RIVAL Best Ball Drafts - Strategy and Lineup Picks for this Week (May 13-19)

May 13, 2024

Ryan Kirksey brings you RIVAL fantasy baseball best ball strategy and picks for Week 8 of the 2024 season. He recommends targeting these MLB players for best ball fantasy baseball drafts.

The 2024 fantasy baseball season is now in full gear and weekly best ball drafts are a great way to get to experience drafts all season long. Fantasy baseball best ball formats are an excellent way to get the real-time experience of drafting without the hassle of in-season management, even from a week-to-week perspective. RIVAL Fantasy is one of the best formats out there for baseball's best ball drafts, and they have weekly best ball drafts every week from Opening Day until the end of the season.

It is very important to know your league settings and scoring depending on where you play best ball. Be sure and pay attention to your league settings as RIVAL scores differently for best ball than many other sites offering a similar product. They also offer a unique perspective on positional alignment with two outfielders, two infielders, two utility hitters, and three pitchers.

Here is the scoring breakdown at RIVAL plus general strategy and picks for Week 8. Join a RIVAL Fantasy draft now by visiting their draft lobby.

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RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Scoring

For this article, we are going to focus on RIVAL Fantasy's best ball scoring, as it is one of the best new popular platforms to play on. The table below shows you how each category is scored for their week-long best ball games.

Week 8 RIVAL Best Ball Drafts Strategy

RIVAL weekly best ball drafts during the baseball season consist of four or six teams, each picking nine players: two IF, two OF, two UTIL, and three PIT. With only 36 or 54 total player picks made in the draft, it's not like you have to go deep into the player pool or be ready to draft the same sleepers you drafted after Round 20 in seasonal leagues. With so few players taken and the talent level of those players so high, we are looking for micro-edges in this game.

Wearing our Sunday best on this Mother's Day. 🥰 pic.twitter.com/A9M0jcuIgC

— MLB (@MLB) May 13, 2024

For hitters, we want to maximize plate appearances. That means two things. First, players who hit higher in the order are much more valuable. Over a week, even those one or two extra plate appearances can add up. In addition, we want to prioritize hitters whose teams play seven games.

Whenever I possibly can, all of my hitter rosters will be filled with players from the 10 teams who play seven games this week (BOS, TB, HOU, OAK, NYM, PHI, CHC, CIN, PIT, LAD). Also note that Baltimore, Boston, Toronto, Atlanta, and Washington only play five games this week. That means it will be very difficult to justify rostering hitters OR pitchers from those teams.

For pitchers, we want to find the best possible options who have two starts this week. Even the best pitchers with pristine matchups with one start may not be able to match pitchers in a tier below with two starts. Those nine teams who play seven games should have multiple starters pitching twice in Week 8. Of the teams who play seven times, the Phillies (at NYM, NYM, WSH), Dodgers (at SF, CIN), and Astros (OAK, MIL) have the best matchups for the week.

Pitcher Picks for Week 8 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Corbin Burnes, Baltimore Orioles

The two matchups for Corbin Burnes this week look absolutely delightful and come at the perfect time for Burnes, a pitcher who has not allowed more than three earned runs in any start so far in 2024. Burnes isn't blowing people away with strikeouts this year (25%), but at least one of these teams in Week 8 should help with that issue.

The Seattle Mariners (at 28.6%) are far and away the most strikeout-prone team in baseball, and they have a team on-base percentage of just .300 on the year. Toronto is very good at avoiding strikeouts (just 19.9% on the year), but its problem is it can't score runs. Luckily for Burnes, Seattle also suffers from this affliction all season as both teams he will see this week are bottom six in totals runs scored this season. With a high-powered offense behind him, this could be a two-win week for our RIVAL leagues.

The numbers for 2 starters in #Orioles' rotation:

Pitcher A: 2.83 ERA and 0.97 WHIP in 47.2 IP in 8 starts
Pitcher B: 2.90 ERA and 1.07 WHIP in 40.1 IP in 7 starts

Both pitchers have 5 starts with 2 or fewer runs allowed.

Pitcher A is Corbin Burnes. Pitcher B is Cole Irvin.

— Jake Rill (@JakeDRill) May 11, 2024

Brady Singer, Kansas City Royals

Brady Singer isn't the sexiest name on the draft board, but his matchups and opportunity this week give him some extra appeal. Singer is undergoing his own mini renaissance this year, lowering his ERA to 2.36 and bumping his strikeout rate to 9.07 per nine innings. He has cut his home runs and is inducing more swings and misses.

This week, Singer will face the same free-swinging Seattle team that Corbin Burnes will later in the week, and then go up against the Oakland Athletics at home. Oakland has a top-five team strikeout rate (25%) and is 26th in team on-base percentage. With these factors combined, Singer makes for a perfect third pitcher on your weekly rosters.

Aaron Nola, Philadelphia Phillies

Aaron Nola struggled to start the 2024 season, but he has largely bounced back lately. In his last seven starts, he has only allowed more than three earned runs once, and that was a game where he still went 5 2/3 innings and struck out seven batters. This should be another strong week for Nola as he gets the lackluster New York Mets offense as well as a date with the Washington Nationals.

Neither team is a threat to give Nola nine or 10 strikeouts in a game (both are around a 20% K rate), but Washington and New York are also both bottom 12 in runs and slugging percentage this year. Right now, Nola is scheduled to line up against Jose Butto and Trevor Williams this week, so neither matchup is one you should be looking to avoid.

Infielder Picks for Week 8 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Jose Altuve, Houston Astros

Jose Altuve got a day off on Sunday, so he should be ready to go for seven straight games this week, all at home, and all against inferior opponents. The Astros have the Oakland Athletics traveling to Houston for four games and then welcome the Milwaukee Brewers into town.

Altuve at home this season has been a sight to behold. This season, he is hitting .370/.420/.630 at home and should easily get 35 plate appearances this week if he plays his entire slate of seven games. Both Oakland and Milwaukee are bottom 12 in the league in team pitching WHIP. I'm doing everything I can to get Altuve on my RIVAL rosters this week.

Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox

It's a very simple calculus for Rafael Devers this week. The Red Sox play seven games, four against Tampa Bay and three at home against St. Louis. In those seven games, left-handed Devers will see six straight right-handed pitchers to start the week before he gets soft-tossing lefty Matthew Liberatore next Sunday.

Against right-handed pitchers this year, Devers is slashing .286/.390/.529 with all four of his home runs to go along with 12 walks. He has also been exceptional in May, hitting .303/.395/.515 heading into Sunday's games. Devers is a no-brainer pick as a good player to have in Week 8.

There are exactly zero players other than Rafael Devers who can hit a home run on this pitch pic.twitter.com/h5t0HeFKqL

— Boston Sports Enjoyer (@DeversEnjoyer) May 5, 2024

Outfielder Picks for Week 8 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Kyle Tucker, Houston Astros

Major League Baseball has a new home run leader. After Kyle Tucker hit five home runs in his last six games, his 13 bombs have taken over sole possession of first place. What's great about the Astros' upcoming seven-game schedule is that they will face six right-handers and every game will be at home.

In those situations, Tucker is hitting .279/.426/.605 this season with four home runs, nine RBI, and 11 walks. Looking ahead, the only potential roadblock from a pitching perspective would be from Freddy Peralta on Friday night, but Tucker's 1.100 overall OPS at home this season does not have me worried for one moment that he cannot completely dominate this week.

Kyle Tucker has 13 homers in 2024.

Here's who has more so far: pic.twitter.com/l2quWdoPlA

— MLB (@MLB) May 12, 2024

Randy Arozarena, Tampa Bay Rays

There is no question that Randy Arozarena has struggled this year with his .154/.253/.329 slash line plus a 30% strikeout rate. If ever there was a week for the multi-talented Rays outfielder to bust out of a season-long slump, this is the one.

The Rays play seven games away from pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field as they travel to Boston and Toronto this week. Neither of those teams strikes out batters more than 22% of the time. Both are also prone to allowing opposing batters to generate some power against them, especially Toronto. The Blue Jays are last in the league in home runs allowed per nine and home run per fly ball rate. Entering two hitter-friendly parks for Week 8, this is the time when Arozarena gets back on track.

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