The GPP Scene: MLB Week 11

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2014-07-20 23:08:37

It’s somewhat of a somber yet exciting day in the DFS world, as one of the biggest players in the industry is no more. I got my start on Daily Joust in 2012, and without that it would have taken me so much longer to find this great game. From there, I found DraftStreet, which became my primary site for the better part of a year and a half. I was drawn to the DS salary structure, community, and game formats. After getting a chance to meet several of the DS guys at two live finals, I really came to enjoy the site even more. Sadly, that experience has come to an end. However, now we have two big dogs in DFS with the new DraftKings and the stable FanDuel. Uncertainty lies ahead, but DFS is still going strong.

Now, off of my soapbox I step onto the Week 11 edition of the GPP Scene! Here’s the way it will work. I will enter the $10 FanDuel Line Drive GPP five days a week with three different teams, and only those three teams. The teams will be composed of the following:

¹ – This is my general GPP strategy on FD.

I’ll document the results of each team along with my profit and loss and return on investment as the days go by, with some final analysis for the week at the end of the article. Let’s get to the week 11 results!

MONDAY, JULY 7TH

Team #1 – I mini stacked Boston against the dumpster fire that had been Scott Carroll and the Rockies at home at Coors. These were my top two stacks of the night and the teams scored a combined one run. NEXT! * FINISH: 13.75 PTS / 1010 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Wainwright got the call as the ace of the day going against the Pirates at home. He pitched in and out of trouble all night and didn’t give up any runs, but the Cardinals also provided him with no run support. This team also had a few lefty bats from the Mariners who did nothing against Kevin Correia, along with a few Red Sox bats who also did nothing (see Team #1). Wainwright simply wasn’t good enough and the bats as a whole were dreadful. NEXT! * FINISH: 17.25 PTS / 945 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #3 – Knowing that everyone would be on the Coors game and the Red Sox, I zagged a bit with this entry. I used Clay Buchholz as the punt pitcher against the White Sox, and he put up a respectable 10 points for a cheap price. I then paid up for some of the top Houston and Texas bats, and they played to a 12-7 game in Texas. A walk-off HR by Matt Adams brought this team into the cash zone as one of the top teams of the week. * FINISH: 49.50 PTS / 41 OF 1116 FOR $50.

On a somewhat related note, this day can be used as a “See I told you so” day for those who don’t care for mass multi-entry (being honest here). I actually used 10 different rosters on FD on this day, and with high percentage ownerships of the poor performing Red Sox and Rockies, it was a low scoring night. I had a full Texas/Houston stack that won me the night’s DFBC qualifier with 61 points — well ahead of the score that any of the teams above had. With just three entries in this contest though, I chose wrong. If only I had used that DFBC team as Team #1 here, we would have had a $1,000 score and a much different bottom line at the end of the week.

TUESDAY, JULY 8TH

Team #1 – Since it worked so well the night before, I made sure to use the Houston/Texas combo for Team #1 on Tuesday. I was $100 short of getting a catcher from one of those teams, so I pivoted to Rene Rivera for San Diego as he was batting cleanup and playing in Coors Field. He was combined with seven players in the Texas game and Sonny Gray at pitcher against the Giants. Gray pitched a very solid game with 18 fantasy points, and this was another relatively low scoring night with a 2-1 game at Coors Field. Those factors combined to make this my top roster of the night, and the same squad finished 2nd in the DFBC qualifier. It was only good enough for 32nd here in a larger field, but overall it was still a solid cash. * FINISH: 49.50 PTS / 32 OF 1340 FOR $60.

Solid Cash for the Stack Squad

Team #2 – At a steep $11,000 price tag, Tanaka got the call as the ace of the night, in his last start before going on the DL. Obviously, he wasn’t sharp and the results showed it. Tanaka finished with a frightening 6.66 fantasy points, and it spells virtual doom when the stud pitcher roster gets less than seven points from that stud pitcher. A couple of the bats were okay, as both Charlie Blackmon and Jason Heyward had nice nights for cheaper price tags, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Tanaka. * FINISH: 34.41 PTS / 299 OF 1340 FOR $0.

Team #3 – On the other side of the same game, I used Bauer as the punt pitcher against the Yankees. He came back from a shaky start and even got a win against Tanaka, finishing the night with 15 fantasy points. The big bats, sadly, were disappointing. Everyone was on Goldschmidt (26%) at home against Vidal Nuno, and he was terrible. Everyone was on Stanton (37%) against Brad Hand, and he was terrible. Bauer put the foundation in place but the bats did nothing. This team actually scored seven points less than Team #2 despite spending more on the bats and getting significantly more points out of the pitcher spot. * FINISH: 27.00 PTS / 589 OF 1340 FOR $0.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9TH

Team #1 – The mini stack choices for the day were the Mariners at home against Kyle Gibson and the Cardinals at home against Brandon Cumpton. Both of those pitchers struggle against lefties so I loaded up on the LHB’s for those two teams and was able to fit Chris Sale at pitcher against the Red Sox. It didn’t work that well as the Mariners only scored one run and Sale was unimpressive by his standards. On yet another low scoring night, this team finished around the top third thanks to a decent performance by the Cardinals, but it wasn’t that close to cashing. * FINISH: 30.66 PTS / 355 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #2 – With Chris Sale on Team #1, Darvish was the easy choice for ace of the night at home against Houston. At a 25% ownership clip, a lot of other users agreed with me. It’s been a disappointing couple of weeks for some of the top aces in baseball, as Darvish was hammered by Houston to the tune of six earned runs in six innings. At a price tag of $11,400, that made the hole for this team too big to overcome. The bats were underwhelming as well with only Jason Kipnis and Matt Adams topping 2.5 fantasy points. * FINISH: 24.25 PTS / 674 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #3 – Whenever FanDuel has a pitcher at $3,000, I’m almost forced to take a chance on that pitcher on Team #3. It allows you to fit all the bats you want and I took the plunge on this day with Dallas Beeler against the Reds. He finished with a whopping zero strikeouts and gave up four runs in five innings for a total of one fantasy point. In addition, my outfield crew of Carlos Gomez, Nelson Cruz, and Andrew McCutchen put up a total of negative 1.75 fantasy points. It was game over for Team #3 here. * FINISH: 13.50 PTS / 1046 OF 1116 FOR $0.

SATURDAY, JULY 12TH

Team #1 – The mini stacks came from Coors Field on this day as the Twins and Rockies were each facing off against poor pitchers. Jake Odorizzi was the pitching choice on this team as he fit perfectly, and he was respectable with 15.66 fantasy points. The Twins managed to put up nine runs, but the damage was mainly done by Eduardo Escobar and other lesser hitters, with little damage done by the guys that I had. Despite only scoring three runs, the Rockies I chose actually outscored the Twins. Had I rearranged the bats a little bit, I may have been able to cash here. * FINISH: 34.16 PTS / 255 OF 893 FOR $0.

Team #2 – On a very thin early slate of games, Wainwright was the unquestioned top option on the board. He was owned by 23% of users and had a reasonably solid performance, earning a victory and 13 fantasy points. The bats I chose to back him were decent as well, with a solid performance by a punt at catcher in Tony Cruz and five hits from Charlie Blackmon. However, three negative bats were enough to hold this team down out of the cash. * FINISH: 34.75 PTS / 236 OF 893 FOR $0.

Team #3 – I actually used a pitcher against my Cardinals! The super talented Jimmy Nelson was recalled by the Brewers to make this start, and of course this is the game where the Cardinals go off for ten runs. Nelson was clearly nervous and had little to no command in this game, finishing with 3.33 points. The big bats were also hilariously bad, with -1 from Posey, -1 from Tulowitzki, -1 from Stanton, and 0 from Morneau. This squad was ugly. * FINISH: 12.58 PTS / 829 OF 893 FOR $0.

SUNDAY, JULY 13TH

Team #1 – I mini stacked Cardinals and Brewers because I had tickets to the game and wanted to have a vested interest in it. Ten bucks is a nice enough investment to root for a high scoring game. The Brewers held up their end of the bargain but in the end this was a wasted day for me as a trip to Milwaukee culminated in an 11-2 thrashing for my Redbirds, giving Brewers the first place crown at the All Star Break. Ryu was the pitcher here and put up a solid total of 20, but this was the highest scoring day of the week and the two runs from the Cardinals was a drag. Removing the Cardinals and adding the Twins here would have been a very wise move. * FINISH: 48.00 PTS / 389 OF 100 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Cueto got the nod as the ace of the day as he was pitching at home against the Pirates. He was decent but didn’t get to throw deep into the game thanks to a rain delay, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The value bats didn’t come through and none of the hitters on this team topped four points. It was a very, very rough week as a whole for Team #2. None of the aces delivered can’t-miss performances. * FINISH: 27.25 PTS / 915 OF 1005 FOR $0.

Team #3 – In a rush to finalize my teams before leaving for the Cardinals/Brewers game, I now realize that I messed up greatly here. Trevor Bauer was the choice for punt pitcher, and he was very solid yet again with 6 2/3 shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, and a victory. My intent all along was to make sure I included Brian Dozier on a team or two against the lefty Brett Anderson in Coors Field, but I completely overlooked it when setting these three teams. Of course, Dozier hit two home runs. The rest of this team was solid, with a grand slam from Buster Posey and 8.5 points from Trevor Plouffe. However, choosing Kinsler and his -1 at second base was a gigantic mistake, and Dozier’s 15.25 performance at a 30% ownership was the nail in the coffin here. I’m not happy with myself thanks to one of my biggest oversights of the season. * FINISH: 46.41 PTS / 449 OF 1005 FOR $0.

FINAL RESULTS: THROUGH 11 WEEKS

MY ANALYSIS

The week started off great with two cashes in the first two days, but trailed off after that. All told, this was my best week of the MLB season since opening week, but the results don’t show here. The entirety of this week’s data is definitely an argument for those who don’t care for multi-entry, as handcuffing myself to three rosters in this contest shows how hard it is to hit the big score with just a few entries. Had I been able to include all my teams here, I would have won the contest on Monday, and with the top heavy nature of these GPP’s, a win makes all the difference in the world. Despite two solid finishes on Monday and Tuesday, those scores netted me just $110 compared to the $1,000 I would have gotten for winning. On my end, this data just encourages more multi-entry, but those of you who don’t care for it…. here’s your ammunition.

Have a great All Star Break, and thanks as always for reading!