The final weekend of regular season baseball is here. That sadly means fantasy baseball is also drawing to a close. I hope you were successful in all of your leagues. Head-to-head leagues are likely wrapping up this weekend or have probably already been completed. Roto leagues will come down to the final day, however. If your league is coming down to the wire, Quick Grades is here to help!
Each week I rank the top 100 hitters without bias using various data. I take games played, park factors, matchups, and projections to help you find the top hitters for the upcoming week. I have described the process in more detail below and have the top-100 projected hitters for the week. Thanks for stopping by, and best of luck in your leagues this week.
The Quick Grade Series
Each week, I will provide breakdowns of hitters with a grade range from 40 to 100. Think about a school grade (90-100 being an A, 80-89 equaling a B, 70-79 = C, and so on). Grades are weighted based on several different factors that I discuss below.
Week 25 covers games for the week of Monday, October 3, through Wednesday, October 5.
You can find last week’s Quick Grades here.
How It Works
We established that each hitter would have a grade based on four categories that would land them a total score between 40 and 100. Each of the four categories will be graded from 10 to 25, placing us at that total score. Here is what goes into it:
- Games Played – Let’s start simple. The more games played weekly, the more stats a player can accumulate. Maximizing plate appearances for fantasy baseball is huge. It is a no-brainer if the player you roster has seven games versus a different player having five games. If a team is scheduled to play seven games that week, the team’s hitter will get 25 points. Six games earn a hitter 23 points, and five games drop you down to 20. If a team is set to play more than seven games weekly, that player will get 27 points for games.
- Ballpark Factors – Is a hitter playing four games in Coors? What about three in Oakland? These things matter. We will use the FantasyPros park factors to help us out there. I have created an algorithm that gives each ballpark a score from 10-25. Then factoring in how many games a hitter plays at a specific park each week, a score of 10-to-25 is given.
- Matchups – Does a hitter have strong splits against a left or right-handed pitcher? What if they face three lefties this week with a poor split against lefties? We factor that in.
- Projections – Finally, we will factor in projections. I will update using FantasyPros projections and scale them down to a weekly projection. It is not perfect, but projections with the other factors can help project how a player might perform.
Week 25 Hitter Grades (10/3-10/5)
I would closely monitor lineups and pitching matchups as things are likely to change. Teams that have already clinched divisional titles could rest players, while teams still in the hunt are likely to pull out all stops and could be valuable streams.
The best matchups for the shortened three-day week are Toronto, New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the St. Louis Cardinals. But, I would monitor the news closely and watch for any pitching matchup changes as well if any hitters are going to be sitting.
Best of luck to you, and I hope you can bring home a championship or two this year! Thanks for sticking along all season and supporting my work at FantasyPros.
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Chris Clegg is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Chris, check out his archive and follow him @RotoClegg.