The GPP Scene: MLB Week 12

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2014-07-30 23:09:38

Hello Grinders, and welcome back to the first post-All Star Break edition of the GPP Scene! The wonderful people at Comcast have gotten to know me fairly well over the past few days, but they have still failed at the endeavor of transferring my internet service to my new house. Alas, I am writing this column from a Burger King. Hopefully this will lead of a “Whopper” of a second half performance here with the GPP Scene. Okay, that was awful. Let’s just get down to business here, as we try to scrape back from a small loss over the pre-All Star Break portion of the schedule.

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 twelve results!

WEDNESDAY, JULY 23RD

Team #1 – The mini stack choices of the night were Oakland against Brad Peacock and the Astros along with the Cardinals against Alex Cobb and the Rays. Ian Kennedy was the pitcher of choice and fit nicely with the wind blowing in at Wrigley. Two of three things went well here as Kennedy pitched well and the A’s put up a solid nine runs against Houston on the back of two homers by Yoenis Cespedes, who I did roster as part of the A’s mini stack. However, I have no idea why I stacked my beloved Redbirds against Alex Cobb. Cobb has been great lately and is one of the better up and coming pitchers in the game. This was bonehead decision #1 for the week and was a sign of things to come. * FINISH: 39.00 PTS / 297 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Knowing that taking this chance was a calculated risk, I took a shot on Darvish as the ace of the day despite the threat of rain at Yankee Stadium. His start was cut short after 4 1/3 innings as the grounds crew could not get the tarp on the field and the game was called in the bottom of the fifth. With just 7.33 fantasy points from a pitcher who cost $11,400, it was just too much of a hill to climb. Outside of a solid performance by Freddie Freeman, the bats were feeble as well. With Darvish on this team, I went with two Rangers bats to add to the risk/reward nature, and of course the rainout didn’t help them either. This team was a washout. * FINISH: 22.33 PTS / 931 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #3 – Tsuyoshi Wada was the punt pitcher of choice against the poor Padres offense with the wind blowing in at Wrigley. The Padres had just been shut out the night before with the wind blowing out against another rookie pitcher for the Cubs, so I figured this was worth the chance. Others agreed with me as Wada was actually 14.5% owned in this tournament. However, it didn’t work out well as the Padres put eight runs on the board and chased Wada out of the game early. It was nearly impossible to overcome his 3 point performance, despite decent performances by the big bats with Jaso, Heyward, and Freeman all having solid nights. * FINISH: 32.00 PTS / 605 OF 1116 FOR $0.

THURSDAY, JULY 24TH

Team #1 – With a limited schedule on this night, I mini-stacked White Sox and Twins as they faced off against each other in a game with one of the highest totals on the board. Since I love stacking against Hector Noesi, I figured the Twins were a decent option though I was hesitant using the White Sox against Phil Hughes. It turns out that the White Sox did just fine, but the Twins scored just two runs and I really didn’t have a piece of it with my four guys. It’s a shame too, because it wasted a sterling 9 inning, 10 strikeout performance from Corey Kluber as the pitcher here. * FINISH: 27.75 PTS / 657 OF 1104 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Again, with a limited schedule and few aces on the mound, it was hard to come up with a Team #2 that I liked. With Kluber on Team #1, I didn’t want to use him again, so I used Tyson Ross against the Cubs at Wrigley with the wind blowing in. This turned out just fine as Ross put up a solid score of 20 points, but the bats were awful thanks to hitless nights from Daniel Murphy, Aramis Ramirez, and Jason Heyward. It was a low scoring night and this team actually had what would have been a decent cash game score, but it wasn’t enough to sniff a GPP cash. * FINISH: 33.50 PTS / 395 OF 1104 FOR $0.

Team #3 – I decided to double down on the Cubs pitchers at home against San Diego with the wind blowing in. I figured there was NO WAY the Padres would score eight runs again. Well, I was right, as they scored 13. Edwin Jackson was awful and I can confidently say I will never roster him on any DFS team ever again. His 5 points were the nail in the coffin here, but the bats didn’t do much anyway as David Wright, Miguel Cabrera, and Robinson Cano combined to put up negative points. * FINISH: 19.00 PTS / 958 OF 1104 FOR $0.

FRIDAY, JULY 25TH

Team #1 – For many gamers, the picks for Friday were pretty straight forward. The powerful A’s were facing off against Jerome Williams, who was just called up by the Rangers despite a 6+ ERA in AAA. The lefty-mashing Pirates were facing off against Brett Anderson in Coors Field. The top stacks of the night were obvious and I chose not to play the fade here. That was bonehead decision #2 for the week as both offenses struggled. Seven of my eight hitters were over 15% owned, and those of us who loaded up on the bats from these two teams all went down together. Alex Wood was the pitcher on this squad and looked horrible against the Padres, so this team ended up being flat-out awful, despite containing some of the best picks of the day as mentioned by experts across the industry. It was a great example of the night-to-night variance in DFS MLB. * FINISH: 13.00 PTS / 1060 OF 1229 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Thanks to his amazing run of recent 7+ inning performances, David Price was the easy choice as the ace of the night even against the recently surging Red Sox. He did not disappoint with yet another eight inning outing, and ten strikeouts and a victory bolstered him up to 19 fantasy points. However, this was another night where the bats didn’t come through to complement a good pitching performance. As a whole, my eight hitters had just one extra base hit on the night, and that’s not going to help you win any cash. * FINISH: 33.50 PTS / 247 OF 1229 FOR $0.

Team #3 – I am really high on Kevin Gausman future and figured he could pitch a nice game against the struggling Mariners offense. He pitched relatively well in a real life sense and picked up a victory, which was no small task given Felix Hernandez was pitching on the other side, but he only had three strikeouts and that wasn’t good for fantasy purposes. The big bats were also quiet, and it appears that I can’t pick a hitter to save my life this week. Cue up the 0.25 from Jose Altuve, 0.25 from Andrew McCutchen, and 1.5 from Giancarlo Stanton. Those scores from the 5K bats aren’t going to get the job done. * FINISH: 23.91 PTS / 590 OF 1229 FOR $0.

SATURDAY, JULY 26TH (EARLY GAMES)

Team #1 – With just four early games, there wasn’t a lot to choose from in this slate. I mini-stacked the Orioles against overperforming Chris Young and the Blue Jays against fill-in Yankee starter Chris Young. Those bats were expensive, so I had to use cheap Shelby Miller on this squad as the pitcher. The stacks weren’t horrible, but Miller finished with under 7 fantasy points and that was the final nail in the coffin for this squad as the highly-owned Johnny Cueto put up 20 points. The deficit was too much to overcome unless the stacks went totally nuts, which they did not with the Blue Jays scoring six runs and the Orioles only scoring three. * FINISH: 26.16 PTS / 525 OF 670 FOR $0.

Team #2 – The limited early slate meant Johnny Cueto or bust for the ace pitcher, and for the third consecutive day the ace pitcher put up a solid performance. Unfortunately, the bats were somewhat of a letdown for the third consecutive day as well. Newly minted Yankee Chase Headley was hitless, along with Welington Castillo, Chris Davis, and Jhonny Peralta. Robinson Cano and Carlos Beltran had solid games, but there were just a few too many holes for this team to cash, though it was the closest I had come for the week. * FINISH: 40.50 PTS / 155 OF 670 FOR $0.

Team #3 – Drew Hutchison was my choice as a punt pitcher on the short slate, and he was very good with a 15.66 point performance. Once again, I hit on a pitcher this week. Once again, I whiffed on the bats. Mesoraco was in my lineup and I didn’t catch that he wasn’t playing, Anthony Rizzo hot streak came to an end, and the bats just didn’t quite do enough to help this team cash. * FINISH: 33.66 PTS / 337 OF 670 FOR $0.

SATURDAY, JULY 26TH (LATE GAMES)

Team #1 – I went for the Coors Field stack here with the Pirates and Rockies. Half of it did well thanks to home runs from Drew Stubbs and Nolan Arenado. However, the Pirates were laugh-out-loud bad against Tyler Matzek, as the feared combination of Gaby Sanchez (21% owned), Neil Walker (11% owned), Jordy Mercer (22% owned), and Andrew McCutchen (34% owned) put up a combined -0.25 points as they went 1-for-14 at the plate. Teheran put up a respectable 12 points at pitcher but wasn’t overly sharp, though it didn’t matter thanks to the awful performance from the Pirates. * FINISH: 25.00 PTS / 684 OF 893 FOR $0.

Team #2 – With a lot of gamers on Clayton Kershaw against the Giants, I played the fade here and went with Sale as my ace. It worked out despite Kershaw’s complete game shutout, as Sale was cheaper and put up 24 points to Kershaw’s 20. This also allowed me to spend on a few more bats, while targeting some left-handed bats against Jeremy Guthrie. Michael Brantley and Jason Kipnis came through, and luckily I rostered Arenado on this team as well. This was a nice momentum booster to close the week out with a cash, and Team #2 was actually the best of the bunch this week — thanks to four straight pitching performances of 19+ points. * FINISH: 50.50 PTS / 32 OF 893 FOR $50.

Team #3 – There was actually a good shot to get two teams in the money here, as punt pitcher Matt Shoemaker was outstanding against the Tigers with a sixteen point performance. However, Andrew McCutchen was poor once again in Coors Field, and Lonnie Chisenhall was a late scratch for the Indians (this was announced just prior to lineup lock and I missed it). Mike Trout and Kole Calhoun were two other big bats I chose in order to pick on Justin Verlander a little bit, and they combined for just 0.50 points. Once again, the bats just didn’t cut the mustard. * FINISH: 27.75 PTS / 600 OF 893 FOR $0.

FINAL RESULTS: THROUGH 12 WEEKS

MY ANALYSIS

To say the least, I am pretty unhappy with the way I am performing with this series right now. Thanks to moving into a new place, I haven’t had a ton of free time lately and it has shown in my lineups here. I found myself forgetting to double-check my preliminary morning lineups for this series once MLB lineups came out, and there were two occasions this week where rostered a player that wasn’t in the starting lineup. That’s simply unacceptable. It’s hard enough to cash in a GPP that pays less than 10% of the field with a full lineup, so handicapping yourself like that isn’t the best way to go. Hopefully being settled into the new house will provide me with more time to set these Line Drive entries on a daily basis going forward, and hopefully that will show in the results next week. Stay tuned!

As always, thanks for reading!