Consensus Ranks: OF, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, and RP and SP.

Tiered Ranks: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, NL OF, AL SP, NL SP, Holds.

After all of our talk about Jason Kipnis and Dustin Ackley, you may still be surprised about where they sit in our consensus ranks. A degenerative knee condition has pushed Chase Utley down. Each of us had a different opinion about Jose Altuve. We all agreed about Omar Infante’s mediocrity.

Enjoy our Fantasy Baseball Second Base RotoGraphs Consensus Ranks! Brevity is not our strong point.

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Consensus Ranks: OF, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, and RP and SP.

Tiered Ranks: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, NL OF, AL SP, NL SP, Holds.

Introducing our revamped ranking process! In the interest of getting our rankings to you, our beloved readers, we will be pumping out the main consensus rankings as close to daily as possible for the next week and a half.

First up are the outfielders. Of particular note might be the rankings of Jason Heyward, Giancarlo Cruz Mike Stanton (and Jay Bruce!), Alex Gordon, Kendrys Morales and Marlon Byrd — for the divergence in our appraisals — as well as the rankings of Brennan Boesch, Logan Morrison, and Carl Crawford — for the convergence in our thinking.

Expect our positional correspondents to highlight players with unique ranks over the coming week. And then each of those positional experts will also be included in the next generation of our rankings. We’ll continue to update these rankings over the course of the season, as we always have.

Thanks to FantasyPros, you will be able to see our individual ranks as well as our consensus. Good luck this season.

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Hey, you know me. You know I’ll talk beer or sandwiches or mustaches anytime. But you also know that it’s now MARCH and that means that you’ll be drafting your next fantasy team any minute now. So let’s call this a RotoGraphs chat. I’ll open the window at 1215.. and I’ll actually chat at 1215, for one hour. That’s it. So come and do your thing quickly!

We — collectively — are going to steal Mike Podhorzer’s idea and make some crazy predictions for the coming season. Every year, something happens to surprise baseball viewership. Jose Bautista and Lance Berkman come to mind over the past few years.

So let’s try to open our minds and let crazy in for some fun. Then we’ll look back at the end of the season and see which RotoGraphs staff member can access the other side most effectively — then we’ll scoot down the bench a little away from him.

1) No player will hit 40 home runs this year. Obviously Mike Stanton and Jose Bautista loom large, but there were only three guys that managed the feat last year, and the point is that power is down. Handy graph time!

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Mike Stanton has a ton of power, and if component hitter aging curves are to be believed, the 22-year-old should be able to improve his strikeout rate — and therefore his batting average. With power down across baseball, he’s a stud.

24-year-old Jay Bruce also has gobs of power. His strikeout rate is better than Stanton’s, and with neutral luck, he should have a better batting average. Last year, he hit two fewer home runs than the Marlin, and he’s entering his prime years in a hitter’s park. He’s a stud.

So why is Mike Stanton going more than a round before Jay Bruce in most snake drafts?

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The newest out of Reds camp — other than the completely unsurprising fact that noted veteran-lover Dusty Baker won’t declare Devin Mesoraco his number one catcher yet — is that the team might try Aroldis Chapman in the rotation. From a team value standpoint, it makes all the sense in the world. From a fantasy standpoint, however, his prognosis is mixed.

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I was invited to Fantasy411’s industry slow mock to open the mocking season. Now, what feels like a month later, only two picks remain. Because I love my team, I thought I’d brag about it.

The mock has some serious competitors involved. Jason Collette, Paul Sporer, Derek VanRiper, Will Carroll, Joe Sheehan, Todd Zola, Steve Gardner, Ray Flowers, Cory Schwartz, Lawr Michaels, Zach Steinhorn and Jeff Erickson were the 12 other managers, listed from last to first pick. A good gaggle of go-getters.

I had the last pick of the first round — which was fine with me. I love this team. Here are the overall results so far, but after the jump I’ll take you through my picks round by round. It’s mocking season!

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We get weird. Beers, baseball, sandwiches, fantasy baseball, keepers, music, hair, mustaches — this is the chat where it’s all in play. I’ll be here at noon-thirty to moderate the madness.

This week, we’ll be giving away one FG+ membership per day by playing the FG+ Over/Under Game. The wrinkle on this game is that it’s subjective: we’ll provide a player and a number, and you use the comments section to make your best argument for the over or the under. The RotoGraphs staff will pick a winner every day, and that person will get a free subscription to FG+, which includes 11 full-length fantasy strategy articles, 1100 player caps on the player pages, and ongoing access to the FG+ blog, which features the writing the FanGraphs team provides to ESPN Insider on a weekly basis all year.

For our fifth (and final) over/under game, let’s take a look at Chris Young the outfielder.

The over/under for today’s game is 21. As in, will Chris Young hit more than 21 home runs in 2012?

If you had a subscription to FG+ right now, you could consult Jeff Zimmerman’s excellent piece about playing through injuries and the effect that has on projections. And you could learn more about Young’s batted ball distance after he injured his thumb half-way through last year.

But since you don’t have Zimmerman’s research at your fingertips — and yes, I’m suggesting that current FG + subscribers take a back seat and allow those without your knowledge to compete for this — you’ll have to do the best you can to predict the number of home runs that Chris Young the outfielder will hit in the coming season. Use any methods at your disposal.

Have at it!

This week, we’ll be giving away one FG+ membership per day by playing the FG+ Over/Under Game. The wrinkle on this game is that it’s subjective: we’ll provide a player and a number, and you use the comments section to make your best argument for the over or the under. The RotoGraphs staff will pick a winner every day, and that person will get a free subscription to FG+, which includes 11 full-length fantasy strategy articles, 1100 player caps on the player pages, and ongoing access to the FG+ blog, which features the writing the FanGraphs team provides to ESPN Insider on a weekly basis all year.

For our fourth over/under game, let’s take a look at closers in general. Every year, a gaggle of new closers are minted.

The over/under for today’s game is nine. As in, will there be more or less than nine new closers next year? For our purposes, let’s define a new closer as one who will accrue over 20 saves more than he did in 2011.

If you had a subscription to FG+ right now, you could consult Jack Moore’s excellent piece that attempts to use shutdowns and meltdowns to predict closer changes. You would even see a little more about the following figure:

But since you don’t have any more background than a simple tally of the last three years — and yes, I’m suggesting that current FG + subscribers take a back seat and allow those without your knowledge to compete for this — you’ll have to do the best you can to predict the number of closer changes coming in 2012. Use any methods at your disposal.

Have at it!