Part of my draft preparations involves comparing my rankings with the big box sites like ESPN and Yahoo!. Many fantasy players don’t expand their research beyond some of those big box rankings and as a result will only draft off of those cheat sheets. This is where you as an owner can gain an edge. In this article, I will compare ESPN’s site rankings with my rankings. If you want to see my complete rankings, just CLICK HERE! I just updated my Top 300 and positional rankings for the final time. Later this week, I’ll do the same with Yahoo’s rankings.



PLAYERS I’M HIGHER ON FOR 2019 – DRAFT AWAY!

FreezStats vs ESPN Rankings - Player I Like More

Player Team Positions FreezeStats Ranking ESPN Ranking Overall Difference Trea Turner WSH SS 6 10 4 Ronald Acuna ATL LF,CF 10 18 8 Aaron Judge NYY RF,DH 16 21 5 Freddie Freeman ATL 1B 14 22 8 Trevor Story COL SS 18 27 9 Andrew Benintendi BOS LF,CF 23 35 12 Anthony Rendon WSH 3B 27 38 11 Carlos Carrasco CLE SP 36 40 4 Xander Bogaerts BOS SS 25 43 18 Eugenio Suarez CIN 3B 45 60 15 Tommy Pham TB LF,CF 40 71 31 Jose Abreu CWS 1B,DH 49 75 26 Michael Conforto NYM LF,CF,RF 59 79 20 Robinson Cano NYM 2B 70 91 21 Joey Gallo TEX 1B,LF,CF,RF 71 97 26 Aaron Hicks NYY CF 74 99 25 Andrew McCutchen PHI LF,RF 88 100 12 Travis Shaw MIL 1B,3B,2B 78 105 27 Adalberto Mondesi KC 2B,SS 51 114 63 German Marquez COL SP 84 119 35 Matt Olson OAK 1B 62 122 60 Stephen Piscotty OAK RF 109 132 23 Max Muncy LAD 1B,2B,3B 87 147 60 Eloy Jimenez CWS LF,RF 107 149 42 Nomar Mazara TEX RF 116 153 37 Shane Bieber CLE SP 154 167 13 Andrew Heaney LAA SP 140 169 29 Kenta Maeda LAD SP 161 190 29 Jackie Bradley Jr. BOS CF,RF 149 193 44 Ketel Marte ARI 2B,SS 175 214 39 Ross Stripling LAD SP,RP 159 217 58 Tyler Skaggs LAA SP 174 218 44 Hyun-Jin Ryu LAD SP 197 228 31 Joe Musgrove PIT SP 147 231 84 Adam Frazier PIT 2B,LF,RF 185 233 48 Danny Jansen TOR C 212 240 28 Ramon Laureano OAK RF 155 250 95 Domingo Santana SEA RF 167 282 115 Garrett Hampson COL 2B,SS 167 294 127 Anibal Sanchez WSH SP 190 318 128 Forrest Whitley HOU SP 213 319 106 Jesus Luzardo OAK SP 201 322 121 Zach Eflin PHI SP,RP 239 328 89 Julio Urias LAD SP 271 330 59 Welington Castillo CWS C 263 336 73 Chris Paddack SD SP 304 414 110 Matt Strahm SD SP,RP 272 N/R - Steven Duggar SF CF,RF,DH 269 N/R -

I don’t need to go into my love for JBJ, I’ve gone on and on about him. I understand that we are only off by four picks with Trea Turner, but I’m not passing on Turner given his 60 stolen base upside. He showed his power hitting 19 homers last year and was unlucky with BABIP. His walk rate is improving and his contact rate and speed tell me he’s more of a .280-.290 hitter. I think ESPN is underselling Andrew Benintendi, which is odd because Red Sox and Yankees are usually ranked higher. His power will come back and his all-around skill set is perfect for a top 25 pick. Why does ESPN hate Tommy Pham? I get that he’s not the most healthy player but even in 130 games, Pham provides value inside of the top 50. What is going on with Adalberto Mondesi? I’m not even his biggest fan given his floor, but 114 overall? At that price, he could hit .220 with 10 homers and 25 steals and basically break even. Mondesi surpassed those numbers in half a season last year. I guess they believe he will struggle and be sent down to the minors at some point. Give me all the Max Muncy and Matt Olson in ESPN leagues. It seems like ESPN is devaluing power based on my analysis. Some other players with power I like more include Michael Conforto, Travis Shaw, and Domingo Santana. Then there’s Eloy Jimenez. ESPN has Vlad extremely high but a guy like Eloy who has more power at this point and great contact skills ranked near 150? I just don’t get it. Eloy could come up and hit .280 w/ 30 homers.

Over to pitching. ESPN is overvaluing pitching early. To some extent, I agree. I like to grab an ace and sometimes two top 15 pitchers in the first four rounds. However, ESPN has a ton of starting pitchers in the mid to late rounds that are ranked way too low. I can understand the German Marquez ranking because of Coors, but he’s a nice value and can be had as your number three or four SP in some cases. Some of my favorite pitcher values include Shane Beiber, Andrew Heaney, Ross Stripling, Kenta Maeda, and Joe Musgrove. These guys will most likely be on my teams in ESPN leagues. So will Chris Paddack and apparently they forgot about Matt Strahm, but I won’t. I’m a big fan of Zach Eflin and I have a feeling he might show up in my Bold Predictions.

PLAYERS I’M LOWER ON FOR 2019 – NO THANKS!

FreezeStats vs ESPN Rankings - Players I like Less

Player Team Positions FreezeStats ESPN Overall Difference Corey Kluber CLE SP 30 19 11 Juan Soto WSH LF 39 31 8 Noah Syndergaard NYM SP 47 37 10 Cody Bellinger LAD 1B,CF 48 39 9 Carlos Correa HOU SS 66 46 20 Ozzie Albies ATL 2B 81 48 33 Gleyber Torres NYY 2B,SS 85 53 32 Clayton Kershaw LAD SP 105 54 51 Matt Carpenter STL 1B,2B,3B 79 61 18 Eddie Rosario MIN LF 91 70 21 Corey Seager LAD SS 97 72 25 David Price BOS SP 110 82 28 Mike Foltynewicz ATL SP 118 92 26 Madison Bumgarner SF SP 148 93 55 A.J. Pollock LAD CF 113 94 19 Dee Gordon SEA 2B,CF 141 95 46 Michael Brantley HOU LF,DH 114 103 11 Willson Contreras CHC C 194 111 83 Buster Posey SF C,1B 192 117 75 Carlos Santana CLE 1B,3B 221 129 92 J.A. Happ NYY SP 186 133 53 Eric Hosmer SD 1B 178 136 42 Rick Porcello BOS SP 256 143 113 Dallas Keuchel SP 209 154 55 Billy Hamilton KC CF 239 161 78 Jon Lester CHC SP 234 168 66 Kyle Schwarber CHC LF 240 171 69 Jonathan Schoop MIN 2B 242 187 55 Odubel Herrera PHI CF 292 203 89 Miguel Sano MIN 1B,3B,DH 288 234 54 Julio Teheran ATL SP N/R 249 - Jonathan Lucroy LAA C N/R 281 - Tim Tebow NYM LF N/R 342 - Adam Wainwright STL SP N/R 361 - Kyler Murray OAK CF N/R 367 -

As I mentioned, ESPN is very high on the elite starting pitchers which is why Corey Kluber, Noah Syndergaard, and Clayton Kershaw show up here. With Carlos Correa, I’m starting to come around on a bit now that he looks healthy, but I still likely won’t end up with him this year. If you scrolled to the bottom, you probably noticed that Tim Tebow and Kylar Murray are both inside ESPN’s top 400. WHAT!?!? Talk about lazy. It’s almost like the ESPN is using college football analysts to complete their fantasy baseball rankings. Either that or they ranked their top 300 and one guy decided to go to 400 overall but only plays in 12-team leagues. Come on ESPN, you’re better than this! Eric Hosmer is still being ranked because of name value, I will almost never draft him. ESPN is still valuing the rabbits (or speed only guys) like Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton. I just can’t draft any player that high while they will hurt me in three to four categories.

I suppose I should touch on Ozzie Albies. I was extremely high on Albies last year expecting a power/speed breakout. He showed more power but less speed than I expected but overall, my ranking was solid. The metrics don’t support 25 homer power for Albies, if he can’t take a step forward in speed and struggles to take walks, he could be dropped in the lineup. I am seeing more of a 20 homer, 16-steal season without great counting stats. That’s good but not top 50. Wow, do I hate old boring veteran pitchers without strikeout upside. Im not surprised that ESPN likes them, again the name value slides them up rankings. Enter Rick Porcello, Jon Lester, and Dallas Keuchel. These guys are over-the-hill and their past success is boosting their draft price. I won’t be owning any of them this year (or probably any year going forward).

Thanks for checking out these ranking comparisons. Make sure you refer back to this article when you draft in your ESPN league this weekend.

Follow me @FreezeStats. Check out my work at FantasyPros and Pitcher List.