We truly believe here at FantasyLabs that we have the most unique tools and data available to DFS users. However, we also realize that those tools and data are only as awesome and helpful as our ability to communicate effectively how to use everything. As such, we will continually listen to feedback of what you need and try our best to teach our subscribers how to use all of the cool things we have to offer.
With this in mind, our “Trend of the Day” series features articles each weekday that walk subscribers through an important trend for that day’s slate of games, created with our Trends tool.
We made it. It is officially MLB season and to celebrate, we have opened up our premium tools for everyone to try. If you are unfamiliar with the Trends tool, open it up and follow along.
Being opening day, we are faced with an abundance of solid starting pitching and immediately tasked with deciding which ones we are going to roster. That is what we will focus on in today’s Trend of the Day.
Trend: (DraftKings) Pitchers who are favorites with a high SO/9 and better than league-average HH%
Quick Note: These Trends of the Day walk through exactly how to build a unique trend for that particular day’s slate. If you’re new to the site, new to the article series, or just need a refresher, see below for how to initially set up a trend. Check out this video as well if you need further assistance.
Creating A New Trend: Open the Trends Tool > Select “Create a Fantasy Trend” > Change The Position From “Hitter” to “Pitcher” > Assign a Name To The Trend > Select OK.
Once directed to the Trends tool, you will notice a filter already in place for a player`s average salary which includes every player. You can leave this or delete it – it will not make a difference. Now we are ready to create our Trend.
Step 1: Vegas Filters > Favorite / Dog > Select “Favorite”
By referencing the top right-hand corner, we can see that being a favorite has been worth +1.14 DraftKings points above a pitcher’s salary-based expectation. Select “OK” and we can move onto our next filter. For our next filter, we are going to look for pitchers with high strikeout upside.
Step 2: Stat Filters > SO Per 9 > Set to “8.5 to 16.364”
With our added filter, we are now looking at pitchers who were favorites while having a SO/9 of at least 8.5. As expected, we see a positive Plus/Minus of +2.17. This is a powerful trend, but most people are also looking at these two things. If we wanted to look for players who may go overlooked, or narrow down our selection, we can also bring in a filter that most people may not be considering or even have access to.
At FantasyLabs, we have data and statistics that our unique to us. We could pick from any of those, such as ground-ball percentage, average fastball velocity, Bargain Rating, Ball Park Factors, etc. For today, we will look at hard-hit percentage, which is the hard hit batted-ball percentage allowed. The league average for pitchers is 27% and we want to find pitchers who allow less than the league average, so we will set our filter to look at hard hit percentage below 27%.
Step 3: Adv Stats – Year > HH % – Season (Beta) > Set to “0 to 26”
After selecting “OK,” our Trend should look like this:
Our completed Trend has a count of 322, an average Plus/Minus of +2.74, and a consistency of 60.2%. With that done, we can now look at today’s current matches.
There we have it. We took a look at high strikeout favorites and added a unique filter to find a positive Trend with five players currently matching our parameters. This is one small example of the power that lies in the Trends tool. I suggest diving in and seeing what powerful trends you are able to create. Let us know what you find and good luck today!
