Welcome to the RotoPicks.com introductory daily fantasy baseball page! The daily format is quite a bit different than the old fashioned fantasy baseball league in that your league only lasts only one day. You pay your entry fee, play, and get paid all in the same day!
Daily Fantasy Sports Explained
Fantasy sports leagues of the past consisted of drafts, be it auction or snake draft, and you had a roster of players for an entire year. Through trades and free agent or waiver wire pickups, you were able to change your roster. In a DFS league, you have one lineup for one day. All of your points amass in that one day and results are based on only that day's performances. In case you're wondering, this game is completely legal to play and most of DFS sites are based within the USA.
Advantages of Daily Fantasy Baseball
As you can probably assume, there are tons of advantages when you play in a daily fantasy baseball league. First off, injuries have no effect on your team. If you lose your best player in a year-long fantasy league, you are in trouble. In a daily fantasy contest, you simply do not draft injured players (check out all of our daily fantasy baseball injury page in the left menu to stay up to date), so you are always packing serious heat with a roster full of healthy players.
Another advantage is that a bad draft in a season-long league leaves you scrambling the waiver wire and negotiating trades to upgrade your team, a very tedious task. In daily fantasy baseball, when you have a bad draft, you can start over the next day with a new team!
Another advantage of playing on daily fantasy sports sites is that they offer deposit bonuses which is FREE money! Most DFS sites offering bonuses up to 100% of your first deposit. (Check out a full list of bonuses here!) You can also take advantage of freerolls which are free contests that pay out cash prizes!
Lastly, gone are the days where you have to nag your friends to pay their entry fee. Daily fantasy sports sites like DraftKings and FanDuel collect all of the entry fees ahead of time for you and payout your winnings immediately, the same day!
Types of Daily Fantasy Baseball Contests
Daily Fantasy Baseball contests come in all shapes and sizes on sites like DraftKings and FanDuel, two of our favorite sites, but in no means are they the only sites available.
Salary Cap Leagues
Most leagues are salary cap leagues in daily fantasy baseball. You have a maximum amount of money you can spend on a roster (varies by site), and a set number of positions you must fill. Each player has a salary and you have to stay under the salary cap to field a valid team.
There are different kinds of salary cap games:
Guaranteed Prize Pools (GPPs)
GPPs are salary cap contests that offer guaranteed prizes because they anticipate a large entrant pool. These games can offer thousands of dollars in prizes and you typically have to finish in the top 10-15% of entrants to win money. High risk, but wow, HIGH REWARD! Draftkings has run contests where the winner has taken home ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
Head to Head
Deemed by some to be the purest of all daily fantasy baseball games, a head to head salary cap baseball matchup is just you versus one other player, winner take all. Become a shark with our advice and dominate your competition! A well educated DFS player WILL eventually take down almost any opponent you are facing!
Leagues
Leagues range from 3 to 20 players and payout to the top 20-33% of entrants. These are also salary cap based and provide a nice middle ground to heads up and large guaranteed prize pool tournaments.
Double Ups and 50/50
Double Ups and 50/50s are basically the same in that you pretty much win double your entry fee if you finish in the top half of the league. The difference is that double ups literally double your entry fee if you win, and the rake (the money the DFS site makes) is made by having a little more than double the amount of prize winners entering the contest (e.g. a 112 person double up might pay double to its top 50 finishers). 50/50s on the other hand are literally half of the entrants win, but their winnings are a little less than double their entry fee. For all intents and purposes, these two types of contests have the same strategies, and differ only in how the daily fantasy site takes their rake.
Daily Fantasy Baseball Scoring and Rosters
FanDuel vs. DraftKings MLB
| Fanduel | DraftKings | |
|---|---|---|
| Positions | P, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF | P, P, C, 1B/DH, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF |
| Salary Cap | $35,000 | $50,000 |
| Hitter Scoring | 1B = 1pt | Single = 3 pts |
| 2B = 2pts | Double = 5 pts | |
| 3B = 3pts | Triple = 8 pts | |
| HR = 4pts | Home Run = 10 pts | |
| RBI = 1pt | RBI = 2 pts | |
| R = 1pt | Run = 2 pts | |
| BB = 1pt | Walk = 2 pts | |
| SB = 2pts | Hit By Pitch = 2 pts | |
| HBP = 1pt | Stolen Base = 5 pts | |
| Out (calculated as at bats - hits) = -.25pt | Caught Stealing = -2 pts | |
| Pitcher Scoring | W = 4pts | Inning Pitched = 2.25 pts |
| ER = -1pt | Strikeout = 2 pts | |
| SO = 1pt | W = 4 pts | |
| IP = 1pt* | Earned Run Allowed = -2 pts | |
| *Fractional scoring per out. | Hit Allowed = -0.6 pts | |
| Walk = -0.6pts | ||
| Hit Batsman = -0.6 pts | ||
| Complete Game = 2.5 pts | ||
| Shutout = 2.5 pts | ||
| No Hitter = 5 pts |
Draftkings - Offers RotoPicks readers a special 100% sign-up bonus up to $600 on their first deposit! Offers TONS of daily salary cap leagues! Earn Frequent Player Points (FPP's) for playing, which can be redeemed for free entries into real cash leagues!
Victiv - Offers exciting NEW option where you get to select a pinch hitter who becomes active in your lineup if the PH's stats are better than one of your rostered players! They also offer a FAT 100% bonus up to $1000!
Daily Fantasy Baseball GPP Strategy - Winning daily fantasy MLB player Jlowery73 gives tips and advice on how to win guaranteed prize pool tournaments. His strategy also applies to daily salary cap leagues.
How to Learn From Losing - Analyzing your losing teams is almost as important as studying for upcoming league drafts. A great article by a very sharp fantasy mind!
Pro's and Con's of Stacking - A controversial topic in most daily fantasy baseball chats to say the least! Tim breaks it down.
Handicapping Pitcher vs. Hitter Stats - Winning DFBB players do their homework. Learning how to properly handicap player matchups is one of the most important variables to winning. Learn more here!
What is WHIP in Baseball? - One of the most important statistics when it comes to pitchers in fantasy baseball! You can't win long term using hurlers who constantly have men on base!
How to Calculate ERA - Earned run average is super important when evaluating a MLB pitcher and most people don't even know the calculation! Adam explains it all here.
What are Sabermetrics? - Adam explains the most popular of these Bill James created statistics which seem to be growing in popularity each season.
Daily Fantasy Baseball Rules - Different DFS sites offering different formats and scoring systems. This article features FD and DK's formats and offers strategies to help you win.
