Donuts to Dollars

The GPP/MME playbook is more or less a foundation to build upon for your Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) tournament strategy and mass-multi entry (MME) adventures. The following approach is how I am going to MME the main slate on FanDuel and DraftKings. Hit me up on Twitter  @DFSnDONUTS and you can also find me on YouTube | Twitch  | iTunes with supplemental commentary and teaching.

MLB DFS Pitching Pool Strategy for MME

Joe Musgrove (DK ONLY) looks like he has figured some things out and has found his confidence again. Over his last two starts and 13 IP, he has 2 wins and 13 strikeouts. This has lead to 30.75 and 22.10 DraftKings points due to the fact he’s allowed just 1 earned run. Not only is he on a two game heater but his price tag dropped $2,000 from 7.9k all the way down to 5.9k. Yes, the Cubbies are dangerous to pick on but Musgrove is just way too cheap for his upside when MME’ing a slate.

Zac Gallen continues to strike hitters out as he has racked up 14 in his 10 IP in the Majors. He has yet to give up a home run and actually has only given up 9 hits. His main issue is walks as he has four already. I think he’ll be very low owned because the Nationals are a perceived difficult matchup but they are cooling off at the plate. They had scored 5 or more in 6 out of the last 7 before scoring just 5 and then 2 in the final two games of the series against the Tigers. Nationals have a 5.3 IRT and likely will suppress Gallen’s ownership.

Tanner Roark continues to pitch well for the Reds and makes for a nice FanDuel ONLY option against the Brewers. While the Brew Crew do have a 5.0 IRT, Roark just faced them and scored 46 FanDuel points against them, earning the quality start and victory. Roark gets to face a cold Brewers team and has scored 34, 46, and 31 over his last three facing the Rangers, Brewers, and Angels. He’s consistent, he’ll be a single-digit owned pitcher, and he has upside and quality start potential.

Charlie Morton is in play on both sites due to the quality start, win bonus, and strikeout potential. While I am never really a fan of paying up for non-elite pitchers on a massive slate like this, I think Morton might come at lower ownership due to the other options on the slate. He has pitched 6 or more innings in 5 straight June starts, scoring 32.75, 30.75, 20.65, 16.85, and a stinker against the Angels.

Aaron Nola has a scary matchup against a team that leads the MLB in home runs against right-handed pitching in the month of June. However, he’s absolutely locked in right now and he’ll be lower owned against the Braves (I think). In his last two games (15 IP), he has 20 K’s and has given up just 7 hits and a single earned run on a solo shot. That is back to back 55 point FanDuel outings. That’s a fantastic ceiling at just 9.2k.

Jack Flaherty has upside for days at his mid-upper 7k price tag. The Seattle Mariners can go ice cold at the plate and Flaherty has plenty of strikeout potential. He’s the perfect mid-priced arm with plenty of upside in a decent matchup that I like to target for MME. The only reservation I have is that Seattle can toss out 6 left-handed hitters against him. The beauty of MME is that he won’t be our only arm!

Jose Urquidy (FD ONLY) is a strong prospect in the Astros farm system who is making a spot start against the Rockies. Take a deep breath…now hold it…because this play is not for the faint of heart. His first start is in Coors Field, yikes. However, at minimum-price, I am looking for 6/7 strikeouts and 5 innings pitched while giving up 3 ERs. Doubtful outcome? Probably. But this kid has tremendous strikeout potential with 104 strikeouts in just 76.2 IP in the Minors. Again, scary, but that above stat line that I am hoping for would yield 24-27 points. I’ll gladly take that from a min-price pitcher on FanDuel that would allow me to jam in 4 monster Astros bats with another stack.

Wade LeBlanc has scored 17, 25.3, 28.7, 19.7 and -9.4 in his five June appearances. He will come in as the long reliever behind an opener (Matt Carasiti – take him out of your player pools by the way). LeBlanc is only 5.8k on DraftKings and is absolutely in play for the main slate. On FanDuel, he’s not in the player pool at the time of my writing of this article. Check back in with me in our MLB NEWS NOTES channel in chat to see if I add him to my pool when FanDuel updates him into their pool.

Single Entry/Satellite GPP Pitchers

I like Aaron Nola to continue with the heater and that upside is unrivaled at that price point. While there is potential for massive failure against the Braves I think he is an elite option for satty’s and SE’s. Similar to my Tyler Mahle choice on Monday, he’s going to take some brass to plug him into your lineups.

Tier 1 MLB Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings

These are the teams I want to stack with my highest exposure. Whether you decide to use the controlled stacks (example below) or the randomized stack exposure (as I do, the example provided), I’ll have my highest percentage on the Tier 1 teams). Daily fantasy sports are not just about being contrarian. A key strategy is to also have contrarian exposure to your plays.

Houston Astros 40-60%

While German Marquez is a very good pitcher on the road (0.88 WHIP, .201 BAA, 3.07 ERA, 19.7 DK PPG), he is not good at home (1.60 WHIP, .314 BAA, 5.70 ERA, 14.3 DK PPG). You can’t allow opposing hitters to hit over .300 against you and have a 1.6 WHIP in Coors Field and definitely not against the Houston Astros loaded lineup that is getting healthy.

Colorado Rockies 40-60%

Sometimes it is this easy. Target Coors with confidence as we have a rookie that has 76.2 Minor League innings under his belt this season getting his first start in Coors Field. While his talent is there, the downside here is massive and the Rockies could absolutely FEAST. They likely will have Blackmon, Dahl, Murphy, Tapia, McMahon, and Wolters all in the lineup leaving just Garrett Hampson and Nolan Arenado as the only right-handed hitters (and German Marquez who can hit).

Tier 2 MLB Stacks for FanDuel and DraftKings

These are the teams I am generally using to hedge my pitcher investment and/or don’t have a clear read on what might happen but understand extreme outcomes are possible. My strategy is to have the volatile stacks paired with the Tier 1 stacks that have a higher success rate.

San Diego Padres 20-40%

The opposing pitcher, Tyler Beede has given up a 41% hard hit rate and has just a 60% strike ratio this season. He struggles with control, goes deep into a lot of counts, and has given up a home run in 4 out of his last 5 appearances. I think the Padres trio of Tatis, Hosmer, and Machado all go nuts here.

New York Yankees 30-50%

They just rocked Zack Wheeler on June 11th to the tune of 10 hits, 2 HRs, and 9 Runs (5 ER) in just 5.2 IP and finished with 12 runs that day. Wheeler faces the Yankees at home this time (big deal) and has to face a team that just hung 30 runs against Boston in two games in London. I get it, the field was stupid – but my word their upside is ridiculous and they are SMASHING righties.

Los Angeles Dodgers 30-50%

Taylor Clark has given up a 42% hard-hit rate and 240 foot batted ball distance to go along with a massive 96 MPH exit velocity in his last two appearances. In fact, in his last 16 innings pitched, Clarke has given up 7 HRs and 15 ERs. The Dodgers do struggle to put together those huge run totals for some odd reason. But they have as good of a shot as any of doing so on Tuesday.

Honorable Mentions: 

Tampa, Boston, Cubs are all fringe tier 2 options. Feel free to toss 10-20% on each of them if you have the left over space and don’t total up more than 180%. I think all three teams are in good spots and could do very well on Tuesday. I just chose to plant my flag in the above Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams.

This is my personal strategy to use the DFS Army Domination Station optimizer for MLB MME

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8CFJIHayzg

1. Cut all pitchers out of my player pool that I know I 100% DO NOT WANT

   1. Add in all the pitchers I am okay with the optimizer using my playbook and uncheck all the other pitchers.

2. Identify all teams I want to stack

   1. If using controlled stacks then create my player pool of hitters for MME
   2. If using the randomized stacks (which I do) then I begin to create percentages for all my favorite teams to target adding up to 160-180%
   3. Leave 20-40% stack exposure to allow the optimizer to fill in some random optimized stacks according to your pitcher pool to have some unbiased lineups

3. Prepare my 150 entry settings

   1. 3 uniques
   2. tournament mode
   3. DFS Army points
   4. Make sure allow opposing pitchers is unchecked
   5. Maximum exposure cap of 60% is how I roll with it. The higher the exposure cap the more “all-in” you will be on a player or two. Sometimes when I feel great about my pitching pool or stacking tiers I will run it at 80-100%.
   6. Set random stack setting to 4-3 for FanDuel and 5-2 for DraftKings and CHECK “PRIORITIZE LINEUPS”
4. Run the optimizer
   1. Look at the batters used in the stacks. Did I create 100 Houston lineups and only get 5 George Springers? Okay, use the like/love/adore buttons or boost his projection until I get more of him. Did I get 50 out of 50 Boston stacks with Jackie Bradley and no J.D. Martinez? Boost Martinez and potentially use the dislike buttons on Bradley until he’s a bit lower and Martinez is involved.
   2. You have to tinker a bit to get the higher upside guys sometimes ^^^
5. Re-run the optimizer until you get what you’re looking for
   1. Go watch Netflix until the games are over and your daily fantasy sports entries are final
   2. Make a plate of chips and salsa, too
      I slapped this video together during the kiddos’ nap time to show you the ease of use with the DFS Army optimizer. I hope it helps seeing it on video in conjunction with the article

Closing

I really hope this helps you get your feet under you at the beginning of this MLB season for Daily Fantasy. Please subscribe to me on the following platforms and I would love to hear from you on Twitter or in our member service in my #Donut-Shop coaching channel!

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Fortune favors the bold, go make your own luck!
Twitter me @DFSnDONUTS