The FOX Sports Fantasy team takes part in a one-day fantasy baseball contest every weekday except for Thursday to see who comes out victorious, and to learn a few things in the process. Here are the lessons gleaned from this week's action:
What We Learned
Every day is a new one in DFS contests, and that's what makes them so appealing. Still, there are common themes from each winning team's lineup we can potentially use to our advantage going forward.
Dingers: Every winning lineup in our contest this week featured a player who hit a home run. Surprisingly, only one of the winning lineups had a player who stole a base, and that was Todd Frazier of the Cincinnati Reds, who also happened to homer that game as well. At least for this week, power carried the winners instead of speed.
No Duds: We play on a two-SP site (Draft Kings), which makes picking the right pitchers even more critical. No winning lineup this week featured a starting pitcher that recorded less than 19 points (which looked like this: 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 HA, 2 BB, 5 K). You simply can't afford to miss with a starting pitcher. Non-coincidentally, each last place team from every day this week had a pitcher who recorded a single-digit outing.
Where To Start: On average, the winning lineups received 44.2 percent of their total points from their starting pitching. If you're not starting your lineups with your starting pitchers and working from there, you might want to reconsider that strategy.
Whoops: Only one player was owned in 100 percent of lineups in a daily contest this week: Evan Longoria. Naturally, he recorded zero fantasy points. Thanks, Evan.
Points Per Position: Here's the breakdown of where the winning lineups received their points on average:
This Week's Champ: John Halpin (2 W, highest average Draft Kings score of 116.23)
This Week's Big Revelation: Start your research and your lineup building with pitching. They are by far the most important piece of the puzzle to winning, especially on multi-pitcher sites. As a bonus, you may sift through a few unsavory pitchers with poor numbers to target later when you select your lineup.
