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 |
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| Twins | 27 |
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| 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 |
RF | 62 | 23 | 9 | 9 | .323 | 59 | ||
1B | 69 | 21 | 8 | 12 | .203 | 49 | ||
3B | 73 | 17 | 7 | 6 | .260 | 46 | ||
2B | 73 | 14 | 8 | 17 | .301 | 37 | ||
LF | 62 | 18 | 7 | 19 | .274 | 34 | ||
2B | 76 | 15 | 6 | 12 | .224 | 33 | ||
3B | 72 | 10 | 6 | 8 | .264 | 32 | ||
3B | 84 | 19 | 7 | 25 | .298 | 29 | ||
SS | 73 | 14 | 5 | 11 | .301 | 28 | ||
LF | 66 | 15 | 5 | 13 | .364 | 27 | ||
DH | 76 | 14 | 5 | 12 | .171 | 27 | ||
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