Daily blurb
The Draft$treet weekly contest freeroll will be available to enter by early Thursday afternoon, and the sortable stats will have the corresponding player salaries loaded by then as well. Entries won’t close until games start on Friday evening, so you’ll have plenty of time to think through your picks.

So what level of score should you target? Over the past few weeks, a score of 300-350 is typically enough to win a head-to-head weekly contest, although in a contest with lots of entrants, you’ll probably need to aim higher. But for the sake of discussion, let’s assume a target score of 350. Since you have $100,000 to spend on player salaries, that means you’ll want get at least 3.5 points for each $1,000 spent. For a $4,000 player, you’ll want at least 14 points (3½x4). If you spend $10,000 the target would be at least 35 points. That type of comparison should help you rationalize whether to get top pitchers with two starts (who often command prices of $8,000-$10,000) or whether to take pitchers with just one start at half the price and spend more on top quality hitting.

Assuming that the weather holds and rotations don’t change, some of the top pitchera with two projected starts from Friday-Thursday include Jered Weaver,Clay Buchholz,Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Yovani Gallardo, Cole Hamels, and Matt Cain. Those pitchers will all likely command hefty salaries. Maybe you’d rather have a single start from a stud like Halladay, Lincecum, or David Price - at roughly half the price. Going the latter approach will probably allow you to target top hitters like Jose Bautista orRyan Braun. But maybe you’d rather take a chance on cheaper hitters, particularly those whose salaries may be low because they’ve been slumping of late.

Those are the types of thought processes I use when assembling my rosters. Beyond the raw numbers, it’s important to look at pitching matchups for starters, including ballpark differences and opposing starters. For hitters, you might want to review lefty-righty outlooks, particularly if you are considering hitters with significant matchup preferences. Weather is not so much a factor, unless you are planning on a two-start pitcher whose second outing will be on the final day, and could get wiped out if any game is canceled during the week.