Keeping Score

No sense playing if you don’t keep score – and no sense keeping score if you don’t know the scoring rules.

But here’s a piece of good news. You don’t have to keep score. FanDuel keeps score for you in real-time. Once the contest starts, you just sit back and watch as FanDuel keeps track of your score and everyone else’s score in the contest you’re playing.

When drafting your players, it’s important to know the rules. So to make sure you know, here are the scoring rules for Fantasy Baseball at FanDuel.

The action begins on April 6 with a slate of 14 games. Below is an example of a 50/50 contest with an entry fee of $1 and a salary cap of $35k per team.

If you don’t yet have a FanDuel account, you can set up your account and receive a bonus by CLICKING HERE.

Without getting into specifics, you pick a team of nine players from a pool of all players available that day from all teams that are playing. The page below is from the same 50/50 contest on April 6 that I used above.

As you can see, it’s a 50/50 contest. There are already 76 players entered at a $1 entry fee – which leaves 24 openings. The Prize Pool is $90 – which will be split among the 50 players who win. To the extreme top right is the countdown timer until the contest begins.

Below that are the slate of games.

Further below are two wide columns.

On the left, all of the Available Players are listed. I’ve depressed the “P” button – which isolates just that day’s Available Pitchers.

On the right is Your Lineup. As you select players from the column on the left, they will fill in your lineup card on the right and adjust your remaining salary cap as you go.

I’m saving player selection until tomorrow, so let’s focus on the scoring for now.

You select a P (pitcher), a C (catcher), 1B (First Baseman), 2B (Second Baseman), 3B (Third Baseman), SS (Shortstop), and three OF (Outfielders).

[Bear with me on the point of Designated Hitters in American League games. I have a query in the works and am awaiting a response.]

So that’s eight hitters and one pitcher for each team. To prevent “stacking” a team – which means loading up on players from one particular team – you must select players from at least three different teams.

Remember – you’re the GM of your team.

Everyone in your contest picks from the same pool of players and operates under the same salary cap. Each player has a distinct salary-cap value – which may change from day to day depending upon their performance as the season progresses.

You must adjust your picks so that all nine players fit within the salary cap.

First, we’ll look at the scoring for Hitters.

The scoring for hitters is straight-forward – a single is worth one point, a double is worth two points, a triple three points, and a home run four points.

If a hitter walks or gets hit by a pitch, you get one point.

Each time a hitter makes an out, you subtract one-quarter of a point – minus .25 point.

If a hitter scores a run, you get a point.

You get a point for each one of your hitter’s RBIs.

You get two points anytime one of your players steals a base.

Important note – You do not get penalized when any of your hitters strike out.

Next, we’ll look at the scoring for Pitchers.

The scoring for pitchers is also straight forward.

Picking the winning pitcher is paramount because the winning pitcher gets four points.

You get one point for each inning pitched – .33 points are awarded for thirds of an inning.

You get one point for each strikeout your pitcher records.

You lose one point for each earned run your pitcher allows.

You are not penalized for any walks your pitcher allows

Note – There are zero points awarded for saves and no negative points subtracted for blown saves. So starters are much more important than closers.

Tomorrow, we’ll get into picking your players.

Fantasy Baseball action begins on April 6. Contests are already listed and players are signing up. If you’d like to get started now, just CLICK HERE.