Tonight, I will be drafting my second $1600 NFBC Auction Championship team. This is a 15-team, 5×5 Roto league with an overall prize pool. You can see the live draft board here.
Tonight, I will be drafting my first $1600 NFBC Auction Championship team. This is a 15-team, 5×5 Roto league with an overall prize pool. You can see the live draft board here.
Below are the latest playing time changes for position players since last Tuesday. We’ve mostly just got some Gavin Sheets– and Alex Verdugo-related shuffling for the Padres and Braves, respectively.
| Name | Team | Positions | Old PA | New PA | PA Change | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Verdugo | ATL | RF, LF, CF | FA | 126 | 126 | Will start in AAA, probably has to beat Acuña to MLB to get significant PT |
| Gavin Sheets | SDP | DH, 1B, LF, RF | 126 | 238 | 112 | Contract selected; not guaranteed to make roster but likeliest to be DH vs RHP |
| José Fermín | STL | 2B, SS, 3B, LF | 7 | 98 | 91 | Likeliest to win final bench spot; could spell Gorman against LHP |
| Alan Roden | TOR | LF, RF, CF | 133 | 203 | 70 | Outplaying all the other OF contenders; Varsho probably IL’ed until he can throw |
| Jose Iglesias | SDP | 2B, DH, SS, 3B | 336 | 266 | -70 | Sheets addition reduces PA, especially against righties |
| Jarred Kelenic | ATL | RF, CF, LF | 182 | 112 | -70 | Verdugo addition cuts into PT |
There’s an interesting smell coming from the kitchen of pre-season 2025 third-base ranks. Some may notice notes of “changing of the guard”, and others may sense stable notes of “nostalgia”. Only the most sensitive whiffers may be able to decipher the sweet from the bitter. If you’re unwilling to take a chance and try something new, you may need to draft at the top and order right away. If you see something in a player profile that you think so clearly indicates a step forward, you can wait for the orders to go around the table. There’s a decent amount of veteran, safe talent at the top and a tremendous amount of upside risk in the middle. The bottom? The bottom seems like a scary place to dine, but then again, perhaps the table will be jealous when the meals come out and you begin to feast.
Three nights before the first game of the 2025 MLB season in Tokyo, the Cubs played the Angels in a Spring Breakout game in Arizona. Those in attendance got to see Angels top pitching prospect Caden Dana struggle to make it out of the first inning, Cubs outfield hopeful Kevin Alcántara slug a home run, and 21-year-old catcher Moises Ballesteros leg out a double. Matt Shaw was not there.
Welcome to the Starting Pitcher Rankings for 2025!
We are live more than a month earlier than last year which helps those diehards drafting through the winter while the living, breathing document aspect of them allows us to keep these relevant all the way through draft season in March. The Hot Stove is positively blazing which has brought about several updates before even going live. Chief among them being a pair of premium lefties joining the AL East.
The updates will come regularly as I fill in the profiles over the coming weeks while also reacting to the news as it happens. We still have an ace who needs to be signed, plenty of trade rumors already in play, and the inevitable out of nowhere trades that we will get at some point this offseason. Feel free to leave comments about guys who don’t yet have a profile, but just know that one is coming. I intend to write up all 200 before we reach Spring Training.
First update is finally here in early-January and they will be much more frequent now that we’re out of the holiday season!
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My body decided to get a nastyyyy flu at quite literally the worst time of the year. I’m finally starting to feel a bit better today so those more frequent updates I promised last time will actually start coming through consistently.
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OK, I reworked the ranking quite a bit instead of just going 1-200+ within each tier. A lot of y’all had been asking for that after the first release, so there you go. I still have lots of profiles coming so stay tuned for those!
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Profiles will continue to flow as we approach March. As I dive deeper on pitchers, rankings will continue to shift. I obviously don’t want to be making sweeping changes to the them in mid-and-late March so y’all can have confidence in them as your drafts come up so I expect the massive swings to slow down after the next couple of updates. I’ve been battle-testing my rankings with multiple drafts recently and that’s been a key driver behind a lot of movement. I had my TARF draft last Sunday (board can be found here, I’m team 4) which is part of the EARTH set of drafts as well as the LABR mixed draft (board) this past Tuesday and both were eye-opening in terms of where I sit with a lot of pitchers.
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More rankings movement, more profiles and unfortunately more injuries. We’re at that time of the year when the injuries will start rolling in with way more frequency than any of us want.
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Mid-March, we are in the thick of it now! Good bit of movement again today as things really start to develop with Main Events starting over at the NFBC. We’ll be through the Top 100 profiles w/the next update, but if you have questions about anyone without a profile yet, please don’t hesitate to drop a comment.
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Another big update here on March 20th because the injuries just won’t stop! Last massive draft weekend before the season starts and then one more draft weekend for those who go right after the season gets going. I’ve battle tested these rankings in several drafts so I made some big moves based on guys I kept passing over at their current ranking and others I’ve been zipping up my board.
Quick update with a few injury-related moves.
The outfield pool thins out every season and it seems to happen quickly this season. Here is how I would approach them when creating a draft plan.
Below are the latest playing time changes for pitchers since Monday, with the Patrick Corbin signing further reshuffling projected starts for the Rangers.
| Player | Team | Old GS | New GS | GS Change | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick Corbin | TEX | FA | 16 | 3 | Will help cover starts, especially in the first half |
| Stephen Kolek | SDP | 8 | 11 | 3 | Darvish injury opens up more starts |
| Adrian Houser | TEX | 5 | 2 | -3 | Corbin signings eats into PT |
| Yu Darvish | SDP | 29 | 26 | -3 | Elbow inflammation, hard to see him ready for Opening Day |
| Jack Leiter | TEX | 23 | 19 | -4 | Corbin signings eats into PT; maybe some RP innings later on? |
| Cody Bradford | TEX | 8 | 3 | -5 | Corbin signings eats into PT; could relieve when healthy |
| Player | Team | Old IP | New IP | IP Change | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Lovelady | TOR | 26 | 55 | 29 | Contract selected; not guaranteed to make roster but he’s out of options os he’s got a good shot |
| Anderson Pilar | ATL | 8 | 35 | 27 | Perdomo trade, Farmer reassignment makes bullpen spot more plausible for the R5 pick |
| Luis Garcia | LAD | 16 | 33 | 17 | Contract selected for Tokyo Series, would be odd to DFA him before Opening Day |
| Nick Hernandez | HOU | 44 | 28 | -16 | Optioned to minors after bad Spring Training |
| Blake Walston | ARI | 32 | 0 | -32 | Tommy John surgery |
It’s time to go out on limb and make a few BOLD predictions. All of the ranks will be determined by using our auction calculator. All ADP mentioned is from 11 NFBC Main Event drafts. Read the rest of this entry »