Blog
Fanball Part Time Writer Opportunity
By Paul Charchian
As many of you know, from time to time, I post an open call for part time fantasy football writers. I’ve turned up some great writers, some of whom have gone on to full time careers in the fantasy sports industry.
I’m excited for another year of sifting through your submissions and finding people who combine a passion for writing with fantasy football insight.
You do not need any formal published writing experience or education. Some of my best writers have been people who were deeply passionate about writing but hadn’t had been published.
Can you be the Adam Thielen of walk-on of fantasy writers?
The Job
Mostly, you’ll be helping us write player preview matchups (i.e., Cam Newton vs Jaguars). In a typical week, you’ll write about 20 matchups, each being one paragraph long. Done correctly, the assignment takes about three or four hours.
You will be making a 17-week commitment. You can’t flake out and bail halfway through the year. You’ll get a week off every 5 or 6 weeks.
What you get
Don’t quit your day job. You’ll get beer money for your efforts, in proportion to the 3-4 hours it takes do the job. But the bottom line is this, if you’re doing this for the money, it’s not the right job for you.
More importantly, you’ll get detailed feedback to improve your writing and training to put together great fantasy analysis. Personal and professional growth is the most rewarding part of the job. If these elements don’t motivate you, don’t apply.
Your Assignment
Still reading? Good.
To be considered for this opportunity, you need to submit 10 one-paragraph matchups (see below for an example) for the wide receivers who you rank 11-20 in Week One of the regular season. These should be no longer than 5-6 sentences per matchup. Here’s an example from last year of the longest writeup we’d want to see.
JuJu Smith Schuster @ Ravens
Ben Roethlisberger is one of just four quarterbacks attempting over 42 passes per game, and JuJu Smith-Schuster has taken advantage of the volume. He’s gained 100 yards or tallied a score in two of his last three games, garnering seven targets per game over that span. It won’t be easy this week, as Baltimore is nasty against opposing receivers, allowing the fourth-fewest scores with less than one per game, and the fewest yards with a measly 135 per game. Smith-Schuster will face slot cornerback Tavon Young most often this week, and that’s no bueno. Opposing slot receivers, including JuJu, haven’t reached pay dirt against the Ravens since Week 2. He did, however, find the end zone in his lone meeting with Baltimore last season.
You must include statistics that backup your assertions.
Defense matters. Defensive players matter.
Your grammar should be very tight. Hyphens, everybody. Hyphens.
I like conversational tones, and don’t be afraid to speak in the first person.
Entertainment counts for a lot. You can entertain a lot of ways, with humor, nifty turns of phrase, even personal anecdotes—if you can squeeze them in.
Include a cover letter that tells us a little about you and your interest in working with us. I don’t need a resume, but feel free to include salient background information in your cover letter.
Your submission should include your name and contact information. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t do this.
Your submission is due by Wednesday, July 24th at 9:00pm CT. Submissions that arrive later will not be reviewed.
Send your submission as a MS Word document to [email protected]. Send any questions to the same address.
Because of the volume of submissions we typically receive, we can’t always respond to candidates who aren’t selected to move forward in the process. Please don’t be offended.
Fanball MLB Triple Play – June 27, 2019
Did you know that on even a ten game MLB slate, there are approximately 250 TRILLION lineup combinations you can make? To be able to hit on the 1 lineup out of those combinations is harder than winning the lottery. A reduced player pool, though, can give you a significant advantage by reducing the possible lineup combinations you can make. If we limit our choices to only 5 players per position (a few extra for OF), you now have far fewer possible lineup combinations you can make (pricing helps reduce this number even lower). Sure, it’s still a lot of lineup choices (in the millions) but it’s only .000008% of the total possible lineup combinations everyone else is working with. That is a SIGNIFICANT advantage for you if you’re choosing from a strong reduced player pool. That’s where we come in to help.
Bankster DFS, The Home of the Reduced Player Pool, has teamed up with Fanball to give you a daily sneak peak of three of the plays we have included in our Bankster DFS reduced player pool. We aren’t lineup sellers; we write full articles that explain which players we like, why we like those players, and how we like to build our teams. We are a learning site more than anything, and you can see that in heavy member interaction on our various Slack Chat channels (we have one for every sport that we cover – NBA, CFL, NFL, NHL, MLB, EPL, PGA, MMA, CBB, WWE, sports betting, and Best Ball 10’s). You can get the rest of our reduced player pool, our daily articles, our members only slack chat, and Fanball exclusives with a Bankster DFS membership. That membership costs only $2.99/wk and you get everything mentioned above with it. You can contact me about membership on Twitter @bankster17 or sign up for service here.
Let’s look at the MLB Triple Play for Thursday, June 27
On The Hill (Starting Pitcher): Zack Wheeler (NYM/RHP) at Philadelphia Phillies
Zack Wheeler is too expensive, he’s going to a great hitting environment, and he’s going up against Aaron Nola. All of these reasons are going to keep his ownership low. Despite JT Realmuto and Cesar Hernandez faring well against him, Wheeler has managed to dominate the Phillies in two starts this year (14IP/16K/3ER). Even when Wheeler was pitching poorly he was still striking batters out, and he’s got a 5:1 K to BB ratio against RHB this year. Philly is probably only going to throw a couple of lefties into their lineup (Bruce/Harper), and they are a combined 5 for 34 against Wheeler in their careers. You have to take some shots on a six game slate, and going against the grain by using the opposing pitcher to the day’s chalk pitcher (Nola) is a great way to do that. Remember, ER don’t have a negative value associated with them on Fanball so we are only looking for IP and K, and Wheeler has gone 6 IP or more in nine of ten starts and has 6+ K’s in eight of ten starts. He’s actually a lot safer than you realize.
Starting Nine (Stack of the Day): Minnesota Twins (vs Jalen Beeks – TB/LHP)
Jalen Beeks is a lefty that’s reverse splitsy, giving up a .283 AVG to LHB as opposed to a .241 AVG to RHB. Sadly, there aren’t many Twins lefties who can take advantage of that. Max Kepler is a guy to take a shot on for his power upside and Eddie Rosario for his consistency, but that’s about it for lefties that I’d consider. Let’s look at who really crushes LHP on the Twins, courtesy of MLB.com:
I’m going to ignore the reverse splits a little bit and look to CJ Cron, Nelson Cruz, Mitch Garver, and Luis Arraez for a stack. Arraez is still so cheap and he’s been locked in (.436 AVG in 39 AB this year). Depending on how the lineup shakes out we can look to someone like Miguel Sano or Jake Cave as well if they are batting in the top six spots of the order. Notably absent is Jorge Polanco, he just doesn’t generate enough power against LHP (.386 SLG) for me to consider him at $6.9k.
Pinch Hitter (HuLo play): JP Crawford (SEA/SS) at Chase Anderson
JP Crawford is too hot to ignore right now (.333 AVG with 10 RBI over his last ten games heading into last night, and then he went 3 for 5 with 3 more RBI on Wednesday). He has 16+ Fanball points in six of his last seven games, and although Chase Anderson is a heavy reverse splits pitcher (.327 AVG to RHB; .168 AVG to LHB) I think we should still heaving consider Crawford given his low $4800 price point and awesome hitting environment in Miller Park.
Riding the Pine (Fade of the Day): Aaron Nola (PHI/RHP) vs New York Mets
I’m not chasing the chalk on a six game slate where there are almost no other “good” pitchers. Nola gets hit pretty hard by LHB with a .286 BAA, opening the door for an opportunity to shoot for a double whammy by stacking guys like Michael Conforto, Dominic Smith, Jeff McNeil, and Robinson Cano. Nola has exceeded 30 FB points in only half of his last ten starts; not a consistent enough effort for a player priced at $11.5k (the highest on the slate). I’d much rather hit the other side of this game and get a more consistent Zack Wheeler as a far lower ownership.
Don’t forget that you can access the rest of our Reduced Player Pool as a Bankster DFS member. $2.99 per week gets you access to all the content we produce for all the sports we cover, our members only Slack Chat, and exclusive Fanball bonuses. Contact me @bankster17 or you can sign up for a membership here. Thank you for checking out our Fanball MLB Triple Play. You can find us here every day throughout the MLB season.