Aloha from the DO office and welcome to the MLB Expert Recap for the week of May 15th. Our “double dip” day this week was Thursday. As you’ve seen, we will provide afternoon and main slate Consensus articles on days where it’s worthwhile. We hope that you enjoy this addition to the DO stable for this MLB season. We did have a change in our leaderboard so be sure to read below to see who holds down the #1 spot! 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. Our big mover, once again, the week was the RotoGrinders 6-Pack. Beer continued his assault on the leaderboard and now occupies the top spot on the hitter side. Again, FantasyTeamAdvice continues to be our most consistent performer overall and remains the lone expert to show up in the top-3 of both the pitcher and hitter standings. We did have a new arrival to the top-3 with FantasyLabs making their debut at #3 on the pitcher side of things. Be sure to check out the full MLB Expert Standings to see how your favorite experts check out.
Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 4.81) widened the gap between themselves and 2nd place. Even with a week in which their score dropped, they were able to perform better than the other experts.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.46) took a pretty big hit this past week. Following up two strong weeks, they were not able to continue the momentum. I’m sure they’ll get back on track soon.
#3) FantasyLabs (Score: 4.43) used a solid pitcher week to climb into the top-3 for the first time this season. With another nice week, they will certainly be challenging for that #2 spot.
Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 3.41) had another great week and now sits atop the leaderboard for the first week this year. Beer continues to provide a solid six-hitter lineup three days a week.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.37) had a short-lived run at the top. With such a small gap between them and Beer, I would not be surprised to see FTA back up top next week.
#3) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score: 3.19) hangs on to the #3 slot on the hitter side. Barring a complete clunker of a week, Brad is not really in danger of dropping from the top-3.
Week in Review
Monday (May 15th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.14 (8th)
Hitters – 1.89 (17th)
A+ – Luis Perdomo, Zack Godley, Jose Altuve, Jake Lamb, Matt Kemp
F – Twenty of the 35 total selections finished in the failing category.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 7.50) played Perdomo and Jesse Chavez to score an “A+” and an “A” on Monday.
#1B) Rotowire (Score: 7.50) played the exact same two to tie for 1st to start the week.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.43) scored an “A” or better with four of their seven picks on Monday to top the leaderboard.
#2) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 4.17) scored an “A” or better with half of his six picks.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – There were no players only selected by one expert that scored an “A+”
Tuesday (May 16th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 5.11 (4th)
Hitters – 2.74 (14th)
A+ – Yu Darvish, Zack Greinke, Jimmy Nelson, Gary Sanchez, Anthony Rizzo, Joey Votto, Ian Happ, Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper
F – Sixteen of the 48 selections finished with a failing grade (all failing grades were hitters).
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Scout Fantasy (Score: 6.25) found the top slot as half of their four plays scored an “A+” on Tuesday.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 6.00) scored an “A+” and a “C” for 2nd place.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 5.40) scored an “A” or better with four of his five plays for a really nice finish.
#2) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 5.07) found the top-2 with six of the 14 selections scoring an “A” or better on Tuesday.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Victor Martinez (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Mike Napoli (DailyRoto)
A+ – Ryon Healy (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Yolmer Sanchez (DK Playbook)
Wednesday (May 17th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.00 (T-8th)
Hitters – 1.44 (13th)
A+ – Matt Shoemaker, Jhoulys Chacin, Zack Cozart, Mike Trout
F – Nineteen of the 34 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) Rotowire (Score: 10.00) nailed down a perfect score with Chacin’s performance on Wednesday.
#1B) Rotoballer (Score: 10.00) also utilized Chacin to score a 1st place tie.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Rotoballer (Score: 3.33) made it a clean sweep on a down day on the hitter side. Their one “A+” grade carried them to the top slot.
#2) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score: 2.83) finished in the top-2 on what was a pretty crappy day for the experts. Two of Brad’s twelve plays scored an “A+” grade. Both of those “A+” grades came from guys where he was the only expert to roster – Avisail Garcia and Jose Abreu.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Shin-soo Choo (DailyRoto)
A+ – Avisail Garcia (Daily Overlay – On the Hill)
A+ – Jose Abreu (Daily Overlay – On the Hill)
Thursday (May 18th – Early)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 2.75 (8th)
Hitters – 3.20 (10th)
A+ – Chris Davis, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Seth Smith
F – Seven of the 24 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A-C) Rotoballer, FantasyPros, DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 5.00) each garnered a 5.0 score on Thursday afternoon. Rotoballer and DFSR each did it with a single “A” grade. FantasyPros scored an “A+”, an “A” and a failing grade. FantasyPros was the lone expert to play Martin Perez of the Rangers and his perfect score.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 7.50) hauled in an “A+” and an “A” to take the top spot on Thursday afternoon.
#2) Rotoballer (Score: 7.33) finished off a nice afternoon with two of their three plays scoring an “A+” grade.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Martin Perez (FantasyPros)
Thursday (May 18th – Main)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.86 (6th)
Hitters – 1.07 (12th)
A+ – Marcus Stroman, Sonny Gray, Danny Duffy, Jean Segura, Khris Davis
F – Twenty-one of the 35 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) FantasyPros (Score: 7.00) completed a magnificent Thursday by topping the pitcher side on the Main slate, too. Two of their three plays scored an “A+” grade.
#2A) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 6.00) scored an “A+” and “C” to take 2nd place on Thursday night.
#2B) FantasyLabs (Score: 6.00) also parlayed their two plays into an “A+” and “C” for a 2nd place tie.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyLabs (Score: 7.00) crushed the hitter side on Thursday night for a blowout victory.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 2.83) was the best of the rest. They scored an “A” or better with two of their six plays on the night.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Todd Frazier (DailyRoto)
A+ – Trevor Plouffe (Scout Fantasy)
Friday (May 19th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.13 (15th)
Hitters – 2.27 (11th)
A+ – Chris Sale, Jacob deGrom, Daniel Murphy, Chris Taylor, Jake Lamb, Nolan Arenado, Eugenio Suarez, David Peralta
F – Twenty of the 45 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A-C) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder, FantasyTeamAdvice, Rotowire (Score 10.00) all nailed perfect scores with both of their pitcher selections.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 5.33) finished the week out strong as half of his six picks scored an “A+” grade.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 4.50) wrapped up a strong week in which they found the top-2 several times. Three of their eight plays scored an “A+” grade.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jose Abreu (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Edwin Encarnacion (DailyRoto)
A+ – Ender Inciarte (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Cody Bellinger (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Matt Holliday (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Ariel Miranda (DK Playbook)
A+ – Tyler Anderson (FantasyPros)
A+ – Evan Longoria (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 |
| 16 | 91.30% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 66.40% | N/A | 78.85% |
| 15 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 14 | 63.30% | 63.10% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 61.60% | 79.25% | 68.30% |
| 13 | 71.39% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 72.90% | N/A | N/A | 71.52% |
| 12 | 67.55% | N/A | 65.50% | 37.00% | 27.10% | 70.43% | 46.90% | 58.74% |
| 11 | 52.36% | N/A | 39.50% | 30.40% | 40.20% | 43.73% | 45.50% | 45.74% |
| 10 | 43.43% | 33.60% | 35.35% | 40.13% | 50.94% | 31.00% | 54.60% | 45.53% |
| 9 | 40.98% | 24.07% | 46.94% | 38.46% | 27.59% | 40.93% | 35.31% | 35.83% |
| 8 | 34.62% | 27.76% | 31.16% | 26.15% | 36.25% | 36.38% | 31.99% | 32.27% |
| 7 | 25.03% | 34.91% | 25.13% | 15.67% | 26.90% | 29.98% | 27.65% | 26.24% |
| 6 | 27.01% | 15.96% | 21.16% | 17.76% | 17.81% | 21.08% | 24.18% | 21.92% |
| 5 | 14.82% | 19.53% | 14.71% | 14.61% | 12.48% | 12.73% | 20.43% | 16.17% |
| 4 | 12.70% | 11.45% | 8.67% | 10.26% | 10.85% | 8.33% | 13.86% | 11.18% |
| 3 | 6.60% | 9.16% | 7.13% | 9.86% | 6.59% | 7.65% | 8.99% | 8.06% |
| 2 | 4.76% | 6.50% | 4.45% | 5.92% | 5.29% | 4.21% | 6.09% | 5.43% |
| 1 | 2.31% | 3.27% | 2.01% | 2.68% | 3.00% | 1.92% | 3.02% | 2.66% |
GPP by Position
| Count | SP | C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | Total |
| 16 | 67.00% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 46.50% | N/A | 56.75% |
| 15 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 14 | 43.95% | 40.40% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 42.30% | 50.90% | 45.40% |
| 13 | 47.09% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 36.40% | N/A | N/A | 46.20% |
| 12 | 49.23% | N/A | 30.20% | 20.30% | 27.10% | 36.03% | 31.00% | 37.05% |
| 11 | 35.32% | N/A | 24.65% | 21.47% | 30.10% | 25.28% | 31.63% | 30.35% |
| 10 | 31.28% | 24.90% | 22.25% | 36.33% | 33.16% | 21.60% | 29.90% | 30.13% |
| 9 | 32.72% | 19.11% | 23.70% | 20.06% | 19.13% | 18.53% | 21.95% | 24.02% |
| 8 | 28.51% | 21.04% | 21.48% | 18.26% | 28.05% | 20.68% | 22.12% | 23.09% |
| 7 | 22.47% | 23.70% | 19.41% | 12.47% | 21.93% | 20.90% | 19.58% | 20.37% |
| 6 | 25.19% | 14.13% | 14.87% | 14.33% | 14.32% | 15.04% | 16.61% | 17.30% |
| 5 | 15.71% | 14.59% | 11.82% | 13.30% | 10.94% | 11.56% | 15.20% | 13.58% |
| 4 | 14.26% | 10.94% | 8.05% | 8.60% | 10.51% | 8.87% | 11.25% | 10.43% |
| 3 | 9.34% | 8.38% | 7.56% | 8.38% | 7.05% | 8.18% | 9.00% | 8.35% |
| 2 | 7.19% | 6.64% | 5.38% | 5.86% | 6.07% | 5.52% | 6.53% | 6.22% |
| 1 | 4.46% | 4.02% | 3.16% | 3.75% | 3.82% | 3.32% | 4.11% | 3.83% |
