I texted my buddy Marty Wednesday, worried I had made a mistake. I couldn’t understand why nobody else in my MLB DFS games had played Bartolo Colon. Did they know something I didn’t? Was the game going to get rained out? Did Colon have an injury? Hadn’t everyone seen how terrible the Cubs had looked the past week? Wasn’t it obvious Colon would shut down the Cubs just like the Dodgers and Cardinals had?

Of course, not everyone had seen the Cubs. As a Chicagoan, and a Cubs fan, I obviously had a different perspective on the Cubs than most. In fact, I had just attended a game at Wrigley Field the week before, which is why I was confident (initially) if Carlos Frias could shut down the Cubs lineup, Bartolo Colon could, too. If I was living in another city or rooting for another team I may not have realized how the Cubs offense had sputtered, or I may have chalked it up to bad luck.

The lesson to be learned is simple: there is no substitute for watching games. You can certainly have fantasy—and DFS—success without watching the games, but there is no doubt watching games helps, even if you may not realize it at the time.

Watching a game can help put the numbers into the proper perspective. Reading the box score to learn the Cubs were shut out with eight hits is one thing; seeing everyone outside of Anthony Rizzo fail to even make hard contact is another entirely.  On the other hand, if you see Adam LaRoche square the ball up repeatedly only to have it go right at someone, you have an advantage over the guy who just sees an 0-for-4 in the box score.

Watching the games is also a good way to learn how players are used by their managers. You can notice things like Ryan Raburn coming out of the game as soon as a right-hander comes in from the bullpen, or how slow Jon Lester is to home plate. That knowledge could come in handy.

The other advantage of watching games is learning from the announcers. Most broadcasters do a lot of research before each game, and the local guys know their teams better than most. You never know when the play-by-play announcer will drop a useful bit of knowledge on your lap that you probably wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere.

I feel like most of the time when  watching games is brought up in, it is in reference to the NFL or to Spring Training. Watching games for MLB DFS purposes seems to be overlooked, which makes it that much more important. In the quest to gain every possible advantage over your opposition, this could be valuable.

Obviously I’m not saying you have to buy MLB.TV or abandon your social life so you can watch every game. All I am saying is if you have the time, you should try to watch some more baseball. It could help your MLB DFS play.

So, what do you think? How much baseball do you watch on average in a given week? Do you feel it helps your DFS Play? How so? More importantly, what topics should I explore for future MLB DFS Strategy articles? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.