ESPN’s 2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings, Run Away Fast As You Can

I am thinking of targetting Jose Peraza as a key ‘speed guy’. Other recommendations for some speed guys in middle to late rounds that won’t kill you in the other categories?

Thanks for help!

From what I see in your rankings/pairings, you appear to favour a more balanced approach to drafting as opposed to favouring say power over speed. Is that correct or is really power (with a decent average) still king?

I’m trying for a crazy-stupid keeper trade in my yahoo, keep-5 league. I have 4 definites then I got plenty of (arguably) keepable talent, so I’m trying to change that into a major upgrade from a team who only has 3 (maybe 4) keepable players. Here’s what I offered:

Christian Yelich
Jose Abreu
Gary Sanchez
Chris Davis
Carlos Carrasco

for

Nolan Arneado

My league posted keepers prices and I was wrong on what I thought. Who should I keep.for how long. I have arietta for 20$ 2 more yrs.
1yr. 2yr. 3yr. 4yr
Kyle schwarber.. 6$ 15$ 20$ 25$
X Boagarts. 11$ 20$ 25$
Corey seager. 6$ 15$ 20$ 25$
Noah synd. 8$ 17$ 22$
Wil myers. 12$ next year will be 13$ or sign or drop just for myers only.

20 team dynasty h2h with OPS, BB’s, defensive crap (putouts/assists/OF assists/ fielding %/ double plays) for pitchers, relief appearances, QS, shutouts, complete games, k/9, holds, double plays, OBPA added. gotta have minimum 9 TEX players at all times, and the vote it looking like by next year all 9 of those have to be in active slots (currently they could be in the up to 5 NA slots).
C none (it’ll be norris/cervelli or slightly worse later, really this is about playing time here)
1B desmond (LF/CF also for this year)
2B forsythe)
SS andrus
3B beltre
LF dahl (CF)
CF blackman
RF stanton
util odubel (CF)
BN (max 4 BN slots, to have 6 SP max 3 BN slots) choo (RF, probably LF too later), mazouza (LF/RF), profar (all infield and LF)
NA (projected) gallo (util), brinson (CF), calhoun (2B), e.jimenez (RF), z. collins (C), y.mendez (TEX pitcher who probably comes up this year in some capacity), one of the NA’s has to be cut before season starts probably.

SP (6 max, 5 min) darvish/archer/hammel/urias/cobb/gsellman
RP (7 slots) giles/kela/jeffress/romo/grilli

1. got an offer of napoli for odubel. while this does get me another TEX player hitting in a good lineup (and he could easily take over 1B at some point, i doubt a team that makes the moves TEX has made lately actually intends to play loney-doney indefinitely there, gallo probably up moves napoli to 1B or they split it). i do lose steals but i have way too many OF as is now already, and futurewise this might make at least some room in case i get no real offers for brinson. i do lose steals of course. what you think? napoli does have an option for next year, so he might stick on TEX for a bit, and if choo were to get moved this might be best chance to get a useful TEX player (i’m simply NEVER paying the lucroy price, or probably the hamels price, certainly not the dyson price, the odor owner ain’t selling, cargo 2 i don’t want either)

Trade question..

Was offered a 6th rd pick for Duffy. Probly the best i can do. Do I accept?

This is 10 team keeper, we keep 7 guys.

Arenado
Seager
Marte
JDMart or Braun

Kershaw
Strausburg
Salazar

Dynasty Question. Just got offered the following trade:

Trade – Francisco Lindor, Victor Robles, and Alex Colome

Receive – Byron Buxton, Nomar Mazara, Jon Gray

Which side and why?

Hi Grey,

NL-Only H2H 5×5 with OBP.
$280 Auction (5 Keepers)

Goldschmidt – 46
Villar – 12
Franco – 13
LeMahieu – 9
Hendricks – 14

A guy in my league wants to lower costs going into the auction and has offered me his Freeman ($28) for one of my LeMahieu/Hendricks.

If I didn’t already have GOLDY, I’d gladly trade one of them because of Freeman’s skills and he’d be a good keeper.

I think DJ would be the way to go since a lot of good SPs are being kept. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Keeper help in an auction league. Keep 4.
Donaldson-$24
Desmond-$8
Harper – $24
Polonco- $11
Yelich- $15
Rondon- $2
Benintendi – $5

Would you keep these 4 out of the group? Donaldson, Marte, Polanco, Correa, Just Dong. I’m thinking the three OF and Correa…but Donaldson enticing too. 11 tm.

Yooo…Based on the pitching staff i showed the other day:

Salazar
J.Ross
T.Walker
D.Bundy
J. DeLeon
H.Iwakuma
D.Smyly
T.Skaggs
L.Weaver
Z.Wheeler
C.Reed
Would you Move Salazar and Belt for Harvey,R. Hill and Lackey…I’m leaning yes…Harvey has the upside of Salazar and the other two would help balance out all the upside guys i have.

Really torn with picks 24 and 25. Whether to take an ace starting pitcher and perhaps 1B (Encarncion or Freeman) or take 2 hitters and then hope some good SP is left at 48 and 49. Really want to get 2 very good SP’s in the 1st 6 rounds and then 2 good RP’s shortly thereafter. Was thinking to get 6 hitters, 2 SP’s and 2RP’s in the first 10 rounds as a strategy.

Thanks for any advice/help!

Ok… i did an espn Mock and this is what i got:

Realmuto
Goldy
Odor
Baez
Rendon
Miggy
Springer
Polonco
Desmond
Mazara
Soler
Santana
Hendricks
Gausman
Velasquez
R Ray
Walker
Urias
Wickhoff
Neris
Bedrosian
Nate Jones
Glasnow
Schoop

Think mayby i should have gone closer the round i took realmuto and i would have been really looking good and might have wound up with Murphy

Grey, I am Stoked!! In my friends/family league (3x champ, you will see why in a sec) i just completed 2 offseason moves. 1st i traded Lester for an extra 3rd round pick and just now gave up Polonco and a 6th rounder for Springer. This is a 7 player keeper league. Only 10 teams but i would welcome more competition but I’m not the commish. Anyhow, that gives me an extra 10th round pick but minus a 13th round selection after you consider keepers.

Now the fun part, my keepers are:
Betts, Arenado, Machado, Rizzo, Odor, Carrasco and now i have Springer added to the fold.

I just want to thank you again for your guidance that has got me this teams

On a fun note, last year i changed my team name to Haymakers in honor of Odor and Machado suspensions. Gotta love the players with the fight in them.

Which side do you prefer in a 5×5 keep forever league?

Polanco+Schoop OR Odor+Jose Ramirez

Is there really any scenario/situation where you do not draft Mike Trout with the 1st pick overall in a seasonal 5×5 roto league. Not sure if having 1st pick is necessarily that great in snake draft?

Will be interesting who comes to me with 24 and 25 picks!

Thanks.

I want to swap a pitcher for a hitter in a keeper, Strasburg for Hosmer fair value? I’ve seen your rankings and know your general feelings on Strasburg, but seems like Strasburg has more upside and is more valuable at his position. Thank you. Also, awesome post, rankings are baffling sometimes.

I don’t know if it’s still how it used to be, but the rankings in the ESPN draft room are composites. They spend a day or two with all of their writers & they argue about guys & have votes & shit. So the reason that no one owns up to the rankings is because they are just aggregated and there’s no plan. So when TC says “that’s how they came out” maybe that’s what he means.

Evening G,

Nothing says baseball is back like RAZZ. 12 team H2H 6×6 OPS/ and K/9…Can keep up to 4, I’m keeping Arenado, Rizzo, and Odor…and just traded Thor for Lindor, so adding Lindor to the list. Infield locked down. How much of an increase is E5 for Lindor?

Looking forward to yet another great season. Thanks for all the work that you do my man. From the 207…

Jeff

16 team ROTO 6×6 with K/BB and QS as our 6th cats. Any of these guys work keeping at these prices?

Bragman $13
Tomas $7
Sano $13
Duffy $13

Also, throw back Scherzer at $35 with his knuckle issue? Thanks, always a treat to read these articles!

Hi Grey,

I need your advice. I’m in a 12-team H2H 10×9 category dynasty “keep forever” league and competing this year. My team needs pitching help.

The categories are:
R H HR RBI SB K BB TB AVG OPS and IP QS W ERA WHIP SV+HLDs K/9 K/BB HRA

I received the following offer where I trade:

Pollock/Just Dong FOR Price/NCruz/Thames

At CF I have – Heyward
At RF I have – JD/Bautista/Beltran
At SP I have – Arrieta/Greinke/Hill/Samardzija/Bundy

This deal makes my team older overall and I lose out on 2 premier 29 year old outfielders

Which side would you want in keep forever and is it close?

Thanks so much!

I’m crossing over from the hockey side of things to get help from Grey, Fantasy Master Lothario. 10 man 5×5 roto, same as RCL’s except innings cap instead of games played for pitchers. Keep up to 11 players forever, supplemental draft after keepers are declared to get everyone up to 11 players total, then auction the leftovers. Here are the group of players I’m leaning towards keeping:

Goldschmidt, Segura, Arenado, Bregman, Desmond, K. Davis, B. Hamilton, Bumgarner, Arrieta, Duffy, Britton

I don’t really like keeping that many pitchers but I don’t think anyone else from my leftovers are worth keeping over them outside of maybe Salazar (another pitcher). Those guys are Pujols, Castellanos, Schoop, Bautista.

1) Should I keep 11 or keep less?
2) If I’m keeping 11, should it be those 11?

Thanks boss.

I approve of this post.

Trying to figure out my keepers for a roto league. I’m torn between your rankings, my gut and the future. Who do I keep, if I had to pick either:

2 of these four: Tulo, Schoop, Peraza, Swanson.
or
3 of these five: Tulo, Schoop, Peraza, Swanson, Manaea.

(other pitchers are Stras, Carrasco, Taillon, Gausman. and holding those four without Manaea leaves me a bit thin in starters, no?)

Hi Grey…what does your gut say about Phillies closer situation? They say it is Gomez but Neris is better pitcher and probably should earn role. Also,might be smart for Phillies to run with Benoit to increase his trade value. Benoit was solid after AS break last year. Thoughts between Gomez and Benoit if Neris drafted already.
And do you like Capps to overtake Maurer earlier than later? Thanks for all your priceless insights.

Lol. Ken patera arms. Read your columns just for comments like that.

Awesome writeup! Thanks for all the help! I am struggling to decide on a final keeper. League is 10 teams, mixed, 1 catcher, 5×5 with OBP instead of AVG. Auction is $260 per team, 7 keepers each. My options include:

Yasmani Grandal ($1)
Justin Turner ($1)
Adam Eaton ($6)
Billy Hamilton ($6)
Rougned Odor ($15)

Drew Smyly ($3)
Dellin Betances ($3)

If it helps…I am planning on keeping Wil Myers ($1), Anthony Rizzo ($49), Roberto Osuna ($2), Ken Giles ($1), Julio Teheran ($7), and Danny Salazar ($5) with my first six keepers.

Thank you again for all of your help and entertainment!

Great stuff as usual Grey! Early Rounds Draft Strategy question….In a 10-team, redraft…I really want Story-3rd, Desmond-4th and Odor in the 5th round. Here is my dilemma: I (and u) have Odor ranked higher than Story. If I take Odor in the 3rd, Story will likely be gone before I can get him in the 4th. On the flipside, there is a fair possibility that someone may snipe me if I wait until the 5th for Odor. Do you recommend I stick to my (your) board or, do I get greedy and try to get my guys 1 round before adp? Thanks!!

Had my 1st draft of the season last night. Of course it did not go as planned; they never do. It was a 12 team 5X5 roto small $$ league with weekly lineups.
I lost out on both Paxton & McCullers …both went early in the 13th round. I also got timed out on my 10th round pick & ended up with Anderson early but I did need speed & he should add to that.
Here’s what I ended up with ….only one bench bat for added speed potential although he is currently hurt ..already. My SP has less young upside than I normally want & more boring choices later but I do like the final mix pretty well. The lesser closers kept dropping down so I collected a total of 5.
With weekly lineups having some SP choices is nice. Perhaps an extra bench bat for the same reason to play matchups but most people drafted 5 or 6 bench bats & most have 2 Catchers …so there should be plenty to choose from later after the SP & Closer situations shake out.
Mr Grey or any commentators …let me know how I did.
C – Flowers (356)
1B – Freeman (20)
2B Odor (29)
SS – Anderson (116) -my auto draft mistake
3B – Arenado (5)
CI – K Seager (68)
MI – A Escobar (284)
OF – JD Martinez (44); Dahl (77); JBJ ( 149); Mazara (188); Pederson(212)
Utility – Kepler (221)
Bench – Tilson (341)
SP – Archer ( 53); Maeda (101); Gausman( 140); Lackey (164); Nola (173); Pineda (197); Lynn (245); Nova (260); Skaggs (293); Norris (308); & Hammel (332)
RP – Giles (92); Dyson (125); J Johson (236); Madison (269); & Kintzler( 317)

Thanks for any advice or analysis of the team. As always great job …Razzball if the place to be for fantasy baseball.

Great read once again.
I joined a 24 team H2H dynansty league with a pretty standard scoring with weekly winner. Looking for advice on how tackle my draft, I pick 17. It is a daily league with unlimited moves.
Usually I would not take a SP before round 5 and closer before round 10.
Thanks for the articles

Who should I keep schwarber 6$ myers 12$ duvall 5$ corey seager 6$ mookie betts 54$ I can keep 3 .
Extra info is I have arrieta 20$ for the last year and plan in signing noah for 25$for 3 yrs.

Def a solid read as always. But looking back at last years comparison’s vs ESPN, you knocked some out of the park a few times, but also got knocked out of the park a few times as well. Almost 50/50. Just gotta pick the right combo.

Thanks for the post, ESPN sucks.

I just inherited the 11th place-finishing team in a 12-team Yahoo roto 6×6 (OPS on hitting side and QS and SV+H on pitching). I need to choose 3 keepers from this mess (that can be kept max 3 years). Machado is for sure. Keep the next two highest (Cespedes/Turner) from your rankings, or any reason to look somewhere else from below?

Y Cespedes, J Turner, J Kipnis, A McCutchen, K Giles, M Pineda, V Martinez, L Cain, J Odorizi, M Estrada, S Kazmir

Thanks

I’ve never played in a 2 catcher/2 utility league which I am joining this year

How drastically do the rankings change for catchers if you have to roster 2?

Hey Grey, War Room problems. Tried logging in and got the following error message – I have already tried clearing cache:

“The page you were looking for doesn’t exist.

You may have mistyped the address or the page may have moved.”

Wieters to Nationals?

I have Betances as a late round keeper this year – may try to parlay him with a couple other elite MR’s, other than Miller who will be expensive – any high K set up guys you like?

Maybe I’ve just been reading you too long and agree with most of what you preach, but going through the whole list there are only 3 guys I agree with them on more than you.

Dee Gordon .300 BA, 90 R and 50 SB if he doesn’t take more pills he’s top 70
Anthony Rendon .270 20 HR 10 SB Maybe 80 R and RBIs- Meh, Not Top 40
Cole Hamels – Walks and Hard Hit Balls are up. He’s not bouncing back. 4.00 ERA Prediction

But that’s it. You’re at least 97% Smarter than them.

Yet Tristan C keeps doing well in expert leagues. So either we blame this all on Karabell (logical), or TC keeps all his best analysis for himself?

Grey,

in a 12 team h2h, offensive cats: R, HR, RBI, OBP, SLG, SB. lineup…

posey
rizzo
d. gordon
correa
sano
hosmer
mazara
trout
kepler
c. santana
UTIL #2

who’s my UTIL #2 and 1 bench hitter (unless I don’t need a bench bat in this league?):

choo
profar
eaton
hernan perez
moss
werth
shaw
bour
a. dickerson
schimpf
moreland

Thanks!

Rudy agrees with ESPN on a few of these. Yelich jumps out as a big one. I’d like to see you tussle over that one. Wearing unitards. In the mud.

Nicely done Grey. I always look forward to your takes because most of the players are on the rise and simply more fun to follow. Your comparison to ESPN explains for why I have been semi-successful the last few years. The only quibble might be on Bregman. I don’t think he should be as high up the chart as ESPN and Yahoo have him, but he seems to be the kind of player you would rank higher. Thanks for the excellent work!
Mick

Grey,
In a 6 keeper league with OPS as a 6th cat, would you rather have Trea Turner or Lindor + Polanco.

Sorry, another trade question, guys are hot on Marte!…OBP Dynasty league keep forever

How even is this deal? Which side wins?

Starling Marte and Jake Arrieta for Freddie Freeman and Chris Archer

Grey! A quick dynasty question for you.
Would you trade Belt and Salazar
FOR segura and Paxton?

Dynasty OBP keep forever league…

Which side wins?

Giancarlo Stanton for Starling Marte

Grey!!!

Wow! Great write-up.

a. Signed up to an RCL today, commissioner Ryan Miller, password ‘nocryinginbaseball’. We need 7 more ballers last time I checked.

b. Off to stupid N’djamena for a 2-day meeting (Thursday/Friday) only we have to travel by road to Don Ameche (leaving at 08h00) to catch THE flight leaving Don Ameche International at 15h00, with check-in at 13h00. Really? for a flight departing at 15h00, we have to check-in 2 hours earlier. And I would love to show you how so non-rigorous and so anti-TSA the procedure is. Just like anything you want to carry, you can take it! I have tried wrapping a firearm in a pound of macon in thin strips but basically all kinds of crap can pass as carry-on. I made a sort of weapon out of the bottom of my Bic pen, it could do some damage. Will be back in Farchana, USA on Monday!

c. Will try to stay in touch.

Cheers,
Ante

In a keeper league: Would you trade Gary Sanchez straight up for Yu Darvish (if I’m in need of pitching)? Could I possibly aim higher for this year (such as Scherzer, MadBum, Sale)?

The rationale here: I can get an ace for a top-tier catcher and get comparable value (or negligible) later in the draft/stream hot catchers throughout the season.

Thanks for the write-ups!

Grey,

10 team 5×5 weekly lineup league.

I am set on offense but missed out on a lot of closers. My current pitching is:

Kluber
Syndergaard
Cole
McCullers
Nola
Giles
Betances

Should I just target closers the rest of the way? (6 rounds left in the draft)

Current RP available are:
Iglesias
Bedrosian
Reed
N Jones
Feliz
Madson

Think I am fine to grab several of those guys the rest of the way and hope 1 or 2 of them steps up to resolve my RP situation?

Thanks

Did you do this for Yahoo yet?

Much like the real version of runaway, when I saw this I cried juicy man tears. “I am Walt Disney in the flesh! Dennis Eckerlsey. Rolly Fingers. I’m a mustached GENIUS.” Grey A.

Personally, I think you’re low on Dee Gordon, but I understand why you would discount him and with his suspension last year, he’s just a hard guy to project. However, I can’t fathom why ESPN is so in love with guys like Bregman, Lemahieu, and Swanson. Bregman if this was a dynasty draft, I could see being higher, but guys like Lemahieu and Swanson are not projected to juice any categories. Lemahieu was .388 Babip. That’s a risk. Assuming he falls back to last year’s very good .366, he’s going to drop to a .315-.325 hitter, which makes him likely in the bottom half of starting 2Bs from a fantasy perspective, and ESPN thinks that’s a 5th-6th rounder? PS – In checking the stats on this, I just realized DJ is 6’4″. He’s a monster, how does he struggle to hit a dozen HRs?!?

Swanson isn’t even projected to be an elite bat, just a very very good overall player. That first slot in the draft gets people all excited, but when it’s on a skill position player, expectations early in careers should be tempered. It’s rare that an up the middle fielder pans out to be a star early in his career. Hell, for someone like Dustin Ackley, it might never happen. I’m not buying an immediate breakout for Swanson. I think he’s more of a fantasy relevant guy in 2019.

Great write up, Grey! It also begs the question why the RCLs are hosted on ESPN?

I’ve got two questions for you…I’m in a 12 team roto league with some interesting keeper rules (2 players, one hitter/one pitcher, one from 1st half of draft/one from 2nd half of the draft).

First question is which pitcher you would keep, given their relative values; McCullers in the 13th or Rich Hill in the 17th.

Second question, I’m keeping Mookie Betts with my 2nd round pick. I’m drafting 10th, and the only other projected first rounder to be kept is Altuve. That being said, who would you try to pair Betts up with at 10? In mocks I keep getting to choose between Blackmon, Miggy and Correa. There’s a small chance Rizzo or Harper may also be there. I’m leaning towards Correa (Also note that Lindor, Turner and Story are being kept) because I’m afraid of what I’ll end up with at SS if I don’t grab him there. What would you do, oh wise fantasy master lothario?

Thanks Grey!

C – Realmuto
1B – Goldy
2B – Schoop
SS – Machado
3B – Beltre
MI – Travis
CI – Miggy
OF – Springer, Blackmon, Polanco, Piscotty, Jankowski

Am I overly optimistic by saying this offense doesn’t have any problems? Going into my (10 team) dynasty draft with almost $0 to fill a Utility spot and 4 bench spots, anything I should target with that Utility pick? I’d like to get my hands on Ryon Healy and see if I can’t replace Beltre with him after this year.

Grey would you be comfortable starting Baez as your 2nd baseman in a 12 teams, 10 man keeper?

Baseball season doesn’t truly start for me until my morning bathroom dump is spent reading the latest razzball post.

Seriously this content is far too good to be free, most of these readers would cough up the dough for a premium service. If you build the paywall they will come.