Now that we have graded the MLB DFS experts for eight different slates it is time to start to publish the results of our grading. Each week we will publish an update to the MLB Expert Standings split between pitcher grades and hitter grades for each of the experts that we monitor.
After eight slates, Sportsline’s optimized lineups lead the way on the Pitching side, while FantasyTeamAdvice is out to the early lead on the Hitting side. We have a long MLB DFS season ahead of us and the experts will surely move up and down the ranks especially early in the season.
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In this article, I will give a brief recap of each day we gathered and graded the experts, including how the Industry Consensus picks did, highlighting which experts were at the top for the day and which players were only called out by one expert, but produced an “A+” grade. We will also review the overall standings and highlight the top experts so far this season.
As a reminder, we are currently gathering selections and publishing the MLB Industry Weighted Consensus article each weekday during the season, so be sure to check back about an hour or so before the first pitch of the first game to get a look at the consensus picks for the day. For the 2018 season, we are grading 17 experts that provide pitcher selections and 19 that provide hitter selections daily.
Leaderboard
The top-3 for both pitchers and hitters are below. Be sure to check out the full MLB Expert Standings to see how your favorite experts check out.
Pitchers
#1) Sportsline (Score: 6.06) has a hold of the top spot with nine A+ grades so far out of 16 total selections.
#2) Rotowire (Score: 5.87) is currently in second place with seven A+ recommendations out of 15 selections.
#3) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 5.64) rounds out the top three with a solid DailyOverlay score thanks to six A+ grades out of their 14 recommendations so far.
Hitters
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.82) started off strong to take first place to start the season with 12 A+ grades out of 45 hitter recommendations.
#2) Rotowire (Score: 3.67) has put together a good first week and a half currently in second place on both the pitching and hitting leaderboard.
#3) RotoGrinders – Consensus (Score: 3.66) hit a home run with 24 A+ recommendations out of their 92 offerings over the first week-plus.
Week in Review
Monday (April 2)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 6.78 (9th)
Hitters – 1.85 (12th)
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings, DK Playbook, RotoWire, Sportsline, FantasyGuruElite, FantasyLabs, Rotoballer (Score 10.00) – A group of seven different experts all had two pitchers come in with A+ grades.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Rotowire (Score: 4.17) took the top spot on Monday led by two A+ grades from Welington Castillo and Nick Ahmed.
#2) Sportsline (Score: 3.29) came in second with a pair of A+ grades from their recommendations of Cody Bellinger and Charlie Blackmon
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jaime Garcia (DailyRoto)
A+ – Bryce Harper (FantasyAlarm)
A+ – Brian Anderson (FantasyPros)
A+ – Nick Ahmed (Rotowire)
Tuesday (April 3)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.44 (11th)
Hitters – 2.26 (13th)
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Rotowire (Score 7.33) takes first place for the second day in arrow led by A+ selections of Jack Flaherty and Garrett Richards.
#2) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score 6.50) were propelled by an A+ grade from Cole Hamels.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 5.33) leads the experts on Tuesday with A+ recommendations of Freddie Freeman, Josh Donaldson, Carlos Correa and Curtis Granderson.
#2) FantasyPros (Score: 4.58) provided strong hitter recommendations led by Luis Valbuena, Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Preston Tucker and Curtis Granderson.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Cole Hamels (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Luis Valbuena (FantasyPros)
A+ – Christian Yelich (Rotowire)
Wednesday (April 4)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.67 (7th)
Hitters – 1.90 (16th)
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasyNerd, Sportsline (Score 10.00) both produced perfect scores with two A+ pitchers each.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) DailyOverlay – On the Hill (Score: 4.90) scored big with A+ recommendations of Justin Smoak, Dexter Fowler and Nolan Arenado.
#2) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 4.63) also got A+ grades from Nolan Arenado and Dexter Fowler on their way to a second-place finish.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Brandon Crawford (FantasyPros)
Thursday (April 5) – Early Slate
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.50 (12th)
Hitters – 2.38 (10th)
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) DraftKings Playbook, FantasyLabs, Rotoball (Score 7.50) all tie for the top spot on the Thursday Early slate with an A+ from Nick Pivetta.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders – Consensus (Score: 4.67) blew away the competition with A+ grades from Cesar Hernandez, Jed Lowrie, Maikel Franco, Miguel Sano and Mookie Betts.
#2) RotoGrinders – Lineup Builder (Score: 3.67) put together a solid lineup that included an A+ from Shin-soo Choo and “A” grades from Dee Gordon and Adrian Beltre.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Joey Lucchesi (RotoGrinders – Consensus)
Thursday (April 5) – Main Slate
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 6.00 (7th)
Hitters – 2.41 (9th)
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings, DailyFantasyNerd, FantasyLabs (Score 10.00) all scored a perfect 10 with A+ grades from pitchers like Robbie Ray, Jon Lester and Steven Brault.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 4.25) completed a sweep of the top spot on both the pitching and hitting side with selections of Willson Contreras and Gregory Polanco.
#2) RotoGrinders – Lineup Builder (Score: 3.88) propelled the lineup builders to the top two spots on the hitting side while also being led by picks of Willson Contreras and Gregory Polanco.
Sleepers of the Day
There were no A+ grades for any players recommended by just one expert
Friday (April 6)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.17 (6th)
Hitters – 1.92 (15th)
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) FantasyPros (Score 5.75) takes the top spot to close out the week with an A+ grade from Marco Estrada and Luis Perdomo.
#2) RotoGrinders – Lineup Builder, Sportsline (Score 5.00) took different routes but landed on the same score to finished tied for second.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) DraftKings Playbook (Score: 4.09) finishes the week on a high note led by Manny Machado, Didi Gregorius, Andrelton Simmons and Shin-shoo Choo.
#2) RotoGrinders – Consensus (Score: 3.38) takes home second place on Friday with A+ efforts from Jed Lowrie, Manny Machado and Shin-shoo Choo.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Yangervis Solarte (DailyRoto)
A+ – Luis Perdomo (FantasyPros)
Ownership Percentage Tracking
Below is the current table showing the data we have tracked so far this season. Results are using DraftKings Double-Up or 50/50s for Cash and large field multi-entry tournaments for GPP. The Count column shows the number of times a player was selected by the experts for a given day. The Cash % chart shows the average ownership percentage of those players in a Cash game. The GPP % chart shows the average ownership percentage of those players in a GPP tournament.
Cash by Position
| Count | SP | C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | Total |
| 14 | 46.70% | 46.70% | ||||||
| 13 | 65.05% | 65.05% | ||||||
| 12 | 25.80% | 27.50% | 32.80% | 28.70% | ||||
| 11 | 63.33% | 41.00% | 61.80% | 55.05% | 58.67% | |||
| 10 | 22.30% | 38.90% | 30.60% | |||||
| 9 | 40.18% | 48.90% | 57.20% | 21.00% | 52.80% | 34.50% | 31.45% | 40.41% |
| 8 | 48.48% | 6.60% | 39.55% | 62.00% | 7.00% | 18.55% | 53.30% | 36.58% |
| 7 | 35.22% | 7.90% | 27.03% | 19.00% | 33.45% | 18.63% | 29.74% | 26.88% |
| 6 | 19.75% | 20.60% | 18.93% | 22.00% | 10.13% | 19.10% | 24.60% | 19.99% |
| 5 | 15.18% | 19.94% | 19.33% | 7.39% | 16.26% | 20.60% | 22.33% | 17.64% |
| 4 | 15.61% | 14.61% | 5.95% | 10.29% | 7.28% | 7.08% | 19.77% | 12.92% |
| 3 | 7.60% | 11.03% | 6.21% | 7.22% | 7.50% | 8.50% | 10.00% | 8.36% |
| 2 | 3.80% | 8.16% | 5.14% | 9.98% | 8.24% | 5.03% | 5.41% | 6.34% |
| 1 | 4.12% | 5.99% | 7.66% | 2.33% | 7.20% | 3.12% | 3.24% | 4.62% |
GPP by Position
| Count | SP | C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | Total |
| 14 | 37.90% | 37.90% | ||||||
| 13 | 52.50% | 52.50% | ||||||
| 12 | 27.40% | 22.70% | 32.50% | 27.53% | ||||
| 11 | 40.23% | 25.80% | 35.95% | 34.30% | 36.36% | |||
| 10 | 19.30% | #DIV/0! | 25.00% | 22.15% | ||||
| 9 | 33.45% | 32.10% | 38.70% | 21.50% | 32.75% | 22.70% | 27.15% | 30.10% |
| 8 | 36.03% | 12.40% | 23.45% | 44.00% | 12.40% | 16.35% | 34.30% | 27.23% |
| 7 | 30.70% | 18.40% | 22.13% | 15.25% | 29.95% | 19.03% | 25.99% | 23.93% |
| 6 | 20.83% | 18.97% | 16.36% | 18.18% | 11.43% | 14.80% | 17.01% | 17.21% |
| 5 | 19.50% | 17.14% | 14.30% | 7.46% | 15.09% | 18.97% | 19.98% | 16.12% |
| 4 | 17.06% | 12.83% | 9.16% | 11.51% | 7.83% | 8.70% | 16.64% | 12.83% |
| 3 | 11.61% | 12.36% | 7.59% | 6.82% | 7.78% | 8.95% | 11.55% | 9.74% |
| 2 | 7.34% | 8.55% | 6.09% | 9.39% | 8.61% | 5.89% | 6.11% | 7.18% |
| 1 | 6.00% | 5.30% | 6.93% | 3.72% | 6.99% | 4.65% | 4.21% | 5.28% |
