It is about that time...you’re checking Grey’s daily updates, dreaming about your draft position, and in need of those last minute tips. As high-profile fantasy leagues like Tout Wars and broadcasts begin to infuse OBP an advanced way to look at player productivity, this is an effort to provide you with more data for your OBP drafts this year. First, a few notes to consider while reading...
If you've lived in an area with access to the major Turner Broadcasting networks at any point since 1997, you're probably familiar with the popular holiday movie
A Christmas Story. The plot of the film revolves around Ralphie's desire to obtain a BB gun (or more specifically a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle - but who can remember for sure) for Christmas that year. What nine-year-old boy wouldn't want a BB gun? I know I would've loved one. All I usually got were a bunch of socks and sweaters and other boring stuff that I couldn't care less about. What the hell, Mom?
But I digress. Just like Ralphie, we've all wanted that shiny, new BB gun at some point. Without those BBs, how would've young Ralphie fared against the likes of
Black Bart and his crew? This fantasy season, we want those BBs instead of Aunt Clara's homemade
gift of choice. That brings us to this week's exercise. Watch
A Christmas Story tonight and then post your review in the comments. Wait, that's not it, though feel free to discuss the movie if you're so inclined.
From being a consumer of Razzball for a few years, I’m sure many of you already are in or know of OBP or On-base percentage league(s). Chances are if you’re playing in an OBP league, you’re playing with some seasoned teams. The metric has eased into MLB broadcasts and has become an important measurements as to a players overall worth more so than batting average. However the player gets on first, whether he leaves the bat on his shoulder or gets plunked, the idea is, it’s just the same as a base knock. If you play in competitive leagues, I advocate changing from AVG to OBP, for me it increased my understanding of different players who didn’t always get the recognition but are valuable to their teams.
When looking at outfield and considering OBP, you want to consider “does this player make a living beating out bunts?” Speed players generally have lower OBP because they want the ball in play so they can run out a single. It does not translate to all players, but as you look at the rankings, you’ll see players like [player]Billy Hamilton[/player] or an [player]Anthony Gose[/player] can compromise your OBP category in a Rotisserie league or H2H. Yes, you’re not drafting Hamilton for his OBP (or AVG depending what league you play in), but just know, if he gets 550 + ABs, that will hold down your team ranking in that category for the year unless the makeup of your other players compensate.
Like the
2nd basemen to target, this is necessary. You want to take flyers on late middle infielders. I like a few top shortstops this year: Hanley, Desmond and Tulo, but if you don’t get them, don’t sweat it and definitely don’t ‘panic reach’ for another shortstop just because you feel like you need one. This is a (legal-in-all-countries-except-Lichtenstein) supplement to the
top 20 shortstops for 2015 fantasy baseball. The players listed have a draft rank after 200 on other sites. Click on the player’s name where applicable to read more and see their 2015 projections. Anyway, here’s some
shortstops to target for 2015 fantasy baseball:
Greetings Razzball nation, and welcome to another edition of The Numbers Game. Suffering through a long week at work? Looking for a break? Come along with me on a trip to a little town called Splitsville (disclaimer: not a real place). I guarantee you that we'll have a delightful time there (satisfaction not guaranteed). At the very least, I have a lukewarm inclination that this post will help to pass the time during your afternoon trip to the can (sure, why not). I'll take it!
Well, I thought I was extremely clever when I came up with the title for this one, but then a quick Google search proved that there were others that were clever before I thought I was being clever. Darn you Google for knowing so much! And darn you Al Gore for inventing the internet! Thanks to the internet, a guy can't get away with anything these days. Google, Facebook and Twitter have made it next to impossible for a guy to get a reach around in the back of the bowling alley from the girl that rents the shoes without everyone knowing, and every one of those people finding out about it. But I digress...
As draft dates draw nearer, I decided it was time to put together and share my head-to-head points league rankings. But before I do, I wanted to let you in on my process. Points leagues are all about one thing. Points. It's the only category that counts for jack squat. I wonder how many dudes out there actually have the name Jack Squat? I guess it's better than Richard Nose. I don't care if my player gets 100 points because he had 100 RBIs or because he stole 100 bases. Whatever he needs to do to bring home the bacon is A-O-K with me. In Japanese that would be "Aoki". I don't even care if it's turkey bacon! Points are points. So ranking players within the same position comes down to who will score more points. I'll touch on comparing players across positions in my next post.
In past years, I’ve said the following analogy. There’s years of looking up to your father, whether you agree all the time or not. Then, one day, he takes a poop on your couch. You take him to the hospital; he’s in need of some sort of psychology examination. If the tests come back conclusive that he pooped the couch simply out of laziness, then that’s ESPN. If tests come back that he’s gone crazy, then that's Yahoo. That's inaccurate this year. It still holds true for ESPN, but Yahoo seems like it's taking steps to correct past mistakes. They've lost The Noise from the composite rankings, and he's always said baseball wasn't his thing. (What is his thing...well...) Funston, Behrens, Del Don and Pianowski do a conscientious job with their rankings. No, I don't agree with all of them, I'll get to that. But they do take the time to actually rank, which I'm 99.9% sure can't be said of ESPN. Yahoo could easily phone-in their rankings like ESPN, but they don't. That is, indeed, a point for them. Yahoo still seems to be in love the stolen base and guys that can be labeled as 'hot, unproven bats.' They don't rank nearly deep enough and they have some of the funkiest position eligibility decisions, but these all seem to be coming from places of conscious decisions and not, "Tristan, could you rank for everyone today? I just saw Stephen A. Smith in the elevator and he asked me to Au Bon Pain for lunch. Thanks." That's a voicemail message that Cockcroft gets every day. Anyway, here's where my
2015 fantasy baseball rankings differ from the 2015 Yahoo fantasy baseball rankings:
The royal we already went over all the hitters for
2015 fantasy baseball rankings. That’s not the “royal we” as that term usually implies. It was me writing it alone while wearing a Burger King crown. I refuse to draft a top starter where they are usually drafted. Unlike hitters, you need six starters, depending on your league depth. Simple math tells us there’s plenty of starters to go around. Simple Math, “Stop putting words in my mouth!” In most leagues, there’s a ton of guys on waivers that can help you — all year. Not just in April, and then they disappear. With the help of the
Stream-o-Nator, you can get by with, say, three starters while streaming the rest. To read more about
streaming as a draft strategy. There’s also the fact that three stats by starters are difficult to predict due to luck. Wins, ERA and WHIP are prone to shift due to which way the ball bounces and whether or not the guys behind the pitchers can score runs. Finally, the best starters can give you four categories. The best hitters can give you five categories. As always, where I see tiers starting and stopping are included and my projections. Anyway, here’s the top 20 starters for 2015 fantasy baseball:
Today we go over the
top 80 outfielders for 2015 fantasy baseball, which comes after we went over the
top 60 outfielders for 2015 fantasy baseball, which came after the
top 40 outfielders for 2015 fantasy baseball which followed the
top 20 outfielders for 2015 fantasy baseball. Link dump! Tomorrow we hit the final 100 best outfielders, then on to the top 100 starters. It’s the best day of your life because I’m bestowing on you wonderful like your father never did. Don’t ask me to go see you play Little League though, that’s not happening. As always, my tiers and projections are noted and all of the
2015 fantasy baseball rankings are there. Where? There. Dur. Anyway, here's the top 80 outfielders for 2015 fantasy baseball:
This
top 20 1st basemen for 2015 fantasy baseball goes to about fiddy. Last year, I said the first base position is going through a transition. The position is still deep in that transition. We’ll come out of the other side this year with a good idea of where we stand. If Pujols continues to fall, if the washed up ones are completely done and if the up-and-comers are still on the move. Hey, that sounds like a commencement speech from a school for porn. Okay, let’s get into it because I can’t count to twenty and this list goes on forever. As always, for each player there’s my projections and where I see tiers starting and ending. There’s the
position eligibility chart for 2015 fantasy baseball, and all the
2015 fantasy baseball rankings are under that linkie-ma-whosie. Anyway, here’s the top 20 1st basemen for 2015 fantasy baseball:
On Dancer! On Prancer! On–Oh, I didn’t hear you come in. Welcome, reader! Grab some egg nog and brandy it up to the fire. You look festive. I love that Rudolph tongue ring, though not as much as I love your Facebook photo with Santa while wearing an "I Can't Breathe" t-shirt. That's the great thing about Christmas, no matter what your interpretation is, it's all about commercialism. That's unless you light the Munenori Kawasaki. The 2015 fantasy baseball rankings are not far away. Right now, January Grey is throwing darts at a board to figure out where to rank Rusney Castillo. Exciting! In the meantime, let’s look at the players who have multiple position eligibility for this upcoming 2015 fantasy baseball season. This took me far longer than it probably should’ve. Can’t someone write me a program that sorts all the players by games played at a position? Why do I need to go through every player on every roster? It totally harshes my buzz. I did this list of multi-position eligible players because I figured it would help for your 2015 fantasy baseball drafts. I’m a giver, snitches! Happy Holidays! I only listed players that have multiple position eligibility of ten games or more played outside of their primary position. Not FIVE games at a position, not six, definitely not seven. Ten games. 10, the Laurel & Hardy of numbers. So this should cover Yahoo, ESPN, CBS, et al (not the Israeli airline). Yes, Christmas came two days early this year. Players with multiple position eligibility are listed once alphabetically under their primary position. On a different post, I’ll make some comments about some of the players. In the mean’s while, you make comments in these comments. Say that fast 117 times! Anyway, here’s all the players with multiple position eligibility for the 2015 fantasy baseball season and the positions they are eligible at:
The Braves had the 5th best ERA last year in the major leagues. That's with a down year by Mike Minor, and injuries to Brandon Beachy and Kris Medlen. Their runs scored were second to last in the majors. Only the Padres' offense was worse. So, naturally, they trade away Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden for Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins, who had a sub-5 K/9 in High-A last year. Oh...*pounds out a chicken cutlet, fills it with spinach and ricotta cheese, rolls it up, ties it with twine, bakes it on 450 for 18-22 minutes, pulls it out and breathes in the aroma* ...kay. That's the Chicken Florentine pause. Practiced by many, only able to be pulled off by a few. I rarely pull out the Chicken Florentine pause, but trading a top hitting prospect that is only 25 years old, when your team is hurting for offense, is straight up baffling with a pickleback. Are the Braves trying to bring the entire organization down to Fredi's level of intelligence? Did Fredi tell management that they had too many top of the order hitters (they have none) and they needed another arm (they don't)? Are the Braves trying to get featured in the third sequel to Major League? I got questions, y'all! From a fantasy perspective, Heyward's value goes up simply because the Cardinals are a better offensive team. Like someone doing yoga, Heyward will now be surrounded by Matts, Carpenter and Holliday. What will Heyward produce? Go ask the Sphinx. One year he looks like a 30-homer hitter, another year he looks like a middle infielder with 20 steal speed. He could be anywhere from a 15-homer guy to a 30-homer guy. The 20 steals, now in two of five seasons, looks possible, until you see he has a year of only 2 steals. His .271 average last year is around his career average (.262), so that seems repeatable, until you see his .227 average in 2011. At some point, he could have a 30-homer, 20-steal top 20 fantasy season, but to say it's definitely coming is you lying to yourself. You already lie to yourself in other areas of your life, let's not start with Heyward too. For 2015, I'll give him the projections of 91/20/75/.274/15. Anyway, here's some more offseason moves for 2015 fantasy baseball:
