Archive for Rankings

NL Outfield Rankings: March (Preseason)

You can’t please everyone. Not that being a fantasy baseball analyst is like being the president, but being a fantasy baseball analyst is like being the president. You can never make everyone happy, and Eno Sarris occasionally asks you for foreign policy recommendations. Worse, the people who are happy don’t vocalize their contentment while the people who are pissed are more than happy to let you know. Such is the nature of the beast.

It’s all good, though. This is my second year ranking National League outfielders, and you know what? I’m ready. My skin is a little thicker, my stomach a little rounder. It’s a new year, new me. Put it on a shirt!

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MLB Tiered Third Base Rankings: 2016 Preseason

It’s difficult to find a position with more intrigue across the baseball landscape than that of third base. This is especially true from a fantasy perspective. Not only do you have the mix of youth, many of which have already been tagged with the elite label, but there’s a ton of versatility going on here from top to bottom. As such, that makes it one of the deepest positions in fantasy. While not all players that make their way onto these rankings will man third on Opening Day, they’ll at least maintain eligibility to do so for fantasy squads.

Preseason rankings tend to be quite a bit more arbitrary than they are throughout the remainder of the season. Past performance is the only indicator to go off of, with OBP serving as a main focal point in these initial rankings, and other whimsical reasoning having the potential to make its way into the rankings as well before regular season play begins. And as deep as the position is, at least to start the year, tiered rankings allow us to break this up a little bit and separate the elite from the fringe types that’ll log time at third. Given that these are our initial rankings for the 2016 season, we’ll just give it to you as straightforward as possible.

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Rotographs Ranking March Update – Second Basemen

We are doing our March ranking updates. You can follow each position here:

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments. We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?! Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

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Rotographs Rankings March Update – Catchers

We are doing our March ranking updates. You can follow each position here:

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments. We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?! Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

Read the rest of this entry »


Rotographs Ranking March Update – Shortstop

We are doing our March ranking updates. You can follow each position here:

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments. We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?! Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

Read the rest of this entry »


Rotographs Ranking March Update – First Base

We started our positional rankings updates yesterday with outfield and today we’re hitting the mound.

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments. We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?! Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

Read the rest of this entry »


Introducing the Prospect Scorecard

I’ve recently completed two deep Ottoneu minor league drafts and am reminded just how difficult successful “prospecting” can be.  Regardless of how informed you may feel heading into an MiLB draft, you’re often left selecting players based upon small sample sizes, second hand reports, maybe a few brief videos and, as much as we want to deny it, a bias towards “scouting the stat lines”.  At the end of the day you’re making a decision using limited information that could have serious long term consequences for your dynasty team.

Prospecting is actually a lot like another critical business skill: hiring good employees.  The inputs might be a little different (scouting reports might be job references, batting practice videos might be one hour interviews, and stats, however limited, might be the resume sitting on your desk), but the challenge is the same: make an important, timely decision based on limited information, first impressions, and gut feel.

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Rotographs Ranking March Update – Starting Pitchers

We started our positional rankings updates yesterday with outfield and today we’re hitting the mound.

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments. We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?! Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

Brad didn’t get a chance to update his rankings so they’re removed & the Yovani Gallardo ranking for Dan is fixed. 

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Rotographs Ranking March Update – Outfielders

Damn Rotographs, back at it again with the Outfielder Rankings.

:punches self:

Sorry.

Baseball is back on the TV, the weather is warming up in my city (which is all I care about), and it’s time for a rankings update!

We’re using Yahoo! eligibility requirements which is 5 starts or 10 appearances. These rankings assume the standard 5×5 categories and a re-draft league.  If we forgot someone, please let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure he’s added for the updates. If you have questions for a specific ranker on something he did, let us know in the comments. We can also be reached via Twitter:

There will be differences, sharp differences, within the rankings. The rankers have different philosophies when it comes to ranking, some of which you’re no doubt familiar with through previous iterations. Of course the idea that we’d all think the same would be silly because then what would be the point of including multiple rankers?! Think someone should be higher or lower? Make a case. Let us know why you think that. The chart is sortable. If a ranker didn’t rank someone that the others did, he was given that ranker’s last rank +1.

Read the rest of this entry »


2016 Ottoneu FGpts Rankings – Prospects

Below is the prospects installment of our 2016 Ottoneu FGpt rankings.

Previous Rankings: Catcher/First Base/Third Base/Second Base/Shortstop/Outfield/Relief Pitcher/Starting Pitcher

In Ottoneu, the prospect game is a bit different than in other fantasy leagues.  Ottoneu is not quite a dynasty, where you can stash players forever. But it’s a bit deeper than your average keeper league, and you can reap substantial benefit over a few years if you can score a hit on a top prospect. The rankings below reflect this dynamic – each of us has ranked our top 50 prospects according to a combination of his talent, proximity to MLB, and risk. As with our positional rankings, we’ve included each of our individual rankings, and a composite ranking that represents the average value we place on each player. Unlike our positional ranks, though, we’ve simply ranked our prospects from 1-50. It’s up to you (and your league’s market!) to determine how much of your budget you want to invest in prospects, depending on your team’s situation.

Only players who received a ranking from at least one of the four of us were included. “NR” indicates that the player was not ranked in one of our individual top 50 prospect lists. Consider this your early, subject to change, cheat sheet when you’re determining which prospects to target in your auction.

We can be reached on twitter as follows:

Trey Baughn
Joe Douglas
Tom Oltarzewski
Justin Vibber

Key:
AVG.
– The average of our four rankings (for the purposes of this exercise “NR” was calculated as a ranking of 55)
Split
– Difference from highest rank to lowest rank

 

2016 Ottoneu FGpts Rankings – Prospects
Name Team Pos Justin Joe Tom Trey AVG. Split
Corey Seager Dodgers SS 1 1 1 1 1 0
Lucas Giolito Nationals SP 3 5 2 2 3 3
J.P. Crawford Phillies SS 2 4 4 3 3.25 2
Nomar Mazara Rangers OF 8 2 3 5 4.5 6
Byron Buxton Twins OF 5 10 6 4 6.25 6
Julio Urias Dodgers SP 4 6 8 8 6.5 4
Steven Matz Mets SP 15 3 7 6 7.75 12
Tyler Glasnow Pirates SP 6 9 14 11 10 8
A.J. Reed Astros 1B 14 8 10 9 10.25 6
Joey Gallo Rangers OF 18 13 5 7 10.75 13
Yoan Moncada Red Sox 2B 10 19 9 10 12 10
Jose Berrios Twins SP 11 11 17 13 13 6
Alex Reyes Cardinals SP 9 17 18 12 14 9
Orlando Arcia Brewers SS 7 12 28 15 15.5 21
Trea Turner Nationals SS 13 14 13 23 15.75 10
Lewis Brinson Rangers OF 20 15 16 16 16.75 5
Dansby Swanson Braves SS 12 23 23 17 18.75 11
Blake Snell Rays SP 23 7 33 14 19.25 26
Jose De Leon Dodgers SP 29 16 21 20 21.5 13
Brendan Rodgers Rockies SS 25 34 12 19 22.5 22
Rafael Devers Red Sox 3B 17 26 27 22 23 10
Andrew Benintendi Red Sox OF 24 27 24 18 23.25 9
Bradley Zimmer Indians OF 35 20 19 21 23.75 16
Franklin Barreto Athletics SS 19 25 20 33 24.25 14
Nick Williams Phillies OF 33 28 11 26 24.5 22
Austin Meadows Pirates OF 27 21 29 25 25.5 8
Brett Phillips Brewers OF 28 22 22 34 26.5 12
Manuel Margot Padres OF 16 24 32 39 27.75 23
Alex Bregman Astros SS 21 32 34 28 28.75 13
Aaron Judge Yankees OF 45 31 15 27 29.5 30
Jesse Winker Reds OF 31 29 31 29 30 2
Trevor Story Rockies SS NR 18 26 24 30.75 8
Sean Manaea Athletics SP 38 30 30 31 32.25 8
Max Kepler Twins OF 36 33 35 30 33.5 6
David Dahl Rockies OF 34 39 25 40 34.5 15
Gary Sanchez Yankees C 41 35 36 35 36.75 6
Josh Bell Pirates 1B 48 37 37 32 38.5 16
Tim Anderson White Sox SS 22 49 38 47 39 27
Sean Newcomb Braves SP 30 44 42 41 39.25 14
Clint Frazier Indians OF 44 42 40 43 42.25 4
Ozhaino Albies Braves SS 26 38 NR NR 43.5 12
Ryan Mcmahon Rockies 3B 43 45 43 45 44 2
Victor Robles Nationals OF 50 40 39 49 44.5 11
Gleyber Torres Cubs SS 32 46 NR 46 44.75 14
Alex Verdugo Dodgers OF 42 36 48 NR 45.25 12
Robert Stephenson Reds SP 46 NR 45 36 45.5 10
Hunter Renfroe Padres OF NR NR 44 38 48 6
Jose Peraza Reds 2B 37 47 NR NR 48.5 10
Dylan Bundy Orioles SP NR 43 41 NR 48.5 2
Jorge Mateo Yankees SS 40 NR 47 NR 49.25 7
Jonathan Gray Rockies SP 47 NR NR 42 49.75 5
Brandon Drury Diamondbacks 2B/3B NR NR 46 44 50 2
Cody Reed Reds SP NR NR NR 37 50.5 0
Javier Guerra Padres SS 39 NR NR NR 51 0
Anthony Alford Blue Jays OF NR 41 NR NR 51.5 0
Francis Martes Astros SP NR 50 NR 48 52 2
Anderson Espinoza Red Sox SP NR 48 NR NR 53.25 0
Jeff Hoffman Rockies SP 49 NR NR NR 53.5 0
Willy Adames Rays SS NR NR 49 NR 53.5 0
Carson Fulmer White Sox SP NR NR 50 NR 53.75 0
Dillon Tate Rangers RP NR NR NR 50 53.75 0