RIVAL Best Ball Drafts - Strategy and Lineup Picks for this Week (May 27-June 2)

May 27, 2024

Ryan Kirksey brings you RIVAL fantasy baseball best ball strategy and picks for Week 10 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 10. Join a RIVAL Fantasy draft now by visiting their draft lobby.

• Fantasy baseball draft kit
• Fantasy baseball rankings
• Team Sync platform and Draft Assistant
• Fantasy baseball mock draft simulator
• Fantasy baseball draft cheat sheets
• Fantasy baseball closer depth charts
• Fantasy baseball prospects

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 10 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.

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 ten teams who play seven games this week (BOS, KCR, MIN, HOU, SEA, ATL, NYM, WSH, CHC, MIL).

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. I can not emphasize this enough: Get three pitchers on your roster who will start twice this week. Those ten teams who play seven games should have multiple starters pitching twice in Week 10. Of the teams who play seven times, the Braves (WSH, OAK) and Brewers (CHC, CHW) have the best matchups this week.

Pitcher Picks for Week 10 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers

I think anyone reading this would be familiar with just how dominant Tarik Skubal has been this year, and now he gets two starts in Week 10 against Pittsburgh and Boston. Skubal has been so dominant (six wins, 2.25 ERA, 0.85 WHIP) that he is already +270 to win the AL Cy Young Award after the season ends. For comparison, Zach Wheeler is +360 to win the NL Cy Young and Juan Soto is +300 to win the AL MVP. Both Boston and Pittsburgh are in the top six in team strikeout rate, with both whiffing more than 24% of the time.

MLB ERA leaders since Aug. 28, 2023:

1. Reese Olson -- 1.76
2. Tarik Skubal -- 1.88

— Cody Stavenhagen (@CodyStavenhagen) May 26, 2024

Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers

Speaking of matchups against teams that strike out a ton, Freddy Peralta gets the Chicago two-step this week against the White Sox and the Cubs. Both teams are in the top 12 in team strikeout rate this year and both teams are bottom-10 in team slugging percentage. Peralta has been lights out in four of his last five starts and has stuck out fewer than six batters in just one of those games. At 11.28 strikeouts per nine innings, this has been one of Peralta's most dominant seasons to date and he gets both starts at home in Week 10.

Max Fried, Atlanta Braves

Max Fried isn't going to blow you away with the strikeout ability this year. At just 7.4 strikeouts per nine this year, he is more than one strikeout per nine innings below his career average. However, he has a 3.38 ERA and is only allowing 0.61 home runs per nine. He is also inducing 65% ground balls this year. That's a great combination for two games against the Nationals and Athletics. Both teams are bottom-seven in on-base percentage this season (Washington at .303 and Oakland at just .297). Fried should be able to go plenty of innings and be in line for wins in both games this week.

Infielder Picks for Week 10 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Ozzie Albies, Atlanta Braves

Ozzie Albies struggled for most of the Braves' eight-game week last week, but came alive on Sunday for two hits, two runs, two RBI, and a walk, hopefully sparking what could be a big seven-game week to come. Albies likely moves into the leadoff spot now with Ronald Acuna Jr. out for the rest of the season. That will maximize Albies' potential plate appearances going forward. Facing Washington and Oakland this week (all at home), Albies should see some truly awful pitching. Both Washington and Oakland are in the bottom half of the league in starting pitching ERA, with both teams over 4.00 for the season. They are also both bottom-five in strikeout rate, so Albies should get plenty of balls in play this week for what should be at least 32 total plate appearances.

Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals

Over the past week, Bobby Witt is hitting .407 with four home runs, 13 RBI, and seven runs. That means he is now up to .304/.365/.551  on the season with nine home runs and 16 stolen bases. Only 12 players have more plate appearances than Witt this season and he leads the major leagues in runs scored (48). He could probably deliver a full week's worth of stats just in his upcoming three home games this week.

At Kauffman Stadium, Witt is hitting .361/.427/.713 and has a crazy .473 wOBA. The decision when it comes to Witt is whether or not to prioritize him, one of the outfielders below, or a two-start pitcher with your first pick. If you find yourself drafting at the end of the first round in a RIVAL best ball draft, let the draft fall to you and pick whichever player falls, knowing that any one of them could win you the week.

Bobby Witt Jr.'s last nine games: 9 extra-base hits, 13 RBI pic.twitter.com/wbdSijQqYx

— MLB (@MLB) May 26, 2024

Outfielder Picks for Week 10 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Kyle Tucker, Houston Astros

With Seattle and then three home games upcoming, Kyle Tucker is probably my number one batter heading into Week 10 RIVAL best ball drafts. We are fully aware he is good everywhere (he crushed a mammoth two-run homer in Oakland on Sunday), but his home numbers are ludicrous. He is slashing .313/.465/.727 with a 22% walk rate at home this year. I know he is facing tough teams in Seattle and Minnesota this week, but he could face Randy Johnson and Johan Santana seven times this week and I still think he would be a top-five hitter the way he is swinging the bat right now.

Kyle Tucker is on pace to finish the season with:
115 runs
115 RBI
34 doubles
53 homers
162 hits
128 walks
28 steals in 28 attempts
He's got a slash line of .281/.410/.616

Jose Altuve on pace to finish the season with:
103 runs
56 RBI
31 doubles
28 homers
193 hits
50 walks
21…

— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) May 26, 2024

Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

While he hasn't been near the hitter Kyle Tucker has been this season, Julio Rodriguez is starting to heat up just in time for the calendar to flip to summer. After his performance on Sunday (home run, double, two stolen bases), we can officially say that Julio Rodriguez is on fire. J-Rod homered on Saturday as well. After his monster day on Sunday, Rodriguez's batting average sits at .260 when it was at .190 just over a month ago. Julio also gets to come back home for seven games in Week 10.

More Fantasy Baseball Advice