At FantasyLabs, we believe that we have the best daily fantasy sports tools and data available. We also realize that these tools and data are only as beneficial as our ability to communicate their functionality and worth.
With this in mind, our Trend of the Day series features articles that walk subscribers each weekday through an important trend, created with our FREE Trends tool. Also, shortly after you create a trend, you will be able to see it under the “My Trends” column in our Player Models.
There was a time when a team’s first and second lineup spots were reserved for players fitting a certain profile — the ability to work a count, high on-base percentage, and oftentimes possessing a good amount of speed. Of course I’m speaking in generalities here, but more often than not, a player possessing some amount of these traits would find themselves at the top of the order.
Times change and strategies often change along with them. There are certainly still a number of teams that employ lineups with these more traditional batters near the top of the order, but at a far greater clip than in the past we are seeing teams utilize players that possess a great deal of power near the top of the lineups.
MLB Trend of the Day: Power Hitters at the Top of the Lineup
Today I want to focus on power hitters (ISO split of at least .200) that are employed at the top of the lineup (one or two spot). Additionally, let’s isolate players that are facing off against sub-par pitching.
Step 1: Player Filters > Lineup Order > Set to “1 to 2”
Step 2: Stat Split Filters > ISO Split > Set to “0.2 to 1.4”
Step 3: Stat Filters > Opp WHIP Percentile > Set to “75 to 99”
With a situation such as this, I already had baseline expectations of a positive Plus/Minus. But with a high Plus/Minus of +1.70, this trend has certainly peaked my interest in the potential population of players that are matches. First though, I’d like to do a quick comparison.
Having power and facing sub-par pitching is a recipe for any group of players to have success, so what type of Plus/Minus would we achieve by adjusting the lineup order to look for batters in the three through five spots? A quick adjustment of Step 1 above reveals a Plus/Minus of +0.49. It’s still positive, but much less so.
Seeing this difference offers some amount of validation that there is inherent value to identifying power hitters batting out of either the one or two spot.
With that, let’s check out today’s matches for this trend:
Good luck tonight!
