The first article I ever wrote for Fantasy Alarm was about a year and a half ago, and it was centered on my process for creating a cash game lineup.  You can still find that article by going to http://www.fantasyalarm.com/articles/kennethle/21851/dfs-mlb-strategy-constructing-your-cash-game-lineup/.

Amazingly, there’s still A TON of things relevant about that article. For one, Vegas odds still play a really important part in lineup construction in the sense that you want to get a good idea of any type of outliers for any particular slate. If you see that there are 10 games with an O/U of 7.5 or less but then there might be three games with an O/U of 10 or more, it’s going to be a situation where you absolutely cannot ignore the 10+ O/U games. The Vegas oddsmakers are still very good at what they do, and are very important to look at whether it is a cash game or a GPP tournament. They can give you a very good idea of what the majority of “cash” game players are going to be looking at; thus, give you a good idea of what you probably shouldn’t be overlooking yourself.

I think one of the other things it will really help you with is narrowing down your starting pitcher. If we’re talking cash games, you don’t really need to be getting too frisky with your choices. In my original article, I faded Clayton Kershaw, but in reality, if you find an Ace pitcher like Kershaw or Max Scherzer in a good matchup with few viable alternatives, you’re more than likely going to want to insert them into your lineup. With that said, I am a proponent for taking a risk every now and then when you feel it’s the right situation. Generally speaking, the majority of cash game players are not the type of player who will be willing to fade someone like a Kershaw when there’s a lack of viable options on a slate. I for one am very capable of going for the big fade as long as I have very good reasons to do so.  For instance, maybe there’s a game you’re extremely confident in rostering hitters from, but they’re way too expensive (more on this later).

In my original cash game article, I said…

“The underrated thing about going for a pitcher with low ownership and a big savings compared to a high-priced chalky pitcher is that if your pitcher doesn’t do as well he should have, you still have the ability to make up points in order to make it to the money line with your loaded hitting options.”

Not only does this still hold true, but it’s also a situation where if the high-priced chalky pitcher blows up, you have a HUGE advantage over the next guy, and you won’t even need a huge night from your hitters to cash. At the other end of the spectrum, yes, it is true that it won’t hurt you too much if you end up playing a Kershaw who doesn’t get past five innings, doesn’t get a win, and doesn’t get more than five strikeouts because 50-to-80 percent of the field might also have him. But the other thing about this is that you’re still going to be in a crapshoot when it comes to the likelihood of cashing given the fact that there’s a good chance you’ll be sharing a lot of the chalky “value plays” with 50-to-80% percent of the field because they’re all rostering those above-average value plays in order to afford paying up for someone like Kershaw.

This takes me to another thing that cash game players need to think about, and that’s COORS FIELD. If you are playing cash games and Coors Field is in play, you’re more than likely going to have to take a hard look at fitting one or possibly a few of the Coors guys into your lineup. Sometimes it’s going to be harder than others, but if you ever spot a “value” Coors guy, e.g. Tom Murphy and David Dahl at certain points last season, it’s virtually a lock and load type of situation. The upside is way too good to ignore. If we’re talking about someone like Murphy, he was in a situation where he was consistently cheap, yet commonly providing 10x value at a position with very few quality options.

But then again, there are going to be times when you want to fade Coors. Obviously, there are going to be times when good pitchers are taking the hill, yet pricing doesn’t change. Again, more Kershaw talk; I’m not going to roster Charlie Blackmon if he remains at $5000 with a matchup against Clayton Kershaw. But there’s also times when pricing gets a significant increase to the point where it kills your ability to field a competitive lineup. Yes, Nolan Arenado is always an appealing option, but not at the expense of having to fade a Max Scherzer vs. San Diego while mixing in a bunch of crappy $2k-to-$3k value plays everywhere.

Ultimately, you’ll be able to use a lot of the tools that we offer in our DFS Playbook PRO in order to construct your lineup. Once you are able to take your research to the next level, you’ll be able to find your own strategies to identify the best plays of any particular slate. In my original article, I mentioned recent play, LHP/RHP splits, and cost as three of the biggest factors that I consider when constructing a lineup. That absolutely still holds true, but I’ve also grown to consider other metrics like contract rates, ISO, and PITCHf/x with my research.

When you put the time and effort into your lineups, it gives you the best chance to cash on any given night. Sorry, folks. It’s as simple as that. Being a good DFS player absolutely takes a lot of time and effort. We at Fantasy Alarm try our very best to cut down the time you’re spending on research, but DFS baseball is a very complex game that has endless data for you to inspect. In the end, the more time you spend on constructing your lineups, the better chance you give yourself of winning.

This takes me to my final point: STICK WITH ONE SITE. You are only doing yourself more harm by playing two, three, or even four daily fantasy sites at one time. The reason being is that salaries and roster construction is going to be different for each site. If I end up playing on DraftKings, FanDuel, AND FantasyDraft on one particular slate, I’m only going to be able to devote an X amount of time on the roster construction for each site. Sticking with one site and devoting all of your time and energy on one site will make it less overwhelming, and give you an edge on the random pros who do decide to play on all three sites. By the way, even though I am saying “stick with one site,” it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play on other sites. Maybe Monday I play on DraftKings, Tuesday I play on FanDuel, Wednesday I play on FantasyDraft. I am all for it because you might actually find yourself as a better player on one site than another. For instance, a few seasons ago, I played on a former site that will remain nameless EVERY SINGLE DAY OF THE DFS NHL SEASON. The reason I did it was because I found that I was cashing at a rate of 75-to-80 percent throughout the season. I might have been still good on DraftKings or FanDuel, but if I’m “that good” at a certain site, why bother taking my chances on another site where my records might not be as good?

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Kenneth Le is a top player DFS MLB and NHL player and is a Senior Expert and NHL Director at Fantasy Alarm. You can find him on the Fantasy Alarm Forums and on Twitter @kle18.