With Opening Day less than a month away, there’s no time like the present to start cramming for your fantasy baseball drafts. And there’s no better resource to help guide you to another championship than our 2019 MLB Draft Guide. This year’s edition is as jam packed as ever with over 1,500 player profiles, customizable projections, rankings, positional tiers and a ton of exclusive columns.
One of those columns is Spencer Limbach’s 10 Stats for DFS Success column where he offers 10 stats that can boost DFS success. Here’s a small sampling of what you can get in the full online Draft Guide.
Park Factor
Not all ballparks are created equal; it’s one of the many charms of this sport. It’s also an imperative piece to recognize when playing daily fantasy baseball. Obvious contributing factors such as dimensions, air density and seasonal temperatures play a huge role. However, keep in mind that different stadiums accentuate certain types of hitters. For example, Target Field and Yankee Stadium have similar overall park factors, but the short porch of right field in Yankee Stadium provides a substantial boost to left-handed power hitters with pulling tendencies. That same hitter would have a harder time reaching the right field stands at Target Field due to the respective dimensions. Investigating the quirks of each ballpark is a worthwhile endeavor for any daily fantasy participant.
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Batter vs. Pitcher (BvP)
Some daily fantasy enthusiasts dismiss BvP stats due to the small sample size. I believe it can be used as one of several screening tools as long as you take the numbers with a grain of salt. The evolution of hitters and pitchers over time can sometimes convolute the story of these BvP metrics. For example, Albert Pujols may have dominated a certain pitcher while in his prime with the Cardinals. He’s obviously a less dangerous hitter in 2019, and we’ll want to keep that in mind … In conclusion, you can reference BvP numbers as a small part of the big picture as long as you are aware of the overall context.
Fly Ball Rate (FB%)
Fly ball rate is pretty straightforward. It simply calculates the percentage of fly ball allowed by a pitcher relative to his total pitch count. While there are some quality fly ball pitchers in the majors, they can occasionally run into trouble whenever the park factor (discussed earlier) is working against them. For example, Minnesota RHP Jake Odorizzi has an inflated 46% career fly ball rate that resulted in tough outings and plenty of homeruns against formidable opponents in above average hitting ballparks through the 2018 season.
For the rest of this column, and everything else in the Draft Guide, you can purchase here! Take advantage of our package deals and gain access to our MLB Season Pass and MLB DFS Toolkit products as well!
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