How, if it all, has playing DFS helped or harmed your seasonal game play?
Jeff Erickson, www.rotowire.com, @Jeff_Erickson
Helped: I was able to jump on Jimmy Paredes right away by noticing how Buck Showalter was using him, adding him in both Tout Wars and in the XFL. While his plate discipline is rough, he’s still been worth a lot, especially in Tout Wars where I was hurting up the middle. In only leagues, a guy playing nearly every day, hitting in an advantageous spot in the lineup in a good park to hit off the waiver wire is gold.
Hurt: I’ve become so interested in DFS that I have missed a few opportunities to act in my season-long leagues, most often in Yahoo’s Friends & Family league, where we have First-Come, First-Serve pickups and daily moves.
Brian Walton, www.mastersball.com, @B_Walton
Given seasonal league rosters are primarily set before daily play begins, I don’t see a significant benefit to the former from the latter. Overall in my life, DFS is another mistress requiring more and more attention and time, which has to be taken from somewhere else. As a result, I have to believe DFS detracts from my seasonal play, which bothers me. I also sense it from peers who seem less responsive about trade inquiries with my guess that DFS is taking more of their time, too. I may be in the minority, but seasonal is still more important to me. If that makes me a dinosaur in a world of impending climate change, so be it.
Phil Hertz, www.baseballhq.com, @prhz50
No harm at all — perhaps because I don’t give DFS the same amount of attention ( and that may explain my level of success in DFS). The game that distracted me from seasonal play was ShandlerPark, but alas that is no more.
Scott Swanay, www.fantasybaseballsherpa.com, @Fantasy_Sherpa
It’s helped marginally by making me pay more attention to day-to-day transactions. My better half would argue that’s not a good thing . . .
Gene McCaffrey, www.wiseguys.com, @gene2323
DFS has hurt me a little in roto, but I suspected that DFS would take over my life and went out of my way to avoid high-maintainance roto teams this year. I can’t do that completely, and I have missed a few “what are the implications of this injury?” FAAB matters. There are so many, you know? I’m going to play less roto next year. The injuries have always been a pain in the ass but the last few years are just ridiculous. Almost every day someone goes down, often two a day. It’s not fun. DFS is fun.
Tim McCullough, www.rotoexperts.com, @Tim_RotoExperts
The research that is needed to put together a lineup each week has led to the discovery of some interesting split stats that I’ve put to use in season-long leagues with daily lineup moves. Using that information I’ve benched starting pitchers and hitters against certain teams and started them against others. I’ve also used that research when streaming pitchers, something I need to do in two season long leagues that allow a higher total innings pitched than usual.
Jeff Boggis, www.FantasyFootballEmpire.com, @JeffBoggis
Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) has helped me significantly on the way that I evaluate players for roster management, players to drop/add, and trades. DFS requires league managers to look at players via different sample sizes that you may not necessarily use in seasonal game play. In DFS formats, I like to use both the last 7 days and last 14 days of statistics when evaluating players to see who’s on a hot streak, who’s fading, and identifying bargains to play that evening. For example, over the past 7 days, J.D. Martinez (OF – DET) is the highest ranked player with 4 HRs and 10 RBIs, and FanDuel has raised his salary over the past month accordingly. But Gerardo Parra (OF – MIL) is the 2ndhighest ranked player over the past 7 days with 3 HRs and 5 RBIs, could still be at a much lower price compared to his 7 days stats. These are the types of players that I like to use not only in DFS contests, but also for roster management, players to drop/add, and trades in seasonal game play.
Craig Mish, www.craigmish.com, @CraigMish
Playing DFS more intensely has probably helped me in season long but it’s marginal. In general I am aware of rosters, adds, drops but I suppose the intricacies of how Managers set lineups has helped me a bit. In the past I didn’t pay enough attention to that and I can gauge more value in a player thanks to DFS and where he is in his MLB lineup.
Jake Ciely, www.rotoexperts.com, @allinkid
It hasn’t harmed my seasonal play, but it has made me participate in less leagues. Isn’t that the case every year? We always promise to cut back and then never do. However, with DFS being infinitely easier in juggling multiple teams, I actually cut back on seasonal this year. I kept my requirements to three expert leagues and one home league, which is about 1/3 to 1/4 of what I normally do. A large part has to do with my uncanny injury luck… hence the fan-created #ICCU tag on Twitter (I Ciely Curse U). It’s frustrating to lose numerous valuable players to the DL in seasonal, and it creates a luck factor that baseball is supposed to have less of due to the long season. It’s also hard to maintain interest in leagues that don’t involve money (err… prizes) or have eight guys manning the DL roster. In DFS, your interest is renewed daily, and it’s why I’ve cut back on seasonal.
Paul Sporer, www,fangraphs.com, @sporer
It’s helped as I’m more in-tune with how players are doing RIGHT now as opposed to generally. Of course, even before DFS, I followed the game day-in and day-out and consistently looked at every boxscore everyday, but you really remember how players are performing when you DFS them. I think it’s helped me find some better waiver finds for my season long. If I have a guy in DFS, chances are I’ll try to check out at least 1-2 ABs and thus I feel I have a better handle on them and sooner.
Todd Zola, www.mastersball.com, @ToddZola
I play in a bunch of high stakes NFBC leagues and have noticed the hot-button players in DFS often go for more FAAB units so I know to bid a little more if the player was a DFS darling. In addition, following the transactions on a daily basis, which is necessary to identify lower owned DFS candidates lessens the amount of work I need to do on Sunday (NFBC FAAB day) since I’ve already done the legwork. Finally, with all the great DFS analysts out there, it has helped getting additional opinions and analysis on some players before I invest.
On the other hand, I wrote about this on Fantasy Alarm, the DFS grind has contributed to my overall malaise at times, feeling burned out and neglecting my seasonal squads, as well as not putting maximum effort into my DFS play.