Organizational Talent Rankings via Baseball America
2013 (26) | 2012 (15) | 2011 (2) | 2010 (9) | 2009 (6)

2012 Affiliate Records
MLB: [96-66] NL East
AAA: [60-84] International League – Gwinnett
AA: [76-63] Southern League – Mississippi
A+: [69-70] Carolina League – Lynchburg
A: [73-66] South Atlantic League – Rome

Arizona Fall League PlayersScottsdale Scorpions
John Cornerly (RHP); Juan Jaime (RHP); Aaron Northcraft (RHP); Shae Simmons (RHP); Kyle Kubitza (3B); Tommy La Stella (2B); Elmer Reyes (SS); Robby Hefflinger (OF)

Graduated Prospects
Evan Gattis (C/OF); Julio Teheran (RHP); Alex Wood (LHP); Anthony Varvaro (RHP); Luis Avilan (LHP); Cory Gearrin (RHP);

The Run Down
The high-impact fantasy potential on this list starts and ends with Lucas Sims.  Still, I view this Braves farm system as an underrated group, in that, there are a number of intriguing college arms here, and Atlanta, as an organization, has proven itself in recent years to be quite adept at developing college pitchers into MLB assets. (See Mike Minor and Alex Wood.)  On the offensive side of things, there’s far less appeal.  Hitting prospects like Bethancourt, La Stella, and Salcedo could all be spending time with the big club in 2014, and they each bring a glimmer of fantasy upside, but it’s the variety of upside that barely garners consideration in mixed leagues.  With a decent amount of talent pushing through the upper levels, this is a group worth monitoring early on next season, but there’s truly nothing here to get too excited over until Sims makes his way to Turner Field.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Learn more about our 2025 Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions!

The best daily/weekly player rankings/projections (hitters, starters, and relievers) for each of the next 7-10 days + next calendar week starting Friday. Kick-ass DFS lineup optimizer and projections for DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo!.

I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!

Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

See all of today’s starting lineups

# MLB Starting Lineups For Sun 8/3
ARI | ATH | BAL | BOS | CHC | CHW | CLE | COL | DET | HOU | KC | LAA | LAD | MIA | MIL | MIN | NYM | NYY | PHI | PIT | SD | SEA | SF | STL | TB | TEX | TOR | WSH | ATL | CIN | OAK

For those not infected by the baseball stat virus, I imagine it is hard to determine what is a bigger waste of time – people spending countless hours obsessing over fantasy baseball versus those that pore through historical baseball statistics and debate things like Hall of Fame worthiness.  It must be like a nutritionist determining the relative unhealthiness of fried foods vs. processed snacks.

With that, I give you the fried Oreo that is the Historical Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.

Some quick basics:

  • It includes every hitter and pitcher season since 1903.
  • Based on 12-team MLB (C/1B/2B/SS/3B/5 OF/CI/MI/UTIL/9 P) with a $260 budget and 5×5 categories (R/HR/RBI/SB/AVG, W/SV/ERA/WHIP/K)
  • All players are given a total $ value as well as a $ value per category (we will likely change all player raters to this going forward vs. showing Point Shares)
  • Please check out the extensive FAQ document for any methodological questions (and post there with similar questions).

Below are the various reports you can pore through.  Our data table allows for some cool filtering/sorting that will be familiar to anyone who uses our tools such as Player RaterStream-o-nator, or Hitter-tron.  There are quick instructions at the top of the table and more in-depth instructions below the report grid.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

The below serves as a Frequently Asked Questions section for Razzball’s Historical Fantasy Baseball Player Rater.  See here for a less comprehensive introduction.  If you have a question not answered below, please post it in the comments.

1.  General Info
2.  Methodology
3.  Use of The Data

General Info

What is the Historical Fantasy Baseball Player Rater?
A trivial exercise to determine the fantasy baseball dollar value for every player season since 1903.

Please, blog, may I have some more?

SAGNOF refers to “saves/steals ain’t got no face”. In other words, they can come from unlikely sources throughout the season and us fantasy baseball folk shouldn’t sell the farm for them on draft day. Let me tell you, 2013 was no exception. When I received my series assignment from Grey earlier this year, I was excited to explore steals as a topic for my column, if only because I knew it would help a lot of people out there do better in the category. I also couldn’t recall many other fantasy sites hitting steals as a primary topic week-in and week out, so hats off to Razzball for being ahead of the game yet again.

It was fascinating to follow along as players rose and fell in value based on steals alone, and even more fascinating to watch match-ups against certain teams yield steals in bunches. This offseason, I’ll be posting every other week and sticking with the stolen base as my focus. We’ll start by taking a look back, but then we’ll shift our gaze forward to 2014 and see if we can get a leg up on the competition prior to our drafts next spring. Let’s get started with a look at the big picture when it comes to steals over the last five years…

Please, blog, may I have some more?

We’re gonna try something different today. We’re not going to talk about a lot of extraneous shizz. We’re gonna talk about Yordano Ventura. We’re not going to talk about Ruben Studdard on The Biggest Loser and how his rolls have rolls while wishing he had a Rolls. We’re not going to talk about the newest season of The Voice and how Christina’s coaching style is to sing the songs better than the singtestants, how Blake and C. Lo can’t sing worth a lick and how Adam just purses his lips like Zoolander. We’re not going to talk about the new Drake album and how I’ve listened to it on repeat for the last three weeks. The Language is my jammie jam! No, we’re not going to talk about any of that. We’re especially not gonna talk about how I’m getting married tomorrow. HOLY EFFIN EFF ARE WE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT THAT! Can we never talk about that? Is it too late to run off to Miami and be with Giancarlo forever and ever amen? We’re not gonna talk about any of that. We’re going to talk about Yordano Ventura or YoVe, which sounds like a black Jew kvetching. “Do you have to throw the no-look pass so hard? YoVe!” Did you know Sammy Davis Jr.’s favorite expression was YoVe? Of course, you didn’t know that because I just made it up. So, with all of that said about Yordano Ventura, what can we expect from him for 2014 fantasy baseball?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Organizational Talent Rankings via Baseball America
2013 (27) | 2012 (22) | 2011 (25) | 2010 (27) | 2009 (28)

2012 Affiliate Records
MLB: [93-69] AL Central
AAA: [61-83] International League – Toledo
AA: [76-66] Eastern League – Erie
A+: [64-68] Florida State League – Lakeland
A: [69-70] Midwest League – West Michigan
A(ss):  [33-42] New York-Penn League — Connecticut

Arizona Fall League PlayersMesa Solar Sox
Tommy Collier (RHP); Kenny Faulk (LHP); Blaine Hardy (LHP); Corey Knebel (RHP); Dixon Machado (SS); Devon Travis (2B); Tyler Collins (OF)

Graduated Prospects
Jose Iglesias (SS); Darin Downs (LHP); Bruce Rondon (RHP)

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Many of you (none of you) have been asking me the same question, day after day (no one’s asked me), when are you going to mustache model? The 2nd most asked question (that no one is asking) is when are we going to get another Donkey. We’ve had Adam Dunn, the Big Donkey. Mark Reynolds, the Mini Donkey. Ian Stewart, the Mini Mini Donkey. Donkeys can hit 35 homers, give a handful of steals and hit .240 while being at a corner infield position. (Dunn’s speed was when he was younger; he once stole 19 bases, and Stewart’s power was when it seemed like he could hit in the major leagues). It’s Donkey season and there’s a new Donkey. Miguel Sano is Donkey Jr. The Donkey Jr. show is near, and you don’t have to turn away in disgust from this donkey show hoping you get no unwanted fluids on your shirt. In fact, you may want to take part in it without feeling like you need to change your name and leave a note to your family for the disgusting display you took part in. So, what can we expect of Miguel Sano for 2014 fantasy baseball?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Jonathan Singleton was suspended for 50 games this past year for smoking marijuana. Singleton wasn’t even tested until he kept forgetting the pitch count and called time out to grab some nachos. After his suspension, Singleton said, “I made an error in judgement. I should’ve cleansed by downing a 3-liter jug of cranberry juice rather than Nature’s Way Detox Tea. Damn you, Tommy Chong, for endorsing that!” Any self-respecting marijuana smoker will tell you that players aren’t suspended for DUIs but marijuana gets them… Then they trail off and their argument becomes less coherent and they’ll ask if they can borrow your Snuggie so they can take a nap. When Singleton returned from his suspension, he didn’t exactly hotbox the stadium with his power. This past year he hit six homers and .220 in 73 games (294 PAs) in Triple-A. Yay/sounds awesome/sarcasm. To get all third person on you, why is Grey even talking about him and what can we expect from Jonathon Singleton for 2014 fantasy baseball?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Taijuan Walker wasn’t shooting straight butter like a freebasing Amish person when he was called up to the majors this year. Doesn’t really matter either. He only had 15 innings in the majors and those fifteen innings mean bupkis. It was nice to see him keep his ERA at 3.60, but it could’ve been 7+ and it wouldn’t have mattered. Too small of a sample size. It’s like the first date where you drop $200 bucks on a some schmancy place and actually give the waiter a 20% tip. You’re gonna score there, but how well are things gonna go when you haven’t showered in two days and you’re wearing bronzer to cover up your cold sore? That’s what separates the men from the boys. That and the ability to a rent a car. What Taijuan’s taste of the majors (which is better than the Taste of Poughkeepsie) did show us is he’ll be shortlisted for the Opening Day rotation. That’s good. So what can we expect of Taijuan Walker for 2014 fantasy baseball?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

“All right, guys, we have a lot to play for this year. First and foremost, Barbara Bush will be attending our July 19th game. That’ll be fun. Second and secondmost, we have the American Idol winner throwing out the ball for a game in August. Thank God, Taylor Hicks can’t win twice. Third and thirdmost, we should be within five games of first place by the fifth game of the season.” That’s the Astros GM in March. In other words, why shouldn’t they start George Springer out of Spring Training? I guess because they’re cheap. But cheap is a reason to reuse paper towels, not to keep down one of your best prospects when your team is terrible. It will be appalling if the Astros don’t give Springer a job. If you don’t know who George Springer is, then you’ve been living in a cave so put on some sunglasses and read on. Anyway, what can we expect of George Springer for 2014 fantasy baseball?

Please, blog, may I have some more?

Organizational Talent Rankings via Baseball America
2013 (28) | 2012 (21) | 2011 (24) | 2010 (29) | 2009 (8)

2012 Affiliate Records
MLB: [76-86] NL West
AAA: [68-75] Pacific Coast League – Fresno
AA: [70-72] Eastern League – Richmond
A+: [83-57] California League – San Jose
A: [82-55] South Atlantic League – Augusta
A(ss): [47-29] Northwest League — Salem-Keiser

Arizona Fall League PlayersScottsdale Scorpions
Kyle Crick (RHP); Cody Hall (RHP); Derek Law (RHP); Alberto Mejia (LHP); Andrew Susac (C); Angel Villalona (1B); Jarrett Parker (OF)

Graduated Prospect
Jean Machi (RHP)

The Run Down
When considering the San Francisco farm system from a fantasy perspective, one must always keep in mind the ballpark in which these prospects will eventually spend their days playing. In most places you look, AT&T Park grades out as the most pitcher-friendly venue in the game. That means that if you’re building your dynasty roster, it’s never a bad idea to take some chances with Giants pitching prospects. Conversely, it’s extremely risky to take on any of their offensive prospects (not that there are any). Overall, this is a rather thin system, featuring high-impact potential only in Kyle Crick and Clayton Blackburn. Crick, in particular, is quite awesome.

Please, blog, may I have some more?