DRAFT MLB Value Watch: Saturday, April 7th
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 7th
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) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baltimore Orioles | Chris Tillman – R | at | New York Yankees | Sonny Gray – R | NYY-230 | 9.5 | Yankee Stadium | 1:05 PM |
| New York Mets | Steven Matz – L | at | Washington Nationals | Gio Gonzalez – L | WAS-155 | 8.5 | Nationals Park | 1:05 PM |
| Tampa Bay Rays | Jake Faria – R | at | Boston Red Sox | Rick Porcello – R | BOS-152 | 8.5 | Fenway Park | 1:05 PM |
| Detroit Tigers | Michael Fulmer – R | at | Chicago White Sox | Lucas Giolito – R | DET-103 | 8.0 | Guaranteed Rate Field | 2:10 PM |
| Seattle Mariners | Mike Leake – R | at | Minnesota Twins | Jose Berrios – R | MIN-153 | 8.5 | Target Field | 2:10 PM |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Zack Greinke – R | at | St. Louis Cardinals | Michael Wacha – R | STL-107 | 7.5 | Busch Stadium | 2:15 PM |
| Chicago Cubs | Yu Darvish – R | at | Milwaukee Brewers | Zach Davies – R | CHC-134 | 9.0 | Miller Park | 4:05 PM |
| Kansas City Royals | Ian Kennedy – R | at | Cleveland Indians | Trevor Bauer – R | CLE-209 | 7.5 | Progressive Field | 4:10 PM |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | Rich Hill – L | at | San Francisco Giants | Chris Stratton – R | TBD | 8.0 | AT&T Park | 6:05 PM |
| Miami Marlins | Dillon Peters – L | at | Philadelphia Phillies | Vince Velasquez – R | PHI-153 | 8.0 | Citizens Bank Park | 6:05 PM |
| Cincinnati Reds | Sal Romano – R | at | Pittsburgh Pirates | Chad Kuhl – R | PIT-132 | 8.0 | PNC Park | 7:05 PM |
| San Diego Padres | Bryan Mitchell – R | at | Houston Astros | Gerrit Cole – R | HOU-260 | 8.5 | Minute Maid Park | 7:10 PM |
| Toronto Blue Jays | Marcus Stroman – R | at | Texas Rangers | Mike Minor – L | TOR-123 | 9.5 | Rangers Ballpark | 8:05 PM |
| Atlanta Braves | Anibal Sanchez – R | at | Colorado Rockies | Chad Bettis – R | COL-150 | 11.5 | Coors Field | 8:10 PM |
| Oakland Athletics | Andrew Triggs – R | at | LA Angels of Anaheim | JC Ramirez – R | LAA-116 | 8.5 | Angel Stadium | 9:07 PM |
Two juicy hitting spots on today’s slate with the Rockies at home against Anibal Sanchez and the Braves and the Yankees at home against Chris Tillman and the Orioles. As such, a large number of Yankees and Rockies hitters top the rankings with Giancarlo Stanton, Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman (playing in Coors), and Aaron Judge the top five projected hitters. Two SPs top the overall rankings with Yu Darvish and Gerrit Cole having a bit of a gap over Trevor Bauer and Zack Greinke. Infield, as usual, is a bit deeper at the bottom end than outfield so I bumped a few outfielders up in six man rankings.
Let’s get to the rankings!
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