STLCardinals84: A Weekend to Remember
This past weekend, Justin Van Zuiden, better known as RotoGrinders.com analyst STLCardinals84, had a weekend to remember with four top three finishes in major GPPs that saw him bring home $172,500 in total winnings. He took home first place in the Thunderdome ($125,000) and finished third in the Club Pro, and then went on to post a huge MLB score the same day.
We asked Justin a few questions about his thought processes when it came to these lineups and contests.
Playing a $5,300 buy-in tournament is a lot different than playing a tournament where you are going to enter multiple lineups. What strategy differences are there for this type of buy-in?
STLCardinals84: Thankfully, I won the ticket for this in a $150 Satellite the week before, so I was essentially “free-rolling it” in terms of a buy-in. I wouldn’t have entered the tournament otherwise. I didn’t really alter my strategy too much, other than spending extra time pouring over the weather forecast. I managed to hit having all six of my golfers be on the perfect side of the weather draw, so that seemed to help out a lot. Centering in on one lineup is sometimes hard for a multi-entry player like myself, but I spent a lot of time making sure that was the team I wanted.
Taking the question above into consideration, when it comes to roster construction what are your general thought processes? Do you look for players who typically have a higher floor? How does ownership percentage factor into your decision making?
STLCardinals84: How I generally make my PGA lineups is by selecting about 20 golfers that I like and mixing-and-matching them amongst my entries. I have found that this is the ideal size to maximize potential reward while not spreading yourself too thin by taking too many golfers. It also doesn’t force you to go “all-in” on any specific golfer, so you aren’t totally in the dark if someone withdraws or misses the cut. I generally factor in ownership by fading at least two players that I know will be highly owned. For The Open, those two were Matt Kuchar and Dustin Johnson. Golf is a fickle game, and I’ll take my chances fading a guy like Kuchar at 40+% ownership. That said, I am still willing to take some chalk plays and diversify with a low-owned option elsewhere.
Regarding ownership decision making processes. You had two players (Garcia/Stenson) who were very highly owned (30%+) and two who were moderately owned at 18%+ in Cabrera-Bello and Sullivan. That meant Schwartzel (13.6% owned) and Mickelson (10% owned) were the biggest difference makers for your lineup. What about those two, especially Mickelson, made them find their way into your lineup?
STLCardinals84: Mickelson shot a blistering bogey-free round on Sunday at the Scottish Open that helped me win the ticket to the Thunderdome. That made me a little partial to him. He also has a good links history, and I figured that maybe it clicked for him in that Sunday round at the Scottish Open. Thankfully, I was right on that one, as he was only 10% owned. Schwartzel would have been chalkier, but everyone over-reacted to his switch from Nike to PXG clubs, so that lowered his ownership.
Your third place lineup in the $400K Club Pro had two different players in Hatton and Kaymer. Hatton was the big one there as he took 5th. What about Hatton did you like and why the different lineup in that event (it scored lower than your Thunderdome score)?
STLCardinals84: I multi-entered the Club Pro tournament using my normal strategy of switching out amongst 20 golfers or so. For some reason, I didn’t put my Thunderdome lineup in there, and I believe it would have finished 2nd. Hatton was in my Fantasy Foursome video and has been playing fantastic golf over in Europe. He is an up and coming star that not a lot of folks know about, and he was one of my favorite value plays for the week.
How many lineups did you have in the Fifty Special? In the lower buy-in Moonshot? What goes into your decision making process on how many lineups to enter into a particular contest?
STLCardinals84: I had 32 lineups in the Sunday Fifty. Ten were Mets stacks, ten were Angels stacks, ten were White Sox stacks, and two were a mix of the three teams. The same 32 lineups were also in the Moonshot. I don’t have a set rule about how many lineups I play as it depends on the slate and how much I like the options available. I use a much more contrarian approach in baseball than PGA, so I tend to dial back on days where the chalk has a higher tendency of hitting (Coors Field days, for example).
The pitchers you utilized seem pretty straight-forward, deGrom against Philly and Teheran against Colorado away from Coors. What made you in particular like the Angels stack that day? How did you determine which Angels to use in your stack?
STLCardinals84: I liked the Angels a lot. This game was the final game to start on the early slate, at 3:35 PM EST. The lineup wasn’t out when rosters locked, and this always leads to low ownership despite the presence of late swap on DraftKings. The Angels were facing a bad pitcher in Jacob Turner that had just gotten called up from the minors, where he was not pitching well to begin with. Combine that low ownership and a great matchup, and there you have it. I had more exposure to the top half of the order, because the Angels lineup drops off rapidly, but I mixed and matched everyone within my 10 Angels stacks.
Outside of your Angels stack you had Wilson Ramos, Jason Kipnis, and Evan Longoria. Kipnis and Longoria were the two big ones for you as they put up 55 points between the two of them. Thoughts on why you chose those two in particular? Did you have much exposure to those two in your other lineups?
STLCardinals84: I used Max Scherzer in a lot of lineups, which forced me to go cheap with my additional bats. On this squad, I was able to afford some more expensive ones since I had Julio Teheran. It worked out great, but I didn’t have much exposure to Kipnis and Longoria outside of this one roster. I did like their matchups against young, inexperienced pitchers.
Congrats again Justin! If you missed his video recap for his winning PGA lineup, you can find it below.