Welcome to the DFS MLB Rankings for 2018 Opening Day!

When it comes to ranking players for the day's games, we're going to have to look at a number of different facets. The first look is strictly the match-up of pitcher vs hitter. Save for a variety of rookies we have plenty of data at which to look and we can make a determination as to how much success one will have over the other. We'll look at batter vs picther (BvP) data if there is a large enough sample size of plate appearances for the hitter against a particular hurler, how a hitter or pitcher fares against the handedness of his opposition, and, of course, ballpark factors which may affect the match-up. 

Once we've established who has the greatest chance of success against a particular hitter, pitcher or overall lineup, we can start looking at price points on the individual DFS sites. Because of the nuances specific to each DFS site, a pitcher or hitter may be considered a better start on FanDuel as opposed to Draft Kings or vice versa. It can be difficult to discern between the various sites, styles of contests and slates, so we'll focus more on price proportional overall before we turn to something like Player A is ranked higher than Player B because he's a better play on FanDuel and that site favors picthers more in the scoring. We obviously cannot avoid site-specific plays, but that will probably reflect more in the Playbook and the Optimals than it will the overall rankings.

Keep in mind, also, we are working with 2017 data here. As the season progresses and the numbers start to take shape, the match-ups themselves will reveal more than the site-specific favorings. Clear as mud? I thought so, so let's just get right to it.

**The prices reflected in the rankings are for the Main Slate. FanDuel and DraftKings differ on which games they are offering as part of their main slate, something we've seen over the past several months dating back to the 2017 NFL season. Due to the multitude of different slates and types of contests (Classic vs Arcade vs MVP), we have to try and stick to the main slate that offers the most games with regard to the pricing. We apologize if this is inconvenient for some of you, but having 15 different prices for each player across the various sites will only make this process that much more confusing.