This format changes player value in a few ways. For one, plate discipline becomes incredibly important. Gaining one point for a walk and losing half of a point per strikeout is a major detriment to free swingers. Players such as Elly De La Cruz, Jake Burger, and Oneil Cruz take a major hit in this format due to their high strikeout rates, low walk rates, or both.
Gaining one point per out and three points for a quality start prioritizes pitchers who can get deep into games. Workhorses like Aaron Nola, Logan Webb, and Framber Valdez see an increase in value. At the same time, pitchers such as Freddy Peralta, Sonny Gray, and Yusei Kikuchi are hurt by their shorter outings.
Another aspect that affects player values is the standard roster size of a H2H points league. A starting lineup consists of just one of each infield position, three outfielders, and one utility spot. On the pitching side, you start five starting pitchers and two relief pitchers. This is already a shallow starting lineup, and you also get a shallow bench of just five players. Doing the math, that means only 252 players will be drafted in a 12-team league. This leaves some pretty good players on the waiver wire throughout the season, making injuries to your star players less devastating. It’s smart to shoot for upside in this format, and not worry too much if guys are considered injury-prone.
With all that said, let’s take a look at the biggest ADP outliers.
Where CBS ADP is Lower than the Consensus
Here are the players that have a notably lower ADP on CBS than the consensus. You can use this discrepancy to your advantage if you’re playing in a CBS Roto league, since the points scoring is affecting the ADP but is irrelevant to your league.
(Note: ADPs are taken from FantasyPros consensus list as of March 15, 2024)
As you’ll notice, there actually aren’t too many extreme values when it comes to hitters in the top 100. While many sites order the players in the draft room based on ADP or a projection system that is usually inaccurate, CBS provides a third option that leads fantasy managers in a much better direction. You have the ability to sort by the rankings of their fantasy experts, and they even have separate Roto and points rankings that are automatically used based on whichever type of league you’re in.
This results in the ADP falling to a very reasonable place overall, with only five hitters in the top 100 with a CBS ADP that is more than five spots lower than consensus. Willy Adames, Anthony Santander, Brenton Doyle, and Cal Raleigh all suffer from poor OBP and plate discipline metrics that hurt them in the points format, so you can aim to snag them at values in Roto. Seiya Suzuki is the only one who I would call a value in every format, as there’s no good reason for him to be on this list. He makes up for his 27.4% strikeout rate with a stellar 10.8% walk rate and is a threat for 20+ homers with double-digit steals.
It’s the same story for pitchers, with only four of them with a notably lower ADP than consensus. The site tends to price up elite closers, making Helsley one of the few values at the position. There’s no explanation that stands out for why the site is down on Jacob DeGrom, Bailey Ober, and Tanner Bibee, so you should be taking advantage of that value. This is the site that is the lowest on DeGrom, and he looks much more appealing here than he does on other sites that routinely see him drafted in the top 48.
The list of hitter values outside of the top 100 is a bit larger, with seven players standing out the most. The most notable is Anthony Volpe, who falls from the 12th round based on the consensus ADP to the 15th at CBS. This is most likely explained by the fact that the CBS experts are a lot lower on the Yankees shortstop than others, with a consensus ranking of only the 18th-best at the position. If you like Volpe on other sites, you’ll love him on CBS. If you can’t stomach a 12th-round pick on him, CBS is a great place to get some exposure at a much fairer price.
The same can be said for Lane Thomas and Taylor Ward. Their place on the rankings is much lower than other sites, which creates a great opportunity to snag them at a great price. Ward put up an excellent 13.0% barrel rate (88th percentile) and 41.9% launch-angle sweet spot rate (99th) last season which resulted in a .246/.323/.426 slash line with 25 home runs. If speed is what you need, Thomas stole 32 bases last season to go along with modest 15-homer power. His 93rd-percentile sprint speed will once again make him an asset in the stolen base category in 2025.
The last four all have a common theme of being late-round infielders. With the typical smaller roster size on CBS, there’s just no reason to go out and draft these guys when there are no MI or CI spots to fill. If you are playing a deep Roto league on the site, this is a great opportunity to gain value by waiting to fill those spots.
Two of the largest outliers of pitchers outside the top 100 are Erceg and Yates, who both figure to be a part of a closer committee. These guys aren’t nearly as valuable in weekly H2H points leagues when the only thing that matters is securing saves in that given week. Definitely avoid these guys for points leagues, but they can come at a nice value for categories leagues where saves are scarce.
The most exciting pitcher on this list is Shane Baz, who has breakout potential in what should be his first full year in the major leagues. In 2024, he posted a 3.06 ERA and 1.06 WHIP with 69 strikeouts in 79 innings. It was a solid season, but he’ll be looking to strike out more batters in 2025, like he did when he was one of the game’s best pitching prospects.
Pfaadt, Berrios, Schmidt, Rasmussen, and Wacha are all fine arms for the back end of your fantasy rotation, especially at a discount.
Where CBS ADP is Higher than the Consensus
It’s also important to check out which players are going earlier in CBS drafts. If you’re used to getting these guys at their usual prices, it’s good to know heading into the draft that you will really have to pay up to land these names.
As you can see, there is definitely some points league bias influencing many of these values. A lack of stolen bases usually hurts guys like Seager and Semien, but that’s not an issue here. The CBS site rankings are also just generally higher on those two, along with Salvador Perez, Jordan Westburg, and Cody Bellinger. It makes it tough to draft these guys unless you really like them.
Alex Bregman has been a points league standout throughout his entire career, thanks to his exemplary plate discipline. Luis Robert Jr. and Mike Trout are also far more favored in shallow points leagues, as it won’t hurt your team as much if they go down with an injury yet again. The ADPs on these three are fair if you’re in one of those points leagues, but stay away if you’re drafting in a deep Roto league.
There are only four pitchers with notable ADP differences, and even calling them notable is stretching it. The three elite closers all have a difference of less than 10, with Glasnow being the only pitcher who is valued at least a round ahead of consensus. He follows the same logic as Trout and Robert, as he can outright win you weeks when he is healthy in a H2H league, and you won’t be struggling to replace his ratios for the rest of the season like you would in Roto.
There are some fun names outside of the top 100 that are going much earlier on CBS than on other sites. We have the usual injury-prone suspects such as Brandon Lowe, Byron Buxton, and Carlos Correa, who are all being drafted at least three rounds earlier than consensus. These are once again all fair prices for points leagues, but you need to make sure you’re avoiding the landmines in deeper leagues.
Bo Bichette, J.T. Realmuto, and Isaac Paredes are three guys who I think are simply mis-priced on other sites. I think all three of them are due for rebound seasons, and would have no problem drafting them at these prices. The better advice would be to go get as many of these guys as possible on the other websites that are dragging down their consensus ADP. The same can be said for Shaw, Carter, and Conforto, who each have sleeper appeal in their own right.
The closer trend continues outside of the top 100, with Megill, Hoffman, Romano, Jansen, and Foley all being drafted earlier than consensus by a large margin. With so many closers being priced up, it’s dangerous to try to wait for one to fall to their consensus values. All of the names listed are fine options if you wait on relief pitchers, just know you will have to bite the bullet and draft them earlier than you’re used to.
Spencer Arrighetti, Jesús Luzardo, Jackson Jobe, and Clay Holmes are the starters on the list. These four are all bursting with breakout potential, and are still draft-day values even at these increased costs. Jobe, Holmes, and Arrighetti all rank just inside the top 50 of Nick Pollack’s signature List, with Luzardo landing at 58. Despite technically being the opposite of “values” when comparing the CBS ADP to the consensus, these aren’t players you should be actively avoiding in drafts. Some sites just nail the value of certain players better than others, and that is the case with these four on CBS.
Photos by Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Doug Carlin (@Bdougals)