Daily Fantasy Strategy — May 8 — For Draftstreet

While it’s less of a concern on Thursdays with a generally thin schedule, thinning out the player pool from which you’re selecting can be a helpful first step in your daily research. That’s not to say you should ignore values that pop up beyond these quick short-hands, but they represent an easy way of narrowing your choices, specifically when it comes to selecting a pitcher to stack against.

I’ll generally list every team in action, then I’ll eliminate teams playing with a chance of rain out (especially on a day like Thursday when an early-start league could really lower your floor with late rain-outs), and then sort them based on the over/under posted by Vegas to group them into potentially high- and low-scoring affairs.

Here’s an example from Thursday’s games:

Road	Home	Start	Rain%	O/U	Favorite (*=heavy)
Min	Cle	12	0	8	Cle*
Hou	Det	1	10	8.5	Det*
Phi	Tor	7	0	8.5	Tor
Bal	TB	7	0	7.5	TB*
Col	Tex	8	50	9.5	Tex
Chc	Cws	8	10	8.5	Cws
KC	Sea	10	0	7	Sea
SF	LAD	10	0	7.5	LAD
Mia	SD	10	0	7	SD

From here, we can identify a few areas to focus in on:

Stacking candidates: Detroit (Toronto, Chicago AL)
Possible starters: Tampa Bay. Seattle, San Diego (Los Angeles NL, Miami, Kansas City)

Anyway, just an example. Let’s get on with it.

The Daily Five
Hisashi Iwakuma – $16,480
The Royals offense is middle of the pack against northpaws with a .309 wOBA and they don’t strike out a great deal, but Iwakuma is priced fairly on a day short on starters. Some may look at his first outing and avoid the risk, which can provide the “contrarian boost” that can be beneficial in tournament formats.

Jacob Turner – $11,158
I know, I know, it’s a 9.90 ERA and a 6.11 FIP, and he’s not missing bats. But his underlying indicators aren’t that far off from 2013, when he was serviceable, and he draws the Padres at Petco. Not only do the Padres have just a .256 wOBA against righties, they also have just a .284 mark at home. If Turner’s going to turn things around, this is when he’ll do it.

White Sox stack – I like Jake Arrieta in the long-term but the Pale Hose have done damage against righties this year. They also have hardly anybody checking in at an above-average price, save for the necessary purchase of Jose Abreu, Home Run God.
Alexei Ramirez – $6,936
Connor Gillaspie – he’s not on the price list right now but was activated, so if he shows up, he should be cheap.
Alejandro de Aza – $5,119 – I still have faith
Tyler Flowers – $3,919 – This is dirt-cheap for a catcher relatively assured of starting, and he has been stroking against righties.

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