Points leagues are crazy chicks. You could choose a regular girl who will provide what you expect. You can settle in, get married, and have a nice relationship with the regular girl. If things don’t work out, you can pretty much do exactly the same things with the next one and have good shot at making it work out. Not with crazy chicks. [Jay’s Note: They all crazy, yo.] They play by their own rules and no two are alike. But if you can figure out the crazy girl, you get rewarded in a way only the twisted can appreciate. Magical things. Infinite glory. If you play in a points league, take a look at your relationship, or, more likely, lack thereof. Funny little thing those points leagues. I’m recently married, expecting my first child and my love of points leagues is growing. Dat green grass tho…
So basically, if you’re playin’ a points league, you must be on that green grass. Many of us partake, I know. It’s our forbidden pleasure… points leagues. What did you think I was sayin? You trying to put words in my mouth? Ain’t nobody heard of word munchies so back off. I’m just here to maximize what you get out of your league. The Razzball resident genius Rudy Gamble has created many a tool for you, and one of this year’s spawn is the result of a pandemic fervor for daily fantasy sports (DFS). If you play in a points league, you really oughta check out playing DFS. In fact, we got daily posts on how to win at Draftkings. But, I’m not here to sell you on DFS. I’m here to sell you a crazy chick that you can beat… whoa! That came out wrong. I’m here to help you win your points league. And I don’t condone beating crazy chicks so don’t tell me your stories.
What does DFS have to do with your season long league? Well, one of the coolest tools created this year is the DFSBot which highlights daily values of players compared to the assigned value at DFS betting sites such as Draftkings, Draftstreet and Fanduel. Those three sites happen to each have different scoring systems just like your points league(s) do. We shall not let this beautiful information go untapped. As I have said all along in these points league posts, the most important thing you can do to gain an edge and to win in your league is to understand the scoring format and take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses that are presented by it. The DFSBot is going to help you do this. Since it’s based on daily fantasy, the DFSBot only releases its findings on a daily basis for that day. It’s there to help you stream the very best of the best on a daily basis depending on your scoring format.
Lets take a look at the three scoring formats the DFSBot uses so that you can find which is closest to your points league. Then use the DFSBot to find streaming pitchers for your points league based upon the scoring format.
Draftkings:
IP (2.25 pts)
K (2 pts)
ER (-2 pts)
H/BB/HBP (-0.6)
W (4 pts)
CG (2.5 pts)
SO (2.5 pts)
NH (5 pts)
Draftkings scoring format gives a lot of points relative to most points formats. Rankings will normalize that. What’s important to note here is that this scoring format emphasizes IP and low WHIP. Most scoring formats give 1 point for IP and .25 for each hit, walk or beaned batter. Draftkings gives 1.25 times that for IP and 1.2 times that for baserunners (WHIP) if you normalize the inflation. Additionally, it rewards, complete games, shutouts and no-nos. This is the league for Tim Hudson, Julio Teheran, Mark Buehrle and Henderson Alvarez.
Fanduel
IP (1 pt)
K (1 pt)
ER (-1 pt)
W (4 pt)
Fanduel keeps it no frills. Honestly, they keep it most closely related to real team pitcher value, not getting too involved in all the fun fantasy stats that we love to overanalyze. WHIP doesn’t matter at all and it’s the most K heavy format. This is your league for Max Scherzer, Tim Lincecum, Danny Salazar, etc.
Draftstreet
IP (1 pt)
K (1 pt)
ER (-1 pt)
H/BB/HBP (-0.25 pt)
W (2 pts)
L (-1 pt)
CG (2 pts)
Draftstreet leagues, your pitcher’s value is most closely aligned with 5×5 roto leagues. You also get a boost for complete games and lose a point if your starter loses. It’s the only format of the three that penalizes for a loss, but gives the least for a win. The decision really is very inconsequential in this format so you can go with good pitchers on bad teams like Andrew Cashner, Ian Kennedy and Jeff Samardzija.
There are at least another hundred scoring formats out there and I encourage you to bring them to the forefront in the comments. Let’s find the hidden gems in your league format. In the meantime, use the DFSBot to find the best streamers for your league on a daily basis.
