Rival Fantasy MLB Opening Day Top Plays: March 30 (2023)

Welcome to Rival Fantasy. Our friends at Rival Fantasy have us covered with two exciting offerings for the MLB season: Challenges and Fantasybook.

Challenges present a ‘who will score more fantasy points’ proposition between two pre-selected players. If you don’t like the options presented, simply tap skip challenge for a new pairing.

Fantasybook offers over/under selections for a combination of two to five fantasy point props. Two correct selections offers a 2.5x multiplier, three correct selections offers a 5x multiplier, four correct selections offers a 7.5x multiplier, and finally, five correct selections offers a 10x multiplier. You can even combine sports.

Rival Fantasy MLB 3/30/23

Top Fantasybook Plays

Jacob deGrom (SP – TEX): 4.92 fantasy points
deGrom, at just 4.92 fantasy points, looks like one of the best values on the board for Opening Day. deGrom is in a class of his own when healthy. Arguably the best pitcher in the league when he is on the mound, deGrom is a strong play despite the tough matchup against the Philadelphia Phillies. Tap deGrom if looking for an additional play at the Fantasybook at Rival Fantasy.

Trea Turner (SS – PHI): 3.59 fantasy points
Turner has a tough matchup against the elite pitcher listed above in, Jacob deGrom. deGrom is going to be a tough one to solve, but Turner had had moderate success against the multiple-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom. Finding exploitable pitcher matchups is more of a challenge than usual, and Turner has a nice depressed fantasy point number. With that in mind, we pivot to finding one of the best players on the slate as opposed to the top player/matchup combination. Turner has had success against deGrom in the past, and while his .239/.271/.326, numbers that don’t look great but are a cut above the .211 opposing batting average that deGrom has averaged over his career.

Challenge

I accepted the first Challenge pairing I was presented with, which was Max Fried vs. Max Scherzer. Fried is squaring off against the Washington Nationals, while Scherzer will toe the rubber against the Miami Marlins. Both pitchers will have National League powerhouses behind them and will be facing off against two of the worst teams in the league overall. There is no edge based on matchup.

Max Fried is one of the most talented pitchers in the Majors, but Scherzer is just a step above in the peripheral and strikeout departments. Since strikeouts and runs allowed will figure prominently into the fantasy point totals, Scherzer gets the slight edge. With no reliable trend data due to the start of a new season, I selected Scherzer to score more fantasy points for this Challenge.

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