DRAFT MLB Value Watch: Opening Day

_Aaron Hendrix will be bringing Premium subscribers his tiers for all DRAFT contests ranging from head-to-head all the way up to ten-person drafts. _

Wednesday, March 27th

Good afternoon Grinders! Welcome to our MLB content for DRAFT Premium. Each day, I will go over the MLB slate with tier rankings for head-to-head all the way up to ten-person drafts.

A couple notes to remember about DRAFT contests. One, there is no salary cap so you’re not worried about fitting players in on a budget. Raw fantasy points is what matters most, not the popular point per dollar. Second, while there is no late swap, if a player is ruled out, you will be able to swap them out. For more information on how this works, read the DRAFT Swap Rules Page – for this reason you can take some marginal chances in the later rounds on players that are questionable to play.

View the DRAFT MLB Scoring System here – last, roster requirements are one pitcher, two infielders, and two outfielders. All analysis and rankings will be based on that.

One key note about this article. It is projection based and the analysis will be minimal. It is my feeling the best way to approach DRAFT drafts is to rely on a mathematical approach and to draft the best projected players with some adjustments made for positional scarcity – I will account for this scarcity in my rankings. If there is a question you have on how to interpret the rankings, please leave a comment on the article or shoot me a DM on Twitter and I’ll be happy to answer it for you.

The rankings are based on projected values. To get the best feel for the industry, each day I run a comparison of major DFS sites and come up with a average projected value from these sites. These values are how I determine my rankings. I’ve included the overall unadjusted rankings at the end so you can see how players rank in terms of overall fantasy point projection.

Author’s Note – DRAFT does not always utilize the typical position listed for a player in projections. I do my best to go through their lists each morning to make sure the positions are correct, but there is a chance I may miss some. I always include additional players in the positional rankings to account for this as well as injuries and late scratches. The article will not be updated after the initial posting, but if you have any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments or send me a message on Twitter and I’ll be happy to answer them.

Slate Overview

This data is copied from the MLB First Look from Notorious.

Away Pitcher Home Pitcher Vegas Line Run Total Time (ET)
Baltimore Orioles Andrew Cashner – R at New York Yankees Masahiro Tanaka – R NYY-307 9.0 1:05 PM
New York Mets Jacob deGrom – R at Washington Nationals Max Scherzer – R WAS-140 7.0 1:05 PM
St. Louis Cardinals Miles Mikolas – R at Milwaukee Brewers Jhoulys Chacin – R MIL-115 8.5 2:10 PM
Atlanta Braves Julio Teheran – R at Philadelphia Phillies Aaron Nola – R PHI-180 7.5 3:05 PM
Detroit Tigers Jordan Zimmermann – R at Toronto Blue Jays Marcus Stroman – R TOR-160 8.5 3:37 PM
Houston Astros Justin Verlander – R at Tampa Bay Rays Blake Snell – L HOU-104 6.5 4:00 PM
Chicago Cubs Jon Lester – L at Texas Rangers Mike Minor – L CHC-110 9.5 4:05 PM
LA Angels of Anaheim Trevor Cahill – R at Oakland Athletics Mike Fiers – R OAK-114 9.0 4:07 PM
Arizona Diamondbacks Zack Greinke – R at Los Angeles Dodgers Hyun-Jin Ryu – L LAD-153 7.5 4:10 PM
Cleveland Indians Corey Kluber – R at Minnesota Twins Jose Berrios – R CLE-125 7.5 4:10 PM
Colorado Rockies Kyle Freeland – L at Miami Marlins Jose Urena – R COL-125 8.0 4:10 PM
Pittsburgh Pirates Jameson Taillon – R at Cincinnati Reds Luis Castillo – R CIN-115 8.5 4:10 PM
San Francisco Giants Madison Bumgarner – L at San Diego Padres Eric Lauer – L SD -115 8.0 4:10 PM
Chicago White Sox Carlos Rodon – L at Kansas City Royals Brad Keller – R KC -109 8.5 4:15 PM
Boston Red Sox Chris Sale – L at Seattle Mariners Marco Gonzales – L BOS-168 7.0 7:10 PM

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About the Author

thehazyone
Aaron Hendrix (thehazyone)

Aaron Hendrix is a former professional poker player who made the transition from season long fantasy sports to DFS in October of 2014. He used to cover poker tournaments for a living until stepping into his current role at RotoGrinders. He can be found on Twitter at @aaronhendrix