Daily Fantasy Baseball Strategies
When playing fantasy baseball, different fantasy pools have various strategies that can help you to become a champion in your league.
Daily fantasy baseball strategies differ quite a bit from general fantasy baseball strategies that can be applied for regular baseball pools played in an office or with your buddies.
Using our daily fantasy baseball strategy guide, you will be able to fine tune your choices to allow you to take your competition for a lot of money at a site like our affiliate partner DraftKings.
Know the fantasy site scoring system
Depending on which daily fantasy baseball site you choose, scoring rules and point systems can differ quite a lot.
Some fantasy baseball sites value pitchers very highly, so the cost of starting pitchers makes up a large percentage of your fantasy team’s salary cap. Some sites offer a more of a fantasy points balance, but it is important to analyze the scoring system of each daily fantasy baseball site that you choose to play at.
Join multiple Daily Fantasy Sports sites
Some fantasy players stick to one daily fantasy site which has its advantages, but having an account at one or two other daily fantasy baseball sites can allow you to take advantage of nights where you believe players’ values are lower than they should be. For example, a player returns from injury and on FanDuel and they are ranked high due to their talent level, but on FantasyDraft their salary cap price is low because someone was asleep at the switch. Joining and monitoring multiple sites is an effective daily fantasy baseball strategy.
In choosing a daily fantasy baseball site there are certain criteria to look for to decide which one works best for your style of play.
League Structures – Salary Cap, Head to Head, Snake Drafts, Pick’em Pools - these are just some of the options available when playing daily fantasy baseball. Not every site offers all of them, so it’s up to you to decide which game suits you best and that will determine which daily fantasy site to join.
Other things to consider when choosing a fantasy baseball site:
What are the rakes? Is the site friendly to new players or is it shark friendly? Is there a large player base to play against? Are there games going all the time? Can you play pools just for late games? Etc...
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Tips On Choosing Players For Your Lineup
Information is key! - Is a player hurt? Is your fantasy player even playing that night? Is the game still on or will it be cancelled due to weather? Some daily fantasy players will set their lineup early in the day and head off to do other things...yet in the real baseball world, managers set their lineups within 2 hours of the game and can occasionally make changes just before the game begins. Starting pitchers could tighten up during warm ups and be scratched as a precaution. If you lose your starting pitcher - you will lose your fantasy matchup! An important daily fantasy baseball strategy is to follow individual team sites on Twitter or baseball beat writers on Twitter and get up to the second information for lineup changes and player movement.
What’s the weather forecast? – Will the game be rained out? How is the wind blowing? Is it humid causing the ball to jump off a bat or bitterly cold which results usually in a pitching duel? When making your selections, knowing the weather conditions will help you narrow down your choices for your baseball fantasy lineup.
Choosing Pitchers
Pitchers are the key to a successful starting daily fantasy baseball lineup. Pick the wrong pitchers and you will lose, pick the right ones and you have exponentially increased your chances of winning that night.
When choosing a pitcher, here are some winning tips...
Is it a hitter or pitcher friendly ballpark? Some baseball parks are killers on pitchers because the ball flies away resulting in higher scoring games. Some parks are so pitcher friendly that an average pitcher will look like Cy Young on the mound on any given night.
Ace vs. Ace – On occasion, when two star baseball pitchers face each other, it becomes a pitching duel. Add a pitcher friendly park to the mix and you have a recipe for daily fantasy baseball success.
National League Rocks! – I love strikeout pitchers in National League games because they get to face another pitcher at the plate 3 times in a game (at least). That could be a guaranteed 3 strikeouts for your fantasy team along with all the other strikeouts he may get that night.
Choosing Hitters
Hitter Friendly Ballparks - As with pitcher friendly parks, some ball parks can make a hitter look like Babe Ruth if it’s a hitter friendly park or if the wind is blowing out that night. Some parks will leave a hitter going 0-for 4 with 4 deep fly ball outs (those usually are negatives at most fantasy sites). Knowing which stadiums offer hitters an advantage and which ones to stay away from is one of most overlooked daily fantasy baseball strategies.
Bad Pitchers breed runs – Look for 4th and 5th starters scheduled to pitch that night. Pitchers with a high ERA are likely to get knocked around and that is prime for a hitter to have a nice fantasy day. If you can find a bad pitcher in a hitter friendly ball park, you should look at filling your roster with as many hitters as you can from the opposing team.
Daily fantasy baseball is no different than playing in the major leagues themselves - it’s all about percentages. If you use the daily fantasy baseball strategies above, it greatly increases your chances at winning big money playing daily fantasy baseball.
