Yahoo’s 2020 Fantasy Baseball Rankings Ranklings

[brid autoplay=”true” video=”512770″ player=”10951″ title=”Razzball 2020 Draft Kit Sleepers 012320″ duration=”161″ description=”” uploaddate=”2020-01-24 02:35:08″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/thumb/512770_t_1579833321.png” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/9233/sd/512770.mp4″”]

Will get out of the way upfront the compliments. Yahoo isn’t nearly as bad as ESPN this year. (Likely any year.) Here’s my critique of the ESPN 2020 fantasy baseball rankings. ESPN appears to be phoning it in and they haven’t paid their phone bill in six months and they’re in talks with a bankruptcy attorney to get an extension on their bill because, “What defunct are they talking about?” While I don’t agree with all of Yahoo’s 2020 fantasy baseball rankings, I can at least understand what they’re talking about most of the time. For unstints, they have Fernando Tatis Jr. ranked 11th overall vs. my 10th, and ESPN has him at 43rd overall. That especially feels like a joke, much like, “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “An Astros player stealing signs.” So, before this becomes a 360-degree jerk with my new best friends at Yahoo, who I’m guessing not-so-secretly despise me, here’s a totally impartial look at Yahoo’s 2020 fantasy baseball rankings vs. my own 2020 fantasy baseball rankings:

Last year the Yahoo gang — #Yahgang — had Adalberto Mondesi 69th overall, which is sexy, but not as sexy as my 20th overall, which, honestly, was too sexy for my own good. This year The Yahgang (adopting the moniker now) they have Mondesi at 42nd overall and I’m still crazy high at 20th overall. For what it’s Werth, Rudy’s auction rankings have him 33rd overall. Look at Rudy offering a hand of bridge to bring us together. (By the by, ESPN has Mondesi at 76 overall, which is just a total WUT.) So, who’s right:  me, Rudy or Yahoo (obviously not ESPN)? Might surprise some people to hear this, but Rudy or Yahoo are likely closer to solid value. I’m overpaying at 20. How’sever, I am overpaying for a reason. Taking me out of the equation, Rudy’s hitter projections have Mondesi down for 71/19/68/.253/46 in 569 ABs. That is conservative, but fair. I have Mondesi for a few more steals and average (less HRs), but it’s all the same diff. I just want Mondesi more. 50-ish steals in today’s market without killing you in any other category is extremely valuable. I’m willing to pay a premium for him — a premi-him? Hmm, let’s never talk of that portmanteau again. Maybe you can wait until 33rd or even 42nd overall, but I’m reaching for Mondesi earlier. I know I’m paying $1.25 on the dollar, but at least I’m admitting it, unlike people paying $1.25 on the dollar for guys like Walker Buehler in the top 20.

Good for The Yahgang being down, in a non-sexual way, on guys like Jose Altuve (33 vs. my 31); Alex Bregman (16 vs. my 16) and Vlad Jr. (53 vs. my 56), but why is everyone so down on Pete Alonso? Again, for sake of argument, let’s take Rudy’s projections:  102/43/104/.252/2 in 560 ABs. That’s pretty close to what I have, but I have him hitting .263. He hit .260 last year, if you were wondering. Last year he was 17th overall on the Player Rater. Obviously, I’m seeing less homers from him this year vs. last, so that would mean lower on the Player Rater. OR WOULD IT?! Damn, Mr. Reversal Question, you scared the crap out of me. Well, it could mean less homers for Alonso while he still leads the league in power if baseballs are not dripping with juice again. Will the balls be dry? I have no idea. But no one knows. All I know is Alonso can lead the league in power pretty easily with a neutral ball. Sorta like, I don’t know, let’s see, Aaron Judge, who Yahoo ranks 22nd overall. The only difference is Judge has hit 27 homers each the past two years. Why does Judge get a pass and Alonso doesn’t? I think I know, and I think I’ve said this before. If Judge hit 52 homers three years ago and 27 homers the past two years, but was a normal-sized man, he’d be ranked around 75th overall. Everyone just assumes Judge will hit 50+ homers if he plays 150 games. Well, I’m not sure why that’s the assumption or why people think he’s gonna stay healthy. Alonso has plenty of power in his bat to hit 50 homers again. Okay, before PETA shows up at my doorstep because I’m beating this dead horse, I’m moving on.

Bully on The Yahgang for being appropriately down on Paul Goldschmidt (73 vs. my 76) and Nicholas Castellanos (96 vs. my 91), while being appropriately excited for Brandon Woodruff (93 vs. my 102) and Dinelson Lamet (110 vs. my 103), but they are way too low on Jose Abreu (95 vs. my 45) and too high on Chris Sale (39 vs. my 74). Like Altuve trying to get cereal out of a cabinet, let’s go with the latter first. I’m going to disregard my philosophy of not drafting top starters, and just assume you want to draft an SP in the top 40 overall, and, for some godforsaken reason, Chris Sale is who you want. Chris Sale was an abomination last year. Are people forgetting this? He was unownable. Ask someone who owned him, if you don’t believe me. He ruined teams. Also, are people forgetting the huge storyline with him last year about how his velocity was way down? Well, it was and it never returned. He was actually shut down last year and opted to rest and rehab his elbow vs. surgery. There’s something that always works out well for starters! Yup, no surgery has 100% success rate. Ow, eye roll headache! If you must draft a top starter, and I don’t think you do, draft anyone but Chris Sale. He will kill your fantasy teams once again. Next up, Jose Abreu. I kid, I have nothing to say on Abreu. He’s boring. Our writer, Dan Richards did write 1200 words on his Jose Abreu 2020 fantasy. I concur with 100% of it. Abreu is boring, but he’s a good boring. No one can make a good faith argument why The Yahgang (or anyone) has Rizzo 30 picks before Abreu. There’s a better case to be made that Abreu is more consistent and valuable than Rizzo.

I’m going to list players in a handy chart like I did the other day with ESPN’s fantasy baseball rankings. The Thank You’s have it. It being good value from my rankings vs. Yahoo’s. The No Thank You’s don’t have it. They’re bad people. Meh, they might be okay people, but they’re likely not ending up on any of my Yahoo drafted teams. For this, I’ll be using my 2020 fantasy baseball rankings (go figure!) and Yahoo’s 2020 fantasy baseball rankings (crazy, right?).

THANK YOU

NO THANK YOU