Welcome to the MLB Expert Recap for the week of May 8th. We had one big mover in the top-3 so be sure to check out the Leaderboard recap below. As we discussed last week, we had another day of “double down” with DO providing a Consensus for Wednesday’s afternoon and main slate. 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 of the week was the RotoGrinders 6-Pack. Beer was an absolute beast this week to shoot into 2nd in the hitter standings. If he has another week like that, he will surely be neck and neck for the lead. FantasyTeamAdvice continues to be our most consistent performer overall. FTA remains the lone expert to show up in the top-3 of both the pitcher and hitter standings. Be sure to check out the full MLB Expert Standings to see how your favorite experts check out.
Pitchers
#1) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 4.91) dipped back below the 5.0 mark but still maintains a decent lead ahead of the pack. They are in little to no danger of dropping from the top-3.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.70) took a another big step forward last week on the pitcher side. They have been crushing it on the pitcher and hitter side the last couple weeks.
#3) FanSided (Score: 4.51) benefited from sitting on their hands. There were no selections made by FanSided at all last week. Similar to what we’ve done in the past, if they continue to make no picks they will be removed from the grading altogether.
Hitters
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.45) bumped their DO Score back in the right direction last week. The gap between them and 2nd widened a bit. As I said above, they’ve been nailing it recently.
#2) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 3.31) had a MASSIVE week to position himself right in the thick of the leader race. He will look to continue the momentum and challenge FTA for the top spot.
#3) Daily Overlay – On the Hill (Score: 3.24) maintains his position in the top-3, though he slipped a spot. His stack options continue to perform at a profitable level.
Week in Review
Monday (May 8th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.33 (T-6th)
Hitters – 1.66 (10th)
A+ – Nate Karns, Jed Lowrie, Ryan Schimpf, Brett Gardner
F – Eighteen of the 38 total selections finished in the failing category.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A-D) RotoGrinders Consensus, FantasyPros, FantasyLabs, RotoGrinders – Lucror (Score: 5.00) all tied atop the leaderboard on Monday. They each had one “A+” grade to their credit.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 3.25) finished at the top on a day where the experts really struggled on the hitter side. Stephen scored an “A+” with one of his four selections.
#2) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 3.00) scored an “A” or better with two of their seven plays to find the top-2.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Matt Holliday (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Trey Mancini (FantasyPros)
A+ – Joey Votto (FantasyGuruElite)
Tuesday (May 9th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 5.22 (9th)
Hitters – 3.29 (8th)
A+ – Max Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Alex Meyer, James McCann, Salvador Perez, Eric Thames, Kennys Vargas, Yonder Alonso, Logan Morrison, Brad Miller, Daniel Murphy, Robinson Cano, Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Andrew Benintendi, Josh Reddick
F – Twenty-one of the 54 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) DailyFantasyNerd (Score: 10.00) used Meyer and Carrasco to score two “A+” grades.
#1B) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 10.00) paired Scherzer with Carrasco for their perfect score.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 7.00) had a massive Tuesday. Beer put four of his six picks in the “A+” category. He was the lone expert to suggest Ben Gamel and his “A+” performance.
#2) Rotoballer (Score: 5.33) scored an “A+” with half of their six plays on Tuesday.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Mookie Betts (DailyRoto)
A+ – Ben Gamel (RotoGrinders 6-Pack)
A+ – Yasmani Grandal (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Ben Revere (Scout Fantasy)
Wednesday (May 10th – Early)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 3.00 (T-2nd)
Hitters – 2.91 (5th)
A+ – Buster Posey, Jay Bruce, Freddie Freeman, Carlos Correa
F – Ten of the 25 selections finished with a failing grade (all failing grades were hitter picks).
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Sportsline (Score: 6.00) scored an “A+” and “C” for their pitcher selections on Wednesday afternoon. They picked up the “A+” as being the only expert to play Kyle Hendricks.
#2) Six experts tied for 2nd with a scored of 3.00.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Fantasy Alarm (Score: 4.80) found the top-2 as four of their ten plays scored an “A+” grade. FA was the lone expert on Wednesday afternoon to slot Tommy Joseph.
#2) FantasyPros (Score: 4.23) scored an “A” or better with six of their 13 plays for a top-2 slot. If you followed FantasyPros’ plays on Wednesday afternoon, you benefited from them being the lone site to play Robinson Cano and Jarrod Dyson.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Tommy Joseph (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Robinson Cano (FantasyPros)
A+ – Jarrod Dyson (FantasyPros)
A+ – Kyle Hendricks (Sportsline)
Wednesday (May 10th – Main)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.17 (13th)
Hitters – 1.94 (15th)
A+ – Chris Archer, Kenta Maeda, Shin-soo Choo, Corey Dickerson, Jayson Werth
F – Nineteen of the 39 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) Rotoballer (Score: 10.00) deployed Archer and Maeda for a perfect score and a 1st place finish in Wednesday’s Main slate.
#2A-D) DailyFantasySportsRankings, RotoGrinders Lineup Builder, Daily Overlay – Value Index, FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 6.50) all scored one “A+” grade each and tied for the 2nd spot.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) RotoGrinders Lineup Builder (Score: 4.50) finished off a solid Wednesday evening by topping the hitter side of the grading. Four of their six plays scored an “A” or better.
#2) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 4.33) made it a clean sweep for RG. He also scored an “A” or better with four of six plays.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Logan Morrison (DailyRoto)
A+ – Francisco Cervelli (DK Playbook)
Thursday (May 11th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 6.29 (4th)
Hitters – 2.35 (14th)
A+ – Michael Fulmer, Zack Greinke, Dallas Keuchel, Clayton Richard, Mike Napoli, Ian Desmond, Carlos Correa, Nolan Arenado, Miguel Sano
F – Seventeen of the 38 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1A) DailyFantasySportsRankings (Score: 10.00) played Greinke for their perfect score on Thursday.
#1B) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 10.00) utilized the value play of Clayton Richard to tie for 1st.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) Daily Overlay – Value Index (Score: 10.00) finished his crushing on Thursday with three “A+” grades on the hitter side. Stephen destroyed Thursday!
#2) Rotowire (Score: 5.83) scored an “A+” with half of their six plays on Thursday. If it weren’t for Stephen, Rotowire very well could have topped the list.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Justin Smoak (DailyRoto)
A+ – Carlos Gonzalez (DailyRoto)
A+ – Eduardo Escobar (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Nelson Cruz (Scout Fantasy)
Friday (May 12th)
Industry Consensus Picks
Pitchers – 4.33 (T-3rd)
Hitters – 1.72 (17th)
A+ – Lance McCullers Jr., Joe Biagini, Cody Bellinger, David Peralta
F – Nineteen of the 41 selections finished with a failing grade.
Top Experts of the Day – Pitchers
#1) FantasyLabs (Score 5.00) had a solid end to the week. All of their three picks finished with a “C” or better grade including one “A+”.
#2) DailyRoto (Score: 4.63) found the top-2 as six of their eight plays scored a “B” or better including two “A+” grades.
Top Experts of the Day – Hitters
#1) FantasyTeamAdvice (Score: 4.00) scored an “A” or better with three of their five plays to finish the week on top.
#2) RotoGrinders 6-Pack (Score: 3.50) had a really strong week and finished with his 3rd top-2 finish of the week. Beer scored an “A+” with two of his six plays.
Sleepers of the Day
A+ – Josh Tomlin (DailyRoto)
A+ – Neil Walker (DailyRoto)
A+ – Matt Shoemaker (Daily Overlay – On the Hill)
A+ – Brian McCann (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Brandon Drury (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Luis Valbuena (Fantasy Alarm)
A+ – Tyler Flowers (Scout Fantasy)
A+ – Randal Grichuk (FantasyPros)
A+ – Hernan Perez (Rotowire)
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 | 67.55% | N/A | 65.50% | 37.00% | 27.10% | 70.95% | 46.90% | 57.77% |
| 11 | 51.84% | N/A | 39.50% | 30.40% | N/A | 43.73% | 32.90% | 44.25% |
| 10 | 46.57% | 33.60% | 17.00% | 40.13% | 52.55% | 31.00% | 53.68% | 46.69% |
| 9 | 39.57% | 26.77% | 46.94% | 23.63% | 28.81% | 40.93% | 36.85% | 35.50% |
| 8 | 35.47% | 20.30% | 28.12% | 28.20% | 36.97% | 37.37% | 30.19% | 31.40% |
| 7 | 21.19% | 36.16% | 25.13% | 16.64% | 26.83% | 24.83% | 27.54% | 24.94% |
| 6 | 24.69% | 17.70% | 21.09% | 17.67% | 18.17% | 19.84% | 23.94% | 21.22% |
| 5 | 14.66% | 18.28% | 15.58% | 13.45% | 11.65% | 12.16% | 20.44% | 15.86% |
| 4 | 13.06% | 11.22% | 8.08% | 10.44% | 10.31% | 8.67% | 14.17% | 11.17% |
| 3 | 6.95% | 9.45% | 7.53% | 9.38% | 6.54% | 8.07% | 8.57% | 8.08% |
| 2 | 4.84% | 5.61% | 4.27% | 5.92% | 5.32% | 4.27% | 5.97% | 5.30% |
| 1 | 2.32% | 3.21% | 2.15% | 2.86% | 3.02% | 2.02% | 3.15% | 2.74% |
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 | N/A | 44.30% | 43.15% |
| 13 | 48.92% | N/A | N/A | N/A | 36.40% | N/A | N/A | 47.67% |
| 12 | 49.23% | N/A | 30.20% | 20.30% | 27.10% | 33.40% | 31.00% | 36.66% |
| 11 | 35.15% | N/A | 24.65% | 21.47% | N/A | 25.28% | 23.10% | 29.17% |
| 10 | 32.90% | 24.90% | 14.00% | 36.33% | 33.65% | 21.60% | 29.95% | 31.17% |
| 9 | 31.99% | 20.37% | 23.70% | 15.23% | 19.18% | 18.53% | 23.04% | 24.02% |
| 8 | 28.64% | 17.60% | 19.52% | 19.10% | 26.17% | 20.58% | 19.84% | 21.91% |
| 7 | 20.66% | 24.31% | 19.41% | 12.13% | 21.04% | 17.36% | 19.70% | 19.47% |
| 6 | 23.51% | 14.56% | 14.27% | 13.88% | 14.46% | 14.61% | 16.11% | 16.52% |
| 5 | 15.40% | 13.77% | 11.71% | 12.42% | 10.37% | 11.50% | 14.95% | 13.19% |
| 4 | 14.39% | 10.73% | 7.65% | 8.38% | 10.20% | 8.87% | 10.99% | 10.27% |
| 3 | 9.12% | 8.45% | 7.63% | 8.23% | 6.78% | 8.45% | 8.86% | 8.28% |
| 2 | 7.13% | 5.87% | 5.32% | 5.95% | 6.23% | 5.48% | 6.32% | 6.11% |
| 1 | 4.32% | 4.03% | 3.27% | 3.85% | 3.97% | 3.28% | 4.29% | 3.91% |
