RIVAL Best Ball Drafts - Strategy and Lineup Picks for this Week (May 6-12)

May 6, 2024

Ryan Kirksey brings you RIVAL fantasy baseball best ball strategy and picks for Week 7 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 7. 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 7 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 nine teams who play seven games this week (CHW, CLE, KCR, MIN, LAA, SEA, CHC, STL, SFG). 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.

Worth 1,000 words and 1 magic summer sausage pic.twitter.com/UZBxdMX0tc

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 5, 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 nine teams who play seven games should have multiple starters pitching twice in Week 7. Of the teams who play seven times, the Guardians (DET, @CHW), the Angels (@PIT, KCR), and the Royals (MIL, @LAA)  have the best matchups for the week.

Pitcher Picks for Week 7 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies

Zack Wheeler is my preferred two-start pitcher this week and I will be priotitizing getting him on as many RIVAL rosters as possible He faces the San Francisco Giants and the Miami Marlins in Week 7, two teams that are in the bottom-12 in slugging percentage, wOBA, and runs scored. They aren't the best matchups for striking batters out (both teams are top 12 in strikeout rate), but they are ideal matchups for extended innings and maximizing Wheeler's fantasy points this week.

Zack Wheeler since joining the Phillies in 2020:

46-28, 2.99 ERA, 671 IP, 727/147 K/BB, 1.047 WHIP pic.twitter.com/Bo3wsJVg1Q

— Alexandre Lores Sports (@lores_alexandre) May 2, 2024

Triston McKenzie, Cleveland Guardians

Triston McKenzie's last three starts have been masterful for a rocky start to his season. He has allowed just five earned runs combined in his last three starts and has at least six strikeouts in each. In Week 7, McKenzie will toe the rubber against the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox, of course, are one of the worst offenses in baseball and strike out almost 24% of the time. Detroit also strikes out 24% of the time (1oth-most in the Major Leagues) and ranks 24th overall in team wOBA.

Infielder Picks for Week 7 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals

With seven games lined up for the Kansas City Royals in Week 7, it is the perfect time to make Bobby Witt Jr. your first hitter selected in RIVAL drafts this week. He will line up against three Milwaukee pitchers (but not Freddy Peralta) and then four games against the Los Angeles Angels where he will see three left-handers in those four contests. Witt has a .485 career slugging percentage against left-handers in his career, 20 points higher than right-handed pitchers. Witt has nine hits, seven runs, and three steals over his last seven games and should be near the top of plate appearances for the week.

Bobby Witt Jr. leads the American League in runs (29), extra-base hits (17) and stolen bases (11).

The last player to finish a season leading the American League in all three categories was Alfonso Soriano in 2002.

— Nick Kappel (@NickKappel) May 5, 2024

Jose Ramirez,  Cleveland Guardians

Jose Ramirez also will presumably suit up seven times in Week 7, as the Guardians face off against the Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox. The four games against the White Sox to end the week especially stand out because they have a team ERA of 5.08 (third-worst in MLB), and allow the most home runs per nine innings in the majors this year (1.38). Ramirez is hitless in his last five games somehow, but this is exactly the kind of week he needs to break out of this mini-slump.

Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers may only play six times in Week 7, but three of those games are in Colorado where Texas will presumably be projected to score more than five runs in each game by oddsmakers. In addition to the enticing trip to Coors Field, the Rangers will also visit Oakland where they see Ross Stripling and Alex Wood in their first two games of the series. Wood and Stripling are two of the worst pitchers in the league this year, so this should be a bonanza of an offensive week for Texas.

Outfielder Picks for Week 7 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Julio Rodriguez, Seattle Mariners

Julio Rodriguez is indeed in a season-long slump. His .269/.312/.323 slash line is nothing like his previous two years and his power has basically disappeared for some reason. This week, Rodriguez gets to leave the cavernous T-Mobile Park in Seattle and travel to Minnesota and then back home to face the weak pitching staff of the Oakland Athletics. At some point, Rodriguez is going to positively regress and get back on the 30/30 pace from the last two seasons, and when he goes on one of his patented heaters over the week, we need to make sure he does it on our rosters.

Adolis Garcia, Texas Rangers

The same strong context for Marcus Semien applies for Adolis Garcia and I can not wait to see how his massive power adapts to the thin air at Coors Field later this week. Garcia has basically been hot all year long, entering Week 7 with a .289/.341/.545 batting line with eight home runs and 27 RBI (second in the American League). Garica has improved his launch angle this year, which has resulted in a 45% flyball rate which should play nicely with his schedule this week. In addition to the Coors factor, Oakland is 26th in the league in strikeout rate to opponents, so Garcia should have no problem making good contact in both series this week.

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