To some in the fantasy community, rankings are a dirty concept. Some people don’t like tiers so much, either. I don’t know, but I think you need some rough sketch of how you feel about a player pool. Just understand this is a sketch, in pencil. And I’m always going to be ready to pivot in the middle of a draft or auction — and later drafts and auctions this spring will help me determine just how I feel about the player pool.

The prices are unscientific, and meant to illustrate how I feel about the pockets of value and the differences between players. Players at the same price are considered even. I might tweak this list within the first day or so of publishing. Assuming a 5×5 scoring format, as usual.

[Positional Rankings: Top 300 Overall | C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | P ]

I welcome your intelligent and respectful disagreement. It’s a game of opinions. And if I missed a corner-eligible asset who is draft-worthy, let me know that, too. Yahoo has the easiest positional tags earned, which I view as a feature, not a bug.

The elite options

$43 Nolan Arenado
$41 Jose Ramirez
$40 Paul Goldschmidt
$40 Freddie Freeman
$38 Alex Bregman
$38 Javier Baez
$37 Manny Machado
$36 Kris Bryant

My favorite first-round slot is the latest I can get Arenado, one of the highest floor guys you can get. Sure, you’ll have to find your speed elsewhere, but that’s not a concern of mine, at least not one pick in. He’s an overlord in four categories and his park insulates him. He’s in a good age pocket. And it’s entirely possible we haven’t seen his best season yet . . .

The second-half slump from Ramirez concerns me a little, and the ghost town offense Cleveland has built concerns me a lot. It’s not that I’m trashing the guy, but I won’t consider him in the top 4-5 and that means I’m unlikely to own him . . .

Freeman consistently is around the top of the hard-hit leaderboard, and his strike-zone judgment is exquisite — he’s on the Votto level . . .

Bryant’s down year was an excused absence — he wasn’t healthy. Now he’s into an age-27 season and occasionally sliding into the third round. Yes, please . . .

At this price, you can see I’m not concerned about Bregman’s elbow scope. I was thrilled to get him at Pick 24 in the Mixed LABR Draft, albeit I would have opted for Trevor Story if he lasted one more pick.

Solid building blocks

$32 Whit Merrifield
$30 Anthony Rizzo
$30 Anthony Rendon
$26 Rhys Hoskins
$26 Cody Bellinger
$25 Eugenio Suarez
$25 Joey Votto
$25 Matt Carpenter
$24 Jose Abreu
$22 Daniel Murphy
$21 Vlad Guerrero Jr.
$20 Miguel Andujar
$20 Josh Donaldson

Merrifield had a good laugh at the Regression Police, blowing away his surprise 2017 season. The Royals have a DGAF approach on the bases, but Merrifield is such a good baserunner, he’s validated to run aggressively . . .

Abreu’s upside is probably out the window but he’s still a floor guy for me — a perfect target around Pick 55-60 . . .

Murphy doesn’t have an ideal position but the Rockies can live with this. If he returns to his 2016 form and gets the Colorado float added to it, we’re talking about a league-swinging pick. He was a fairly durable player before 2018 . . .

I’m generally allergic to buzz and that means no Baby Vlad for me. I don’t like buying a player near the top of his range, especially when he has no MLB experience to speak of.

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Veterans worth consideration

$19 Max Muncy
$18 Robinson Cano
$17 Justin Turner
$17 Wil Myers
$17 Ian Desmond
$16 Matt Chapman
$16 Jesus Aguilar
$14 Joey Gallo
$13 Edwin Encarnacion
$12 Travis Shaw
$12 Mike Moustakas

Myers is a better fantasy player than a real-life one, so long as he keeps running. He had a 131 OPS+ in his Rookie of the Year season, and hasn’t been close to it since . . .

The Brewers have a bunch of logical regression candidates, with Aguilar near the top of the list. He ran out of answers in the second half last year (.245/.324/.436), dropping 235 OPS points . . .

Searching for value

$11 Matt Olson
$11 Ryan Braun
$11 Rafael Devers
$11 Miguel Cabrera
$11 Eric Hosmer
$11 Luke Voit
$11 Miguel Sano
$10 Jurickson Profar
$10 Carlos Santana
$10 Josh Bell
$9 Jake Lamb
$8 Eduardo Escobar
$8 Jake Bauers
$7 Kike Hernandez
$7 Jose Martinez
$7 Justin Smoak
$7 Trey Mancini
$7 Tyler White
$7 Brandon Belt
$7 Justin Bour

Braun’s health profile kicks him down $3-5 bucks; he’s still a useful bet . . .

After a favorable home-run profile in 2017, Bell had an unlucky one last year. A perfect post-hype and unsexy player to target for your middle infield slot . . .

Hosmer takes a lot of shots for the heavy contract, but you don’t have to pay him. It’s not that he’s a destination player for us, you can just take him after your entire room pans him, which is possible, perhaps even likely.

Upside at an affordable price

$6 Yuli Gurriel
$6 Brian Anderson
$6 Yonder Alonso
$5 Jed Lowrie
$5 Marwin Gonzalez
$5 C.J. Cron
$5 Maikel Franco
$5 Evan Longoria
$4 Nick Senzel
$4 Adam Duvall
$4 Kyle Seager
$4 Zack Cozart
$4 Johan Camargo
$4 Jeimer Candelario
$4 Asdrubal Cabrera
$4 Mitch Moreland
$4 Ryan Zimmerman
$4 Steve Pearce

If the Reds commit to Senzel having a job, I’ll at least double his price . . .

Camargo isn’t a regular yet, but almost any field injury to the Braves would push him back over 500 at-bats . . .

Cabrera carries a bunch of positions and he landed in Texas, so he might shock the world again.

Running down the rest

$3 Isiah Kiner-Falefa
$3 Ryan O’Hearn
$3 Eric Thames
$3 Eduardo Nunez
$3 Ryan McMahon
$3 Albert Pujols
$3 Jay Bruce
$3 Ian Happ
$2 Hernan Perez
$2 Ryon Healy
$2 Matt Duffy
$2 Greg Bird
$2 Todd Frazier
$2 Matt Adams
$2 Jedd Gyorko
$2 Logan Morrison
$1 Wilmer Flores
$1 Colin Moran
$1 Jung Ho Kang
$1 Yangervis Solarte
$1 Ji-Man Choi
$1 Derek Dietrich
$1 Tyler Austin
$1 Matt Davidson
$1 Cory Spangenberg
$1 David Freese
$1 Mark Canha
$1 Dan Vogelbach
$1 A.J. Reed
$1 Pablo Sandoval
$1 Scott Kingery
$1 Niko Goodrum

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