Have you caught MLB best-ball fever yet? The set it and forget it landscape is better than ever. If you haven’t seen it before, RTSports has an excellent version of best ball they call Draft Masters. The basics of the league are simple. You draft a team and they’ll take care of the rest. Your “best” lineup is automatically scored each week. No in-season management required (or allowed). There’s a rotisserie and a points format.
I’ll focus on the points leagues here. The scoring system is below.
The first concept you need to understand for a points league is Value Above Replacement. Simply put, if 30 catchers are going to be drafted, they are only more valuable than the 31st catcher since that player would be free. You subtract the free player's score from the player above him to get a position by position VAR. I like to take this a step further and look at the value of “starters” by taking the eleventh catcher and subtracting their projection to create what I call Value Below Starters or VBS. Having both at the ready helps you navigate the early and late parts of a draft. Here’s a look at how the top 25 shakes out using Fantasy Alarm’s projections and VBS for the scoring.
The weight placed on SPs and Cs may shock you. Your ultimate goal in a best ball is to build a roster that will accumulate the most points. Those two positions score fewer raw points but have the lowest VAR. If you want a winning roster you must take care to secure premium players at both spots. Now, I’m not suggesting you draft Gary Sanchez ahead of Alex Bregman. Rather, armed with this knowledge you should be ready to pull the trigger at these spots ahead of your competition. A best ball draft is a balancing act of watching talent pockets at each position while doing your best to amass pitching. I’m available to answer questions in the FA Chat if anyone wants to expand on things further.
Good luck best balling.