MLB Yahoo! DFS Strategy: May 31st (FREE)

Welcome to the Friday Yahoo! DFS MLB strategy guide. We look to have clear sailing from a precipitation perspective heading into the weekend.

Click this link and use the promo code Awesemo when making your first deposit and you will be eligible for $30 of “free play” which Yahoo! will match through the first $30 of your deposit (this bonus will be received in Yahoo Sports Rewards Points aka YSRP which can be used to enter any paid contest immediately).

Act fast as Yahoo! is running a $6,000 prize pool contest with no management fee for just $3 per lineup with a maximum of ten that is rapidly filling up – they also have their marquee $15,000 with $2,000 top prize for Friday as well!

We will utilize this series to point out the different nuances, tips and tricks to building a solid Yahoo! tournament lineup.

Salary Cap

Yahoo! has a similar roster setup as most of the two-pitcher formats, but their salary cap is quite a unique puzzle to tackle each day.  It’s worthwhile to spend some time trying out different roster combinations – playing with how much of the salary cap you are allocating to pitching and hitting. The savvy gamer will be able to find some gems among the hitters in the $7-10 range which is crucial to working in some top-shelf talent.

Scoring System

For those of you new to the site, please note that the scoring has been tweaked since last season. When compared to the other popular scoring formats it’s more punitive for pitchers allowing base runners and is less rewarding for “team stacking” (i.e. taking three or more hitters from the same team in adjacent or nearly adjacent spots in the batting order) with runs and RBI slightly discounted when compared to individual batter scoring of slightly more points proportionally for extra base hits, walks and hit by pitch categories.

Basic Strategy

In the past, I’ve found that even though the Yahoo! format allows us to roster as many as six players from the same team, their unique pricing and two-pitcher format have somewhat muted the need for team stacking and as detailed above, the slight changes to their scoring system will continue to encourage that trend.

Target Pitchers

For those of you new to Yahoo!, learning how to read into the pitcher pricing is key to building competitive lineups. The minimum price for pitchers is $25 while we can see some of the top-shelf aces like Chris Sale, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander crest just over $60 depending on their recent performance and matchup.

LHP Chris Sale at New York Yankees ($53) clearly based on the preceding paragraph we are getting a decent price reduction on Sale who has finished in the top six of the Cy Young Award voting SEVEN TIMES without bringing home the hardware. He has fanned 33.7% of all batters faced this season which is jaw dropping and we know that even without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton who are veritable wind machines, the Yankees still have the ninth highest strikeout rate in the league this season against southpaws at 25.6% and they have a bottom three 74 wRC+ (weighted runs created plus is an advanced metric that neutralizes ballpark factors and creates a league-wide scoring efficiency baseline of 100) which means they score 26% less efficiently than the average team does against lefties. We can anchor our rosters with Sale tonight with a couple of the discounted batters covered below.

LHP Tyler Corbin at Cincinnati Reds ($51) in his last outing, Corbin had a complete game shut out of the Miami Marlins and while we likely won’t see that against the Reds not many gamers are going to give a lot of consideration to Corbin if they are going to be at the top of the pitching menu with Chris Sale just two bucks more and RHP Trevor Bauer just two dollars less. That makes Corbin an intriguing tournament option and while the Great American Ballpark is not a pitching friendly environment, the Reds have struggled this season against lefties with a 79 wRC+ which is the sixth lowest in the league and we know that Corbin should reach the century mark for pitches, so from a price per pitch perspective, this is a pretty good deal for a hurler with a 2.85 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and a 10.03 K/9 rate.

LHP Joey Lucchesi vs Miami Marlins ($39) this price and the matchup with the Marlins are going to have our third recommended southpaw as one of the most popular pitchers on Yahoo! Friday which will mark the 37th MLB start of his career during which he has posted a 4.14 ERA, 1.26 WHIP with a very impressive 9.8 K/9 rate while succeeding in relative obscurity for the Padres. The Marlins have a low 18.5 K% against lefties, however, they also have the worst mark in the league with a 63 wRC+ which as noted above, indicates that they score A THIRD LESS RUNS against lefties than the average team in the league under similar circumstances.  Enjoy!

Check out FREE Spotlight Hitters and Stacks for Friday click here

Discount Dandies

As mentioned above, it is important to know how to find discounted hitters in solid situations and also understand what the “opportunity” cost may be by giving up a key power hitting position like 1B/3B for a discounted option who may not have a lot of power.

C – Martin Maldonado ($9) there are not really any stand out catching options in the projected lineups that are coming with a strong discount, so I am content to spend a couple bucks over the Yahoo! minimum with Maldonado who will be in a lineup poised to make some noise against RHP Ariel Jurado who allows about 80% of opposing hitters to put the ball in play, it is going to be nearly 90 degrees at first pitch in Texas and the Rangers bullpen is not intimidating to say the least.

1B – Matt Adams vs. RHP Tyler Mahle ($9) while going with a discount player at first base often means we are missing out on some excellent options, Matt Adams does have light tower power and we have seen RHP Tyler Mahle struggle against opposite-handed batsmen allowing a 2.30 HR/9 to lefties with 21 home runs across his last 398 faced with a 6.01 ERA and a 5.51 xFIP.

2B – Nicky Lopez at RHP Ariel Jurado ($8) we should see the talented rookie leading off for the Royals on Friday night and they are carrying a 5.3 implied run total which should not be a surprise with the environmental breakdown supplied in the Martin Maldonado section above.

3B – Colin Moran vs. RHP Jhoulys Chacin ($8) just a dollar off the pricing floor we can get a solid power hitter in Colin Moran who is going against a pitcher in RHP Jhoulys Chacin who has allowed has allowed a hefty 11.1 BB% to left-handed hitters along with a subpar 14.8 K% and  a.178 ISO since the beginning of last season.

OF – Derek Fisher at RHP Mike Fiers ($7) he is not a great player, but he is cheap and will be batting at the top of the order for the injury decimated Astros who are without Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa and Aledmys Diaz.  RHP Mike Fiers does have two career no-hitters, but he is far from an intimidating pitcher and if we are looking for some extreme savings, then Fisher is not the worst place to go… just note that he will be wildly popular.

As always, you can reach out to me in Awesemo.com Premium Slack or on Twitter @EMacDFS if you have any questions.

Good Luck Gamers! ~ EMac

Eric "EMac" MacPherson won the 2007 Fantasy Baseball grand prize (trip for two to the MLB All-Star game) in the Roto format on ESPN. He won again in 2008, this time in the H2H format. As one of the early adopters of daily fantasy sports, EMac has been providing content for baseball and basketball as well as both professional and college football since 2012 for a variety of websites including DraftKings Playbook, FanVice, RotoWorld, Daily Fantasy Bootcamp, and RotoGrinders. He is well into his third decade of fantasy sports and has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Follow him on Twitter @EMacDFS or contact EMac by emailing [email protected].

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