With a Stokastic+ membership, you’re not just getting advice; you’re tapping into elite strategies from DFS champions like our own Steve “dacoltz” Buzzard and the entire Stokastic dream team. Additionally, you’ll join our dynamic Stokastic Discord community, where users and pros exchange DFS pick advice and strategy wisdom and tips. And it’s not limited to MLB DFS picks — we offer a treasure trove of fantasy insights from the sharpest minds in the game.
Every Thursday (or in this week’s case, Friday), Steve hosts a live session on Discord to answer your DFS questions. Whether you’re looking to master strategy, explore our tools, or refine your game, he’s got the answers. Join us for the most exciting DFS discussions and advice of the week during Office Hours — it’s an event you won’t want to miss!
Discord Office Hours – Expert MLB DFS Pick Advice & Strategy
Steve “dacoltz” Buzzard is a DFS legend, consistently dominating the leaderboards across multiple sports. As a key architect of Stokastic Sims, he offers unparalleled expertise. Every week, Steve hosts Office Hours on Discord, where he provides expert MLB DFS pick advice. Whether you have questions about past or upcoming slates or need guidance on using our tools and content, he’s the person to ask.
Here are some of the top questions and answers from this week’s Office Hours with the legend himself, Steve “dacoltz” Buzzard.
MLB DFS Strategy: Fading Chalk Stacks in Coors
j12forheisman asked: I was wondering what determines whether you fade a chalk stack like the Dodgers in Coors? Typically Coors slates are difficult to navigate because the road team (and sometimes Colorado) is projected very well and also has strong leverage, so you get really concentrated exposures. I think ownership is sometimes under projected and you end up building lineups that are very similar to what the field is playing. Because of this, even when those teams deliver strong scores, it’s difficult to win because you’re competing with similar lineups. I have a process to try to curb my exposures to extreme chalk, but I think I’m still going a bit overweight and missing out on teams that may have lower chances of success but put you in easier positions to win when they do succeed.
dacoltz: Coors slates are tricky for sure, especially when the visiting team is as powerful as the Dodgers. For the Dodgers series, I mostly ended up fading the dodgers because everyone already knows that Coors + Dodgers is a perfect combination. It almost worked every day, but late runs kind of ruined that strategy.
Now, if the visiting team is someone weaker, I’ve been seeing their ownership come in much more reasonable and I think they are a reasonable team to attack. Of course, I’m not saying the Dodgers weren’t reasonable, but they were certainly owned at a completely different level than some of these other teams. I think you are also right that the ownership is under projected a bit on the Coors teams, especially the road teams, as people have shifted to the Sims this year even more so than years past and the Sims like those teams normally it seems.
I’ve been pretty interested in the Rockies in Coors quite a bit this year, but that hasn’t worked out a ton either, to be honest. It’s definitely not like years past where you just stack Coors and print money, but there are a lot of situations where you can go over or underweight on the Coors teams.
One of our best deals here at Stokastic is our MLB Lineup Generator sale. For a limited time, you can get seven days of MLB Lineup Generator for just $3 when you use the promo code MLBLGWEEK!
The MLB Lineup Generator is one of our easiest-to-use but also most effective tools we offer. All you need to do is select the DFS site and slate you plan to play, choose your stack type, the level of ownership you want from your lineups (chalky, contrarian, balanced or all) and players you wish to lock in. Once you’re satisfied, Lineup Generator will churn out high-ROI lineups and give you the information to determine how you want to proceed.
Check out the included screenshot for an example of a lineup that we generated for a DraftKings weekday main slate.
MLB DFS Advice: Using Sims for Single Entry
rams09. asked: What is the best way to use Sims for single entry on FanDuel?
dacoltz: For a single entry on FanDuel, I would probably set the Sims up to be the size of the contest. If it’s a really small contest like less than 250 players, I would set the contest size to be 250. If it’s a larger single-entry contest, I would move it up to the number that fits it best. Being single entry doesn’t really affect this lever for me.
Additionally, being single entry shouldn’t affect the lever of percent to first. Do a calculation to see how much of the prize pool is going to first and make a lineup around that. For example, if the prize pool is $100,000 and $20,000 to first, the math is 20,000/100,000 = 20%. The part that you might want to think about a little bit is how much risk you want to take on with your lineup. If you want to take on full risk, then taking the lineup with the highest ROI makes a ton of sense! If the contest is a large percentage of your bankroll or you are trying to be a bit more risk diverse, I would consider taking the highest cash percentage, or some combination of ROI and cash percentage.
Overall, whether the lineup is single entry or not shouldn’t affect your strategy too much. It’s just like every other lineup. What will affect your decision is how big the contest is, how much is going to first and how much risk you are willing to take on with that lineup!
MLB DFS Advice: Adjusting Sims When on a Time Crunch
rams09. asked: Sometimes if I’m busy at work, I’ll run the Sims and not alter. I haven’t done great with that. Would you recommend narrowing the pool through the contest generator, or how can you quickly make adjustments on a busy day?
dacoltz: I think running the Sims without adjusting anything should work fine on average. Of course, any given slate you are going to lose more often than you are going to win; it’s just the nature of the top-heavy pools. But if you want to make some quick adjustments to your pools when you have very little time, I probably would look at the Top Stacks Tool or Top Pitchers Tool and see if there is a team/pitcher that looks especially attractive to you for some reason or someone that you know might be over/underowned — maybe they have been hot or cold recently, etc. — something you don’t really need to research for that day too much and make some adjustments from that.
In general I think even if your changes aren’t always better, it is worthwhile to make small changes to make your lineups look a bit different than the default ones coming from the Sim. Not because they will be any better (they will actually likely be worse, to be honest), but they will be a bit different than others.
MLB DFS Advice: Creating the Most Accurate Field Possible
JoshEngleman asked: Is creating the most accurate field the spot that has the most meat left on the bone in order to improve play? This has been something I’ve been thinking about lately.
dacoltz: That’s a great question. Having an accurate field is very important for Sims. I think we do a great job with our ownership in the Sims, but there are hundreds of players every day and we can’t get every one perfect, so if you think someone is off, then adjusting those are super valuable. The same is the case for points projections, in my opinion. We see on Twitter people talking about how different sim results are from site to site, and the main difference between them is point projections. So it tells me if you can make more accurate projections, again, even if only on a few players a day, it can give you some advantages. In both cases making adjustments to the contest sim pool or points projections either through ROI boosts or directly adjusting the projections will likely be pretty valuable.
If you see certain players or teams that really stand out and are being jammed or forgotten in your lineups, those are the first ones to think about. Are we over/underprojecting them in terms of points? Are we over/underprojecting in terms of the contest field, and does it make sense to you where they are, and are you willing to take as big of a stand on that assumption as what the Sims are trying to tell you? If you have time, you should challenge your heavy stances as much as possible!
