Fantasy Baseball: First-Half Fantasy All-Stars – CBSSports.com

The biggest oversight to me is Daniel Murphy. He might be the Fantasy MVP this year (more on that later), and yet he didn’t get the starting nod at either of the positions where he’s eligible. He and Jake Lamb actually tied at third base, but because Lamb had more first-place votes (Murphy had only mine — go figure), he won the tie-breaker.

Al Melchior, who was one of those responsible for Murphy’s snub, pointed out that the Nationals second baseman wasn’t quite the value pick we remember him to be since the general public put more faith in his postseason power surge than we did. Still, nobody saw him hitting nearly .350 with a career high in home runs by the All-Star break. Even if you did draft him in the eighth round, which was his going rate in a Head-to-Head points league (much later in Rotisserie), he has given you a big advantage over the competition — and a steadier one than Lamb, who of course came cheaper.

Murphy did come in second at both second and third base, and he wasn’t the only player to place at two positions. Ian Desmond actually won at both shortstop and the outfield, but by a greater margin at shortstop, which is why the outfield spot went to someone else. My choice would have been Marcell Ozuna over Mookie Betts, who was already highly valued as a second-round pick and is one of several outfielders putting up elite numbers, but it’s fair to say he has been even better than expected.

Jose Altuve and Clayton Kershaw may seem like uninspired picks considering they were the first players drafted at their positions, but they’re running away with those positions. Josh Donaldson is close to doing the same at third base, but considering I’m already bemoaning the snub of Murphy there, his competition was pretty stiff.

Full disclosure: I didn’t actually take a vote at designated hitter. I didn’t think it was necessary. Allowing David Ortiz to slip to the middle rounds, knowing who he is and what he could be, is every Fantasy pundit’s No. 1 draft regret. No arguments there.

The most surprising players not to receive votes to me are
Jay Bruce
,
Michael Fulmer
,
Rich Hill
,
Michael Saunders
,
Jean Segura
,
Trevor Story
,
Julio Teheran
,
Melvin Upton
and
Ben Zobrist
. Where’s that fifth Fantasy writer when you need him?

Hey, we didn’t stop there. Using the same criteria — the players most responsible for making the good teams good — I asked Al, Chris and Heath to submit their choices for first-half Fantasy MVP. Take it away, you three.

It’s a close call between Ian Desmond and Wil Myers, the latter of whom went undrafted in nearly a quarter of CBS Rotisserie leagues and more than half of our Head-to-Head leagues. Among the current top 12 outfielders, all but Desmond, Myers, Jackie Bradley and Mark Trumbo were early-round picks, but Desmond and Myers have been the most productive among this quartet. While Desmond was more popular on Draft Day than Myers, he typically came at the cost of a mid-round pick — not too shabby for the No. 5 overall hitter in Rotisserie and No. 14 hitter in points leagues heading into the final weekend of the first half.

Both players also set themselves apart by having multi-position eligibility. While Desmond and Myers have similar value as outfielders, Desmond’s shortstop eligibility gives him a boost in value. The pool of shortstops has greatly improved, but Desmond has distinguished himself among his peers. He has been a distinct upgrade over early-rounders like
Corey Seager
and
Francisco Lindor
and far better than surprise studs like Eduardo Nunez, Aledmys Diaz, Jonathan Villar and Trevor Story. Myers has been among the first base elite, but as disappointing as that position has been, he has a little more company in the upper echelon than Desmond does at shortstop.

With Jose Altuve, Josh Donaldson, Mookie Betts, etc., you still had to invest an early pick to get their elite production on your team. If we’re talking about pure value added to your team, there are only a few players who have returned first or second-round value to your team at a steep discount, and Wil Myers has been arguably the best of the bunch. He had an ADP of 238 in CBSSports.com leagues, and currently ranks seventh in Rotisserie scoring during his breakout season. And the best thing is, he has gotten better as the season has gone on, and doesn’t really show any sign of slowing down; his plate discipline continues to improve, a great sign that he can keep this up. That’s the sign of a real MVP.

I guess there are a lot of different ways you could look at the MVP of the first half. If I was just totally going on points, I’d have to choose Josh Donaldson, but Jose Altuve is not far behind and was drafted a round later. Altuve’s rare power/average/speed combination put him on a whole different level in the first half. Even though second is deeper than we ever imagined, there’s no one that can give you a close approximation of what Altuve is doing at his position. Others may have given more value based on ADP, but for my money, I’ll take one of the best players in baseball providing value in nearly every way imaginable.

Kind of a somber pick since Clayton Kershaw isn’t contributing for his Fantasy teams right now and may not until August because of a herniated disc in his back. But this award is about past performance, and I don’t see how any player could be more responsible for his team’s success than this one. As much as a first-round pick could exceed expectations, Kershaw did, having built a nearly 100-point lead over the rest of the starting pitcher pool at the time of his last start with a career-best WHIP, a FIP (1.70) that suggests he actually underachieved with a 1.79 ERA and a 16.11 strikeout-to-walk ratio that would crush the old record of 11.63. If you weren’t a contender with that kind of production, you’re bad at this Fantasy Baseball thing.