The NHL and NBA regular seasons are winding down, leaving us with MLB as the only true daily sport. If you are looking to transition from NHL to MLB, you will notice similarities.
Goaltender vs. Pitcher
In NHL, your goaltender is your rock. You trust him to rack up saves and eventually pick up the win. These are the points you can count on in a given slate. In MLB, that player is your pitcher, the most consistent position. We can use our Consistency Rating metric to compare pitchers to batters (via our Trends tool):
Pitchers
Batters
Despite having a slightly negative DraftKings Plus/Minus, pitchers offered a 51.6 percent Consistency Rating in 2016. On the other hand, while they had a slightly positive Plus/Minus batters only had a 38.6 percent Consistency Rating last year.
Like goaltenders accumulating saves, pitchers receive points for each out and strikeout they get. And like goaltenders they also get points for wins, which means that Vegas odds are important to the position. (Our Vegas Dashboard offers all the Vegas data you could ever want.)
Also, FanDuel pitchers (like goalies) are eligible for only one roster spot, which means that (like goalies) they often have ownership that is concentrated on a few players. Ownership trends for each slate can be reviewed by Pro subscribers in our DFS Ownership Dashboard shortly after lineups lock.
Early Lineups
One of the best parts of NHL DFS is that after a team’s morning skate you typically know the lines and starting goaltenders. After you have constructed your lineup, you can basically set it and forget it. There are always exceptions to this, but rarely are there late scratches or surprises.
Lineups are known two to three hours prior to the first pitch for most MLB games. This allows you to set lineups early, as even games that start at 10 pm ET more often than not have their lineups out before lock. For accurate and timely projected and confirmed lineups, use our Lineups page. You can also download the FantasyLabs app and set up push notifications to ensure that you are always on top of all released lineups, which we also push out via Twitter and of course our MLB News feed.
Event-Based Scoring
Many players enjoy NBA DFS because of the constant accumulation of points throughout the game. NHL and MLB are entirely different, as they are event-based sports. In NBA, points tend to accrue fairly regularly. In NHL and MLB, you could look at your DraftKings and FanDuel apps for 20 minutes without accumulating any points and then suddenly be at the top of the leaderboard with one goal or home run.
If you played NHL this season, you are accustomed to this kind of scoring and the different sweat that comes with it. Your night could change in the blink of an eye. It takes a different sort of mentality to handle this sweat. You have to be OK with massive volatility.
Stacking
In guaranteed prize pools, stacking is king in both NHL and MLB DFS. You will have an extremely difficult time winning GPPs if you’re not stacking. The NHL has correlated scoring in that if you stack linemates and one player scores then you have a good chance to pick up an assist from one or more of his linemates. Stacking maximizes potential upside.
In MLB, there’s even more upside to stacking, as teammates in the same lineup do not need to compete for the ball the way that hockey players compete for the puck. As a result, the upside of stacking and correlated scoring in MLB is immense. If you stack four or five consecutive batters who start to rally, you are going to pick up hits, runs, and runs batted in quickly. With our Lineup Builder (housed in our Player Models) it’s easy for Pro subscribers to build a number of stacks and incorporate them into their DFS lineups.
Final Thoughts
If you’re an NHL DFS player, MLB actually might feel pretty familiar even if you’re just getting into it: The scoring, the way you sweat, the strategies to win — they are all similar. Knowing this before you begin, rather than learning along the way, should help you with the transition.
