Welcome in to our first May edition of the MLB Expert Recap. I forecast last week that we may be talking further about the meteoric rise of FantasyTeamAdvice on the hitter side of the expert standings and I was correct. FTA has overtaken Brad for the lead and will look to pad that cushion a bit this week. We mentioned last week that we would begin putting out a Consensus for some day slates. This past Thursday was the first of those and we look forward to providing you DailyOverlayers with those moving forward. 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. We have a change in the leader slot on the hitter side of things as Brad was overcome by FantasyTeamAdvice. FTA is the lone expert to show up in the top-3 of both the pitcher and hitter standings. Another solid week from DailyFantasyNerd with their pitching selections as put them inside the top-3 for the first time this season. There was some big movers and shakers outside the top-3 this week so be sure to check out the full MLB Expert Standings to see how your favorite experts check out.
Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 5.03) used a nice week to hop back above the 5.0 threshold. It will be tough to stay above that 5.0 score but DFSR shouldn’t have any trouble maintaining the 1st place lead for the near future.
#2) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 4.72) took a big step forward and plopped themselves down in the top-3. They leap-frogged several experts and now hold a solid grip on 2nd place.
#3) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.54) barely holds on in the #3 slot after a poor showing on the pitcher side last week. They’ll need to put together a decent week to stay in the top-3 as their lead is only .04 over the nearest expert.
Hitters
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.38) saw their score dip but their position in the standings rise. For the first time this year, our in-house man, Brad, does not have the lead in the hitter expert standings.
#2) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score: 3.32) is now looking up at another expert in the standings for the first time this year. Brad has a large gap between himself and the 3rd place expert so there’s no worry about dropping out of the top-3 yet.
#3) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 2.99) holds on to the final top-3 spot despite dropping .30 points last week. This is the first time this season that we have had fewer than 3 experts with DO scores north of 3.0. Beer will look to change that with a big week. Stephen and his Value Index are chomping at his heels for the final top-3 slot.
Week in Review
Monday (May 1st)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.83 (4th)
Hitters – 2.59 (14th)
A+ – Lance McCullers, Amir Garrett, Jose Altuve, Josh Harrison, Jedd Gyorko, Manny Machado, Michael Conforto
F – Fourteen of the 38 total selections finished in the failing category.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 5.50) topped Monday’s pitcher scoreboard with an “A+” and a “D”.
#1B) Sportsline (Score: 5.50) tied DFN with identical “A+” and “D” grades.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Sportsline (Score: 4.50) finished off a heckuva day on Monday with a 1st place finish. Three of their eight plays scored an “A+” grade. They were the only expert site to play Aaron Altherr and his “A+” output.
#2) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 4.25) found the top-2 as half of his four plays scored an “A” or better.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Ender Inciarte (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Tyler Collins (RotoGrinders Consensus)
A+ – Dee Gordon (Scour Fantasy)
A+ – Aaron Altherr (Sportsline)
Tuesday (May 2nd)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 5.00 (T-13th)
Hitters – 3.22 (7th)
A+ – Chris Sale, Trevor Cahill, Carlos Martinez, Ervin Santana, Jay Bruce, Brian Dozier, Jose Altuve, Asdrubal Cabrera, Miguel Sano, Jake Lamb, Aaron Judge, Kyle Schwarber
F – Seventeen of the 46 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A-D) Daily Overlay – On the Hill, DailyFantasyNerd, Sportsline, Rotoballer (Score: 10.00) all nailed down perfect scores on Tuesday.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 4.29) put together a solid lineup on Tuesday. Three of their seven plays scored an “A” or better.
#2) DK Playbook (Score: 4.17) scored a “B” or better with half of their 12 plays. That included four “A+” grades.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jose Quintana (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Freddie Freeman (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Marwin Gonzalez (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Cody Bellinger (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Ender Inciarte (DK Playbook)
Wednesday (May 3rd)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.50 (8th)
Hitters – 2.51 (14th)
A+ – Nathan Karns, Charlie Morton, Carlos Correa, Asdrubal Cabrera, Chris Owings, Josh Reddick, Michael Conforto, Marcell Ozuna, Steve Pearce, Kole Calhoun
F – Twenty-one of the 53 selections finished with a failing grade (all failing grades were hitter picks).
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score: 8.33) took home the top slot with all three of Brad’s selections finishing at an “A” or better.
#2) DK Playbook (Score: 6.50) scored an “A+” and “B” on their way to a top-2 finish.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 5.14) positioned themselves in the top-2, which is a rare occurrence. Six of the 14 plays finished with an “A+” grade.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 5.11) had a solid mid-week with four of their nine plays finishing with a perfect score. FTA was the lone expert site to suggest Jose Ramirez.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Curtis Granderson (DailyFantasySportsRankings)
A+ – Ian Desmond (Daily Overlay – On the Hill)
A+ – Jose Ramirez (FantasyTeamAdvice)
A+ – Billy Hamilton (FantasyPros)
Thursday (May 4th – Early)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.25 (T-12th)
Hitters – 1.95 (9th)
A+ – Max Scherzer, Stephen Vogt, Joey Gallo, Matt Joyce
F – Twelve of the 26 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 10.00) utilized Scherzer to nab a perfect score.
#1B) Rotoballer (Score: 10.00) also played Scherzer for an “A+” on Thursday afternoon.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyLabs (Score: 4.00) topped the small expert contingent on Thursday afternoon. Three of their eight plays scored an “A+” grade.
#2) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 3.75) scored two “A+” grades with their eight plays.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Jharel Cotton (DailyRoto)
A+ – Michael A. Taylor (DailyRoto)
A+ – Derek Holland (FantasyGuruElite)
Thursday (May 4th – Main)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 1.60 (5th)
Hitters – 1.92 (11th)
A+ – Manny Machado, Seth Smith
F – Fourteen of the 30 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 6.00) scored an “A+” and “C” to top Thursday evening’s pitcher side.
#2) RotoGrinders Consensus (Score: 3.67) scored an “A+”, a “D” and a failing grade but still managed to find the top-2.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyLabs (Score: 4.50) topped the evening slate on the hitter side, too.
#2) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 3.86) scored an “A” or better with three of their seven plays. It was the three failing grades that did them in.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Keon Broxton (Fantasy Alarm)
Friday (May 5th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.22 (12th)
Hitters – 1.91 (15th)
A+ – Chris Archer, Paul Goldschmidt, Matt Carpenter, Chris Davis
F – Eighteen of the 42 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score 7.50) finished off a solid week with an “A+” and “A” on their pitcher selections.
#2) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 6.00) used their optimizer to spit out an “A+” and a “C” grade to end the week.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Rotoballer (Score: 5.00) finished off the week in a big way as three of their four plays scored an “A” or better.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.29) scored an “A+” on two of the seven plays on the way to a top-2 finish.
Sleepers of the Day
There were no players that received an “A+” who were selected by only one expert.
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 | N/A | 74.20% | 65.98% |
| 13 | 72.12% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 72.90% | N/A | N/A | 72.20% |
| 12 | 75.95% | N/A | 65.50% | 37.00% | 27.10% | 70.95% | 57.60% | 60.13% |
| 11 | 50.71% | N/A | 39.50% | 31.65% | N/A | 43.73% | 32.90% | 43.82% |
| 10 | 48.99% | N/A | 17.00% | 40.13% | 52.55% | 31.00% | 52.23% | 47.34% |
| 9 | 44.39% | 24.88% | 42.20% | 23.63% | 21.33% | 46.10% | 35.02% | 34.37% |
| 8 | 35.47% | 20.30% | 28.05% | 28.20% | 36.97% | 34.50% | 29.58% | 30.95% |
| 7 | 21.38% | 36.72% | 25.37% | 17.83% | 26.83% | 21.77% | 28.31% | 25.10% |
| 6 | 20.98% | 17.91% | 19.43% | 16.49% | 16.73% | 21.34% | 25.50% | 20.56% |
| 5 | 15.36% | 17.61% | 15.77% | 12.39% | 12.85% | 11.33% | 21.36% | 16.18% |
| 4 | 11.33% | 10.10% | 7.54% | 10.42% | 10.93% | 7.78% | 14.23% | 10.78% |
| 3 | 6.14% | 9.63% | 6.18% | 8.75% | 6.62% | 7.60% | 8.40% | 7.60% |
| 2 | 4.78% | 5.26% | 4.26% | 5.93% | 4.87% | 4.17% | 5.81% | 5.14% |
| 1 | 2.34% | 3.38% | 1.89% | 2.90% | 2.62% | 1.98% | 2.76% | 2.58% |
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% | #DIV/0! | 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 | N/A | 44.30% | 43.15% |
| 13 | 48.92% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 36.40% | N/A | N/A | 47.67% |
| 12 | 56.05% | N/A | 30.20% | 20.30% | 27.10% | 33.40% | 40.00% | 37.06% |
| 11 | 34.56% | N/A | 24.65% | 25.35% | N/A | 25.28% | 23.10% | 29.10% |
| 10 | 34.30% | N/A | 14.00% | 36.33% | 33.65% | 21.60% | 30.04% | 31.83% |
| 9 | 35.74% | 20.40% | 22.35% | 15.23% | 15.41% | 19.80% | 23.60% | 24.15% |
| 8 | 28.64% | 17.60% | 18.63% | 19.10% | 26.17% | 18.89% | 20.37% | 21.89% |
| 7 | 20.57% | 23.32% | 19.38% | 12.29% | 21.04% | 15.30% | 19.58% | 19.20% |
| 6 | 21.01% | 14.54% | 13.87% | 14.22% | 14.79% | 15.23% | 16.72% | 16.17% |
| 5 | 15.91% | 12.47% | 12.10% | 11.69% | 11.12% | 11.45% | 15.40% | 13.34% |
| 4 | 13.04% | 10.31% | 7.52% | 8.45% | 10.34% | 8.48% | 10.74% | 9.95% |
| 3 | 8.94% | 8.77% | 6.81% | 7.66% | 6.76% | 8.27% | 8.86% | 8.08% |
| 2 | 7.23% | 5.48% | 5.42% | 5.85% | 5.92% | 5.61% | 6.25% | 6.03% |
| 1 | 4.40% | 4.10% | 3.03% | 3.84% | 3.74% | 3.24% | 3.99% | 3.78% |
