Greetings fantasy baseball enthusiasts. It’s that wonderful time of the year once again where we are here to present you with another edition of “Leveraging the Default Rankings.”
Basically, the goal of this exercise is to mine the pre-draft rankings for Yahoo, ESPN and CBS in hopes of spotting some players that could be overvalued or undervalued. We’ll also take a look at where the players who have been generating headlines are ranked, as well as guys that are buried in the rankings but who could still offer some appeal.
This piece is not meant to criticize these sites by any means. It’s simply to give you – the informed fantasy manager – a leg up on players that may be listed too high or buried too far down on the default rankings.
One thing that I wanted to preface this with, is that catchers and closers in particular are their own unique animals and depend entirely on the format of your league. Rather than list all of the vast differences between the catchers and closers on each site, just know that their value is relative to the other players at their respective positions. For example, on ESPN all of the closers are ranked far later than they are on other platforms. You’ll need to have more of a push/pull feel on where that position is going, since they would all be relative “values” based on where they’re going. Same thing can be said for the catcher position on Yahoo.
Note: This piece is a snapshot of what to expect in the full piece, which you can find in the online version of the Rotoworld Baseball Draft Guide. Get it today!
YAHOO RANKINGS
(Rankings are from the afternoon of March 19th)
Players listed lower than expected:
28) Austin Riley
41) Nolan Arenado
75) Oneil Cruz
76) Corbin Carroll
79) Cristian Javier
91) Adley Rutschman
121) George Kirby
161) Nico Hoerner
167) Chris Sale
172) Rowdy Tellez
182) Grayson Rodriguez
183) Jordan Walker
242) Kodai Senga
266) Reid Detmers
277) Jack Flaherty
At a glance, it appears as though Yahoo is particularly bearish on top prospects, as they come in somewhat lower on Oneil Cruz, Corbin Carroll, Grayson Rodriguez, Jordan Walker and the like. As noted above, nearly all catchers tend to be lower than anticipated on Yahoo, but that’s more a factor of their default league requiring only one at the position – which is generally a good reason to let them slide down the draft board. Be sure to scroll down and be ready to pounce on some of these stellar pitching values like Cristian Javier, Chris Sale, Reid Detmers, Jack Flaherty and Kodai Senga.
Players listed higher than expected:
23) Aaron Nola
58) Yu Darvish
100) Kyle Wright
133) Brandon Lowe
134) Tyler Glasnow
141) Brandon Nimmo
143) Jonathan India
157) Jeff McNeil
164) Alex Verdugo
214) Charlie Blackmon
215) Adalberto Mondesi
249) Lance McCullers Jr.
267) James Karinchak
272) Gregory Soto
279) Aaron Ashby
One quick observation for Yahoo drafts and other sites, for that matter: Make sure to move injured players down on your list in the event that you time out and are forced to auto-pick as there’s nothing worse than being stuck with a player that’s already injured. The Yahoo ranking also seems to value batting average higher than other platforms, which helps to explain the elevated rankings on Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, and Alex Verdugo. Non-closer relievers are also pushed up the board here – see Gregory Soto and James Karinchak as examples – once again that’s likely due to default league settings that require daily lineup moves – making non-closer relievers more valuable than in other formats.
Who to scroll down for:
271) Elvis Andrus
318) Jarred Kelenic
344) Hayden Wesneski
348) David Peterson
351) Brendan Donovan
483) Matthew Boyd
589) Trevor May
595) Aaron Civale
845) Brandon Pfaadt
1381) Mike Clevinger
2001) Michael Massey
2221) Logan O’Hoppe
This is just a sampling of some of the interesting names that are buried way down on the list, and names that you should keep in mind for the final rounds of your drafts as anyone using the default ranking list will miss them entirely unless they specifically go searching for them. Between the three sites, there’s more value on the Yahoo list than anywhere else.
Want to see the rest? You can read it all in the online version of the Rotoworld Baseball Draft Guide, which is available now for $19.99. Get all the Player Profiles, Rankings and Projections you need to hit your draft out of the park. Click here to buy now!
