If you are playing daily fantasy baseball tournaments with a top-heavy payout structure, you need to make sure to create lineups with the requisite upside. While that may seem obvious and a little bit vague, there is an easy way to increase your probabilities of making a lineup that can realize its upside: through stacking.
Stacking refers to taking multiple hitters from the same team. The idea behind stacking is to make a lineup of hitters that are correlated to one another. This correlation creates a higher risk-higher reward type of lineup that is perfect for top heavy tournament structures.
Stacking increases correlation in a couple of ways. First, hitters close to one another in the lineup can share in the same run-scoring plays that result in additional fantasy points for all players involved since both DraftKings and FanDuel award points for runs scored and runs batted in. As a result, each lineup spot is most correlated to the lineup spots closest to it. So, the third hitter in the order will have a higher correlation with the second and fourth hitters than the seventh hitter in the order.
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But regardless of lineup spot, each hitter has a positive correlation to all other hitters within his own lineup, meaning their scores trend in the same direction. This occurs because of a more subtle correlation. If a team has a good night offensively, the amount of plate appearances for that team will increase, giving each member of the lineup additional opportunities. In a sport where opportunities are limited, this can create a massive edge.
One final, but important, thing to keep in mind when stacking is not only how many runs a team can score but how these runs will be achieved. That leads us to be focused on ”event” upside oriented teams that possess home run and stolen base upside.
So start stacking for improved results.
GOLF
With the PGA Tour focused on the Zurich Classic team event, most fantasy golfers this week will turn their attention to the Volvo China Open, where a challenging event full of less familiar names awaits. This year’s event will be held at the Topwin Golf and CC, where Alexander Levy looks to defend his title and comes in with great form off of a victory at last week’s Trophee Hassan event.
The course this week is characterized by large, forgiving fairways where players will not be penalized as much for an errant tee shot. One important change for those used to playing PGA Tour fantasy games is that on the European Tour, only the Top 65 golfers (and ties) make the cut, making it critical to find value players that will be playing on the weekend.
Aaron Rai rates as a nice value at just $7,600 on DraftKings. His implied odds have him at 40 percent to finish inside the top 20, which is comparable to some golfers priced as much as $2,000 more. The Englishman has made nearly 75 percent of his cuts globally in his career and rates fifth on the European Tour in driving accuracy compared with the field. In a field with many unknown names, that makes Rai a reliable golfer for your fantasy lineups.
With many choosing to spend on tournament favorite Alexander Levy, gamers instead should look for more balance before deciding which favorite to spend on. Erik Van Rooyan can be paired with Rai to offer that balance. The South African has made upward of 80 percent of cuts globally over the past three seasons and rates as No. 1 in this field in strokes gained tee-to-green. While Van Rooyan’s putting is perfectly mediocre, we know that the best ball strikers only need to find a hot putter one week to contend. Even if he doesn’t live up to his offshore betting odds (40 percent to finish inside the top 20), Van Rooyan is a prototypical bomber who will generate the birdie opportunities required to score in fantasy formats.
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This column was provided to The Associated Press by DailyRoto, http://dailyroto.com