Unlike traditional fantasy baseball, which has utilized the same two scoring systems (Rotisserie and Head-to-Head) for a few decades now, Daily Fantasy baseball has many more differences that must be taken into account.
Previously, we discussed why playing on several DFS sites can be beneficial, but only if it’s done in a manageable way. (We’ve also outlined DFS sites ranked by popularity.) But if you play on several DFS sites, there are tons of potholes you must avoid as you prepare your lineups.
Each site utilizes different scoring systems, and not all of them use the same lineup settings. This article is meant to help you distinguish what’s more important from one DFS site to another in terms of fantasy scoring.
To compare sites, we’ll use FanDuel, DraftKings and DraftDay because most of the other DFS sites have similar scoring to at least one of these three. For instance, FantasyHub.com has a scoring system and lineup setup that’s very similar to DraftKings.
For the purposes of this article, we’re going to talk only about cash-game strategies unless otherwise specified.
All We Do is Win, Win, Win, No Matter What!
A helpful starting point is to figure out how many points are generally needed to cash a 50/50 game on a typical night at the various DFS sites. While this is by no means scientific, these totals are good targets based on past experience:
- FanDuel: 35
- DraftKings: 85
- DraftDay: 170
Understand that every night is its own entity and that plenty of variables—including number of participants and games played—can affect the average score. But again, these are the scores you’ll likely need to give yourself a chance in 50/50s.
Making a Pitch For Different Scoring Systems
Pitchers are the most important slot in your lineup because they typically have more scoring upside than hitters (though there are exceptions). Pitchers are important not only because they score a lot, but because they have the most opportunities to do your team harm. A pitcher will face 20, 30 or 40 batters in a game, and you need to have one that’s capable of controlling the damage. Batters, oppositely, get just four or five (at most) plate appearances per game, which means far fewer scoring chances comparatively.
Each of the three main sites score pitching a little differently, and knowing the differences allows you to figure out what types of pitchers to target.
Scoring for pitchers:
- FanDuel: IP (+1), Win (+4), ER (-1), K (+1)
- DraftKings: IP (+2.25), Win (+4), Loss (-2), ER (-2), K (+2), Hit/Walk/HB (-0.6), CG (+2.5)
- DraftDay: IP (+3), Win (+10), Loss (-5), ER (-3), K (+3), Hit/Walk/HB (-1)
Notice that all three sites reward as many positive points for a strikeout as negative points for earned runs. And while it’s nice to get that extra 2.5 points for a complete game, they’re too difficult to predict, and anyone pitching a complete game is likely totaling tons of points in the other categories for those DFS sites anyway. We’re mostly looking at innings, wins, earned runs and strikeouts.
Let’s look at a pitcher picking up a win on a quality start (6 IP, 3 ER), with 1 K/IP and a 1.50 WHIP.
- FanDuel: 4, 6, -3, 6 = 13 pts
- DraftKings: 4, 13.5, -6, 12, -5.4 = 29.5 – 11.4 = 18.1
- DraftDay: 10, 18, -9, 18, -9 = 28
While we’re hoping for much better than a quality start out of our pitchers, this is about the average of what to expect. As you can see, there are significant scoring differences among the three sites.
Now, let’s compare that to what it takes to win a 50/50 game on each site, which we mentioned before, to see what percentage of points a quality start will give you toward a win. Remember, both DraftKings and DraftDay require two starting pitchers, so we double their points (as if they each got a quality start):
- FanDuel: 13 pts out of 35 = 37%
- DraftKings: 36.2 out of 85 = 42.5%
- DraftDay: 56 out of 170 = 32.9%
To take this further, let’s see what a win, on its own, is worth percentage-wise for each site.
- FanDuel: 4 pts – 11.4%
- DraftKings: 4 – 4.7% (multiplied by 2 for each starting pitcher, 9.4%)
- DraftDay: 10 – 5.8% (multiplied by 2 for each starting pitcher, 11.6%)
A quality start without the win makes the biggest difference on DraftDay and FanDuel. Wins are much less important on DraftKings. What about if those quality starts turn into losses, rather than wins or no-decisions?
- FanDuel: 0 pts difference (FanDuel does not deduct for a loss)
- DraftKings: (-2) – 2.35% (multiplied by 2 for each starting pitcher, 4.7%)
- DraftDay: (-5) – 2.9% (multiplied by 2 for each starting pitcher, 5.8%)
So not only does getting a win matter most on DraftDay, but not getting a loss means more too! Here’s the point differential going from a win to a loss on all three sites:
- FanDuel: (-4 pts) – 11.4% difference
- DraftKings: (-6 pts) – 7% (with two pitchers, 14% difference)
- DraftDay: (-15 pts) – 8.8% (with two pitchers, 17.6% difference)
The takeaway from this section is that a win makes the biggest difference on FanDuel, and a win versus a loss makes the biggest difference on DraftDay. But wins are least important, in comparison, on DraftKings.
On DraftKings, innings appear to be the secret sauce, as a six-inning outing counts for:
- FanDuel: 6 pts – 17.1% difference
- DraftKings: 13.5 pts – 15.9% (with two pitchers, 31.8% difference)
- DraftDay: 18 pts – 10.6% (with two pitchers, 21.2% difference)
Understand that the scoring systems versus that day’s price on a pitcher is still what decides the true values. If a pitcher costs $11,000 on FanDuel, taking up 31.4% of the $35,000 salary cap, and it scores 13 points ($846 per pt)—compared to an $8,000 pitcher that scores 10 points ($800 per pt)—then that second pitcher has better value. But remember, you still need to make up that points difference with your hitters to reach the 50/50 mark. So sometimes, you’ll need to take the worse value for more points, and offset that by taking cheaper hitters.
We’ll do a site-by-site comparison next week for hitters, to see which sites reward power, base hits or speed more.