Chris – The first thing I bought was a Sean Doolittle jersey, because I couldn’t have done it without him giving up three homers in the ninth inning. Other than that, I haven’t spent any of it and don’t have any plans to at the moment. There are lots of ups and downs in DFS, so hopefully this makes the ride a bit smoother. I’ll probably plan a vacation soon, but the only other thing I can think of is my fiancé, Lauren, has been complaining about her car, so maybe I’ll get her one – she deserves it for the amount of me tilting she puts up with.
We thank Chris for taking the time to share a bit about his DFS life and congratulate him on this major accomplishment. With his intelligence, work-ethic and newly padded bankroll, it seems likely that we’ll be seeing his name on top of plenty more leaderboards in the coming weeks/months!