DRAFT MLB Value Watch: Saturday, April 21st
Aaron Hendrix will be bringing Premium subscribers his tiers for head-to-head, three-man, four-man (tournaments), and six-man drafts on DRAFT. Included will be strategy discussion and options for the day’s slate.
Saturday, April 21st
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, three-man, four-man (tournaments) and six man drafts. I’ll also provide a brief slate analysis as to how to attack drafts for the slate.
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. It’s also important to note the scoring for DRAFT baseball contests is different than any other site with an emphasis on hitters and power (10 points for a home run) as opposed to traditional strong value for starting pitching (only one point for a strikeout). 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.
Slate Overview
This data is copied from the MLB First Look from Notorious.
| Away | Pitcher | Home | Pitcher | Vegas Line | Run Total | Ballpark | Time (ET) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Blue Jays | Marcus Stroman – R | at | New York Yankees | Jordan Montgomery – L | NYY-145 | 9.0 | Yankee Stadium | 1:05 PM |
| Kansas City Royals | Danny Duffy – L | at | Detroit Tigers | Mike Fiers – R | DET-112 | 8.5 | Comerica Park | 1:10 PM |
| Cincinnati Reds | Homer Bailey – R | at | St. Louis Cardinals | Carlos Martinez – R | STL-220 | 8.0 | Busch Stadium | 2:15 PM |
| Cleveland Indians | Mike Clevinger – R | at | Baltimore Orioles | Chris Tillman – R | CLE-165 | 9.0 | Camden Yards | 4:05 PM |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | Steven Brault – L | at | Philadelphia Phillies | Aaron Nola – R | PHI-170 | 8.0 | Citizens Bank Park | 4:05 PM |
| Minnesota Twins | Kyle Gibson – R | at | Tampa Bay Rays | Blake Snell – L | TB -116 | 7.5 | Tropicana Field | 6:10 PM |
| Houston Astros | Dallas Keuchel – L | at | Chicago White Sox | Lucas Giolito – R | TBD | TBD | Guaranteed Rate Field | 7:10 PM |
| Miami Marlins | Jose Urena – R | at | Milwaukee Brewers | Brent Suter – L | MIL-170 | 9.0 | Miller Park | 7:10 PM |
| New York Mets | Jacob deGrom – R | at | Atlanta Braves | Julio Teheran – R | NYM-140 | 8.0 | SunTrust Park | 7:10 PM |
| Seattle Mariners | James Paxton – L | at | Texas Rangers | Bartolo Colon – R | SEA-140 | 9.0 | Rangers Ballpark | 8:05 PM |
| Chicago Cubs | Yu Darvish – R | at | Colorado Rockies | Tyler Anderson – L | CHC-130 | 10.0 | Coors Field | 8:10 PM |
| San Diego Padres | Clayton Richard – L | at | Arizona Diamondbacks | Zack Godley – R | ARI-175 | 8.0 | Chase Field | 8:10 PM |
| Boston Red Sox | Chris Sale – L | at | Oakland Athletics | Sean Manaea – L | BOS-150 | 7.0 | Oakland Coliseum | 9:05 PM |
| San Francisco Giants | Derek Holland – L | at | LA Angels of Anaheim | Garrett Richards – R | LAA-200 | 9.0 | Angel Stadium | 9:07 PM |
| Washington Nationals | Stephen Strasburg – R | at | Los Angeles Dodgers | Hyun-Jin Ryu – L | WAS-105 | 7.0 | Dodger Stadium | 9:10 PM |
We have a massive Saturday slate with some early games and late games mixed in and a Coors Field game which leads to many of the Cubs hitters being top draft picks. Chris Sale is far and away the best overall projected player of the day – enough so that I’d be willing to take him first in head-to-head’s as I feel the gap between him and Stephen Strasburg, the SP2, is significant enough to do that. After Strasburg, it’s fine to wait on SP as the next four, while all very good are projected similarly and I think you’re fine with any of them. The top five hitters of the day are Mike Trout (shocking I know), Kris Bryant, Paul Goldschmidt, Charlie Blackmon, and Justin Upton with most of the top hitters either being from Houston, the Yankees, or the Cubs/Rockies game.
Let’s get to the rankings!
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