Earlier this week I covered players I was higher/lower on compared to ESPN rankings. Today, I’m looking into Yahoo! rankings and comparing where we differ. After reviewing both sets of rankings, I think Yahoo! is a little bit more accurate with their rankings compared to ESPN. I’ll be highlighting a few players on each end of the spectrum to help you prepare and find values in your draft this weekend. First, let’s start with players I’m higher on and the guys I’m targeting in Yahoo! leagues.



FreezeStats vs Yahoo! Rankings - Players I'm Higher On Player FreezeStats Rank Yahoo Rank Difference Jose Ramirez, CLE 3 10 7 Francisco Lindor, CLE 12 21 9 Manny Machado, SD 13 23 10 Xander Bogaerts, BOS 26 39 13 Trevor Bauer, CLE 25 46 21 Patrick Corbin, WSH 48 61 13 Marcell Ozuna, STL 40 64 24 Adalberto Mondesi, KC 51 65 14 Justin Upton, LAA 59 74 15 Matt Olson, OAK 63 91 28 Luis Severino, NYY 52 96 44 Michael Conforto, NYM 58 97 39 Joey Gallo, TEX 71 98 27 Matt Chapman, OAK 89 103 14 Robinson Cano, NYM 70 111 41 Aaron Hicks, NYY 82 112 30 Max Muncy, LAD 87 119 32 Eloy Jimenez, CWS 105 120 15 Craig Kimbrel, 62 121 59 German Marquez, COL 84 129 45 Stephen Piscotty, OAK 109 136 27 Travis Shaw, MIL 77 140 63 Yadier Molina, STL 135 161 26 Nick Pivetta, PHI 136 162 26 Ryan Braun, MIL 120 170 50 Kenta Maeda, LAD 160 182 22 Max Kepler, MIN 150 188 38 Domingo Santana, SEA 166 203 37 Jackie Bradley Jr, BOS 149 204 55 Hunter Renfroe, SD 161 209 48 Jesse Winker, CIN 168 214 46 Ramon Laureano, OAK 154 217 63 Shohei Ohtani, LAA 139 232 93 Tyler Skaggs, LAA 174 239 65 Joe Musgrove, PIT 147 250 103 Ketel Marte, ARI 175 274 99 Trey Mancini, BAL 190 283 93 Danny Jansen, TOR 204 284 80 Jimmy Nelson, MIL 191 291 100 Anibal Sanchez, WAS 201 N/R -

This is the second straight year Yahoo has disrespected Jose Ramirez. He was WAY down in the 60s last year believe it or not. I guess a jump to 10th overall is an improvement. There’s a lot of talk about his second half because he hit .218 on a .208 BABIP. I’m sorry, but that BABIP won’t happen again. He might not reach .300 but a .275-.280 BABIP makes a lot more sense. Besides, even with the poor BABIP his full season pace using his second-half numbers comes out to 25 homers, 35 steals, 104 runs, and 88 RBI! You know I love Trevor Bauer, no surprise there, but Yahoo doesn’t seem to like Patrick Corbin either, gimme that slider! Marcell Ozuna and Justin Upton are guys who are slipping in rankings but shouldn’t be. They have not shown any signs of decline in their profiles, I’ll take both as my number two OF but could finish borderline top 12. Maybe Yahoo is devaluing power a little bit with their rankings of Matt Olson, Michael Conforto, and Joey Gallo. Did they know that power was down across the board last year? Kimbrel is low because he doesn’t have a job, so I’ll gladly grab him at his ranking.

I will gladly take 220 strikeouts from German Marquez at pick 129 overall. Thank you! Looks like I’m waiting until Ryan Braun through Ramon Laureano to grab my third outfielder. There’s a ton of talent there with power and/or speed there. I have another question. Why does Yahoo! hate players with multi-position eligibility who hit cleanup for one of the best lineups in the league and have back-to-back 30 homer seasons? Hi Travis Shaw. If you think I hate catchers, just look at Yadier Molina and Danny Jansen. Looks like those guys are my catchers in Yahoo leagues!



FreezeStats vs Yahoo! Rankings - Players I'm Lower On

Player FreezeStats Rank Yahoo Rank Difference Nolan Arenado, COL 9 3 6 Javier Baez, CHC 24 17 7 Corey Kluber, CLE 32 25 7 Juan Soto, WSH 39 27 12 Starling Marte, PIT 39 30 9 Carlos Correa, HOU 57 35 22 Vladimir Guerrero Jr, TOR 67 49 18 Jack Flaherty, STL 100 51 49 Corey Seager, LAD 97 54 43 Jameson Taillon, PIT 86 55 31 Jose Berrios, MIN 98 63 35 Gleyber Torres, NYY 85 68 17 Eddie Rosario, MIN 91 69 22 Matt Carpenter, STL 79 70 9 Jonathan Villar, BAL 95 78 17 Josh Donaldson, ATL 124 79 45 David Price, BOS 106 87 19 AJ Pollock, LAD 107 95 12 Dee Gordon, SEA 141 106 35 Tim Anderson, CWS 177 109 68 Cesar Hernandez, PHI 184 132 52 Kyle Schwarber, CHC 231 138 93 Miguel Cabrera, DET 245 143 102 Willson Contreras, CHC 188 144 44 Billy Hamilton, KC 239 148 91 Eric Hosmer, SD 179 149 30 Dallas Keuchel, 208 152 56 Buster Posey, SF 182 155 27 Rick Porcello, BOS 255 163 92 Jonathan Schoop, MIN 243 165 78 Byron Buxton, MIN 254 176 78 Jake Arrieta, PHI 246 183 63 Odubel Herrera, PHI 293 187 106 Gregory Polanco, PIT 260 194 66 Jon Gray, COL 295 197 98 Kyle Seager, SEA 267 202 65 Alex Colome, CWS 325 222 103 Arodys Vizcaino, ATL 308 225 83 Miguel Sano, MIN 289 238 51 Brandon Morrow, CHC 340 240 100 Chris Paddack, SD 305 247 58 Julio Teheran, ATL 341 277 64

Oh my goodness Juan Soto! Yahoo! is extremely high on Soto expecting him to finish inside the top 30 overall. For reference, last season on the Razzball Player Rater, Paul Goldschmidt finished as the 28th player overall. Goldy hit .290 with 33 homers, 7 steals, and over 170 combined runs + RBI. Do we really expect Soto to pull that off this year? I’m out on Soto (for this year at least). So Jack Flaherty is an ace now? There are way too many question marks with Flaherty and quite a bit of regression in his numbers. He managed a .257 BABIP with a 9.6% walk rate, 79.3% strand rate, and a 1.19 HR/9. His zone rate was only 41.8% nearly four percent below league average and he didn’t induce swings outside the zone at an above-average rate. I don’t see a decrease in his walk rate and once the BABIP and strand rate stabilize, those home runs are going to hurt a lot more. Other 2nd & 3rd tier pitchers like Jameson Taillon and Jose Berrios are also being inflated in Yahoo’s rankings, I’ll be passing there as well. I’d much rather have Trevor Bauer and Patrick Corbin in the 4th and 6th rounds and basically have two aces.

Josh Donaldson and Miguel Cabrera are two old/broken veterans that I will be avoiding in my drafts. I think they both still have some of their skills intact but I just can’t trust them to stay healthy at all. Cesar Hernandez is a guy I really like but with the additions of Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen, he’s likely relegated to the bottom of the lineup where his counting stats will take a big hit. Tim Anderson is simply too high. He will be at the bottom of a not so great White Sox lineup. He should provide solid power and speed, but I’d rather have Yoan Moncada at a cheaper price. I mentioned how I don’t like the rabbits the other day and again, I’m the low man on them.

I’m not buying back into Byron Buxton this year. Hitting ninth is not good, I don’t care if he has a ton of homers this spring. Why is Gregory Polanco ranked inside of the top 200 overall? He’s out at least through May and likely to be sluggish upon his return. I’m not paying top 200 for a player who might just give you three months of production. Yahoo! has clearly bought into the Chris Paddack hype but is he going to give more than 100 innings? I doubt it. I like him a ton and he’s shown his skills this spring but give me teammate Matt Strahm or Joe Musgrove instead.

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