FanDuel advice: Stars and Scrubs is the way to go

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I wrote a couple of weeks ago about tossing out different quarterback valuations in FanDuel and seeing what would work as far as quarterback splurging goes. I played an expensive quarterback, a mid-range one and a cheap one.

The end result was that none of my three rosters cashed, because damn it all, but I also have a point I want to make about these things.

The NBA’s salary cap doesn’t keep its players from all making money. The mid-range players still get as much (more or less) as they would without a cap. What it does, though, is create a ceiling on the superstars. Without a salary cap, maybe LeBron James gets paid $75 million a year. Anthony Davis would be in line for a nine-figure annual salary someday. But with the cap, if the Pelicans pay Davis what he’s actually worth, the rest of the lineup would be filled with me, my two brothers and a dog.

Plus side, I’d be an NBA player. Downside, we’d lose a whole buncha games.

It’s the same thing with FanDuel pricing. Speaking generally, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are the most valuable quarterbacks most weeks, and it isn’t particularly close. The average quarterback is priced in the $7,500 range. Spend a little extra on Cam Newton, you have to save a little on wide receiver. Save a little on Nick Foles, you can splurge at running back. This is how it works. But if Brady and Rodgers (and other guys who are the best at their respective positions) were priced as much above the field as they should be, you’d splurge on Brady and have to save everywhere else. You’d have Cedric Peerman at running back and Marc Mariani at wide receiver.

In short, FanDuel has to artificially lower the prices on the top end of positions. And considering all you are ever trying to do when picking a roster is to find undervalued guys, investing in guys at the top end is almost always the way to go.

Stars and scrubs. Get the biggest names, fill out with cheap guys who could see a bump in touches or looks or targets or whatever noun you want.

If you fill your entire roster with guys ranked 10th in price at their positions, you might win, because things can be random. But if you do, you’ll do it by paying full price for everyone. Right away, we know that’s the wrong strategy. You want to save money. And, while it sounds weird, in FanDuel, you save money at the top end.

Here’s my Week 7 FanDuel lineup: