I set just one $5 lineup last night because I wanted to play Clayton Kershaw at home against the Phillies and Mike Trout against a lefty in Coors, and it panned out. I finished 342nd out of 21,887 and took back $25. My bankroll was $970.10, now it's $990.10.

I've been rolling with the top pitchers - even in tournaments - for a while now, but it only recently occurred to me to pair them with a top hitter and then add an unrelated stack of cheap players. The cheap stack has upside because the players' production is correlated, the star hitter has obvious upside because of his skills and matchup, and the pitcher is the most stable element in the lineup given his 110-pitch sample versus the 10-15 pitch ones for the hitters. In the past, I'd pick the pitcher, then find a stack or two to fill out the roster, but I'm inclined now to pick one pitcher and one key hitter and add whatever decently matched-up stack I can afford. I'm not going to force it - if there's no hitter that jumps out, I might just use a couple stacks - but if it's there, I'll almost view the "Trout in Coors vs. a lefty" as a second pitcher of sorts.