The GPP Scene - MLB Week 6

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2014-05-27 01:56:05

Howdy Grinders, and welcome to another edition of the GPP Scene! If you are new to the site or new to the column, welcome and thanks so much for reading. A synopsis of the series is posted below so you can catch on rather quickly. For those of you who are returning readers, thanks for your continued support and it’s great to have you back! Let’s check out how Week Six played out.

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 one results!

MONDAY, MAY 12

Team #1 – The mini stacks were the Angels against an over-performing Mark Buehrle and the Nationals against the old man Bronson Arroyo. I was pretty confident in these picks tonight but the Angels were held to three runs. I used Colby Lewis on this squad and he was solid against Houston with 17.66 points, but the stacks were just a little short tonight. * FINISH: 39.91 PTS / 354 OF 1674 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Felix Hernandez was the ace of choice against Tampa Bay, and he got hit hard after a solid start. Despite getting a win, he didn’t crack 14 FanDuel points and that had to be considered a let-down. The bats were solid but nobody did anything outstanding as I did not get a single home run. You aren’t cashing in a GPP if that’s the case. On a low scoring night, this made a solid double up squad but didn’t cut it for GPP’s. * FINISH: 33.91 PTS / 611 OF 1674 FOR $0.

Team #3 – I stomached John Danks as my punt pitcher against the red-hot A’s, and he didn’t do too bad with 8 points. However, the big bats sucked it up yet again as my bats as a whole only totaled 8.5 points. Ramos, Pujols, Rendon, Trout, and Hanley Ramirez were among the duds of the night. * FINISH: 16.50 PTS / 1469 OF 1674 FOR $0.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14

The winner today scored 92 points and this was a ridiculously high scoring night.

Team #1 – I mini stacked Cleveland and Texas against the poor mound opponents of Dustin McGowan and Scott Feldman. The Cleveland stack was great almost everywhere, except I didn’t have Santana or Gomes on this team, opting for the Rangers bats at catcher and third. I did this to save the cash because I wanted to use Tanaka on team #1 and team #2. He was solid, but missing on the big point scorers for Cleveland along with Texas only scoring five runs on a high scoring night kept us out of cashing. * FINISH: 54.50 PTS / 264 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Tanaka was again the choice as ace so his 21 points were a solid anchor. I even had David Ortiz and his two home runs on this team. Those two guys combined for 35 points, and some of my other bats were solid. However, no exposure to the Indians, A’s, or Marlins, all of whom scored nine runs or more, meant no cash. * FINISH: 48.75 PTS / 404 OF 1116 FOR $0.

Team #3 – Nick Tepesch was the punt pitcher choice for a super cheap $4,500 going against Houston. I also had Ortiz on this team but whiffed on the other big bats. McCann, Hanley Ramirez, Pedroia, and Choo were the main drags on this squad. * FINISH: 43.58 PTS / 560 OF 1116 FOR $0.

THURSDAY, MAY 15

I decided to try a short-slate early only contest today to see how that would shake out. It’s always fun to change things up a bit.

Team #1 – I mini stacked Milwaukee against the fresh-off-the-DL Wandy Rodriguez, a pitcher they have hit hard in the past, along with my Cardinals because they were so cheap and facing a poor pitcher of their own. This also allowed me to get the prime matchup of Cueto vs. San Diego as my pitcher. Though Cueto pitched a complete game shutout, the bats I chose here were all wrong. Despite four runs from Milwaukee and five from St. Louis, not a single one of my hitters had more than 2.5 fantasy points. This would have had the potential to cash had I stacked different hitters on these two squads. * FINISH: 29.75 PTS / 288 OF 558 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Since I used Cueto on team #1, I chose Wacha as the ace here against the Cubs. He was decent but didn’t strike out a ton of batters and finished seven points worse than Cueto. The bad part is that this team missed out on cashing by less than seven points, so I should have used Cueto on both squads. The hitters were better here as Molina came through but I didn’t have him on team #1. * FINISH: 33.50 PTS / 174 OF 558 FOR $0.

Team #3 – I didn’t love the play but Gallardo at home against the Pirates was the punt pitcher, as the Pirates tend to struggle to score on the road. He was less than stellar and the bats weren’t any better here as only one hitter cleared 2 fantasy points. This was a low scoring slate but I was way off on the bats. * FINISH: 21.33 PTS / 456 OF 558 FOR $0.

FRIDAY, MAY 16

This was my best night of the last few weeks. Unfortunately I missed on half of the stack for purposes of this study so it won’t show much here. This is an argument for the detractors of the huge multi-entry approach!

Team #1 – I mini stacked White Sox against Houston and Orioles against Kansas City here. These were two of my favorite three stacks of the night along with the Dodgers. Unfortunately, the Orioles were the dud of the bunch with only four runs. Sonny Gray was a solid pitching option on this squad, which fell just short of cashing. * FINISH: 41.75 PTS / 153 OF 1340 FOR $0.

Team #2 – For once the pay up for pitcher option did the best! Darvish was his usual solid self and this team could have finished much better had the Rangers managed to get him any run support. I hedged my lack of Dodgers stack by putting both Hanley Ramirez and Scott Van Slyke on this squad, and that’s what propelled us to cash here. * FINISH: 47.00 PTS / 58 OF 1340 FOR $50.

The Stud Pitcher Finally Pays Off!

Team #3 – Tanner Roark was the easy choice as a punt pitcher option against the feeble Mets, and he was over 20% owned in this tournament. He didn’t do so well with only 11 fantasy points, and the big name hitters didn’t do squat either. Molina, Abreu, Rendon, and Kemp all wet the bed and this was a poor showing from team #3. * FINISH: 19.50 PTS / 1175 OF 1340 FOR $0.

SUNDAY, MAY 18

Somehow, on this day all three of my teams managed to score within 0.25 points of each other. This is amazing.

Team #1 – I mini stacked Brewers and Cubs with the wind blowing out at a moderate speed at Wrigley Field and I fit the mid-priced Kuroda on this squad. The results of this game were somewhat disappointing as only six runs were scored in the game. That’s not going to be enough when you take all your hitters from one game. Kuroda was solid, but when all was said and done that became irrelevant. * FINISH: 33.75 PTS / 674 OF 1340 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Felix Hernandez was the ace choice against the Twins, and he performed well though I was expecting a few more strikeouts. Wilson Ramos was a great choice as a value bat, but none of the rest of the squad was worth a darn. The rest of the bats, including Jacoby Ellsbury, Jose Reyes, and Jedd Gyorko in Coors Field, combined for just under 10 points. * FINISH: 33.50 PTS / 689 OF 1340 FOR $0.

Team #3 – Jaime Garcia returned from the DL to a very favorable price tag on FanDuel, so he got the choice as the punt pitcher. He wasn’t great and the bullpen blew the win for him in the 9th, which kept him to 8 fantasy points. The big bats of Tulowitzki, Cano, and Choo came through nicely, but it was not enough to overcome the poor pitching performance from Garcia. * FINISH: 33.50 PTS / 689 OF 1340 FOR $0.

FINAL RESULTS: THROUGH SIX WEEKS

MY ANALYSIS

I’m going through a spell right now where I am running really cold on FD despite not doing too bad on other sites. Part of that is attributable to the payouts. FanDuel only pays out about 9.5% of entrants in most GPP’s. In contrast, DK pays out about 20% and DS pays out about 15%. That makes the swings happen a little bit more on FD than on other sites. However, the payouts are better when you do hit. At least I managed one cash this week, and we are still solidly in the green for the year. The dog days of MLB have started early with this little mini-slump! We’ll see you next week! Thanks again for checking this column out.