RIVAL Best Ball Drafts - Strategy and Lineup Picks for This Week (April 8-14)

Ryan Kirksey brings you RIVAL fantasy baseball best ball strategy and picks for Week 2 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 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 for leagues that start on Opening Day.

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 2. 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 2 RIVAL Best Ball Drafts Strategy

RIVAL weekly best ball drafts during the baseball season consist of four or six teams, each picking nine players: 2 IF, 2 OF, 2 UTIL, and 3 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. With just one exception, all of my hitter rosters will be filled with players from the eight teams who play seven games this week (MIN, HOU, TEX, ATL, PHI, NYM, CIN, MIL)

For pitchers, we want to find the best possible options who have two start weeks. 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 eight teams who play seven games will have multiple starters pitching twice in Week 2. Of the teams who play seven times, the Phillies (@STL, PIT), Braves (NYM, @MIA), and Reds (MIL, @CHW) have the best matchups for the week.

Pitcher Picks for Week 2 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies

Zack Wheeler faces two teams in Week 2 (St. Louis Cardinals and Pittsburgh Pirates) who are both playing well, but the opposing pitching matchups look good on paper and help deliver Wheeler a win in each one. He will face lefty Zack Thompson on Tuesday and faces Mitch Keller on Sunday. Wheeler's road game is in St. Louis, one of the better pitching ballparks of the last three seasons, and his next start against the Pirates will come at home. The Pirates have a 24% strikeout rate on the road this season.

Jose Berrios, Toronto Blue Jays

While his team does not play seven times in Week 2, the Blue Jays have Berrios lined up to face the Seattle Mariners on Monday and then the Colorado Rockies (in Toronto) on Sunday. The Mariners currently lead MLB in team strikeout rate (29.4%), and while they have some dangerous spots at the top of their lineup, Berrios should be able to pile up the two-point strikeouts against them. Colorado is currently 24 in the majors in road wOBA (.283) and they strike out 24.5% of the time when away from Coors Field this season.

Infielder Picks for Week 2 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Pete Alonso, New York Mets

Instead of having to face Spencer Strider this week, Pete Alonso is going to get back-to-back games against left-handers Dylan Dodd and Max Fried (who might be injured) this week. That will be followed up by home matchups against Michael Wacha and Alec Marsh before the week closes out against lefty Cole Ragans. Alonso has gotten off to a horrific start to this season (.184 average, .567 OPS), but that just means he is the 12th-ranked IF position player for Week 2 and can likely be grabbed at the end of our four-player draft on RIVAL.

Austin Riley, Atlanta Braves

After a slow start to the season, Austin Riley now has two home runs and seven RBI in his last five games, and now gets seven games against the New York Mets and Miami Marlins in Week 2. Riley homered and drove in two runs on Sunday, and he is a perfect candidate for an IF on RIVAL because his high strikeout numbers don't count for negative points in that format. With four home games to start off the week against the Mets, all Braves are in play this week, especially as they have been the third-best offense at home to start the 2024 season (.404 team wOBA).

Ketel Marte, Arizona Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks are a team I am willing to look at this week for hitters even though they play just six games. Why? They travel to Coors Field the first three days of the week and face Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber, and Cal Quantrill (gross). A switch-hitting, leadoff man like Marte who has started out white hot (.368/.409/.684) should get about 13-15 plate appearances in those three games, which could end up being more productive than another player with 16-18 plate appearances elsewhere.

Outfielder Picks for Week 2 RIVAL Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Drafts

Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta Braves

Here is the list of pitchers Ronald Acuna Jr. will face in his seven games this week: Julio Tehran, Adrian Houser, Jose Quintana, Luis Severino, Trevor Rogers, Max Meyer, and Jesus Luzardo. Maybe Luzardo is a bit concerning, but he's a lefty and Acuna has a .333 OBP against him for his career. With four home games against the New York Mets on tap plus three against the inept Miami Marlins to end the week, there is a reason Acuna is the number one ranked hitter in RIVAL best ball drafts for Week 2.

Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros

The Astros face off against three left-handed pitchers over the next seven days, which normally would be a problem for a lefty slugger like Yordan Alvarez. Except, if you have kept up with Alvarez's career, you would know that he absolutely tees off against them. He has a .299/.381/.563 line in his career against Southpaws and he will be able to face Andrew Heaney twice this week. He also gets good matchups against Dane Dunning and Seth Lugo this week, plus an enticing lefty-on-lefty battle against emerging star Cole Ragans.

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