I finally gave in and I’m going to give daily fantasy sports (DFS) a shot this year. This is my first year playing so there will be bumps in the road, but if you read my fantasy guide you know I am going to be overly prepared before I do something.

I’m playing at Draft Kings so all of my analysis and picks will be based on their scoring system.

My Strategy

To maximize your scoring potential you need to find pitchers who throw a lot of innings, strikeout a lot of batters and have a good chance for a win. Since you also lose points for hitters reaching base (hits, walks, hits batsmen) you want to avoid high strikeout, high walk pitchers (Francisco Liriano for example). Also, if they’re walking a lot of batters their pitch counts will be high, which means they won’t pitch deep into games.

With hitters you want players who will hit for extra bases because the scoring increases progressively for extra base hit type. Also, there are no penalties for hitters making outs so you can draft a Mike Zunino and not worry so much if he goes 0-4 with three strikeouts. Power is emphasized in the scoring so it’s imperative to find players who are going to hit home runs and make hard contact.

Speed is another way to find easy points at a low cost, but you want to make sure you grab players who have a high stolen base success rate because you lost points for every caught stealing.

Last Note

This is the most obvious thing, but it has to be said. You are responsible for your own lineup. It is your decision to play or not play a specific player or in general. I’m giving the best analysis I can and if you agree then, that’s great. I’m going to be wrong sometimes. In fact I’ll probably be wrong a lot because like I said at the start I am a beginner there’s going to be a learning curve.

My 50/50 Double Up Lineup

• P: Stephen Strasburg (WSH) vs. D. Duffy (KC) — $10,000
  
• P: Jake Arrieta (CHC) vs. A. DeSclafani (CIN) — $9,300
  
• C: Jason Castro (HOU) vs. K. Gravemen (OAK) — $3,600
  
• 1B: Anthony Rizzo (CHC) vs. A. DeSclafani (CIN) — $5,200
  
• 2B: Luis Valbuena (HOU) vs. K. Gravemen (OAK) — $4,300
  
• 3B: Evan Longoria (TB) vs. D. Norris (TOR) — $4,000
  
• SS: Hidden
  
• OF: Michael Cuddyer (NYM) vs. CC Sabathia (NYY) — $4,200
• OF: Hidden
  
• OF: Hidden

Without a lot of good pitching available I decided to go with a pitcher heavy lineup. I almost used Anthony DeSclafani, but I didn’t like he facing Jake Arrieta and how the Cubs offense has gotten much better since Kris Bryant was called up (fifth in runs scored entering Friday).

Kenall Gravemen has struggled against lefties his entire career in the majors, which is why I went with Luis Valbuena and Jason Castro. I used the same strategy with Michael Cuddyer and Evan Longoria; over their careers they’ve fared much better against lefties than righties.

I finally gave in and I’m going to give daily fantasy sports (DFS) a shot this year. This is my first year playing so there will be bumps in the road, but if you read my fantasy guide you know I am going to be overly prepared before I do something.

I’m playing at Draft Kings so all of my analysis and picks will be based on their scoring system.

My Strategy

To maximize your scoring potential you need to find pitchers who throw a lot of innings, strikeout a lot of batters and have a good chance for a win. Since you also lose points for hitters reaching base (hits, walks, hits batsmen) you want to avoid high strikeout, high walk pitchers (Francisco Liriano for example). Also, if they’re walking a lot of batters their pitch counts will be high, which means they won’t pitch deep into games.

With hitters you want players who will hit for extra bases because the scoring increases progressively for extra base hit type. Also, there are no penalties for hitters making outs so you can draft a Mike Zunino and not worry so much if he goes 0-4 with three strikeouts. Power is emphasized in the scoring so it’s imperative to find players who are going to hit home runs and make hard contact.

Speed is another way to find easy points at a low cost, but you want to make sure you grab players who have a high stolen base success rate because you lost points for every caught stealing.

Last Note

This is the most obvious thing, but it has to be said. You are responsible for your own lineup. It is your decision to play or not play a specific player or in general. I’m giving the best analysis I can and if you agree then, that’s great. I’m going to be wrong sometimes. In fact I’ll probably be wrong a lot because like I said at the start I am a beginner there’s going to be a learning curve.

My 50/50 Double Up Lineup

• P: Johnny Cueto (CIN) vs. J. Nelson (MIL) — $9,500
  
• P: Jason Hammel (CHC) vs. V. Worley (PIT) — $7,200
  
• C: Joe Mauer (MIN) vs. J. Guthrie (KC) — $4,000
  
• 1B: Chris Davis (BAL) vs. A. Sanchez (BAL) — $4,700
  
• 2B: Jose Altuve (HOU) vs. J.A. Happ (SEA) — $4,200
  
• 3B: Nolan Areando (COL) vs. J. Shields (SD) — $4,200
  
• SS: Hidden
  
• OF: Charlie Blackmon (COL) vs. J. Shields (SD) — $4,300
• OF: Hidden
  
• OF: Hidden

For some reason the prices for the Rockies are lower than yesterday. Sure, James Shields is better than Brandon Morrow, but Shields isn’t an ace. I’ll gladly start my Rockies hitters against him. Corey Dickerson’s injury (mild plantar faciitis) worries me, which is why I’m not starting him. This is a gut call on Joe Mauer; Jeremy Guthrie struggles against lefties and Mauer should hit tonight and have at least 1-2 plate appearances with a runner on-base. Jose Altuve has a career .352/.389/.880 slash line against lefties; easiest pick for today. I debated between Prince Fielder and Chris Davis. Both are in good hitter’s ballparks and are facing young pitchers who struggle to get lefties out. I went with Davis because of the better supporting cast around him.

Johnny Cueto seemed like the easy pick. He’s pitching great and is facing a Brewers lineup without three of its best hitters. I almost went with David Price, but I think Jason Hammel can do well today. If you remove one month last year Hammel was exceptional and he’s still missing a lot of bats this year. On top of that he’s pitching in a great pitcher’s park.

Early in the morning I tweeted Nate Eovaldi would be a sneaky option in daily fantasy sports (DFS) because he’s never had a problem getting righties out (via the strikeout and ground balls) and the Tigers lineup was mostly right-handed hitters. True to my word I started Eovaldi in my double up contest and needless to say I was extremely happy with my pick.

Last night Eovaldi had trouble throwing the fastball down in the zone most of the night, which is why he allowed so many hits. Even though he allowed some base hits he still got out of jams via the double play (four to be exact), which wasn’t a big surprise to me considering righties had a 50 percent ground ball rate against him last year. Random tangent, Stephen Drew looked pretty good defensively at shortstop; he’s not going to win a gold glove, but he’s good enough to hold his own.

Other than the occasional curveball Eovaldi was basically a two-pitch pitcher (fastball and slider), which doesn’t bode well for him moving forward. Since he faced a righty heavy lineup he was able to get away it. If he’s going to have sustained success as a starting pitcher the split-changeup has to come around. The fact he didn’t throw any last night makes me believe he doesn’t have faith in that pitch yet. Moving forward I would only use him against right handed heavy lineups.

Other Notes

If I own Mark Melancon I would be very worried. Not only did he blow a two run lead, the velocity on the fastball and cutter or both 3-4 mph slower compared to last year. It’s possible he’s hurt because a velocity dip that much doesn’t happen randomly. If I owned Melancon I would pick up Tony Watson right now to protect my Pirates saves.

Taijuan Walker’s box score looks good, but the issues I wrote about before are still there. He would’ve allowed more runs, but he got a little lucky. Twice in the game the bases were loaded with two outs with Jose Altuve up and the Astros scored zero runs.

Evan Gattis has obviously struggled this season, but the question is will he rebound and when will it happen? I’ve seen a good number of his at-bats and the biggest thing I’ve noticed is the front side is flys open early against breaking balls, which results to a lot of swings and misses. Against non-fastballs his swing and miss rate is 55 percent; last year it was only 35 percent. If I can see a problem the Astros have to be aware of it so it’s only a matter of time Gattis rebounds.

Carlos Rodon made his Major League debut and I wasn’t impressed. He obviously has good stuff, but it doesn’t matter if he can’t throw strikes with it. He came into the game with runners on second and third and two outs with Brandon Moss at the plate. Rodon walks him on four straight pitches. Ryan Raburn comes up and he continues to not throw strikes; at this point he was unable to throw his slider for strikes, which allowed Raburn to sit fastball. Raburn eventually hit a double down the left field line, scoring two runs. In the next inning he allowed two more runs to score and in the following inning he almost allowed a home run to Raburn (another 1-3 inches further and it would’ve been a home run). My overall impression was he should still be in the minors working on his command, but it’s only outing so it’s hard to gleam anything significant. I also question if he’s going to have a third pitch. I only saw 1-2 changeups and they were bad. If the changeup doesn’t come around he’s a two-pitch pitcher, which means he’s going to need much better command of the fastball if he’s going to be a successful starting pitcher. It’s going to be awhile before he starts a game for the White Sox.