RIVAL Best Ball Drafts - Strategy and Lineup Picks for this Week (April - May 5)

Ryan Kirksey brings you RIVAL fantasy baseball best ball strategy and picks for Week 5 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 5. 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 5 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 six teams who play seven games this week (BAL, NYY, MIA, NYM, WSH, CHC).

Touched down in Baltimore 🛬 pic.twitter.com/lZqMLHU79F

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 29, 2024

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 six teams who play seven games will have multiple starters pitching twice in Week 5. Of the teams who play seven times, the Marlins (WSH, COL, @OAK) and Mets (CHC, @TBR) have the best matchups for the week. This is a very tricky week for starters because the best starting pitchers with two aligned starts all are in bad matchups. They are still better than one-start pitchers, but we have to tread carefully here.

Pitcher Picks for Week 5 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Grayson Rodriguez, Baltimore Orioles

It's no walk in the park this week for Grayson Rodriguez as he has to face the New York Yankees on Monday and then travel to the home-run-friendly Great American Ballpark to face the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday. Rodriguez has made gains in almost every important category between 2023 and 2024. He is now striking out more than 10 batters per nine innings plus he lowered his walk rate to under three per nine frames. He has three wins in his five starts on the backs of his elite offense behind him. One thing we should be able to count on this week for Rodriguez is strikeouts. The Yankees strike out 21% of the time and the Reds have the fourth-highest rate in the league this year (26.2%).

Joe Ryan, Minnesota Twins

You're not going to find Joe Ryan anywhere near the top of the pitcher ADP ranks for RIVAL drafts this week, but he might have the sneakiest two-start week of any pitcher worth considering. Ryan will face the horrific Chicago White Sox on Monday evening, followed by a home game against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, May 5. The White Sox are one of the most abysmal teams in the majors, ranked 30th in wOBA, and had the seventh-highest strikeout rate in the league heading into Sunday's games.

Boston is just not the same team on the road this year. They scored plenty of runs against the Cubs at home this past weekend, but they have the sixth-highest strikeout rate on the road this year (25.4%) coupled with an 8.5% walk rate that's only 14th in the major leagues. It's not necessarily a cakewalk this week for Joe Ryan, but our options for two-start weeks are limited.

Infielder Picks for Week 5 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore Orioles

Gunnar Henderson has been the best hitter in the American League for about two weeks now, and it isn't particularly close. He is slashing .408/.464/.867 in that span including six home runs and three steals. His wRC+ is 273 over the last 14 days meaning his offense has been 173% better than the league average during that time. No pitcher can slow down Henderson right now, so matchups against Carlos Rodon or Hunter Greene give me absolutely no concern in Week 5 RIVAL drafts. Henderson, a left-handed batter, has been reverse splits this year, hitting .341/.404/.683 against southpaws and he gets to face four of them in Week 5.

i mean, just LOOK at Gunnar Henderson's percentiles!! pic.twitter.com/jdwngffJCg

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 26, 2024

Pete Alonso,  New York Mets

Pete Alonso crushed the ball over the last week, hitting .292/.320/.583 with a couple of home runs and three RBI. Now he gets seven straight games against mediocre pitching against the Cubs and Rays, with only Shota Imanaga as the real trouble spot during his full week. Only facing one left-hander all week isn't ideal for Pete Alonso, but he is hitting a robust .274/.337/.488 against them so far in 2024. In terms of infielders with big upside outside the first few names, Alonso is likely the best option to fill one of those slots.

CJ Abrams, Washington Nationals

CJ Abrams is the perfect kind of player to grab late in RIVAL drafts if you go pitching early to lock up two-start weeks. Abrams has ascended to a whole other level this season, but is still buried in the draft ranks over on RIVAL. All Abrams has done this season is hit .301/.369/.624 with six bombs and five stolen bases. He is striking out only 18% of the time and is now walking almost nine percent of his trips at the plate. Apart from Nathan Eovaldi on Wednesday, there is no other pitcher in Abrams' seven-game week that should give us any concern, especially since he will miss Jose Berrios when Washington plays Toronto later this week.

Outfielder Picks for Week 5 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Jazz Chisholm, Miami Marlins

After his massive grand slam on Sunday, Jazz Chisholm is hitting .292/.414/.458 over the last seven days with five RBI. He has three walks in his last two games as his plate discipline is finally starting to turn around just in time for him to face the Colorado and Oakland pitching staffs (plus one more game against Jake Irvin of the Nationals). Paul Blackburn will be the toughest pitcher Chisholm faces this week, and he has so far missed only one game this season after being injury-prone in 2022 and 2023. He will face six right-handers this week, and he has a career .479 slugging percentage against them (134 points higher than against left-handers).

Opposite field GRAND SLAM for Jazz Chisholm Jr.#HomeOfBeisbolpic.twitter.com/jlavlTeHr8

— RotoBaller MLB (@RotoBallerMLB) April 28, 2024

Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, New York Yankees

The Yankees do have some pitching land mines on their schedule with Grayson Rodriguez, Corbin Burnes, and Tarik Skubal coming up, but both Aaron Judge and Juan Soto have been extremely hot of late, and are capable of winning against any of these individual matchups across their seven-game week. Both players are in the top 12 in total home runs over the last two weeks and especially the batting line for Juan Soto (.313/.424/.625) looks like video game numbers. Judge is still striking out too much, but he has risen his slugging percentage to .481 over the last week with a barrage of home runs, including a monster blast and three RBI in their rout on Sunday.

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