DFSR's Daily Fantasy MLB Podcast for FanDuel and DraftKings - Thursday 5/18/17 DFSR’s Doug Norrie and James Davis discuss a split slate of Thursday baseball. The big theme today is lack of pitching. On the early afternoon slate we have Jon Lester but there are 20 MPH winds blowing out to in Chicago and that could make problems for him on the mound. Of course we want to stack the Cubs’ side of that game and they’ll likely be the chalk bats. In the evening the guys discuss pitchers like Hyun-Jin Ryu, Marcus Stroman, Jordan Montgomery and Julio Teheran. For stacks they look into the Cano-less Mariners, the Dodgers against Edison Volquez and the Yankees versus Danny Duffy. Be sure to subscribe...

DFSR's Daily Fantasy MLB Podcast for FanDuel and DraftKings - Friday 4/21/17 DFSR”s Doug Norrie and James Davis take to the MLB pod to discuss a full Friday in baseball for FanDuel and DraftKings. It’s an interesting night for sure with some starting pitchers in solid spots. The guys discuss Jacob deGrom against the Nationals who could be without Daniel Murphy again tonight. There’s also Corey Kluber against the White Sox who tend to strike out above league average rates against righty pitching. Then then talk about Alex Meyer coming very cheap on DraftKings against a mostly-righty Blue Jays team who are really struggling. For offenses the guys discuss the San Francisco Giants heading into Coors tonight. They are getting the Coors’ pricing bump on both sites which could make them a fade tonight. Instead they focus on the Los Angeles Dodgers heading into Chase against the D’Backs. You can also target the Angels against Mat Latos or the Cubs heading into Great American Ballpark. Be sure to subscribe...

Why Batting Order Matters in DFS Baseball Here are some examples of questions we get quite frequently about our baseball projections and why certain players will come out of “nowhere” to be in top lineups: “Craig Gentry?! Why is he showing up in top lineups? Are you guys insane?” “Kevin Pillar?! Why is he showing up in top lineups? Are you guys insane?” “Andrew Toles?! Why is he showing up in top lineups? Are you guys insane?” “Steven Souza?! Why is he showing…” We’ve long been on #teambattingorder when it comes to our projections for a very simple reason: the best way to accrue fantasy points in baseball is to get to the plate more often than other players. And the best way to get to the plate more often is to hit higher in the lineup. It seems so obvious, but it's a concept many new DFS players struggle to grasp (and implement) when making lineups.   Some quick stats from 2016 to get us going. Below is the average number of plate appearances a player saw depending on their slot in the batting order. [table id=216 /] Initial takeaway here are obvious: the leadoff hitters saw the most average plate appearances per game and the numbers decrease at a relatively orderly rate until you get to the 8th and 9th hitters where there’s a steep drop-off. This is most likely because teams hit their pitchers 9th (and sometimes 8th) and you see the most pinch-hitting opportunities for those slots. This is fine as in most instances (outside of your team-specific stacking strategy) we are ignoring these slots in the batting order. It’s mostly losers (relatively-speaking) down at the bottom. So of course the leadoff hitter stands to see the most plate appearances. But how does that translate to FanDuel and DraftKings value when it comes to accruing points? If we take the same constraints and apply Average FanDuel and DraftKings points and Average FanDuel and DraftKings salaries to the mix, we start to get a sense of why the slot in the order provides so much stinking value. (All numbers are averages) [table id=215 /] Now things are clearing up a bit, no? The top spot in the order, over the course of 2016, provided the most bang for your buck. Why? Well isn’t the answer the most obvious? These are the players that got to the plate the most over the course of the season. My mind though initially went to the idea that teams were more often that not jockeying around their leadoff hitter, leading to more volatility in the player pricing. That wasn’t the case in the aggregate as the leadoff slot saw the second least amount...

DFSR's Daily Fantasy NBA Podcast for DraftKings and FanDuel Friday 4/14/17 The DFSR crew of James Davis and Doug Norrie take to a Friday NBA podcast to discuss Saturday’s first round playoff matchups. There’s a lot to unpack here with teams rounding out their rotations after a late season of uncertainty in the league. They go game-by-game starting with the Pacers and Cavs and whether Lebron James and Paul George are simply overpriced on this small slate of games. Then there’s talk about how the Bucks could use Giannis in this matchup against the Raptors and whether low 40’s minutes is out of the question. Finally, it’s a lot of talk about Kawhi Leonard and when we can throw matchups out the window in DFS. All of this and more on a packed Friday NBA playoff podcast. Subscribe to this podcast on...

DFSR's Daily Fantasy NBA Podcast for DraftKings and FanDuel Tuesday 1/10/17 DFSR crew of Doug Norrie and James Davis break down a value-packed slate of Tuesday NBA for FanDuel and DraftKings. They start by rewinding and talking about the Derrick Rose situation from last night and how that effected lineups. Then it’s on to the value. They start at point guard where John Wall, Marcus Smart and Dennis Schroder lead the charge. Then they discuss the Bulls’ situation with both Wade and Butler sitting out tonight. That opens the door for guys like Doug McDermott and Nikola Mitotic to possibly spike in usage rates. They also break down the value at small forward, power forward and center. You can target big men like Paul Millsap and Dwight Howard against the lowly Nets. Subscribe to this podcast on...