Groundhog Day: Monthly Home Run Derby – MAY

PLAY ROTODERBY FOR JUST THE MONTH OF MAY – LESS THAN 40 SPOTS LEFT

This morning when I woke up, I saw an alarm clock that said 6:00am on it and heard Sonny and Cher singing “I Got You Babe.”  All I could think of was Groundhog Day, the 1993 movie with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.  I heard in my head the call for “Phil, Hey Phil. Phil Connors? I thought that was you.”  "Groundhog Day" is a movie where a weather man is stuck in the same day over and over.  He does the same thing over and over until he finally gets REALLY good at it.  So why could I not stop thinking about it?  BING!

“It’s still just once a year, isn’t it.”

 

CUSTOMIZED YEAR-TO-DATE STATS – Click on YTD and the pulldown on the right allows you to see RotoDerby Scoring. 

Most fantasy games are either daily or seasonal, well, RotoDerby makes it Groundhog Day on the last day of each month as you can play Home Run Derby again for just the month of May. RotoDerby is sooooo simple.  Take six infielders, including catchers, and four outfielders, under a 210 Home Run cap.  The cost of each player is the number of home runs they hit last year. 

So, how do you create winning lineups?

Playing the monthly version of RotoDerby is very different than the season-long version.  The first thing I do is eliminate any players who are injured.  Sounds simple, but so important. Then look for value in the number of games played by teams in the month of May to get the most games from my players. 

Here is a chart of the teams with the highest number of games played in May.

Target

Games in MAY

 

Avoid

Games in MAY

Padres

30

 

Braves

28

Nationals

30

 

Phillies

28

Marlins

29

 

Rockies

28

Blue Jays

29

 

Cardinals

28

Diamondbacks

29

 

Pirates

28

Mariners

29

 

Angels

28

White Sox

29

 

Orioles

28

Indians

29

 

Red Sox

28

Royals

29

 

Reds

28

Yankees

29

 

Brewers

28

Giants

29

 

Dodgers

28

Rangers

29

 

Athletics

27

Astros

29

 

Cubs

27

Mets

29

 

Tigers

27

 

 

 

Twins

27

 

 

 

Rays

26

 

This chart does not say do not take Miguel Cabrera.  His price is cheap.  What it does say is don’t take Anthony Rizzo since he costs a lot and plays three less games than Bryce Harper.

Nancy – she works in the dress shop and makes noises like a chipmunk when she gets real excited.

This is what gets me excited.  No not a chipmunk, groundhog or even a gopher like from the Harold Ramis film "Caddyshack."  Guess he likes rodents.  Well, I like stats. 

Here is a chart with all the players projected for 100 or more RotoDerby points sorted by points per dollar.  I didn’t remove the month of April or account for fast or slow starts.  I will do that when I build my team by considering Mark Teixeira who starts historically slow and Bryce Harper whose team plays 30 games in May and is off to an incredible start.

Last name

First name

Tm

HR

RBI

K

Salary

RD Pts

Pts/$$

Cabrera

Miguel

DET

27

104

102

18

137

7.61

Posey

Buster

SF

21

88

65

19

128

6.74

Beltre

Adrian

TEX

18

82

65

18

107

5.94

Cano

Robinson

SEA

23

86

88

21

113

5.38

Encarnacion

Edwin

TOR

36

105

84

39

201

5.15

Arenado

Nolan

COL

37

110

97

42

198

4.71

Moustakas

Mike

KC

23

73

86

22

102

4.64

Stanton

Giancarlo

MIA

36

100

155

27

125

4.63

Rizzo

Anthony

CHC

32

102

119

31

143

4.61

McCann

Brian

NYY

25

82

88

26

119

4.58

Jones

Adam

BAL

30

94

124

27

120

4.44

Gonzalez

Adrian

LA

26

100

109

28

121

4.32

Bautista

Jose

TOR

34

94

92

40

172

4.30

Ortiz

David

BOS

30

96

90

37

156

4.22

Teixeira

Mark

NYY

31

78

103

31

130

4.19

Pujols

Albert

LAA

29

90

68

40

167

4.18

Upton

Justin

DET

30

91

135

26

106

4.08

Davis

Khristopher

OAK

32

79

131

27

108

4.00

Duda

Lucas

NYM

33

96

153

27

108

4.00

Donaldson

Josh

TOR

34

106

123

41

153

3.73

Harper

Bryce

WAS

36

98

131

42

147

3.50

Frazier

Todd

CHW

33

87

131

35

121

3.46

Machado

Manny

BAL

31

78

115

35

118

3.37

Goldschmidt

Paul

ARI

30

101

147

33

104

3.15

Cespedes

Yoenis

NYM

27

99

126

35

108

3.09

Cruz

Nelson

SEA

35

94

146

44

123

2.80

Gonzalez

Carlos

COL

31

93

137

40

111

2.78

Trout

Mike

LAA

33

91

153

41

103

2.51

Davis

Chris

BAL

40

107

195

47

112

2.38

 

Here is a chart of some bargains.  This is the top 20 sorted by pts per dollar.

Last name

First name

Tm

HR

RBI

K

Salary

RD Pts

Pts/$$

Cabrera

Miguel

DET

27

104

102

18

137

7.61

Posey

Buster

SF

21

88

65

19

128

6.74

Franco

Maikel

PHI

22

78

101

14

87

6.21

Beltre

Adrian

TEX

18

82

65

18

107

5.94

Solarte

Yangervis

SD

17

58

62

14

81

5.79

Cano

Robinson

SEA

23

86

88

21

113

5.38

Encarnacion

Edwin

TOR

36

105

84

39

201

5.15

Brantley

Michael

CLE

12

56

39

15

77

5.13

Murphy

Daniel

WAS

11

70

54

14

71

5.07

Tulowitzki

Troy

TOR

22

71

96

17

85

5.00

Cron

C.J.

LAA

25

81

129

16

77

4.81

Betts

Mookie

BOS

19

75

85

18

85

4.72

Arenado

Nolan

COL

37

110

97

42

198

4.71

Moustakas

Mike

KC

23

73

86

22

102

4.64

Stanton

Giancarlo

MIA

36

100

155

27

125

4.63

Rizzo

Anthony

CHC

32

102

119

31

143

4.61

Ramirez

Hanley

BOS

23

71

99

19

87

4.58

McCann

Brian

NYY

25

82

88

26

119

4.58

Sano

Miguel

MIN

38

102

210

18

82

4.56

Correa

Carlos

HOU

25

92

118

22

99

4.50

 

You will need to have some of these to make your lineup successful.

“I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met a girl. We ate lobster, drank piña coladas. At sunset, we made love like sea otters. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get *that* day over, and over, and over...”

So, of course I am talking about the last day of last season when I won $1,300 playing RotoDerby.  Well, you can too.  You can have your own Groundhog Day and create as many of these lineups as you want.

Before you make a lineup, there is one more place to go. 

CUSTOMIZED YEAR-TO-DATE STATS – Click on YTD and the pulldown on the right allows you to see RotoDerby Scoring. 

Here is a snapshot of the leaders so far.

PLAYER

TM

POS

AB

RBI

HR

K

AVG

PTS

Bryce Harper

WSH

RF

62

23

9

9

.323

59

Anthony Rizzo

CHI

1B

69

21

8

12

.203

49

Nolan Arenado

COL

3B

73

17

7

6

.260

46

Neil Walker

NYM

2B

73

14

8

17

.301

37

Colby Rasmus

HOU

LF

62

18

7

19

.274

34

Robinson Cano

SEA

2B

76

15

6

12

.224

33

Mike Moustakas

KC

3B

72

10

6

8

.264

32

Josh Donaldson

TOR

3B

84

19

7

25

.298

29

Eugenio Suarez

CIN

SS

73

14

5

11

.301

28

Ryan Braun

MIL

LF

66

15

5

13

.364

27

Albert Pujols

LAA

DH

76

14

5

12

.171

27

Welington Castillo

ARI

C

62

12

6

15

.290

27

 

This is interesting because Pujols is batting .171 and doing this.  Moustakas, Walker, Cano and Rasmus are all guys who can be plugged in as their teams all play 29 games in May.

So, mix all this up and come up with a recipe for success.  Here is my May team.

With a dollar to spare.  If you look at this, it is a mix of fast start, good schedule and great projection.  The nice thing about a one month contest is you can grab a player like Michael Brantley who was hurt but is now healthy and a slow starting Giancarlo Stanton

PLAY ROTODERBY FOR JUST THE MONTH OF MAY – LESS THAN 40 SPOTS LEFT

This is one time where television really fails to capture the true excitement of a large squirrel predicting the weather. “