Fantasy Baseball Friday: All-Star Break Edition

With the All-Star break coming up next week I figured I’d switch it up a bit for this instalment of #FantasyBaseballFriday.

Let’s dive in.

Fantasy All-Star Teams

We know who the IRL* All-Stars are, but what would the fantasy baseball all-star lineups look like? Let’s put together the lineups based on total fantasy points and the ESPN player rater.

[Editor’s note: I don’t know if it’s an age thing or an American thing, but I racked my brain for an explanation as to why Adam was talking about Ireland All-Stars. Thanks to Google I now know it’s “in real life”]

National League:

C – Buster Posey (SF)
1B – Freddie Freeman (Atl)
2B – Ozzie Albies (Atl)
3B – Manny Machado (SD)
SS – Fernando Tatís Jr. (SD)
OF – Ronald Acuña Jr. (Atl)
OF – Nick Castellanos (Cin)
OF – Jesse Winker (Cin)
SP – Jacob deGrom (NYM)
Closer – Josh Hader (Mil)

American League:

C – Salvador Perez (KC)
1B – Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Tor)
2B – Marcus Semien (Tor)
3B – Rafael Devers (Bos)
SS – Bo Bichette (Tor)
OF – Cedric Mullins (Bal)
OF – Whit Merrifield (KC)
OF – J.D. Martinez (Bos)
DH – Shohei Ohtani (LAA)
SP – Gerrit Cole (NYY)
Closer – Liam Hendriks (ChW)

First Half Fantasy MVPs

National League:

Fernando Tatís Jr.

This was a tough call between Acuña and Tatís, but since Tatís was being drafted slightly behind Acuña going into the year, I’m giving him the nod for the slightly higher return of value. You’ve had to stomach a couple of weeks of injuries with Tatís so far in the first half, but the total numbers are still insane. He’s the number one hitter per the ESPN player rater and has the fourth-highest total fantasy points among hitters, but crushes all except Ohtani with his 4.7 fantasy points per game average.

If you take his stats thus far through 70 games and extrapolate for 162 games, this is what Tatís’s full-season numbers would look like:

62 HR, 153 R, 134 RBI, 44 SB

I mean, that is just insane. He’s on pace for a 60/40 season! Now he obviously won’t get there because he’s missed 19 games already, but still wild to look at.

He’s currently the type of fantasy hitter where if you have a solid pitching staff and literally no other above-average hitters, you’d still be sitting very comfortably each week.

Float like a butterfly:

Gravity follows the law of @tatis_jr. pic.twitter.com/UIiRazPzSx
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) July 6, 2021

Sting like a bee:

Absolute LASER from @tatis_jr! pic.twitter.com/uJ58Mgy2ou
— MLB (@MLB) July 6, 2021

American League:

Shohei Ohtani

Who else but Ohtani? I’m referring to specifically Ohtani the hitter here, but if you play in a daily league and can take advantage of both his hitting and some pitching stats, even better for you. Ohtani was being drafted on average in the 15th round in 12-team leagues, something tells me that will be much higher in 2022 drafts. He currently has the most fantasy points by a substantial margin on Vlad Jr. and is the number two hitter on the ESPN player rater for Roto leagues. He’s literally breaking baseball. I think next year the major fantasy sites need to figure out a way to allow you to benefit from both hitting and pitching stats on the same night when he hits and pitches. It’s hard to imagine if you drafted Ohtani for your utility spot that your team isn’t doing well right now. Just marvel at these stats below:

.279 avg, 1.064 OPS, .435 wOBA

32 HR, 63 R, 69 RBI (nice), 12 SB in 84 games played

Oh and not to mention he has a 3.49 ERA with almost 12 K/9 in 67 innings pitched so far.

Breaking baseball.

29 HR for your AL Player of the Month, Shohei Ohtani. pic.twitter.com/CwtVoJOJeu
— MLB (@MLB) July 3, 2021

Rest-of-Season Rankings

I’ve gone through and made updated, rest-of-season rankings for both points and Roto leagues. I’ll outline my number one player at each position in both formats and then how I would re-draft the first round right now.

Catcher:

Points – Salvador Perez
Roto – J.T. Realmuto

First Base:

Points – Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Roto – Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Second Base:

Points – Max Muncy
Roto – Jose Altuve

Third Base:

Points – Jose Ramirez
Roto – Rafael Devers

Shortstop:

Points – Fernando Tatís Jr.
Roto – Fernando Tatís Jr.

Outfield:

Points – Ronald Acuña Jr.
Roto – Ronald Acuña Jr.

Starting Pitcher:

Points – Jacob deGrom
Roto – Jacob deGrom

Relief Pitcher:

Points – Josh Hader
Roto – Josh Hader

I use a mostly data-driven approach to ranking with some minor human eyeball adjustments. For example, before my adjustments, I had Aaron Judge as the number one outfielder in points leagues, which just seems wrong over Acuna. Otherwise, I’d say Max Muncy as the top second baseman in points is probably the “craziest” of the bunch.

You can check out my full rankings on our website.

Points Leagues First Round:

Here’s how I would handle the first round in a 12-team points league. I tend to go heavier on starting pitching in points leagues as the positional scarcity and need for depth and volume here are extremely important.

Honorable mentions: Juan Soto, Nick Castellanos, and Mike Trout

Five starting pitchers in the first round might seem crazy, but I’ve found in points leagues it’s the way to go. Before the season I would’ve taken Bieber, deGrom, Cole as the top three picks in points leagues.

Roto Leagues First Round:

Honorable mentions: Nick Castellanos, Freddie Freeman, and Xander Bogaerts

Three juniors to start off the Roto round one. Only three starting pitchers in the Roto first round as this format is less about the sheer volume and more about balance and efficiency in the pitching categories. It’s hard to find four+ category contributor hitters which is why I’d be more likely to draft a hitter in the first round in Roto.

I guess overall I’m pretty high on Aaron Judge as we go into the second half, let’s hope the injury bug doesn’t bite him like in years past.

Photo by Masterpress

Fantasy expert, Adam Gruttadaro, is a guest contributor for Bat Flips and Nerds. Check out his website for more fantasy tips and follow him on Twitter.

While you’re here, can we nudge you in the direction of the excellent podcast featuring John McGee in conversation with Jeremy Wolf, former Mets minor leaguer and Director of Outreach for More than Baseball.