We're Going DFS Sleepers Bonkers For 7/11
We may have taken last week off for the fireworks preparations, and consumption of adult beverages (hopefully in moderation), but we are back in a big way for the first recommendations of July!
Are you just sick and tired of seeing your seasonal fantasy baseball team at the bottom of the standings? Can’t seem to make up ground even though you watch the games every night, and are very active on your league’s waiver wire (and even downloaded RotoBaller's FREE iPhone waiver wire app)? Have no fear, we have the perfect solution for you fellow RotoBallers and fantasy baseball freaks.
Enter daily league fantasy baseball, where you can use your accrued knowledge of fantasy baseball to compete each and every night from scratch with a new roster. Just draft your roster (slightly different style on all three of our favorite sites) using a salary cap based system, and sit back and enjoy the games for that night! With these types of leagues, you can leave the hopelessness of your seasonal fantasy formats aside, and focus on the next three months of fantasy baseball action.
Now the fun part-- every Friday morning for the rest of the fantasy baseball season, we will be publishing this short teaser piece detailing one or two daily league player recommendations and sleepers, from three of our favorite DFS sites. This week’s featured expert analysis will include lineup value picks from FanDuel, DraftKings and DraftStreet.
Editors Note: If you want an even greater edge over your FanDuel and DraftKings competitors, check out RotoBaller’s highly effective Expert Daily Fantasy Baseball Picks Newsletter. In this simple-to-use cheat sheet format, we provide you a minimum of 15 daily league player recommendations (usually closer to 20 players), three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday) throughout the fantasy baseball season.
Alright fellow RotoBallers, without further ado, let’s get right to the bangers and mash for Friday, July 11th 2014:
FanDuel Lineup Recommendations for 7/11
Anibal Sanchez (SP, DET) $7,300 - Yes, he got what we at RotoBaller like to refer to as a "mini-torching" in his last outing, but this is DFS and we are stone-cold killers here (with very short memories).
Our mission (if we choose to accept it) is to seek out the most undervalued sleeper starting pitchers, on every DFS site that we write recommendations for. Tonight on FanDuel, the second-best pitcher on the Tigers staff (who would be a #1 on almost any other team in the big leagues), gets to face his divisional rivals from Kansas City.
Although the former Red Sox and Marlins great has been a touch up-and-down lately, he is fully capable of delivering a 10+ point performance on any given night, so the ceiling for a severe blow-up is very low with him, while the probability for a dominant performance holds tremendous daily league upside. Save some shekels on your starting pitcher and get a home run whore (like Jose Abreu or Paul Goldschmidt) into your lineup tonight.
DraftKings Lineup Recommendations for 7/11
Danny Duffy (SP, KC) $6,800 - This young man is finally starting to get the attention he deserves in seasonal fantasy formats, as his ownership numbers have steadily climbed while his strikeouts have continued to pile up. Coming in with a very respectable 2.86 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and averaging 11.9 FPPG on DraftKings, this former top prospect and Tommy John survivor mowed down the Tigers his last time facing them on the road.
Over 11 IP this year versus the Tigers, Duffy has only surrendered five hits, struck out seven, and held the veteran lineup to a .149 BAA. It's not every night we tell you to start someone (especially a LHP) against the Detroit Tigers, but if you want to be in consideration for the DFS Hall of Fame and need a budget buster for one of your starting pitchers, then "Danny Duffy, he's your man, if he can't do it, no one can." All kidding aside, don't say we did't tell you so on this sleeper pitcher for tonight on DraftKings.
DraftStreet Lineup Recommendations for 7/11
Chris Archer (SP, TB) $14,55 - Once again, gotta love the pricing on DraftStreet. Makes me feel like an accountant in addition to a RotoBaller when I set my lineups. But regarding Mr. Archer: unlike the TV show, the young Rays hurler is nothing to laugh at (or about).
This supremely undervalued stud is taking a favorable home start against a Jays team that has been slumping severely and without the likes of E5 in their usually star-studded lineup. Even so, he is the 16th-highest-priced starting pitcher, and that is more or less a felony being committed right before our very eyes, folks. Especially in the very tough three-pitcher format that DraftStreet rolls out for their salary cap games, it's imperative to get a low-priced stud into the mix. Although he is also recommended above, we absolutely love the pairing of Chris Archer and Danny Duffy tonight, and we recommend you strongly consider letting these DFS sleepers work for you, too.
The DFS Strategic Wrapup
On most nights, and on all sites, the key to any successful DFS gaming strategy is to try to “buy low,” to unearth some undervalued talent using split stats or favorable player platoons. Sometimes sites just miss something and you can find a glitchy play (like when Hunter Pence was flukily dropped to $2,200 on FanDuel earlier this season). Although predicting the outcomes of baseball games can be extremely tough (if not borderline impossible), using a smart analytical process and good sabermetric data to back up our intuition gives us the edge we need to make incremental gains over our competitors.
We can’t stress this point to you enough so we’ll say it yet again: if you haven’t experienced the thrill of drafting a new fantasy team every night and competing for just one day, then you have no idea what you're missing! We highly suggest you join in on the fun, especially if you are one of the unfortunate souls who has had a tough go at it in seasonal fantasy baseball formats. Whether the injury bug bit your team, or whether your draft didn't live up to your expectations (and hype), you now have a fantastic option (and reason) to keep playing fantasy baseball for the rest of the year.
Good luck today playing your DFS games tonight, RotoBallers!