Value.  It’s the essence of fantasy baseball draft strategy.  Some players are draft day values, while others might not return value.  When you read an article and the writer speaks of “value”, the writer is trying to tell you he likes that player and thinks you should be targeting him in your drafts.  It is often his or her subjective view of a player’s value compared to the common perception of that player; a perception that may exist in the form of other rankings and engendered through ADP.  I believe very strongly in using perhaps the most objective means of player valuation available: Algorithm based player projections.  So when I say a player is a value based on his ADP it’s because the projections suggest it.  And that means I am presenting you this information without favoritism towards any particular player.  By their very nature the projections have no favoritism and a player’s ADP is simply a fact.

Speed is the easiest 5×5 category to find late in the draft.  In most drafts last year, Rajai Davis was an afterthought.  A guy to pick up in the late rounds of 12-team drafts and a guy who probably went undrafted in many 10-team drafts.  Last year I played in one Razzball Commenter League, and in that league I took Davis at pick #240.  He ended up finishing #111 on Rudy’s Player Rater thanks in part to amassing 36 stolen bases.   His performance wasn’t particularly above his normal levels, with the exception of batting average.  He did receive more ABs than projected.  Even if he hadn’t played more than projected I’m fairly sure he would still found his way into the top 150-200ish on the 2014 player rater.  Which is to say, in multiple ways, that he was a value.