Yesterday, I discussed some of the starting pitchers ranked inside the top 100 who us rankers most disagreed on. Though it was suggested that a better comparison would be solely between ranks within the position and not overall, I’m not sure that matters since it’s all relative. If one ranker devalues pitchers (Jeff), then all his pitchers will be ranked lower, so it’s moot.

Here is a selection of starting pitchers ranked outside the top 100 who we greatly disagree about.

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With a bonafide superstar manning first base — and third base eligible in some leagues — the Detroit Tigers infield offers a first round pick. The club also sports an upper echelon talent at second base, however shortstop, third base and catcher all have offensive question marks. Still, with Miguel Cabrera and Ian Kinsler anchoring the infield, no one is questioning the talent.

First Base
Miguel Cabrera
Victor Martinez

Second Base
Ian Kinsler
Hernan Perez

Shortstop
Jose Iglesias
Andrew Romine
Hernan Perez

Third Base
Nick Castellanos
Andrew Romine

Catcher
Alex Avila
Bryan Holaday
James McCann

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• I will steal the words of the great philosopher Ned Yost to intro this list of broken down ball players:

“… everything being written at this time of year is just ‘fluff’.

So much ‘Fluff’ right now. I am getting a ton of small updates with how everyone is feeling great and/or making outstanding progress. I am not going to write about each of these “Best Shape in Whenever” reports, but will put them into the injury spreadsheet. I will just try to concentrate on bad news until some games start.

• The Braves Shae Simmons will miss all of the 2015 season because of Tommy John surgery. He was the first player to officially go on the DL in 2015. Chris Withrow and Brandon Beachy has since joined him.

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Last week, we came out with our Top 300. The outcomes looked excellent and I would not hesitate simply using the presented composites for your drafts.

CoolWinnebago asked if we would present our approaches. I provided a high level summary under bago’s comment, but I’ll summarize and then embed my personal rankings (without all the highlighting of my targets of course).

Feel free to skip toward the bottom for my embedded rankings, but here is the context/approach:

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The easiest way to tell you who I like is to actually tell you how I like every pitcher, I guess. So, by popular demand, here are my starting pitcher rankings. With a few toys that could be useful to you.

When making these rankings, I started with z-score style rankings based off of Steamer projections. You can find those yourself by using the Pauction Nalculator, for example. That’s a good way to keep your feet grounded in reality, since Steamer projects to the middle.

But breakouts happen. And so I’ve added a couple stats that help me spot breakouts. Strikeout minus walk rate was the backbone of the first ERA estimators ever put together (kwERA), so they aren’t new. And they might be a little better for in-season prediction versus season-to-season. Either way, they are clearly important and can give us a good snapshot of talent, even in a small sample.

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According to WAR, the 2014 Oakland rotation was the tenth best staff in the league. But without 185 or so combined innings from Jon Lester and Jeff Samardzija, it’s going to be hard for them to repeat that feat. They brought in a few new faces, but for the most part, they’ll begin the year by filling the holes with internal options. Read the rest of this entry »

This post continues our Depth Chart Discussions. In an effort to suss out every team, we’ve divided them into four parts (infield, outfield, rotation, and bullpen) and will continue to break them down for you over the next few weeks. You can find the Depth Chart Discussion posts gathered here.

Despite lacking most of the elements classically associated with a sports dynasty, the Giants have been the most successful franchise in the last five years. Their specialized bullpen has played a big role in taking down powerhouses like the Phillies, Cardinals, Tigers, and Nationals. Surprisingly, there has been very little turnover in the unit.

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After two straight first place finishes, I landed in second in the FanGraphs Staff League last year, and went into the off-season dead-set on regaining my crown.

I made a few trades, made my cuts and sat down to look at the available free agents…and was stopped in my tracks. I really had no good options.

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Last week, I discussed which hitters us rankers most disagreed on based on our consensus top 300. Today I move on to the starting pitchers. Keep in mind that innings pitched plays a major role in valuations. Aside from the boost in both wins and strikeouts that come with more innings, the ratios have more of an effect. For example, an $8.16 Michael Pineda in 155 innings is worth $15.49 in 200 innings! Now it’s on to the head-scratchers.

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Our long National League nightmare is over. Two and a half weeks and 750 draft picks after it began, the NFBC slow draft is done. Though we used it primarily as preparation for our NFBC Main Event draft in April, we weren’t opposed to success, though it may seem that way when you review what we did.

Our draft can be described, accurately and justly, as “high-risk, high-reward.” It can also be described, with equal accuracy and justice, as “feeble.” Laugh and weep with us as we explain what we were planning to do, what we thought we were doing, and what we actually did. And that’s right, wise guys, it was in fact a mixed-league draft, but we liked our opening line too much to jettison it.

Our strategy going in to the draft was animated by several insights, or, if you prefer, delusions. They were:

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