Most head-to-head leagues start their playoffs this week. Every lineup call now decides a season instead of a standings point, which is exactly when people start overthinking — benching a season-long producer for a hot name off the wire, or riding a slumping star because of what he did in June.

Here is the whole board in one metric. NUT Score measures a player’s production against league average on one scale — hitters on getting on base and slugging, pitchers on strikeouts, walks, and home runs with defense stripped out. Read over the last 7 days it is a form check; read over the season it is a talent check. You want both, and this page has both. All figures run through September 6.

The One Rule

Start the season number. Use the 7-day number to break ties.

A week is roughly 25 plate appearances. That is not enough to tell a hot hitter from a lucky one, which is why a +0.9 week from a replacement-level bat does not make him better than a +4.8 season from a star in an 0-for-12. Over the next three weeks, the season number is the better forecast of the next three weeks.

Where form does matter is at the margins: two comparable players, a two-start pitcher against a one-start pitcher, or a bench spot between three outfielders inside half a NUT of each other. That is where the 7-day board earns its place.

Hottest Bats — Last 7 Days

Rafael Devers is the only bat in baseball above +1.0 for the week, on 6 home runs in seven days. He is also a season-long producer, which makes him the easy kind of start — hot and good.

The names that need a decision are Thomas Saggese and Carter Jensen: both posted S-tier weeks, and both are widely available in shallow leagues. A catcher hitting 3 home runs in a week is a real streaming edge, because the position’s replacement level is so low. An outfielder is not — you probably already roster someone with a better season number.

Hottest Arms — Last 7 Days

Gavin Williams posted the only S-tier pitching week in baseball — 24 strikeouts against 4 walks in 13 innings, with no home runs allowed. Pitcher NUT rewards exactly that shape, because it counts strikeouts, walks, and home runs and ignores what the defense did behind him.

Payton Tolle is the streaming name here: 18 strikeouts and 2 walks in 11.2 innings, on a Boston team that has won 4 straight. A 3.86 ERA understates the week — the strikeout-to-walk ratio is what carries to the next start.

Cold Bats — Bench or Hold?

Hold all of them.This is the list the one rule exists for. Olson, Duran, and Rodríguez are season-long producers inside a bad week — 29, 30, and 36 at-bats of noise. Benching a proven bat in a playoff week for a waiver add who had one good week is how good teams lose in the semifinals.

The exception is a player whose season number is also weak. If a cold week belongs to someone who was already below average over 500 plate appearances, the week is confirming what the season said, not contradicting it. Check both numbers on the hot and cold board before you drop anyone.

The Season Leaders You Should Never Bench

Pete Crow-Armstrong is the most valuable fantasy asset in baseball this year on category coverage alone — 37 home runs and 32 steals from one roster spot, plus 90 RBI and 98 runs. In a rotisserie playoff he moves four categories at once.

Two Things That Actually Decide the Week

Two-start pitchers beat better one-start pitchers. Innings are the scarce resource in a seven-day window. A B-tier arm with two starts will out-produce an A-tier arm with one in nearly every scoring format, strikeouts included.

Watch September workloads on contenders and non-contenders alike. Eliminated clubs shut down young arms and rest regulars; clinching clubs do the same once the magic number hits zero. Three NL teams are already out and the Dodgers are at a magic number of 10 — see the full clinch board for who is about to have nothing to play for.

Full NUT leaderboard — last 7, last 30, or season →

The boards move every night. Last 7, last 30, and full-season NUT for every hitter and pitcher is at baseballnut.app/stats.