Say it three times fast: fantasy baseball best ball / fantasy baseball best ball / fantasy baseball best ball. Thanks! They call that “SEO Optimization” and companies charge an arm and a leg for it. You, fair reader, just saved RazzCorps Industries a solid $7.32 plus tariffs. Consider yourself a member of our exclusive “Technocrat Elite” tier of customer service. What’s that, you ask, your hands filled with incandescent light bulb filaments you dug out of the landfill? Thanks for asking! It means that you are entitled to ask our new AI platform, Gr-A.I., a fantasy baseball question of your choice. If you’re lucky, it won’t even copy from RotoDongs! What’s RotoDongs you ask? Why, that’s for our 21+ tier to find out!
Sales pitches aside, I’m here to sell you on the the formula to succeed at best ball.
Ready for it?
Draft hitters.
That’s it. That’s the whole article. [waits for Truss to message me on Gr-A.I. to tell me to write more]
Aha! “Prove it,” Truss wrote from his rent-free cabin in Neil Gaiman’s woods. You want proof? I’ll give you 80-proof!
Best Ball Proof
When I was a younger fantasy analyst, I would often traipse around the internet and find crazy takes and then call them out. Now, I don’t point fingers. I’m much more political than that now. But I will say, if your favorite fantasy analyst tells you that pitchers matter in best ball, I’ll tell you to cancel your subscription to their site and run far, far away to the power of Gr-A.I. Are we all saying “Grey-eye”, by the way? I hope we are. My jokes are much better when they’re pronounced properly.
Because I like both tables and evidence, here’s the first twelve rounds of drafting from several 2024 best ball competitions on NFBC.
Legend: Overall Rank=Competition final rank. H / P Split Thru 12 = number of hitters / number of pitchers in first 12 rounds of drafting.
| Team | Competition | Overall Rank | H / P Split Thru 12 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MoeDeportes | RazzSlam | 1 | 12 / 0 | First RP in R24; first SP in R33 |
| Goose BB 5 | $150 Best Ball | 1 | 10 / 2 | No RP in top 12 |
| eta | Cutline | 1 | 10 / 2 |
Soto / Ohtani / Elly start; came in 2nd in league pre-cut
|
| Grogan | $150 Best Ball | 2 | 9 / 3 | Soto / JoRam / Gunnar start |
| Auslander | RazzSlam | 2 | 9 / 3 | RP before SP |
| Ohtani made bad Betts | Cutline | 2 | 10 / 2 | No RP in top 12 |
| Jones BB19 | $150 Best Ball | 3 | 9 / 3 | No RP in top 12 |
| Abner Bido Bleday | Cutline | 3 | 9 / 3 | |
| de Leonardis | RazzSlam | 3 | 8/4 |
only team to take 4 pitchers in 12 rds
|
But I still don’t believe you! You shout, your phone covered in crispy chili oil smears. OK, sure. Here’s my 2021 article about drafting pitchers in best ball. Here’s my 2021 article that gives you the equations to win at best ball.
Let’s get to the takeaways.
Fantasy Baseball Best Ball Best Practices
Scroll up to the table, then scroll back down here. Then try scrolling left. Did you go back in browser history? Ha! Made you load the page twice. That’s how I increase page views!
But for real — the top finishers in NFBC best ball formats took no more than 2 pitchers in the first 12 rounds. No team that went 9/3 finished better than second overall. Sure, this isn’t causative. It’s not like taking pitchers destroys your chances of a top finish.
What kills your chance of a top finish is not taking enough bats. There’s that logical jump that we need to distinguish: hitters will provide the majority of your ballast points. In particular, you want AB, H, and HR — so, good average and bonus pop.
Another notable takeaway is how few teams took RP in the first 12 rounds — about 30% of the pitcher-taking teams took an RP in the first 12 rounds, with Auslander (2nd in RazzSlam) being the only team that prioritized RP over SP.
Well, MoeDeportes also “prioritized” RP over SP, but our esteemed RazzSlam winner went over half the draft before taking his first arm. He then took 19 pitchers in a row to finish out the draft.
The takeaway is flat-out simple: draft hitters in the first 12 rounds, and take no more than 3 or 4 pitchers.
2025 Best Ball Targets
For hitters, you want hitters who will be batting at the top of the order, adding some homerun power, and getting on base. Steals are a plus but they’re so fragile that you don’t need to chase them.
Here are some sleeper hitting targets and their current ADP:
- Ezequiel Tovar, COL, SS (ADP: 121)
- Luis Arraez, SD, 1B, 2B (ADP: 172, multi-position eligibility is a plus)
- Nick Castellanos, PHI, OF (ADP: 164)
- Willi Castro, MIN, 2B, SS, 3B, OF (ADP: 222, multi-position eligibility is a plus, but AVG is worrisome)
For pitchers — particularly starters — you want players with an enormous amount of IP to get those Ks and Ws maximized.
Here are some starting pitcher targets and their current ADP:
- Jose Berrios, TOR, SP (ADP: 227)
- Cristopher Sanchez, PHI, SP (ADP: 188)
- Ronel Blanco, HOU, SP (ADP: 239)
- David Peterson, NYM, SP (ADP: 355)
As for RP? That’s up to you. I’d say as a general rule, RP are worth less in best ball (due to the vulnerability and short-lived nature of closers). If you have a great feeling about a top closer, by all means draft them at value. Otherwise, let other teams draft closers while you gather hitters and take Roleless Robs later in the draft.
Let me know if you’re in RazzSlam down in the comments! Looking forward to playing against you!
