Comments on: ESPN Fantasy Baseball Rankings Rankle

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:38:38 +0000

@Mark: Haven't read it, but I assume it's terrific.* *Sarcasm.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 19:25:53 +0000

Matthew Berry’s Love/Hate came out and Ryan Howard was the cover boy.

The reason: the categories you speak of. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but if you get Carlos Beltran and Nate McLouth aren’t you getting the same numbers essentially from drafting Howard and Jacoby Ellsbury? I think it’s stupid just to go by the number of categories and not include the margin a player wins a category by.

*I don’t work for ESPN, but if hired by ESPN I will retract my statement and happily go along with the .002 batting average differential quota for 2010 and do everything I can to shut down opposition to this system.

**I don’t work for ESPN, so you don’t need to be too worried.

***Yet…

By: Grey

Grey — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:08:35 +0000

@ap: Ok, and?

By: ap

ap — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:00:17 +0000

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/unfiltered/?p=564

By: johnwhorfin

johnwhorfin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:11:33 +0000

@Freak: Totally agree. I like ESPN's fantasy system for running a league, and the rankings make my drafts so much sweeter. @Jeremy P.: I think that if you can get through all the chaff, Matthew Berry has some decent insight. Of course, I value the information I gather from Razzball much more, but that's why I don't ever tell my league mates about this site, and hype ESPN/CBS/Yahoo to them as good sources for draft prep. I don't really have the time or patience to pre-rank on both ESPN and Yahoo. Instead, I create my own cheatsheet and let the site rankings throw off the other owners at the draft. Many non-sleepers fall to me just because of the faulty ranking systems used on the main sites.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:39:47 +0000

@Billy: Between Rounds 6 and 8 I look at starters. I try not to look at closers until Round 10.

By: Billy

Billy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:11:12 +0000

thanks for the great advice, this is my second yr doing FBB, sadly last yr i followed CBS/ESPN’s rankings… lets just say i got rapped at the draft, and wondering why i kept missing out on players… What round would you start drafting pitchers?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:39:08 +0000

@YY: Yeah, at he right price these guys are fine. Actually, two of the 5 names above I like more than ESPN.

By: YY

YY — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:46:11 +0000

Ay bro thanks for da heads up on those players. I always felt that ESPN’s rankings were kinda screwed because they rank players on name recognition alone. So are you basically saying those 5 players should be avoided or get them at the right price?

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:25:49 +0000

@Jeremy P.: Inconceivable!

By: Jeremy P.

Jeremy P. — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:19:05 +0000

was just reading a few of Matthew Berry’s “draft kit” articles, I waded through the 60% of each article where he’s boasting about being a ladies’ man and telling us how much he’d like to sleep with certain hollywood actresses just to finally get to the baseball stuff

and then he bases his predictions on shit like “I have a feeling” or “this guy gives me warm & fuzzies”

That’s it, I done – I’m never reading another Matthew Berry article again. I’d say that the douchebag could go get fucked, but that’s what he wants to happen. Screw you, ESPN.

Am I the only one who thinks Berry is that dude from The Princess Bride? – http://keitholbermannisevil.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/wallace-shawn-vizzini.jpg

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:02:55 +0000

Ya, I think I’m going to drop RotoFeed and just subscribe to all the sites I really like.

By: Fman99

Fman99 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:58:33 +0000

I get the RSS feed direct from this site to my Google Reader set up, it works great.

Then I come here to lay down the verbal smizzack, and make dick jokes.

By: Rudy Gamble

Rudy Gamble — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:15:39 +0000

@Russ: Yeah, I know the guy from RotoFeed. Nice enough guy. Not sure the issue on the Man-Ram post though. You can just get our RSS feed directly if you want at: razzball.com/feed/ Count me as a naysayer on Alexei Ramirez. He's projected for .280 and 17 HRs. Lucky to get 10 steals given his 13 for 22 performance last year. I'm not convinced he'll be of significantly greater value than low round 2Bs like Mark Ellis, Mark DeRosa, and Freddy Sanchez. I'd rather have him than those guys but I'd use 4th/5th round for power (something around 95/25/95 or more), a strong starter, or a top closer (IF you are in a normal league where people draft closers at this time - should wait until 6th/7th round if you're in a 'expert' league).

By: Baron Von Vulturewins

Baron Von Vulturewins — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:50:25 +0000

@Tony: In Yahoo!'s defense, I'm pretty sure their rankings are determined by some sort of algorithm, rather than experts. Votto's 69 runs last year are probably hurting his O-Rank*. *Some weird rank in Yahoo! that sounds dirty.

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:21:45 +0000

@Grey: actually, you're part of them...or something. I'm not sure where I heard of it (maybe searching for "fantasy baseball" in Google Reader) but RotoFeed is the only baseball feed I'm subscribed to and it's how I get your posts. It's like a conglomeration of fantasy baseball feeds all in one.

By: Grey

Grey — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:05:07 +0000

@Russ: No idea what Roto Feed is. If it's in our blogroll, my bad. They prolly asked nicely.

By: Russ

Russ — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:54:06 +0000

I’m really sorry to hijack these comments, but I couldn’t find anywhere to contact the people who run RotoFeed. I have gotten this same post about ManRam 15 times (not exaggerating, I started counted after it duped) over the last two days. I’ve also seen a few others duped. It is me or RotoFeed?

This is the offending post: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rotofeed/~3/545252614/mlb-rumors-dodgers-getting

By: James

James — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:40:53 +0000

@Garrett: Great point!

By: Garrett

Garrett — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:45:00 +0000

As much as I don’t like them, you still need to familiarize yourself with the ESPN rankings, since all your leaguemates will have ‘em.. I know most peeps in my league will have them, so helps to know where you don’t have to reach etc based on where ppl are going to go in your draft.

By: James

James — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:43:47 +0000

The bottom line is you need to lock it up.

By: James

James — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:42:57 +0000

@Tony: I reworked all my draft targets after I saw Votto at 108. There is no way I can let someone in my league get him at that position. He is the best value pick if you are in a league that sticks to the Yahoo! rankings when drafting.

By: cockyphoenix

cockyphoenix — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:34:52 +0000

Holy wow those rankings were bad. I could only do about thirty seconds before I started to lose my mind. I’m not going back there no sir

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:04:57 +0000

They’re good and bad. Yahoo does the same. This is why you need to make your own pre-ranks. Holliday is like 29th in yahoo, votto is at like 108 or something? I can see Holliday there (well really i can’t but i’ll at least say it COULD happen) but the fact Big Papi is ahead of him? No way. And votto that deep, smells delicous to me. Thats saying he can’t perform better than a 9th rounder? Erroneus on all counts!!!

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:17:49 +0000

@IowaCubs: Brings up a good point... Everyone should make sure to rearrange their rankings before their draft. It would suck to be in a real draft and not be able to find Carlos Quentin because they shoved him down in the 70s or something.

By: IowaCubs

IowaCubs — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:12:42 +0000

I did a mock draft at ESPN the other day and had to quit half way through in disgust at their rankings. Oh wellz, as long as their fantasy hosting interface stays the same, I’ll use them.

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:49:50 +0000

@Christopher: re: Fox Sports In actuality, I've never looked at Fox's fantasy coverage once. Though I've heard from Rudy it's pretty atrocious.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:46:48 +0000

@ Fman99: shoot your league mates the link to fox sports, too!!!! Don’t forget to play up the “Expert” analysis at ESPN as Grey pointed out…”Hey, those Howard projections are spot on…”

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:44:01 +0000

Playing off of Rizzo’s SS woes, with the same assumption I don’t get Utley/Han-Ram/Reyes, I’ll grab as much power as I can early, shoot for Al-Ram for SS, and wait on Ian Stewart or maybe whoever starts for SF for 2B…

By: Grey

Grey — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:42:13 +0000

@Steve: He has #1 starter stuff, but I don't see him as a #1 starter. He needs to up his Ks a little and come out on the better side of 15 Wins at least once before I crown him a number one. He's close though. I'd put him at a Number 1.5 starter.