written by @bkertz in the DFS Hero Discord
General Strategy
The goal with cash is to play not to lose. Allow other people to make mistakes and beat themselves. You don't need to put together one of the top scoring lineups to win.
Avoid bad weather games. You cannot afford to get zero points from players because their game is postponed. This is especially true for pitching. Even a weather delay could end a pitcher's night early and cost you precious points.
Pitching
When building your cash game lineup, start with pitching. Look at projected ownership and DFS Hero Optimal and pay up for pitching. There are going to be some slates where you'll take the top two pitchers by salary, and that's OK if they are also two of the top projected owned pitchers. You want to avoid volatile starting pitchers. Look for pitchers with high K% and low BB%. Generally, this will help you avoid the volatile pitchers. Again, play not to lose. If you are trying to decide between several pitchers, look for pitchers who tend to pitch deeper into games to try to get the extra points for a Win, are facing a team with a low wOBA, or a team with a low wRC+.
Hitting
Fill in your hitting based upon the pitching you selected. If the slate leans toward expensive pitching with projected ownership, that means you are going to have to look for some low priced value hitters. Typically, the projected ownership for hitters will help identify a few of these guys. Avoid stacking in your cash lineup. Baseball is full of variance. It is not uncommon for an entire team to struggle on a night even when it looks like they are in a smash spot. If you stack an offense in one of those cases, you will likely end up on the wrong side of the cash line. It's best to limit to no more than two hitters from a team in your cash lineup. You can go up to 3 if it is a small slate or it is driven by salary/value.
Just like pitching, focus on hitters who have a high projected ownership. Look for low salary, high value catchers. There are exceptions to this when a matchup warrants it (or at the beginning of the season when salaries are still settling in and a catcher is criminally underpriced). Find at least one or two stud hitters (think Acuna, Betts, etc.). You may not be able to fit a stud hitter if you are going with very expensive pitching. Try to stick with hitters who are in the 1-5 spots in the lineup that day. These hitters will get more at bats, which could mean an extra hit or walk and be enough to push you on the positive side of the cash line.
From a stat perspective, look for hitters who are up against an opponent starting pitcher with a high wOBA against that hitter's handedness. For example, Acuna may be going up against Trevor Rogers who yields a high wOBA against right handed hitters even though he yields a low wOBA against left handed hitters. Don't simply look at righty vs. lefty or lefty vs. righty splits and assume that is a good matchup. There are both hitters and pitchers who have reverse splits.
Look for hitters who have a high exit velocity and launch angle in the past 3 weeks. Avoid the extreme volatile hitters. This takes in-depth knowledge of baseball, however, with time you will start to get a feel for this. An example of a hitter to avoid in cash games is Giancarlo Stanton. He's absolutely capable of a 2 HR game, which could carry your team. But he is far more likely to go 0-5 with a few Ks. Save these guys for GPPs.
Wrap-up
Remember, the name of the game for cash is to play conservative and let the field beat themselves.
