Fantasy Baseball for Smart People
How to Profit Big During MLB Season
Jonathan Bales, Founder of RotoAcademy
All Rights Reserved 2015
Jonathan Bales. First Printing: 2015. The editorialarrangement, analysis, and professional commentary are subject to thiscopyright notice. No portion of this book may be copied, retransmitted,reposted, duplicated, or otherwise used without the express written approval ofthe author, except by reviewers who may quote brief excerpts in connection witha review.
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Table of Contents
Fantasy Baseballfor Smart People: How to Profit Big During MLB Season
I. This Is My Intro
My daily fantasy baseball philosophy
Why and how you should embrace variance
Using game theory in daily fantasy sports
How antifragility applies to DFS
II. Perfecting the Process: How (and What) to Research for Daily FantasyBaseball
Which stats matter most for pitchers/batters
Understanding splits
Where to find relevant information on stats, weather, lineups, Vegas lines, andmore
How to conduct your own daily fantasy baseball research
III. Cash Games vs Tournaments: How to Win Different League Types
How to maximize the odds of winning in cash games
How to understand upside to win tournaments
Using player ownership to win large GPPs
Player consistency stats
IV. Chasing Dongs: Selecting Batters in Daily Fantasy Baseball
Maximizing the probability of home runs
Which stats matter for base-stealers
How to use batted ball profiles to your advantage
How batting order affects success in cash games versus GPPs
V. An Arms Race: Selecting Pitchers in Daily Fantasy Baseball
Emphasizing consistency to select the right pitchers
How to predict strikeouts
Understanding pitcher ownership for tournament success
When to go cheap on your arms
VI. Data, So Hot Right Now, Data
How game start times affect usage
How DraftKings production compares for home/away teams
Which teams are the most successful to stack
The best offenses versus lefties/righties
VII. The Jonathan Bales Chapter of General Daily Fantasy BaseballHeuristics for Daily Fantasy Baseball Players Who Cant Play Good and Who WannaLearn to Do Other Stuff Good Too
56 Rules to Follow for daily fantasy baseball success
VIII. Sample from Daily Fantasy Pros Reveal Their Money-Making Secrets
An excerpt on how to use the Vegas lines
Postface
I. This Is My Intro
Both poker and investing (anddaily fantasy sports) are games of incomplete information. You have a certainset of facts and you are looking for situations where you have an edge, whetherthe edge is psychological or statistical.
David Einhorn
This is the 11th book in my FantasyFootball for Smart People book series. I guess its now the FantasySPORTS for Smart People series since, for the first time, Im writing abook that doesnt have any football content. But yeah, 11 books in a prettysmall nichea reflection of how much time I spend researching fantasy sports,sure, but also a testament to how little of a life I have. One mans lack ofsocial skills are another mans in-depth fantasy sports analysis.
I gained worldwide house-wide fame for my fantasyfootball analysis, but fantasy baseball is my favorite sport to play. Notseason-long fantasy baseballthat shit sucksbut daily fantasy baseball. Notonly does the nature of the game and scoring make it exhilarating to follow,but the day-to-day grind can be leveraged into huge profits. NFL for the show,MLB for the dough.
In 2014, I was lucky enough to qualify for the DraftKings FantasyBaseball Championship in the Bahamas, where I crushed a field of 50 to finish22nd. Too bad it wasnt a 50/50. I still won a nice chunk of cashfor that finish and, luckily, I made some equity swaps that put me on the rightside of variance. So that was fun.
If two years ago was a learning period and last season wasone for profitability, I think this upcoming season is really a massiveopportunity to dominate in daily fantasy baseball. That sentiment reallyapplies to anyone who is willing to put in the time to research and improve.Hopefully this book can be a step in that journey for you.
Like my book FantasyFootball (and Baseball) for Smart People, this book is going to beextremely data-driven. Once again, Ive worked with DraftKings to uncoverwhats really winning daily fantasy baseball leagues: which strategies arewinning cash games, how to approach tournaments, the optimal salary capdistribution, how much ownership affects win rates, and so much more reallycool stuff. I think DraftKingshas continually been an innovator in the daily fantasy sports industry, so abig thank you to the guys over there (specifically Rick Sawyer) for being suchan integral part of the creation of this book.
- Jonathan Bales, Author of FantasySPORTS for Smart People and Founder of RotoAcademy
How to Get the Most Out of This Book (Plus FREE CRAP)
Speaking of DraftKings,I have been working with them more and more over the past year. Im now a DraftKings Pro, and Imreally happy to be able to offer some pretty cool deals to my readers. I thinkyoure going to get a lot of value out of this book, but my goal is of courseto convert you into a long-term subscriber. To help do that, here are somebonuses/offers/free crap.
100% Deposit Bonus on DraftKings
If you sign up and deposit on DraftKings through one ofthe links in this book, youll immediately get a 100% deposit bonus up to $600.Thats up to $600 for free just for signing up and depositing at www.draftkings.com/r/bales.
Free Daily Fantasy Baseball Package
Perhaps the sickest freebie Im offering is my DailyFantasy Baseball Package. Filled with my favorite plays, best stacks,HR/K Predictorsbasically all of my day-to-day MLB researchyou can buy thepackage straight up, OR you can get it completely for free by signing up anddepositing on DraftKings.Thats a 100% deposit bonus and a $199.99 daily fantasy baseball package forfree just for signing up and depositing through a link in this book.
Note: If you sign up and deposit, email me at )to claim your free daily fantasy baseball package.
10% Off Everything On My Site (Books, DFS Packages, Etc)
If you want to purchase my DailyFantasy Baseball Package or any of the books in my FantasySports for Smart People book series, you can do that on my personal site.If you head over there, use the coupon code Smart10 at checkout to get10% off your entire order.
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