Daily Fantasy Baseball: How Drastically Does Scoring Differ in Top-Tier Offenses?

I present to all of you the story of Ben Revere.

Through his first 2,660 plate appearances in the league, Revere had a grand total of four career home runs. This equates to one every 665 trips to the dish, or less than once per year.

However, Revere still had a niche in daily fantasy baseball during the 2015 season because he hit leadoff and could provide some upside via the stolen base. He certainly wasn't the most fruitful hitter, but you could do worse if you're looking to save some salary.

The issue with Revere is that his upside was capped by being on a bad team. He started 2015 with the Philadelphia Phillies, who ended that season ranked 28th in wOBA. You're not going to get a lot of runs out of your leadoff guy if the lineup behind him is filled with blackholes and sadness.

Things changed a wee bit for ol' Ben at the trade deadline.

Instead of derping around on the barren streets of Philly, Revere was now headed to Toronto to play for the ball-bashing Blue Jays. They weren't 28th in wOBA; they led the league, and second place wasn't particularly close.

With one trade, Revere went from hitting in front of a bunch of developing young pups to batting leadoff ahead of three dudes who combined to hit 120 home runs that year. This will be going out on a sizable limb, but I'm going to guess that's going to aid his fantasy baseball value.

The question here, though, is how much? What is it really worth to be in a good lineup, and how does that change for each spot in the batting order?

This wouldn't only be applicable in the case of a guy like Revere when switching teams. It would also illustrate the effect a player in one of those lineups should expect when he moves up or down, and it could quantify just how valuable it is in general to target lineups with some firepower.

Let's try to do exactly that. What's the value of being in a high-flying offense for daily fantasy baseball?