Friday, December 31, 2010
Dynasty ranking: Top 25 players age 25 or younger-
Posted by Josh Shepardson at 5:17amIn the ever expanding world of fantasy baseball, one thing seems to permeate all levels of managerial experience, and that is an insatiable desire to read player rankings. For some novice owners, a writer's rankings can serve as a guideline of who to target in drafts or trades. For more skilled owners, rankings may serve as an opportunity to debate with the writer and readers as to the merits of a player they feel is under- or over-valued. Finally, for the snarky, rankings serve as an opportunity to denounce the writers' baseball acumen and poke fun at their inability to put together the perfect set of rankings (which undoubtedly they themselves could do).
Regardless of level of skill, or snark, rankings hold value and interest for seemingly all fantasy baseball managers.
With that in mind, Jeffrey Gross and Paul Singman and I set out to put together our own top 25 rankings of players age 25 or under as of Jan. 1, 2010 (i.e. anyone born in 1985 or later). The league scoring we used as a guideline was a 5x5 roto league that includes two catchers, one corner infielder, one middle infielder, one utility player, five outfielders, nine pitchers of any type (with a 1,250 innings pitched cap) and the other standard positions. No other guidelines or parameters were set.
Each writer put together His list; as expected, the lists varied substantially. As an avid yearly reader, and fan, of The Baseball America Prospect Handbook, I thought it would be fun to post each writer's top 25 list as opposed to a composite list. The idea is that each writer, like each scout in The Baseball America Prospect Handbook, would be held accountable for his list. In the coming days we'll each address our rationale behind our rankings as well as defend our three most questionable or outrageous rankings.
We welcome, actually we encourage, questions and comments about our rankings either below in the comments section, or by e-mail.
My e-mail: JoshShep50 AT Yahoo DOT com+----+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ | Rk | Josh Shepardson | Jeffrey Gross | Paul Singman | +----+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+ | 1 | Jason Heyward | Evan Longoria | Evan Longoria | | 2 | Evan Longoria | Felix Hernandez | Carlos Gonzalez | | 3 | Carlos Gonzalez | Stephen Strasburg | Jason Heyward | | 4 | Felix Hernandez | Carlos Gonzalez | Justin Upton | | 5 | Jay Bruce | Mat Latos | Felix Hernandez | | 6 | Justin Upton | Justin Upton | Mike Stanton | | 7 | Carlos Santana | Jason Heyward | Jay Bruce | | 8 | Buster Posey | Jay Bruce | Andrew McCutchen | | 9 | Mike Stanton | Carlos Santana | Carlos Santana | | 10 | Mat Latos | Domonic Brown | Stephen Strasburg | | 11 | Clayton Kershaw | Andrew McCutchen | Mat Latos | | 12 | Andrew McCutchen | Desmond Jennings | Buster Posey | | 13 | Pedro Alvarez | Jeremy Hellickson | Clayton Kershaw | | 14 | Madison Bumgarner | Clayton Kershaw | Tommy Hanson | | 15 | Yovani Gallardo | Mike Stanton | Pablo Sandoval | | 16 | Brett Anderson | Buster Posey | Yovani Gallardo | | 17 | Tommy Hanson | Yovani Gallardo | Jeremy Hellickson | | 18 | David Price | David Price | Domonic Brown | | 19 | Desmond Jennings | Colby Rasmus | Pedro Alvarez | | 20 | Jesus Montero | Gordon Beckham | Brett Anderson | | 21 | Domonic Brown | Billy Butler | Desmond Jennings | | 22 | Colby Rasmus | Jesus Montero | David Price | | 23 | Matt Wieters | Brett Anderson | Mike Trout | | 24 | Pablo Sandoval | Madison Bumgarner | Jesus Montero | | 25 | Stephen Strasburg | Pedro Alverez | Madison Bumgarner | +----+-------------------+-------------------+-------------------+
Jeffrey's: gameofinchesblog AT gmail DOT com
Paul's: cowchow4you AT gmail DOT com
Feel free to reach me at my e-mail, JoshShep50 AT Yahoo DOT com with any questions, feedback, or any other general inquiries.
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Interesting to see each of you rated Santana higher than Posey. Sandoval on two ballots. Jay Bruce is still very young and rated very high.