On Thursday, Mike rolled out our long list of reliever rankings which included many familiar names from seasons past, some of them dating back to the 90’s. But there are some new arms vying for the fireman role this season and some of them have tremendous promise.
Well, here we are. It’s the beginning of March, the birds are chirping, baseball is being played, and it’s fantasy baseball drafting season for most of us. It’s also supposed to be the day that the FanGraphs Fantasy game, ottoneu, becomes more expensive. Well, as some of you may have already noticed, that won’t be the case. A new team will continue to cost $9.99, and we hope that helps you keep a few more duckets in your pocket while you have fun managing your new team.
We’ve extended the low-price early-bird special… and we hope to bring you even more exciting news about other ottoneu offerings in the coming days. Mysterious!
But that’s not the only fun thing we get to announce today. In order to add some value to the game, we’ve searched high and wide in order to find you some Guest Commissioners to play with. These players have agreed to attach their name to an ottoneu league – and you get to take them on. Hopefully, on this list, is a writer you’ve wanted to battle. Now you get to test your wits against:
Zach Sanders (FanGraphs)
Chris Cwik (FanGraphs)
Michael Rathburn (RotoExperts)
The Common Man (Platoon Advantage)
Will Moller (ItsAboutTheMoneyStupid)
John Halpin (FOXSports)
Ben Jedlovec (Baseball Info Solutions)
Derek VanRiper (RotoWire)
Justin Merry (BeyondtheBoxscore, FanGraphs)
Jeff Gross (TheHardballTimes)
Josh Shepardson (TheHardballTims)
Sam Miller (The Orange County Register)
Craig Brown (Baseball Prospectus)
Matthew Callan (AmazinAvenue)
Tim Heaney (KFFL)
Eriq Gardner (Bloomberg Sports, FantasyBaseballJunkie.com)
Reggie Yinger (Baseball Press)
Justin Phan (Fantasy Baseball Cafe)
DJ Short (RotoWorld)
A few administrative things. The draft date set by our guest commissioners is final if they want it to be. Hopefully, they’ll list the draft time in the league title, along with their name and affiliation, so you can easily peruse draft times and commissioners when you search for a new league. This also goes for the league settings. We hope that you will be respectful of the commissioners, but bring your “A” game.
Because it’s a good list of fantasy players.
Earlier today, Erik rolled out our Shortstop rankings and tiers. For kicks we should reveal the individual lists we used for our combined rankings as the variability is remarkable, and it demonstrates just how fluid this position is. To be sure, shortstop is my biggest conundrum headed into 2011 as it seems there isn’t a tremendous amount that differentiates the majority of these guys after you get out of the second tier. So here’s to trying to mine some risers from the list that might provide a little something added to a middling or low draft pick at what is shaping up to be an awfully uninspiring inventory at the 6.
The 2011 class of shortstops is fortunate enough to have two of the most coveted players in fantasy baseball at the very top. It’s also unfortunate to be stocked full of mediocrity and uncertainty after that.
The follow is a list of the top shortstop options this season as complied by all of the RotoGraphs authors.
Tier 1:
Hanley Ramirez
Troy Tulowitzki
No surprises here. The kind of production these two provide from a generally weak position is what owners pay top dollar for. Few players in baseball, at any position, can match their overall talents. They shouldn’t go ahead of Albert Pujols, but a real case can be made for taking either number two in your draft.
Tier 2:
Jose Reyes
Derek Jeter
Alexei Ramirez
Stephen Drew
Jimmy Rollins
In past seasons Reyes and Jeter could make a case for Tier 1, but that time seems to have passed. Jeter’s counting stats should still be valuable, and Reyes will continue to steal bases if finally healthy. Ramirez has apparently bulked up a bit this offseason which will hopefully help his home run totals get into the 20-25 range again. Drew and Rollins are both very balanced players, contributing in any number of categories.
Tier 3:
Elvis Andrus
Starlin Castro
Ian Desmond
Yunel Escobar
Rafael Furcal
Asdrubal Cabrera
The younger players seemed to have fallen into this tier. Andrus, Castro, and Desmond could each end up in the second tier by years end. Andrus because of his steals, Castro because of his average, and Desmond because of his power. Furcal is Furcal, he’s been a steady producer at the position for years and years. Escobar seemed to come back to life a bit in Toronto. He’ll never run much, but should provide you with a decent average and double digit power.
Tier 4:
Alcides Escobar
Miguel Tejada
Jhonny Peralta
J.J. Hardy
Erick Aybar
Ryan Theriot
Juan Uribe
Jason Bartlett
Tsuyoshi Nishioka
Cliff Pennington
Reid Brignac
Marco Scutaro
Lots to go on here. Escobar’s value is going to rely on how many bases he steals. The Royals seems set on giving him the job, but if his OBP is under .300 as it was last season I don’t see him lasting the entire season. J.J. Hardy is a nice sleeper candidate. He’s not far removed from a very nice season and gets to play in a great hitters park in Baltimore. You’ll find power numbers from Uribe but little else, while Brignac provides sneaky double digit home run potential.
The rest:
Alex Gonzalez
Yuniesky Betancourt
Jed Lowrie
Clint Barmes
Alexi Casilla
Orlando Cabrera
Edgar Renteria
Ronny Cedeno
Omar Infante
Mike Aviles
The biggest wild card here to me is Jed Lowrie. The value you assess him all depends on how much playing time you think he gets. He hit nine homers in under 200 ABs last season, but couldn’t stay healthy. Personally, and other RG writers agree, I think he ends up playing more than Scutaro. The rest should only be owned in the deepest of leagues, otherwise they’re waiver wire fodder for a rainy day.
Please discuss the rankings in the comments if you’d like. I’ll try and get to as many questions as I can.
As the 2011 Player Rankings outlined, there are a lot of risks at second base this season. Much of these risks are injury related, as Chase Utley, Dustin Pedroia and Ian Kinsler all missed significant time last season. Rickie Weeks finally broke out, but it would be foolish to forget about his past injury concerns. Should you find yourself waiting on a second baseman, here are some $1 options that may provide some value.
Read the rest of this entry »
On Thursday, Jeff rolled out our composite second base rankings and we’ve since looked at Risers, Top Targets, and the bargain bin. All three of the gents featured on today’s “Fallers” list are clustered in our third tier, yet all of them have easily performed like tier 1 talent at least once in their career. Let’s peek at at why they’re not getting more respect from us. Read the rest of this entry »
You may have heard that FanGraphs got a fantasy game. It’s hard to contain my excitement, but let’s start with some pithy slogans!
No People Herding!
This auction dynasty is open year-round, so commissioners don’t have to email everyone to remind them to get their keepers in, and what were their players’ prices again, and what did they want to do with those two hurt guys again and what happened to Charlie and did Jim change his email or is he just on his annual three-week trek to the Harry Baals Community Center for that Baccarat Tournament?
No, the game is there waiting. It’s always there.
