Always, always, always know your scoring system. I know the other guys who write in this space have done a fantastic job breaking down some of Draftstreet’s unique scoring rubric (and where you want to chase), but this point can never can be repeated enough.

Example? I have a good friend who just started playing Draftstreet a few weeks ago. Certainly not new to the fantasy baseball scene, but just getting his feet wet in daily games. Friday night we had a GChat conversation that went something like this (cleaned up for a family-friendly audience!).

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m writing this on Friday afternoon, so forgive me if any of the insight in the Daily Five becomes stales by Saturday morning, or line-up changes or injuries occur. You do the best with what you have.

Anyway, I believe in this space someone had previously highlighted guys who did well against same-handed pitchers (“reverse split” players), and I thought it would be a good time to have a fresh look at these tables. Below you’ll find the best Left-vs-Left and Right-vs-Right and the worst Right-vs-Left and Left-vs-Right hitters, covering 2012 and 2013 (to improve our sample size a little bit) with a minimum of 200 plate appearances.

Let these serve as a reminder that not all players require platoon protection in your daily leagues, and not all players with a platoon advantage are sure bets.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday Blake Murphy recapped the impact of some of the bigger names that moved at the trade deadline. Today I want to touch on the potential impact that a few of the smaller names could have in new places.

Jose Iglesias moves to Detroit – Of the 90 qualified starters in the league, the Tigers have four starters that rank top 20 in BABIP. Anytime a team has four starters with a BABIP of .308 or higher, the defense is obviously a problem. And Detroit is no exception this year as they rank 27th in defensive efficiency. They turn only 69.6% of balls put in play into outs. For comparison’s sake, the Pirates lead the league in defensive efficiency with a rate of 73.3%. Detroit’s struggles aren’t entirely Jhonny Peralta’s fault, but he’s not helping. He has a UZR/150 that is slightly below average for his career (-0.7), but Iglesias’ career UZR/150 is 22.2. If Peralta is in fact suspended, Iglesias should help those Tiger starters lower their BABIPs. Read the rest of this entry »

The trade deadline didn’t bring many major changes with it for the fantasy landscape, but it’s worth checking in on players who moved and how their value may be effected for daily leagues.

Bud Norris to Baltimore – As Mike Podhorzer explains, “While he should definitely experience better win potential, I think his ERA is at risk of spiking, though his WHIP could improve with better defensive support.” L.J. Hoes, meanwhile, slotted right into the Astros lineup but isn’t much of a fantasy consideration as a low-HR, 15-SB outfielder.

Ian Kennedy to San Diego – Zach Saunders likes the deal for Kennedy’s pitcher profile, writing, “While Petco’s new dimensions aren’t as pitcher friendly as in the past, the park should still play well towards Kennedy’s tendencies to allow balls to fly through the air.” Zeke Spruill has been called up to start today and take Kennedy’s rotation spot for now.
Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, today’s officially the last day “hug watch(TM)!” Well, “hug watch” or “I’m tipping my clubhouse guys lots of money in non-descript envelopes” watch.

Whatever the case may be, it goes without saying  you’ll want to keep an eye on the trade deadline today. With three afternoon games, maybe you’ll want to get into one of the early Draftstreet pools, so you’re probably going to want to steer clear of guys like Alex Rios, Michael Young, Hunter Pence, and Michael Morse. Keep an eye on all moves for you daily lineup leagues, too. No use starting a zero while someone is packing their bags and taking a cross-country flight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, hot stove season! In less than 48 hours, the first of the two trade deadlines will have passed, and we’ll be looking at a few players in new places. As much as I love the deadline, it can also make for a rather frustrating couple of days for the daily fantasy player.

For example, here’s a piece from the Chicago Tribune detailing how Jake Peavy will be missing his start today, in favor of Andre Rienzo. Peavy, a hot name on the trade market this summer, may be traded today or tomorrow — he also may not. Regardless, Peavy will sit today, and Rienzo will start — despite what the names on your roster for your daily fantasy team tell you. And Peavy isn’t the only guy who might be missing a day today.

Read the rest of this entry »

We all know home runs are the best way to have a big fantasy day on the hitting side of things, but they’re really hard to predict. I have a little process I like to go through to try and identify the guys that are in the best situation to hit a home run, and it starts with park factors. Here on the site we have park factors broken down by handedness, which is a good place to start if you’re trying to pick home run hitters. Below is a chart showing which parks are most favorable to home runs for both left and right handed hitters. Read the rest of this entry »

Homers can win you a daily pool. There’s no way around this, as they’re worth, at the minimum, seven DraftStreet points (four for the home run and 1.5 for the run and each RBI). But they’re usually expensive or somewhat unpredictable – Alcides Escobar, for example, has three taters this year but hasn’t got one since April 28. Two of them were in the same week and one was off Justin Masterson, who hardly allows home runs himself.

In all, there have been 3,047 home runs this year, with probably only a small portion of those being of a predictable nature. On the other hand, there have been 1,700 stolen bases, and my guess would be that those steals are a bit more predictable because even fewer players attempt steals. (447 players have homered and averaged 6.8 as a group, while 317 players have stolen a base and averaged 5.4 as a group.)
Read the rest of this entry »

If you go on the Weather Network website, it’s easy to just type in “Chicago” and get a weather forecast. Right now, for example, it’s 63 and sunny with an 11 MPH wind blowing Northwest. Later, it might rain. Sounds good, right? The Cubs and White Sox are playing in low temperatures with strong wind and a chance of rain.

Except that, y’kno, Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field are 10.5 miles apart, Wrigley to the north and The Cell to the south. That might not seem extreme, but also consider that the parks face different directions. Batters at Wrigley hit the ball north-east while those at U.S. Cellular hit it south-east.

Thus, it’s important to look at each individual park’s weather, using a site like Daily Baseball Data or something similar. Just how big a difference can the parks make beyond “Chicago weather?”
Read the rest of this entry »

In the preseason I wrote a piece in which I took a look at the pitchers who throw a particular pitch a lot but not particularly. I also looked at the hitters that are the very best against certain pitches. Because this is around the 20th daily fantasy piece I’ve written this year, I’m quite frankly running out of ideas. So I’m going to update the piece from the preseason.

The process is fairly simple. I started by taking all qualified starting pitchers since the beginning of 2011 (min. 300 IP) and pulling their pitch mix data for that time period. I then took each pitcher who threw a specific pitch at a rate more than one standard deviation above the mean and pulled their pitch values to see if that was a positive pitch for them. Below you’ll see all the pitchers from 2011 to present who threw a specific pitch at a rate much higher than normal and who had a negative pitch value. The idea is that you can choose hitters in daily contests that fair very well against that pitch type when facing these pitchers. I’m only looking at fastballs, sliders, curves and changes to prevent this from being too long. Read the rest of this entry »