Fantasy Baseball 2008

Oh yeah, it's that time of the year. Of all fantasy sports, baseball is without a doubt the best. I have had a mostly straightforward formula I have used over the years to rank players. This year's results top 30 (I did top 30 so I could squeeze in Tim Lincecum):

1. Johan Santana 9.997069335


2. Chase Utley 9.395566713


3. Matt Holliday 9.28777674


4. Alex Rodriguez 8.06973671


5. Albert Pujols 7.362279704


6. Jake Peavy 6.687233845


7. Vladimir Guerrero 5.979646533


8. Victor Martinez 5.724916421


9. David Ortiz 5.661505849


10. Ryan Howard 5.650694866


11. Alfonso Soriano 5.226027058


12. Carlos Lee 5.114022165


13. Jonathan Papelbon 5.06406981


14. Grady Sizemore 5.012756748


15. Lance Berkman 4.721401161


16. Hanley Ramirez 4.707462255


17. Miguel Cabrera 4.202140221


18. Jimmy Rollins 4.069476267


19. J.J. Putz 4.013553495


20. David Wright 4.007944434


21. Joe Nathan 3.984203692


22. Adam Dunn 3.907455051


23. Mariano Rivera 3.793661698


24. Prince Fielder 3.7901273


25. C.C. Sabathia 3.749804343


26. Russell Martin 3.703008847


27. Carlos Beltran 3.629816436


28. Ryan Braun 3.556328479


29. Tim Lincecum 3.377436453


30. Robinson Cano 3.376123846

The big weakness is always my source of projections. I prefer to be somewhat random about this. Sometimes I tweak based on personal bias. This year I did not. The numbers don't mean too much, unless you are in an auction league. In that case, a rating of 0 corresponds to the average price of a starting (non-bench) player. An increase of 1 point corresponds roughly to a 40% premium. So if rating(Player x) - rating(Player y) = 1.0, then $(Player X)/$(Player Y) = 1.4.