There are less than two weeks remaining in the baseball season. We are getting to the point where we are ready to do a post mortem on the fantasy season. Most teams have been eliminated by now whether they are doing rotisserie style or head to head style. Of course, there is still some money to be won for those playing daily fantasy baseball. Some leagues clump outfielders together and others separate them by position. We will separate them by position just to be safe.

DFS and a growing number of leagues utilize total points. Total points encompass more of what a player means to his team offensively, so it is a growing option for the discerning fantasy sports fan. We are using our own formula here because every platform has their own. So, results may vary depending on the formula you choose. Statistics here are accurate as of Wednesday September 20^th. Stolen bases, walks, and hit by pitches are combined into a positive category while strikeouts, caught stealing, and grounded into double plays are combined into a negative category.

Total Bases= 1 point per total base                           SO= -1 point per strikeout

Runs= 1 point per run                                                 CS= -1 point per caught stealing

RBI= 1 point per RBI                                                   GDP= -1 point per grounded into DP

BB= 1 point per walk

SB= 1 point per stolen base

HBP= 1 point per hit by pitch

The Elite

2017 has been a bizarre season to be sure. It isn’t often that you get two of the top six players at any position to be traded during the season. To have both players traded following the non-waiver deadline is completely unheard of. Furthermore, a rookie like Benintendi would be the Rookie of the Year hands down in most seasons. Of course, Aaron Judge has that honor sewn up.

What has been normal are the number of guys in the top six that wouldn’t have been anywhere close in the preseason rankings. Benintendi would have been a bullish pick in the preseason, but a few would have picked him. Upton is likely the only other guy that would have gotten that selection. Thus, the daily fantasy players that picked up on these trends early on are the ones that benefitted the most.

Rank and File

Ironically, none of these guys was thought of as an elite player coming into the season, but Davis was awfully close. The negative category is highlighted in red because that is something you don’t see in standard five category leagues. Yet, those that play DFS have to consider strikeouts when picking players. Usually, the rank and file includes a prime time player having a down season or who had suffered from injury, but Peralta is the closest to meeting that particular category.

Of course, while he wasn’t a preseason favorite, Conforto has been a guy directly impacted by injuries as he is likely to drop to the bottom group by the end of the season. During the offseason we will be looking at total points and total points per game. He definitely will fair a lot better when seen through that prism.

The Rest

Oh how the mighty have fallen. The last list is usually a list of guys that used to be big time fantasy performers, but have fallen by the wayside for one reason or another. Braun and Brantley dropped for the usual reasons. They are still solid performers on a per game basis, but have struggled to be healthy the last couple of seasons. Kemp is in a similar category, but he is also far worse in a total points format. He matches the magical combination of virtually zero patience with a healthy number of strikeouts. The combination is deadly.

Out of the group, we have the most hope for Schwarber and Gamel. Schwarber has been a disappointment by any fantasy player’s imagination, but he has a lot of power and a lot of patience. He is still young enough to put it all together. Gamel is the other player that looks like a good bet for the future. They say power is the last tool to develop and he looks like a guy that could take that next step any time now.