Newbie Freeroll at Daily Joust
Thu, 17 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)Daily Joust is offering a special free contest on Friday, May 18. Experienced Jousters need not apply - as entrants must not have won a baseball contest yet this season. So, this is a chance for "newbies" to try out the format free of cost, and free of experienced competition. Double free!
To enter, you must first register at Daily Joust (unless you have previously done so). Once registered and logged in, the Daily Joust link in this blurb will take you to the freeroll.
The prize pool is $250BB (bonus bucks), which means that if you win, you'll have some funds to invest in subsequent Daily Joust contests.
If you do enter, be sure to take advantage of the DailyBaseballData tools to help you prepare your roster. For example, Friday's weather outlook looks pretty benign as of now (Thursday morning), but you'll want to revisit that as Friday evening nears. The batter vs pitcher summary may point out some attractive matchups. And, of course, the RotoGuru sortable stats will allow you to evaluate recent salary-adjusted performance, with a number of customizable options. (Note - player salaries will be updated for Friday's contests on Thursday night.)
If you're new to daily contests, or even just new to Daily Joust, what better time to give it a shot? Joust do it!
DS-Day
Fri, 11 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)DraftStreet Freeroll day is upon us. 150 people have already registered as of this morning. Registrations are open until 7pm ET tonight.
Remember to take advantage of all of the RotoGuru/DBD tools at your disposal. For example, the weather in Texas looks like a potential problem, and the situation in Minnesota bears watching as well. You'll also want to consider whether any batter vs. pitcher matchups warrant exploiting.
And, of course, the RotoGuru sortable stats can help you identify potential bargains based on recent performance and lefty/righty matchups.
With more than 150 entrants, you'll want to find some roster selections that will differentiate you from the field. If you have a Ouija board at home, you might want to pull that out as well.
Sortable stats for DraftStreet Freeroll
Wed, 09 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)RotoGuru sortable stats are now available for Friday's DraftStreet Freeroll. This version uses the player salaries that are applicable to the freeroll, rather than the salaries for current daily contests. If you typically review this data when setting your lineups, you'll want to take advantage of this special version.
For more info on the Freeroll, see Tuesday's blurb.
DraftStreet Freeroll
Tue, 08 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)One Day FREE Fantasy Contest - $150 in cash prizes
If you haven't heard yet, there's a new way to play fantasy baseball that turns the season long grind into quick one night leagues. And the best part is that you can win cash every single day. You draft a team for one night and get paid out as soon as the games end that night. DraftStreet.com is at the forefront of this new trend in the fantasy world and is giving us a great promotion: a FREE one-day fantasy league with $150 in prizes exclusively for DailyBaseballData fans.
This free contest will be salary-cap style drafting where everyone tries to assemble the best team out of the available players. You will have a $100,000 budget to build a team of 14 players consisting of the following: Catcher, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 3 OF, 2 Utility, 2 SP, 1 RP, and 1 P. Each MLB player has been assigned a price based on their expected fantasy performance.
You can adjust your roster up until the contest starts on Friday May 11th at 7:05 ET at which time your rosters will lock and the Live Scoreboard will be available.
CLICK HERE to sign up for free and register for the Daily Baseball Data $150 Freeroll on DraftStreet.com.
On Serve
Mon, 07 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)After another server crash on Sunday morning, I bit the bullet on Sunday afternoon and activated the migration to the new server for DailyBaseballData.com. I'd have preferred to do more testing before the cutover, but I decided that the risks of further crashes were too great. So far, everything seems to be working OK - although please report anything that looks to be missing or mis-configured. Don't assume that I'm already aware. (davehall@rotoguru2.com)
The new server has 4x the RAM of the prior server, so hopefully that will allow the site to stay responsive during peak periods. Traffic this season has been roughly double that of last year. Surprising for a site that devotes almost nothing to advertising.
Serving up (and down)
Thu, 03 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)DailyBaseballData.com will be migrating to an upgraded server shortly. This should alleviate some of the recent bottlenecks in server responsiveness at peak times. Since it will likely require several weeks to fully migrate all files and then to test the new server, the current (overworked) server will remain active for awhile longer. Please be patient as I try to manage the transition as seamlessly as possible. And be mindful that, until the transition is complete, there may still be some occasional periods when the server is gridlocked.
Unrelated to the above, the current server will be taken offline for about 30 minutes sometime between 2-5am EDT Friday morning (May 4), in order to allow for some network maintenance. It is possible that, once back online, some overnight updating processes may not have run properly (if at all). I'll attend to these data deficiencies, if any, on Friday morning.
Gridlock alert
Wed, 02 May 2012 (by RotoGuru)Once again, this server was overwhelmed by activity around 6pm Tuesday, producing a "processing gridlock" situation. If you tried to access this site in the 6pm-7pm time frame, I suspect you got no response.
I'm working to figure out what server upgrades are necessary (and sufficient) to handle the increased load. But it may take a few days (or more) to get the situation assessed and solutions implemented. In the meantime, my best advice is to avoid waiting until the last minute (or hour) before games start.
Think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush hour traffic - at least until I'm able to add some additional lanes on the highway.
Friday Freeroll Frenzy
Thu, 26 Apr 2012 (by RotoGuru)Friday is setting up to be FreeRoll Friday. FanDuel is offering its typical Friday FreeRoll. Click on the FanDuel link to sign up for an account at FanDuel and join the freeroll contest. (If you are already registered at FanDuel, then it probably helps to log in first, and then go the the contest link.)
Daily Joust is also offering a special Freeroll for “newbies”, defined as anyone who has not yet won a MLB contest at Daily Joust this season. To enter, click on this Daily Joust link and register. Once logged in, you should be directed to the special contest. (If you’re not, then click on the link again after you’re logged in.)
Daily Joust has also recently been offering a daily freeroll for all users with a high cap, which –quite frankly – doesn’t limit roster selection very much. If you’re looking for a way to get familiar with daily contests, these daily freerolls (titled “King Arthur’s $50BB Hi Cap Daily Free For all”) might be just the ticket.
RotoGuru sortable stats for both FanDuel and Daily Joust have already been loaded with salaries for Friday, so if you want to get an analytical jump on Friday’s Freerolls, have at it!
Growing pains
Mon, 23 Apr 2012 (by RotoGuru)I'm aware that the DailyBaseballData.com server has been overloaded (and therefore unresponsive) on each of the last two Sunday mornings. I'm working on freeing up (or generating additional) capacity to try to avoid this in the future. Thanks for your patience.
Starstreet - Leverage your best ideas
Thu, 12 Apr 2012 (by RotoGuru).png)
Today, I'm introducing a new affiliated contest site: StarStreet
StarStreet offers a unique twist on daily fantasy contests, based on a stock market concept. Instead of assembling a traditional baseball lineup, you build a portfolio of player shares. You don't need a full and complete lineup. A minimum of 3 different players is sufficient, as long as they are from two different games. And you can own up to 10 shares of each player selected, subject to affordability. So, for example, you might enter a contest with 10 shares of Miguel Cabrera, 3 shares of Alex Avila, and one each of Roy Halladay and Zack Cozart. This allows you to leverage up on your best idea(s) of the day, without the need to diffuse the impact. Don't like any shortstops today? Don't need one. Really like a certain starting pitcher? Get him multiple times.
The scoring formula is very traditional. Obviously, if you own 10 shares of a player, you get 10 times his points for the day. Daily contests are head-to-head. A range of entry fees and payouts are offered.
To further assist your analysis, RotoGuru offers its sortable stats capability for this game, enabling you to evaluate ratios over different lookback periods, or select only hitters with opposite-handed pitching matchups.
In addition to the daily fantasy baseball contest format, StarStreet offers an innovative stock market simulation, where you can buy and sell shares of player stocks using real cash. I'm very intrigued by this opportunity, although I have yet to figure out the best way to analyze the market, so I'll leave that to your own initiative at this point. Hopefully, I can provide more insights as I gain greater experience and familiarity with the market. Conceptually, it seems to be well thought out.
If you do decide to sign up at StarStreet, please click on the banner above which will automatically register you under the affiliate code "rotoguru". StarStreet is currently offering a 20% bonus on the first $100 deposited.
Most of the daily contest sites have great similarity. StarStreet is decidedly unique. If you enjoy playing at other daily contest sites, you're likely to find that StarStreet offers you even more opportunities to exploit your analytical insights.
Daily Point Recaps
Tue, 10 Apr 2012 (by RotoGuru)I've activated the daily point recaps for each of the three covered daily contest sites. Links can be found under the Fantasy Stats menu bar above. These should typically be updated around 4:00am EDT.
These are designed to provide a quick overview of the top performers each day. Related salaries and a descriptive stats line help put the points in perspective. Note that the points are based on my own independent calculation, so occasionally there may be a difference between my point totals and those at the related sites. Hopefully, those discrepancies are minor and limited.
I'm working on further automating the updating of the sortable stats reports, so that they are also available in a similar time frame. Stay tuned.
How Do You Spell Relief?
Fri, 06 Apr 2012 (by RotoGuru)The Bullpen usage report has been reactivated. I have not done any extensive testing, but a cursory review suggests that it's generally working properly. Please report any apparent anomalies.
Ramping up
Tue, 03 Apr 2012 (by RotoGuru)Here's the latest scoop:
The Weather Dashboard has been activated, although the system will be confused about the location of a few remaining spring training games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I believe the Batter vs Pitcher summary is working OK now. Starting pitchers are those listed at ESPN.
The Lineup Dashboard should work OK for regular season games. On Wednesday, spring training games may produce some noise. Ignore it. Ditto for the Daily Live stats.
The RotoGuru sortable stats are now loaded with player salaries for 2012 for FanDuel, Draft$treet, and Daily Joust. See the links under the Fantasy stats menu above. The daily points recaps for each of those games are not yet active for 2012, but should be working by the end of the week.
The Bullpen usage report has not yet been brought out of mothballs and tested. Again, I'm hoping for a late-week launch for that.
We're getting there!
Budding baseball
Mon, 26 Mar 2012 (by RotoGuru)It's about time to start reawakening dailybaseballdata.com!
You should gradually see the regular site features spring back to life. The batter vs pitcher report is already up and running (for March 28-29). The weather dashboard has no idea where Japan is, so that won't be up until next week. Daily stats will be posted for the two games in Japan, although I don't know if live updating will be functioning for those two games. I'd say that's doubtful. Ditto for the lineup dashboard, which will probably be somewhat befuddled by having a full slate of spring training games going on while the two Japan games are being played.
I'm pretty sure the bullpen usage report won't be active until after the April games start. Sortable stats for the various covered daily contest sites will be available in time for the start of the April contests.
Bottom line - yes, the site will be back for 2012. Just be patient as all of the systems get reprogrammed to accommodate the new year.
Offseason Hiatus
Sat, 29 Oct 2011 (by RotoGuru)The 2011 baseball season is over. Many of the site's programs have been "mothballed" for the winter. Check back in 2012 when baseball activities resume.
During the winter, feel free to stop by at RotoGuru.net for continued daily blurbs and sortable stats for various NFL and NBA (maybe) contests.
