The GPP Scene: Year 2, Week 8

by Justin Van Zuiden (stlcardinals84) Last Updated 2015-06-24 18:35:58

Welcome back to a traditional version of The GPP Scene! Over the past few weeks, I have discussed attacking large field tournaments and Coors Field games, but let us get back on track with the traditional meat and potatoes this week. Without further ado, here is the scoop for week number eight.

Here’s the way this series works. 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:

Team #1 – Two-team stacks with 4 hitters from each team, finished off by whatever pitcher I like best that fits within my remaining cap. ¹
Team #2 – My favorite expensive pitcher of the day with a team of lesser hitters.
Team #3 – A total punt at pitcher surrounded by a team of better hitters.

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 most recent week of results!

SUNDAY, JUNE 7TH

Team #1 – The mini-stacks of choice on this day were Texas and Kansas City as they faced off against each other. I like targeting left-handed bats against both Colby Lewis and Jeremy Guthrie, so I fit as many of them as I could in my stacks. The game played to a disappointing 4-3 finish, and there was only one home run in the game. It was by Salvador Perez, a player who I did not have as part of my stacks. That was somewhat sad, as Chris Archer fit as the pitcher on this squad and put up a dominating 22 FanDuel points. His performance left this team just short of cashing.

• FINISH: 36.75 PTS / 308 OF 1149 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Although Chris Archer was the dominant pitcher to have on this day, Johnny Cueto was no slouch himself. He logged a very solid 20 FanDuel points as the ace choice here, and the good news is that the bats performed better on this squad. The big key was a low-owned Curtis Granderson, who clubbed two home runs of Josh Collmenter. Jose Reyes, fresh off a recent return from the DL, was also a key cog to this team. Four of the remaining six hitters finished with two points or less, and that was the only thing that kept this team from a top-ten finish.

• FINISH: 51.75 PTS / 32 OF 1149 FOR $40.

Team #3 – I blame the failure of this team on Ryan Vogelsong. As the punt pitcher choice of the day, he logged 6.66 FanDuel points. That is a bad sign. No other words need to be written. In case you want to read it anyway, the bats totaled just three hits, one run scored, and zero RBI’s — and that’s with hitters like Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Nolan Arenado, and Shin-Soo Choo on the team! Frankly, I am surprised I managed to beat 17 other teams with this squad.

• FINISH: 8.66 PTS / 1132 OF 1149 FOR $0.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10TH (LATE GAMES)

Team #1 – Oh, what could have been. I was on the right stacks tonight, opting for the Cubs against Shane Greene and the Dodgers against Jeremy Hellickson. The two teams combined for nineteen runs, but I constructed the team all wrong. Left-handers are a must have against Shane Greene, but I did not include Miguel Montero or Anthony Rizzo — opting to use the Dodgers at those positions. That was a mistake, as I should have started with the left-handed Chicago bats and filled in the Dodgers at other positions. Even worse is that Trevor Bauer was my pitcher on this team, and he had one of his poor control games. He was done in by a Kyle Seager grand slam in the third inning, a blast that followed Bauer loading the bases via three walks. When all was said and done, I stacked the two highest scoring teams of the night and walked away with zero dollars.

• FINISH: 31.16 PTS / 1980 OF 5747 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Jose Abreu had 7.5 fantasy points. The rest of this team (including the pitcher) had 5.5 fantasy points. How about Matt Harvey? He was almost 26% owned and gave up seven earned runs. Yikes. The positive sign is that this team wasn’t going to cash anyway. Let’s move along.

• FINISH: 13.00 PTS / 4722 OF 5747 FOR $0.

Team #3 – I could not get comfortable with any of the punt pitching options on this day, so I just picked the cheapest guy. How’s that for strategy? Strangely enough, Erasmo Ramirez actually picked up a win against the Angels. It wasn’t all roses, though, as he racked up quite a few pitches and only made it through five innings. None of the bats were very appetizing, either, as the outfield trio of Joc Pederson, Ryan Braun, and Andrew McCutchen combined for just 4.5 fantasy points for $12,600 of salary. There wasn’t enough offensive punch from this team to get it into the money, despite the fact that my punt pitcher outscored Matt Harvey by nine points.

• FINISH: 26.00 PTS / 2787 OF 5747 FOR $0.

THURSDAY, JUNE 11TH (EARLY GAMES)

Team #1 – This was a short slate with only three games, but I decided to try my luck anyhow. The full slates haven’t been working of late. Oakland and Seattle were my two favorite offenses, so I stacked them up with Andrew Cashner at pitcher against the Braves. Cashner had another disappointing outing, and Seattle got shut out by Shaun Marcum and company. Oakland was solid as they scored seven runs, but they were also highly owned. It wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the poor performance by Cashner and the shutout for the Seattle bats.

• FINISH: 22.66 PTS / 279 OF 419 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Despite his recent struggles, Scott Kazmir seemed like the best pitching target on this slate, so I opted for him as the ace pitching choice. It worked well, as he breezed through eight innings, struck out six batters, gave up just one run, and earned a victory in the process. Two of the top bats of the slate were also on this team, with Josh Reddick and Freddie Freeman both tallying multiple hits and a home run. The squad was comfortably in the money and was just a few points shy of finishing near the top.

• FINISH: 43.75 PTS / 32 OF 419 FOR $30.

Team #3 – Given the strange nature of this slate, it wasn’t viable to pick a true punt at pitcher. If you rostered a pitcher like Marcum, you could get the highest priced bat at every single position and still have salary left over. As a result, I put Julio Teheran in the Team #3 slot for today. I made all sorts of errors with this team, as I was in a training class all day and missed checking the lineups. I took Derek Norris despite the fact that he was hitting against Teheran (one of my no-no rules), and Jason Kipnis was my second base choice even though he wasn’t in the lineup. If you think there is still no edge to be had in DFS, 7.2% of my close friends also took Kipnis in this contest. Think about that! 7.2% of players took a guy who wasn’t in the lineup! Of course, it was only a three game slate, and the second base options were terrible — but that doesn’t affect the point I am making here.

• FINISH: 20.75 PTS / 302 OF 419 FOR $0.

FRIDAY, JUNE 12TH

Team #1 – Today’s mini-stacks were Minnesota (vs. Wandy Rodriguez) and Pittsburgh (vs. Kevin Correia) with Danny Salazar at pitcher. I felt comfortable with this team, focusing on Minnesota’s dangerous right-handed bats along with some potent hitters against Correia, who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues in a few years. I also liked Salazar’s upside for a tournament despite a matchup against Detroit. In the end, this didn’t work. The Pirates scored just one run in 13 innings despite winning their game, while Minnesota logged just two runs against Texas. Salazar’s ten points were more than all the bats combined.

• FINISH: 19.75 PTS / 1844 OF 2298 FOR $0.

Team #2 – Clayton Kershaw got the nod as the ace of choice over Felix Hernandez, because Kershaw was a mere $200 more expensive on FanDuel. Thank goodness for that decision, as Hernandez got rocked for eight first inning runs by the Astros. Kershaw was unable to earn a win thanks to the Dodgers’ bullpen blowing his lead, but he still racked up 11 strikeouts over 6 2/3 strong innings. The squad also had solid hitting performances from David Ortiz, Brian Dozier, and Joey Butler. The cash line was a little lower than expected on this night because Hernandez was somewhat highly owned, and this team was able to squeeze its way into the money.

• FINISH: 40.91 PTS / 326 OF 2298 FOR $25.

Team #3 – Jeff Locke was the easy choice as the punt pitcher of the day, as he was almost the biggest favorite on the board against the feeble Philadelphia offense. He pitched six scoreless innings, but he was unable to pick up a win as he got no run support, and he only logged two strikeouts. Therefore, it was a somewhat empty eight point performance despite the six scoreless innings. Four of the big bats produced 0.5 points or less, which didn’t leave this team much of a chance of finishing in the money.

• FINISH: 29.50 PTS / 1192 OF 2298 FOR $0.

SATURDAY, JUNE 13TH (EARLY GAMES)

Team #1 – The mini-stacks of choice were Kansas City (vs. Tyler Lyons) and Texas (vs. Mike Pelfrey) with Gerrit Cole at pitcher against the woeful Phillies. It was a 4-3 stack of each team with Kolten Wong as an upgrade from Omar Infante at second base, and I hit it on all cylinders. Kansas City only scored two runs, but I had two of their hitters that did the majority of the damage as Salvador Perez and Lorenzo Cain combined for over ten points. The Texas bats went off, as Choo, DeShields, and Gallo all logged more than 8 fantasy points. Cole was his usual self with a solid performance, earning a win and racking up 16 fantasy points. Unfortunately, the full size Line Drive filled while I was making my lineups, so the teams on this day were only in the “mini” second Line Drive. The good news is that this team was good enough to take the tournament down. The 63 point total was easily my best of the year.

• FINISH: 63.00 PTS / 1 OF 114 FOR $250.

Team #2 – Since Gerrit Cole was on the stack team, I opted to use Chris Archer here. He had his worst start in some time, slogging through seven decent-but-unspectacular innings. Mitch Moreland was the only cheap bat that performed for this team, as guys like Neil Walker, Carlos Correa, and Jonathan Lucroy all had poor performances. Given that Archer only finished with nine points, there wasn’t enough thump here.

• FINISH: 32.25 PTS / 63 OF 114 FOR $0.

Team #3 – This slate featured quite a few really good pitchers, a distinct break in the middle, and then quite a few really bad pitchers. It made it tough to even feel comfortable about a team with a punt pitcher, but David Hale became the choice. This also prevented me from using the big bat of Giancarlo Stanton, since he was facing Hale. When all was said and done, Stanton had a home run and all four Miami RBI’s, while the Texas bats were obviously the best choices of the day. This team didn’t have any of those.

• FINISH: 32.00 PTS / 65 OF 114 FOR $0.

FINAL RESULTS – THROUGH EIGHT WEEKS

MY ANALYSIS

Whew! That was the first word that came to my mind after the nice finish on Saturday. As was the case last year, my big finish came with Team #1. This doesn’t surprise me, since this is the general strategy I use in GPP’s. It is also nice to see that the stack teams are now in the green for the year. There’s some gratification in seeing at least SOME green in the chart as opposed to a whole bunch of red!! However, it should also be noted that Team #2 came away with three cashes over the five days this week, while Team #3 was nothing short of horrendous. The big hit on Saturday will hopefully be a nice momentum builder going forward, and this week provided enough return to erase more than half of the loss for the year. We have progress!