RotoTalk: Be an Everyday Player
A common question in the RotoGrinders forums and in chatboxes on daily fantasy sites tends to center around what approach works best to be successful in daily fantasy baseball. As we’ve discussed in this space, there is no one magic bullet to guarantee success. Baseball is a dynamic sport where even the most unlikely of circumstances can, and do, occur. Amid all the chaos, I think the most important thing players can do to maximize their chances at success is to be consistent. What I mean by that it that you have to get into the details every day. You don’t always have to pledge the same amount of your bankroll, but you’ve gotta play. Here’s why.
Familiarity
Of all the benefits to playing everyday, the most pronounced is forming a familiarity with the game and players. For example, take that gentleman to the right. That’s Andrew McCutcheon. He’s really good. You already knew that. Did you know he’s been tearing the cover off the ball lately? How about that he kills left-handed pitching? If you answered “no” to either of those, you probably should play a little more. Creating teams, analyzing players and following the results (if not in real-time, at least debriefing afterward) will keep you in tune with who’s hot and who’s not and which players have succeeded in specific situations.
Pricing Models
Another key benefit to playing everyday is that you will see the prices ebb and flow for players. This will lead to you having a better understanding of what factors drive player pricing on the site(s) of your choice. DailyJoust, for example, seems to be very heavily weighted toward recent performance – specifically the last 3-5 games. You can regularly crush their solo contests if you know where to look for value. Jay Bruce is a guy that is fun to follow in this format. He will regularly have a weekend series where he’ll go 2-12 with 7 strikeouts. In Joust’s world, that’s going to lead to a depressed price, perhaps one approaching the minimum. The next day, though, maybe he’s in Coors against Jeremy Guthrie. That should work out pretty well. The point here is that at least seeing the pricing everyday will make you more familiar with what makes it tick. Knowing how to extract maximum value from a salary pool is key to victory, whether you play solo contests or something else.
Research Time
Going back to the McCutcheon example from earlier, playing every day drastically reduces the amount of time one needs to devote to daily research. When I begin to break down the day’s games to create my team(s), some things immediately come to mind when I look at the day’s starting pitching. San Diego and Seattle are at home? Avoid their hitters. Andrew McCutcheon and Paul Goldschmidt are both facing lefties? Add them to the short list. Many of these tendencies will become second nature so that you don’t have to pore over the day’s R/L and Home/Road splits data everyday. Really, the only new piece of data for today’s games that didn’t functionally exists yesterday is batter v. pitcher stats. Okay, they existed, but yesterday’s data is not the same as today’s. Most other factors are the result of much broader sets of data that are not radically influenced by the previous day’s results.
And now, a lineup…
I’m playing today, just like I did yesterday and will tomorrow. The game gets easier the more games you play and you become better at it. Practice makes perfect. Here’s my team for day 1 of tonight’s $250 Solo Survivor on Daily Joust.
| Pos | Player | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| SP | Barry Zito | 245k | I don’t like it, but he’s the most reasonably priced arm I can find. Current Braves just .206 v. Zito |
| 1B | Carlos Lee | 72k | Flyball lefty Travis Wood on the hill in Wrigley. Wind blowing out. |
| 2B | Ian Kinsler | 105k | He’s heating up. I’m blatantly disregarding the 2-11 lifetime mark v. Colon. |
| 3B | David Freese | 78k | Historically rakes lefties. Randy Wolf throws for Milwaukee |
| SS | Derek Jeter | 90k | Killing left-handed pitching and Brett Cecil isn’t scary. |
| OF | Josh Willingham | 122k | Mashes lefties and has the power stroke going. |
| OF | Carlos Beltran | 90k | What’s not to like about this price? He hits Wolf well – .325 3 HR |
| OF | Ryan Braun | 141k | Because I can afford him. Joe Kelly is just so-so on the hill. |
| C | Geovany Soto | 56k | 4-7 lifetime against Anibal Sanchez and did I mention the wind is blowing out? |
If you’re new to Daily Fantasy, you could try a lineup similar to this out in the $1 contest, the Page Thomas Daily MLB Tournament. It’s low-cost to join, and the winner also gets a seat in the “Summer Joust” where you will have a shot to win your share of $5,000 cash. Click any of the Joust links to join!. There’s also a 40% Deposit Bonus on your first deposit.
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