We had a changing of the guard in our season-long standing on the pitcher side. The flip-flopping top two experts have flipped again and DailyFantasyNerd has regained the lead. It should be a fun finish to the season to see who can claim themselves the top expert in the DFS industry. As always, check out our MLB Expert Standings to make sure that you’re up to speed on who is making the grade. Enjoy!
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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 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 and sample lineups for the day. As an added bonus in 2017, we will publish the Consensus on weekends when we have a writer available. To begin the 2017 season, we will grade 20 experts that provide pitcher selections and 21 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) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 5.04) took the lead back this past week. A rather steady gain of .02 was enough to claim the top spot and provide some cushion.
#2) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 4.97) struggled through a rough week in which they dropped .07 points and also lost the top spot in the season standings. DFSR will try to flip things back the other direction this week.
#3) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 4.79) hopped back into the top-3 thanks to a poor showing from FantasyTeamAdvice. This marks the first week that FTA has not been in the top-3 in both pitcher and hitter standings.
Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 3.07) had a ho-hum week dropping a slight .02 in the overall standings. Beer is taking this week off so he’ll stay at that 3.07 mark.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.03) dropped back .03 last week. With Beer idle all week, FTA will have a shot to vault into 1st place with a good week.
#3) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 2.88) held steady in the #3 slot. Stephen has several experts nipping at his heels so he’ll need a strong week to stay there.
Week in Review
Monday (August 7th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 5.00 (T-3rd)
Hitters – 2.45 (9th)
A+ – Trevor Williams, Joey Votto, Matt Carpenter, Anthony Rizzo, Zack Cozart, Manny Machado, Mike Trout, Jose Pirela
F – Twenty-three of the 45 selections finished with a failing grade (all failing grades were hitter selections).
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score 6.67) put a tally on the board for the hometown team on Monday. Brad scored an “A+” and two “A’s” with his three plays. Brad was the lone expert to play Dylan Bundy and his “A+” grade.
#2) FantasyLabs (Score 5.75) scored a “B” or better with all four of their picks including one “A+” grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 4.86) scored an “A+” grade with three of their seven plays on Monday.
#2) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 4.60) made it a clean sweep for RG on the hitter side. Six of the 13 plays scored an “A” or better including four “A+” grades.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jorge Polanco (DailyRoto)
A+ – Dylan Bundy (Daily Overlay – On the Hill)
Tuesday (August 8th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.63 (17th)
Hitters – 3.11 (13th)
A+ – Chris Sale, Cory Kluber, Buster Posey, Joey Gallo, Ryon Healy, Jose Altuve, Brian Dozier, Josh Donaldson, Jake Lamb, Jedd Gyorko, Michael Conforto, Max Kepler, Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton
F – Twenty-five of the 63 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score 10.00) nailed down two perfect scores to slide into the top slot.
#2) FantasyCPR (Score 7.75) scored an “A+” on three of their four plays on Tuesday evening.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 4.60) scored an “A+” with two of his five plays.
#2) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 4.07) made it two straight nights in the top-2 on the hitter scoreboard. The RG Consensus scored an “A” or better with half of their 14 plays.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Yadier Molina (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Jeremy Hellickson (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Jose Pirela (DK Playbook)
A+ – Austin Hedges (FantasyGuruElite)
Wednesday (August 9th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.60 (3rd)
Hitters – 1.89 (12th)
A+ – Gio Gonzalez, Justin Verlander, Ryan Zimmerman, Brian Dozier, Didi Gregorius, Eugenio Suarez
F – Twenty-eight of the 48 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) FantasyLabs (Score 4.33) used an “A+” and a “B” on two of their three picks to bring home the top spot.
#2) FantasyGuruElite (Score 4.17) scored an “A+” on two of their six selections on Wednesday.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Sportsline (Score: 3.75) scored an “A” or better with half of their eight plays. Sportsline was the lone expert site to play Todd Frazier and his “A+” grade.
#2) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score: 3.17) scored an “A” or better with four of his 12 selections including three “A+” grades. Surprisingly, Brad was the only expert to play Cody Bellinger on Wednesday.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Cody Bellinger (Daily Overlay – On the Hill)
A+ – Whit Merrifield (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Melky Cabrera (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Todd Frazier (Sportsline)
Thursday (August 10th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.78 (10th)
Hitters – 1.89 (11th)
A+ – Jacob deGrom, Yu Darvish, Neil Walker, Chris Taylor, Michael Conforto, Jose Bautista, Corey Dickerson
F – Twenty-three of the 53 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (Score 7.50) brought home an “A+” and “A” grades to claim the top spot.
#2A) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score 6.00) scored an “A+” and “C” to finish in the top-2 for the day.
#2B) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score 6.00) also scored an “A+” and “C” on Thursday.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyPros (Score: 3.85) nailed four “A+” grades with their 13 total selections. FP was the lone expert on Daniel Descalso.
#2) Scout Fantasy (Score: 2.74) found the top-2 by scoring an “A” or better with six of their 19 plays including three “A+” grades.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Dexter Fowler (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Wilmer Flores (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Daniel Descalso (FantasyPros)
Friday (August 11th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.29 (10th)
Hitters – 3.53 (8th)
A+ – Carlos Carrasco, Eduardo Rodriguez, Alex Avila, Manny Pina, Eric Thames, Brian Dozier, Mike Moustakas, Yoenis Cespedes, Nelson Cruz, Max Kepler, George Springer
F – Nineteen of the 43 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score 7.50) makes a top-2 appearance for the first time this week. They scored an “A+” and “A” on the night.
#1B) DailyFantasyNerd (Score 7.50) also hauled home an “A+” and “A” on Friday to tie for the top spot.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (Score 8.33) crushed it on the hitter side Friday. Five of their six plays scored an “A+” grade!
#2) Rotowire (Score 5.86) scored an “A+” with four of their seven plays to end the week.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Hanley Ramirez (DailyRoto)
A+ – Cole Hamels (RotoGrinders Lineup Builder)
A+ – Elvis Andrus (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Zack Cozart (Sportsline)
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 |
| 16 | 79.70% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 66.40% | N/A | 75.27% |
| 15 | 65.73% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 65.73% |
| 14 | 64.98% | 63.10% | N/A | N/A | 48.50% | 61.60% | 79.25% | 65.41% |
| 13 | 70.96% | N/A | 66.10% | N/A | 72.90% | 64.20% | 65.10% | 69.91% |
| 12 | 53.97% | N/A | 48.25% | 50.60% | 27.10% | 70.43% | 46.90% | 53.64% |
| 11 | 52.24% | N/A | 43.55% | 27.83% | 33.00% | 46.17% | 48.82% | 47.30% |
| 10 | 49.48% | 36.08% | 41.53% | 50.02% | 42.57% | 41.99% | 50.11% | 46.59% |
| 9 | 38.82% | 26.40% | 33.69% | 38.96% | 25.32% | 33.43% | 37.56% | 34.65% |
| 8 | 32.85% | 21.62% | 29.91% | 28.95% | 25.85% | 37.97% | 34.53% | 31.34% |
| 7 | 23.32% | 27.25% | 26.20% | 21.27% | 24.96% | 22.99% | 27.81% | 24.87% |
| 6 | 21.99% | 23.56% | 20.18% | 20.39% | 16.12% | 19.38% | 22.45% | 20.95% |
| 5 | 16.10% | 16.93% | 14.90% | 15.10% | 15.89% | 11.97% | 19.61% | 16.32% |
| 4 | 12.34% | 11.03% | 9.48% | 10.50% | 10.01% | 8.39% | 13.49% | 11.08% |
| 3 | 7.51% | 8.33% | 6.47% | 8.05% | 7.03% | 6.89% | 8.82% | 7.70% |
| 2 | 4.76% | 5.79% | 4.36% | 4.82% | 5.29% | 4.24% | 5.77% | 5.09% |
| 1 | 2.28% | 3.49% | 2.26% | 2.37% | 3.25% | 1.80% | 3.12% | 2.73% |
GPP by Position
| Count | SP | C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | Total |
| 16 | 52.65% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 46.50% | N/A | 50.60% |
| 15 | 38.13% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 38.13% |
| 14 | 40.16% | 40.40% | N/A | N/A | 27.30% | 42.30% | 50.90% | 40.85% |
| 13 | 45.21% | N/A | 31.93% | N/A | 36.40% | 19.20% | 27.30% | 41.35% |
| 12 | 34.45% | N/A | 23.00% | 25.70% | 27.10% | 36.03% | 31.00% | 32.78% |
| 11 | 32.22% | N/A | 21.05% | 21.18% | 25.20% | 23.89% | 26.30% | 27.52% |
| 10 | 31.39% | 21.37% | 21.30% | 31.44% | 27.41% | 18.96% | 26.80% | 27.21% |
| 9 | 29.69% | 19.11% | 21.54% | 20.27% | 17.61% | 17.12% | 23.50% | 23.51% |
| 8 | 26.45% | 17.42% | 19.70% | 18.00% | 18.33% | 20.41% | 21.13% | 20.87% |
| 7 | 21.01% | 19.14% | 15.76% | 14.34% | 18.83% | 16.03% | 17.65% | 17.74% |
| 6 | 21.06% | 16.11% | 13.26% | 14.05% | 13.81% | 14.22% | 15.01% | 15.86% |
| 5 | 16.45% | 13.22% | 10.80% | 12.10% | 11.52% | 10.71% | 13.75% | 12.92% |
| 4 | 13.68% | 9.76% | 8.47% | 8.71% | 10.24% | 7.98% | 10.99% | 10.14% |
| 3 | 9.96% | 8.08% | 6.73% | 7.53% | 7.46% | 7.35% | 8.60% | 8.00% |
| 2 | 7.55% | 6.17% | 5.22% | 5.42% | 5.96% | 5.34% | 6.24% | 6.03% |
| 1 | 4.39% | 3.93% | 3.28% | 3.58% | 3.72% | 3.19% | 3.94% | 3.73% |
