Let’s take a look at the broadest, and in some senses, the most difficult position to effectively fill on your daily fantasy baseball roster: the outfield. It’s easy to fill because there are so many power hitting outfielders in MLB, but to fill all three slots that you are given well without having a negative impact on the rest of your roster is quite difficult. Let’s take a look at some of the things you need to consider, as well as the biggest pitfalls to avoid.

Things to Consider

Power is a must in daily fantasy sports. It doesn’t matter if you are playing at FanDuel or at DraftKings, you need homerun potential on your roster for success, and the outfield is the best place to find it.

When drafting your team, you should start with your pitcher, but the first outfield slot should be your number 2 selection. You want to pick the best outfielder you can find, regardless of price, almost every single time you play in a daily league. Why? Because the outfield gives you enough variety in talent that you should go for the player that will score you the most amount of points because you have the ability to take risks later on. The OF is not the most expensive position–this is reserved for the pitcher–but there is a ton of opportunity for points. A pitcher, on average, tends to score more points, but an outfielder has a higher ceiling because of the homerun factor. At DraftKings, you get 10 points per homer, and even getting 2 in one game from some combination of your 3 OF slots is going to give you a tremendous boost. The same is true at FanDuel, although the points are different (4/HR).

Your outfield should never be your last pick, either. The average outfielder has far more potential than the average 2B or C, and these should always be lowest on the totem pole. If you need to move one of these players down to find one last acceptable OF to flesh out your roster, do it.

Common Pitfalls

You have the ability to take a risk with the OF and go with a cheap player that has a high ceiling. Use that to your advantage. You can always draft 2 great OFs and 1 subpar OF. This will help you to save salary for your second pitcher and first base, but it also is a move that can pay off big time if your 2 stars pull through. Drafting 3 stars is attractive because there could be a ton of potential here, but it can’t help but impact your other power positions. You will need to make a couple sacrifices if you do this, and the most likely place that will be cut hardest is your starting pitcher–your biggest point scorer. This will give you a good OF, but probably lose the contest for you as a result. It’s just not worth it.

Another pitfall that you might come across is looking for three OF slots that have similar expected outcomes. You should use a tiering strategy when forming your outfield as this gives you more depth and safety. You want a lineup that has a high floor–or a high point number that you can expect as a minimum–and a high ceiling–a high point number that could act as a maximum. Variety of talent helps you to secure this because of the diversity it provides. Your stars are more likely to score more points, but your lower tier players should be selected in a way that not only do they have the ability to have a big game once in a while, but they are in situations where this is more likely than normal. This could be a weak opposing pitcher, riding a hot streak, or something else.

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