Winning Strategies for Daily Fantasy Baseball: Head-to-Head & 50/50 vs. GPPs

In this article I am going to give you my strategies in baseball for building a winning lineup for all game types, including 50/50s/double-ups/head to head and GPPs. I will break down each game type and my strategies involved.

Part 1: 50/50s/Double-ups/Head to Head

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When playing 50-50’s/double-ups or head to head, you want guaranteed points. This is not where you roll the dice on all or nothing players. The idea is to simply produce a solid, well balanced team. It may not be explosive, but it doesn’t matter whether you finish in first place or not, you just need to cash.

Let’s start with pitching. Here is where you pay for the ace. Forget the cheap rookie or value pitcher, pay for the ace. Again you want guaranteed points. Aces rarely disappoint, hence them being aces. Having a value pitcher blow up, absolutely kills your chances to cash. On multiple pitcher sites, you need to get at least one ace.

When picking an offense you want guys who are consistent. You want players who seem to put up points every night. All of your players should have extremely favorable match-ups. Ideally you do not want to punt any position, but instead find value at the positions you are not planning to spend big money on.

If you love a team to score a bunch of runs, feel free to grab 2-4 players from that team. This way when your team scores you are pretty much guaranteed points.

Strategy Tip # 1:

Do not use multiple lineups for double ups/head to head. Stick with one lineup you love across the board. Playing multiple lineups in this game type is a good way to break even.

Part 2: GPPs

GPPs are a whole new ball game. You need guys to have huge nights. GPPs are all about upside. All or nothing players can become GPP gold. Value players are just as important as your star players.

Pitching:

This is where you want a value pitcher. Buy a pitcher capable of being the best that night without having to pay the price. Then load up on offense and away you go. A value pitcher with big K potential OR home to a weak offense is the ideal situation.

With this strategy you do not need to have your value pitcher be the best arm that night, you just need him to be within a few points of the best pitchers that night. Then let your loaded offense do the rest.

Offense – Single Entry Tournament

There are two different ways to go about this:

1) If you only have one entry, I would do one of two things: stack a team you love OR

2) Load up on players with huge upside

Strategy Tip # 2

Don’t be afraid to buy a slumping star player with a great matchup. Star players do not struggle for long, which is why they are stars. Take advantage of the discounted price. You want to nail the night they go off, not jump on board after they get hot.

Multi-entry tournament

If you have multiple entries, you must stack. Whether you stack one team or mini stack two teams combined, stacking is the way to go. With multiple entries I will stack several teams.

When I stack I am looking for a team that could put up 7+ runs and I stack 3-4 players from that team. Then I try to nail a player or two outside of my stack with huge upside and land that big pay day!

Strategy Tip # 3

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I almost always prefer to punt catcher and shortstop. I prefer to spend my money on other positions, plus there always seem to be great value at these positions. You can always get a “”(player-popup)Jimmy Rollins”:/players/jimmy-rollins-10479(player-profile)”:/players/Jimmy_Rollins-10479, “”(player-popup)Jean Segura”:/players/jean-segura-13516(player-profile)”:/players/Jean_Segura-13516 or “”(player-popup)Starlin Castro”:/players/starlin-castro-10482(player-profile)”:/players/Starlin_Castro-10482 cheap, and there are not a ton of great options at SS. Catcher is the same to me. It is rare a C will go off and hit two bombs for you. It seems more often than not it is a cheap catcher that does it anyway like “”(player-popup)Devin Mesoraco”:/players/devin-mesoraco-11479(player-profile)”:/players/Devin_Mesoraco-11479 or “”(player-popup)Welington Castillo”:/players/welington-castillo-11202(player-profile)”:/players/Welington_Castillo-11202 – who twice has had two-homer games. Punt C and SS, spend your money elsewhere.

Strategy Tip # 4

When you can, always take pitchers or players at home. Pitchers especially tend to be MUCH better at home.

Strategy Tip # 5

Avoid players who are banged up. This is not the NFL, where guys are all playing banged up. When an MLB player is nursing an injury, they tend not to play well. MLB players tend to hit the DL or leave games early when they have nagging injuries. Do not trust them, avoid them.

Strategy Tip # 6

Do not buy players their first game back from the DL, especially pitchers. A pitcher may pitch well, but will usually be on a strict pitch count. Players need to get their timing back and that generally takes a few at bats. Play it safe and avoid them.

Good luck grinders!

Pepsi7

About the Author

pepsi7
Chris Lowery (pepsi7)

Chris Lowery aka Pepsi7 has a long of history of proven success in fantasy sports getting his start in season long leagues where he won many high stakes expert leagues across baseball, football, and hockey. He made the jump to DFS in 2012 and dominated MLB in 2013 in a huge way by winning the FanDuel Daily Fantasy Baseball Championship for a six-figure payday. The RotoGrinders Director of NHL content, Pepsi7 can frequently be found on RotoGrinders GrindersLive shows, videos, and written articles providing expert insight for hockey and baseball.