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DFS Underpriced Studs! Starting Pitcher Picks For 8/8
Alright RotoBaller's, time for a reality check! Is your fantasy baseball team so far out of it you barely want to log in every day and set your lineup? The thing is, we know you have so much fantasy baseball knowledge, and you probably even downloaded RotoBaller's FREE iPhone waiver wire app to make sure you know who's hot and who to drop all season long. Well have no fear, we have the perfect solution for you fellow RotoBallers and fantasy baseball freaks.
Enter daily league fantasy baseball on sites like Fanduel and Draftkings, where you can use your accrued knowledge of MLB & fantasy baseball to compete each and every night from scratch, with a new roster full of your favorite hitters and pitchers for that specific day. No more worrying about two start pitchers, or the closer carousel, and best of all, the fluke injury bug that hits at the most inopportune moment!
Simply draft your roster (slightly different style on both of our favorite sites) using their salary cap based system. Then just sit back and enjoy the games for that night while you watch your team rack up fantasy points similarly to most head to head scoring formats! With these types of leagues, you can leave the hopelessness of your season long fantasy formats aside, and focus on the two months of fantasy baseball action. We recommend throwing a dollar into the pool for a large field tournament, or even going up against a fellow friend in a heads up competition (for money or bragging rights), but either way, why not get your beak wet and see what all the fuss is about.
Editors Note: If you want an even greater edge over your FanDuel and DraftKings competitors, check out RotoBaller’s highly effective Daily League Fantasy Baseball Lineup Picks Newsletter. In this simple-to-use cheat sheet format, we provide you a minimum of 20 daily league player recommendations, three days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday), throughout the fantasy baseball season. Also be sure to check your matchups, and analyze sit/start options each and every day, using our new MLB batters vs. pitchers (BvP) matchups tool!
Alright fellow RotoBallers, without further ado, let’s get right to the arroz con pollo and some daily league lineup picks (DFS sleepers) for August 8th 2014:
FanDuel Lineup Recommendation for 8/8
Hisashi Iwakuma, SEA (8,900) - If you are not planning on dropping your pants and going with the obvious stud Stephen Strasburg in this uber precise one pitcher format, then don't want to get too cute and drop down the price list until you see the Ian Kennedy's of the world (he is great, but not on the road versus Pittsburgh). That's precisely why we recommend you stay paused right on the ace of the Mariners staff, Hisashi Iwakuma, the 4th most expensive ace going tonight.
This now tenured and veteran presence is generally undervalued, but he is especially cheap tonight considering that he's facing a strikeout prone opponent (Sox) at the friendly confines of SafeCo Field. Couple that with the fact that Iwakuma has averaged 14.33 FDP in his last 7 starts and we think we've made a compelling enough argument to run out this stud from the pacific northwest, so save your shekels and don't be afraid to blow your wad on possibly the best Japanese starter doing work in the bigs right now.
DraftKings Starting Pitcher Recommendation for 8/8
Vance Worley, PIT ($7,000) - Don't be fooled by us recommending Vanishing Vance Worley to you tonight, because this advice only holds true to 2 starting pitcher format sites like DraftKings where you need at least 1 slightly undervalued sleeper to go with your ace. This former Twins and Phillies great has seemingly rejuvenated his MLB career with the playoff chasing Bucs, and one thing this organization has a reputation of doing is rehabilitating reclamation projects (i.e. A.J. Burnett, Edinson Volquez), so you know if they have faith in him at this point in the season, then we sure do too. He is priced as the 16th most expensive pitcher on DraftKings tonight, so he should pair perfectly with a main of Hisashi Iwakuma, a side of Oscar Taveras ($3,000) and a sweet chianti.
The DFS Strategic Wrap Up
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 in their algorithm 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, proven, 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!
