We are now firmly entrenched in the 2nd half of the season. The trade deadline passed on Monday and there were some fairly significant arms that moved cities. The Yanks and Dodgers shoved all their chips to the middle of the table and are hoping for a deep October run. They aren’t the only ones hoping for that. Could you imagine the smiles on the executives’ faces at Fox if we had a Dodgers/Yankees World Series. As for the the experts, we did break our three-way tie on the hitter side from last week. See which of those three experts claimed the #3 spot in this week’s standings. 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) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 5.07) manages to maintain their lead in the top spot despite a down week. DFSR is now the only expert above the 5.0 threshold for the year.
#2) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 4.97) also slipped back a bit but still has a comfortable cushion between themselves and the final top-3 slot.
#3) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.81) holds steady at #3 and widens the gap just a bit between themselves and the experts just outside the top-3.
Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 3.16) still has a stranglehold on the top spot. Despite dropping a bit, Beer does not look to be in any danger of giving up his lead.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.05) basically stayed flat with a slight .01 dip in score for the week. Can FTA mount a push to dethrone Beer?
#3) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 2.85) bumped their score .04 to dethrone the two in-house experts for the final top-3 spot. This is the first week this season that a DailyOverlay expert has not been in the top-3.
Week in Review
Monday (July 24th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 5.78 (13th)
Hitters – 2.69 (12th)
A+ – Jacob deGrom, Justin Verlander, James Paxton, Francisco Liriano, Salvador Perez, Cody Bellinger, Jose Altuve, Giancarlo Stanton, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick
F – Nineteen of the 48 selections finished with a failing grade (all failing grades were hitter selections).
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) FantasyPros (Score 10.00) started the week off with a bang. They nailed perfect scores on all three pitcher picks on Monday. They were the only expert site to recommend Adam Conley and his “A+” gem.
#1B) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score 10.00) scored an “A+” with his only pitcher pick to start the week.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 4.58) had an impressive Monday. DFSR scored an “A” or better with five of their 12 plays including four “A+” grades.
#2) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 4.00) nailed down an “A” or better with half of their eight selections to start the week.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Kevin Gausman (DailyRoto)
A+ – Russell Martin (DailyRoto)
A+ – Brian McCann (DailyRoto)
A+ – Carlos Santana (DailyRoto)
A+ – JD Martinez (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Tommy Pham (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Adam Conley (FantasyPros)
Tuesday (July 25th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.00 (7th)
Hitters – 2.32 (11th)
A+ – Charlie Morton, Sonny Gray, Edwin Encarnacion, Rougned Odor, Tim Beckham, Didi Gregorius, Travis Shaw, Bradley Zimmer
F – Twenty-one of the 51 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A-C) DK Playbook, FantasyLabs, Rotoballer (Score 6.00) all scored a 6.0 on Tuesday evening.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 5.63) hauled in an “A+” grade with half of their eight picks on the night.
#2) Rotoballer (Score: 4.75) scored an “A” or better with half of their eight picks including three “A+” grades.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jordan Montgomery (DailyRoto)
A+ – Mike Foltynewicz (DailyRoto)
A+ – Brandon Crawford (RotoGrinders Lineup Builder)
A+ – Buster Posey (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Mike Zunino (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Whit Merrifield (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Paul Dejong (DK Playbook)
A+ – Kurt Suzuki (FantasyPros)
A+ – Allen Cordoba (FantasyPros)
A+ – Yoenis Cespedes (Sportsline)
Wednesday (July 26th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.20 (7th)
Hitters – 1.95 (13th)
A+ – Aaron Nola, Gio Gonzalez, Anthony Rizzo, Eric Hosmer, Adrian Beltre, Bradley Zimmer
F – Twenty-six of the 47 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score 7.50) scored an “A+” and “A” with their selections on Wednesday evening.
#1B) Rotowire (Score 7.50) also garnered an “A+” and “A” grade on Wednesday.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 4.33) scored an “A+” with one of his three plays and that was good enough to top the list on Wednesday.
#2) DK Playbook (Score: 3.18) scored an “A” or better with four of their 11 plays including two “A+” grades. They were the lone expert site to play Giancarlo Stanton and his “A+” grade.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Giancarlo Stanton (DK Playbook)
A+ – Manuel Margot (FantasyPros)
Thursday (July 27th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.33 (10th)
Hitters – 2.56 (13th)
A+ – Zack Godley, Anthony Rizzo, Jose Abreu, Kyle Schwarber, Jay Bruce
F – Twelve of the 33 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Rotoballer (Score 10.00) hauled home an “A+” with their only selection on the day.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score 5.50) put up a solid “A+” and “A” with their two plays on Thursday night.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 5.75) scored an “A+” with half of his four plays on Thursday.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 5.43) continued the hot week. The Lineup Builder scored an “A” or better on four of their seven plays including three “A+” grades.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Derek Dietrich (Fantasy Alarm)
Friday (July 28th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.38 (10th)
Hitters – 2.60 (T-10th)
A+ – Danny Salazar, Masahiro Tanaka, JT Realmuto, Justin Smoak, Jose Altuve, Jose Ramirez, Elvis Andrus, Nomar Mazara, Andrew McCutchen, Josh Reddick
F – Twenty-two of the 48 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) FantasyPros (Score 7.33) capped off the week with a bang. They scored an “A+” with two of their three plays.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score 6.00) once again made a top-2 appearance this week scoring an “A+” with one of their two plays.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasyNerd (Score 3.88) nailed down an “A+” with two of their eight plays to capture the top slot on Friday.
#2) Rotowire (Score 3.38) also scored two “A+” grades on their eight plays. They were the lone expert site to play Brett Gardner and his “A+” grade.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Freddy Galvis (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Carlos Santana (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Derek Dietrich (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Cory Spangenberg (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Brent Suter (FantasyPros)
A+ – Kaleb Cowart (FantasyPros)
A+ – Brett Gardner (Rotowire)
A+ – Adam Duvall (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 | 64.14% | 63.10% | N/A | N/A | 48.50% | 61.60% | 79.25% | 64.87% |
| 13 | 70.96% | N/A | 68.10% | N/A | 72.90% | 64.20% | 65.10% | 70.35% |
| 12 | 50.83% | N/A | 65.50% | 50.60% | 27.10% | 70.43% | 46.90% | 52.42% |
| 11 | 51.55% | N/A | 43.55% | 30.40% | 33.00% | 47.45% | 45.30% | 46.95% |
| 10 | 48.17% | 48.00% | 39.98% | 42.88% | 42.57% | 41.20% | 50.03% | 46.36% |
| 9 | 38.66% | 26.40% | 38.51% | 42.17% | 26.41% | 30.70% | 33.89% | 34.23% |
| 8 | 35.31% | 23.97% | 31.02% | 30.27% | 26.45% | 38.35% | 34.06% | 32.43% |
| 7 | 23.21% | 28.08% | 26.36% | 22.30% | 23.97% | 22.99% | 28.16% | 24.97% |
| 6 | 22.26% | 22.10% | 20.14% | 19.22% | 17.46% | 19.04% | 21.98% | 20.74% |
| 5 | 16.81% | 17.48% | 15.46% | 14.84% | 16.23% | 13.33% | 20.52% | 17.00% |
| 4 | 12.38% | 11.35% | 9.93% | 10.40% | 10.13% | 8.95% | 13.73% | 11.30% |
| 3 | 7.44% | 8.49% | 6.80% | 8.02% | 7.02% | 7.05% | 8.99% | 7.81% |
| 2 | 4.92% | 6.07% | 4.29% | 4.99% | 5.39% | 4.16% | 5.80% | 5.17% |
| 1 | 2.16% | 3.52% | 2.21% | 2.46% | 3.33% | 1.81% | 3.11% | 2.74% |
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 | 39.81% | 40.40% | N/A | N/A | 27.30% | 42.30% | 50.90% | 40.66% |
| 13 | 45.21% | N/A | 26.50% | N/A | 36.40% | 19.20% | 27.30% | 41.96% |
| 12 | 33.38% | N/A | 30.20% | 25.70% | 27.10% | 36.03% | 31.00% | 32.55% |
| 11 | 32.57% | N/A | 21.05% | 21.47% | 25.20% | 24.75% | 25.58% | 27.87% |
| 10 | 31.08% | 24.20% | 22.26% | 32.18% | 27.41% | 19.22% | 26.54% | 27.51% |
| 9 | 30.31% | 19.11% | 23.59% | 20.68% | 17.54% | 16.40% | 23.47% | 23.92% |
| 8 | 27.91% | 17.69% | 20.06% | 18.55% | 19.43% | 20.60% | 21.22% | 21.30% |
| 7 | 20.92% | 20.17% | 16.18% | 14.98% | 18.81% | 15.75% | 17.79% | 17.95% |
| 6 | 21.46% | 15.95% | 13.31% | 13.69% | 14.57% | 14.12% | 15.15% | 16.02% |
| 5 | 16.86% | 13.34% | 11.23% | 12.04% | 11.70% | 11.77% | 14.29% | 13.35% |
| 4 | 13.71% | 9.95% | 8.62% | 8.68% | 10.12% | 8.28% | 11.10% | 10.21% |
| 3 | 9.81% | 8.11% | 6.93% | 7.59% | 7.50% | 7.42% | 8.69% | 8.06% |
| 2 | 7.59% | 6.42% | 5.22% | 5.48% | 6.02% | 5.33% | 6.29% | 6.09% |
| 1 | 4.33% | 3.94% | 3.31% | 3.64% | 3.82% | 3.16% | 3.98% | 3.76% |
