At FantasyLabs, we believe that we have the best tools and data available to those who play daily fantasy sports. We also realize that these tools and data are only as beneficial as our ability to communicate their functionality and worth.

With this in mind, our Trend of the Day series features articles that walk subscribers through an important trend each weekday, created with our Trends tool. Also, shortly after you create a trend, you will be able to see it under the “My Trends” column in our Player Models.

MLB Trend of the Day: Whether You Should Worry About the Weather

This Trend of the Day is not going to discuss precipitation. We all know how much it sucks when a game gets postponed or when your favorite pitcher is right on that edge between rosterable and too risky because of a couple of clouds. This article is going to talk about some underrated aspects of MLB DFS weather: Humidity and temperature.

I surmise that most people have no clue how those weather aspects affect players. We all intuitively know that rain is a negative factor because of the chance of postponement it brings. Humidity and temperate? Who knows. (You’re about to know.)

Step 1: Weather Details > Humidity > “.80 to .97”

Let’s start with humidity and look at how batters have performed under highly humid conditions. These trends are pretty straightforward (a.k.a. the best kind):

 

Historically, the more humid the day, the worse batters perform. OK, that’s useful. Now what about temperature?

Step 2: Weather Details > Temperature > “85 to 98”

I’m admittedly picking 85 degrees randomly, but that seems pretty hot, yeah? Here are how batters have performed under these conditions:

 

Unlike humidity, a high temperature is historically positive for batters, as seen by their +0.54 Plus/Minus in games with temperatures of 85 degrees or higher.

Before we end, I want to give you some great news.

Here at FantasyLabs, we have an even better way to gauge how weather will affect a game and its players: “Weather Rating,” which is a percentile rating of weather’s impact (100 being the most positive). Weather Rating is based on a variety of factors, including humidity, temperature, wind, precipitation, altitude, the axis of the Earth, and so on. (One of those may not be true.)

The point is that you don’t need to worry about measuring and gauging each individual weather factor every day because we already do that for you with our handy Weather Rating. And what’s even better news: It has shown to be incredibly predictive of success.

Step 3: Weather Details > Weather > “80 to 100”

 

Simply by targeting players in games with a high Weather Rating, you’re adding +1.60 points of value right off the bat. [Editor’s Note: Literally.]

If you’d like to push this trend even further, batters have a Plus/Minus of +2.78 when you increase the Weather Rating to at least 90.

There you have it. Think about the weather. Don’t worry about whether to factor in all aspects of the weather or whether to merely factor in one aspect of the weather. Our Whether (or is it Weather?) Rating does it for you.

Good luck today.