Posted By:Bretsky on April 14, 2022

After an invigorating come-from-behind win in the series opener the Phillies dropped two straight – their 10,690 and 10,691st games in history – to fall to 3-3 on the year. To make matters worse, the poor-smelling New York Metropolitans surged to 5-2 on the year and stand alone atop the NL East.

In this episode:

• Phils/Mets Recap
• Around the NL East
• Key Question – Is Jean OK?
• Up Next: Phillie-Marlins series ppreview
• Final Though: Let’s start winnings

Posted By:Bretsky on April 12, 2022

Phillies win! And what a comeback it was.. The evening started with some brutal defense and three errors in the first two innings put the Phils in what looked to be an insurmountable four-run hole. Alec Bohm looked to take a huge step back in the third base competition with several early misfires, nearly getting Rhys Hoskins crushed and costing the Phillies valuable outs.

Flip the script to inning eight and it would be an Alec Bohm walk who would come around to break the Phils drought on RBI groundout from Kyle Schwarber hustling up the line. J.T. Realmuto then blasted a 109 MPH two-run homer into the left field bleachers to bring the Phillies within one.

Mets reliever Seth Lugo entered the game to try and hang on for  New York with Edwin Diaz away from the team but issued a walk to Nick Castellanos followed by back to back doubles from Hoskins and Didi Gregorious to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead. A tidy ninth by Brad Hand pushed the Phils into first place in the NL East. Alec, for at least this one night, I was saying Boo-ohm!

In this episode

• Alec’s up and down night
• A save for Hand
• NL East Update
• New position for Bohm?
• Up Next: Wheeler’s season debut

Posted By:Bretsky on April 11, 2022

It started out with a SCHWARBOMB and ended with an opening weekend series win for the Philadelphia Phillies.

In this episode:

• Bullpen and Third Base Battle
• Around the NL East
• Key question – When will Bryce get it going?
• Welcome back Phillie Phanatic!

Posted By:Bretsky on April 8, 2022

Hey friends, it’s opening day for my  beloved Fightin’ Phialdelphia Phillies and we are going to take a quick break from fantasy to talk about a new podcast effort that I am super excited to bring to you — Phils in Five. As the Phillies embark on a their quest to make it back to the post season for the first time in a decade, I’m going to give you a inside look at what it like to root for a team that has LITERALLY lost more games than any single sporting franchise in the history of mankind.

The Phils actually went out and spent some cash this year so expectations are obviously and rationally very, very, very high for this team. Will they exceed all expectations? Is it safe to park in the Citizens Bank Park lot with all those baseball’s raining down?Will they break their own record for blown saves in a season? Will I run out of beer before the end of the weekend?

All those questions and maybe even some more will be answered on new episodes coming on a somewhat daily basis. Regular schedules are cool and all, but I live with a baby so you get what you get.

Anyway, here’s the first episode give it a listen and find it (eventually) wherever you get your podcasts!

Welcome to the Phils in Five Podcast – one fans take on the losingest franchise in the history of the world – our Fightin’ Philadelphia Phillies.

In today’s inaugural episode we’ll cover

• Offseason Recap
• Updates from Around the NL East
• Phillies new bullpen
• Alec Bohm vs. Bryson Stott
• A look at the Phillies starters for the opener
• Phillies win total

Posted By:Bretsky on March 25, 2022

Welcome back friends for our 11th season here at BretskyBall. It’s been a wild ride and while the site doesn’t get quite as much love as it used to, we’re cooking up something special for you this spring. These are the best fantasy baseball redraft rankings that we’ve ever put together. How do I know? When you’ve made the BEST fantasy baseball redraft rankings around, you just know they are the best.

We’ve been looking forward to the 2022 fantasy baseball season in an interesting way as this has almost been the love/hate offseason. With a labor agreement finally in place and most of my favorite athletes in the BEST SHAPE OF HIS LIFE, it’s time to get serious.

Spring Time is a Season for Fantasy Baseball Rankings

After a long and cold winter we’ve sprung ahead and with the spring comes baseball. There is perhaps nothing better from taking a break compiling the best fantasy baseball rankings to take a stroll outside amongst re-awakening nature. The birds and squirrels are chirping and chattering while the cherry blossoms pop all around.

During the shortest days of the year it’s easy to question why, why, WHYYY did we make our life in a cold weather city, but every single time that spring rolls around, all those feelings are forgotten. The rebirth of nature is something you can’t enjoy just anywhere. It is both an invigorating and inspiring experience that certainly rewards the observant.

I’m sure we could stay here all day admiring the wonder that is spring, but fake baseball season is fast approaching so maybe we should just keep doing our best to focus on why we are all here: fantasy baseball rankings.

A Tradition Like No Other

Fantasy baseball rankings are serious business around here and have been in my family for generations. As a young boy I recall watching my grandfather assemble his fantasy baseball rankings each and every spring, by hand of course. In those days rankings didn’t come with all the frills of park factors or advanced stats: you had a pencil, some paper and a newspaper full of tables and box scores to churn out a news set of ranks each year.

As the season approached, the whole family would get together and sit down at the draft table to select their players all with their own hand made rankings sheets. Times were simpler than, and the counting stats were everything.

Making the Best Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Position by Position

Over the years the ranking process has evolved a bunch and this year is no different than others. This year, we took a deep dive into some of the most popular projection systems to create value tiers by position (shout out to Ariel Cohen’s ATC projections and Derek Carty’s THE BAT X, which have emerged as my favorites and easily viewed over at fangraphs). As such the individual positons rankings may be a bit more useful when drafting your fantasy baseball team than looking at the overall 300. Still, we took some time to comb through and shuffle the positions together in a loosely ordered list.

The tiered lists by position can also help to illuminate certain narratives at each position while helping you shape the your draft strategy and roster construction. A quick look around the diamond…

• Catcher: It’s a small top tier and I wont be drafting them.. really dunno what to do probably just draft Mitch Garver late.
• First Base: Given the lack of speed first base should be a power focused position. There is pretty much a solid bat at every price point and no need to reach here.
• Second Base: While I don’t mind locking up a top-tier guy here, there are a ton of options to like in the back end of the top 100 in ADP.
• Third Base: Similar to second base at the top but most likely discount shopping with one of Bregman, Bryant, Rendon, or Turner.
• Shortstop: Every good fantasy baseball team needs a shortstop.
• Outfield: The most diverse group of talent, we like to dip into the outfield pool early and ofter, especially in league where you start five.
• Starting Pitcher: League format (and even platform) is really going to drive where the top starters sit in the overall rankings and since these are tailored towards a 5×5 roto league, I tend to push up offense. That said, you probably want at least one top-20 arm regardless of format (and several in any points league).
• Relief Pitcher: I thought things get easier to navigate after the lockout…. it does not feel that way. Good luck.

Check out all of our positional tiered rankings in detail C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP |RP

More Fantasy Baseball Rankings and Resources You Should Consider

Of course, before we get into our own list I want to shout out a couple of other resources that I use to formulate my player rankings and draft strategy that will also keep you a whole lot more updated that I will be able throughout the season.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been working on the web side of things to help Nick Pollack make Pitcher List the best baseball site on the internet. It’s a beautiful site and it’s been really fun to help build. The new player pages are so so cool and the site’s insane river of content can keep you busy. It would be tough not to acknowledge that spending so much time building, testing and looking at site some of the very good content has rubbed off on my own thoughts. So I would very much encourage you all to check out Nick’s latest version of The List, which includes his top-100 rankings and a whole lot of analysis beyond the worthless drivel that I’ve put you through.

For everything bullpen, I’m constantly turning to Greg Jewett’s twitter feed and closer chart. He’s also got plenty more content on Reliever Recon. In the podcast world, The Athletic’s Under the Radar remains one of my favorites along with the Rotowire Prospect Podcast for those playing in deeper leagues.

We’re Almost There Just Few More Words for the SEO Optimizer to Turn Green before its time for… THE BEST BASEBALL RANKINGS!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this breakdown of our process for putting together baseball rankings for drafting a fantasy teams, it’s really been fun to get back on the horse and hammer out a little bit of content. It does occur to me that I probably would have been better suited making some best ball rankings if I really want to call them the best baseball rankings, but we’re into this bit far too deep it’s probably time to wrap it up. Thanks for sticking with us through the years!

The Best 2022 Fantasy Baseball Draft Rankings – Top 300(ish)

Posted By:Bretsky on March 25, 2022

In most standard league we really try not to push up closers to high in the rankings. The uncertainty around many bullpen situations coupled with free agency delay has forced many of us to embrace the uncertainty through early draft season.

While some of the dust has settled, a number of situations remain murky throughout the league. The top two tiers of closers contain 18 names that we consider “safe” to get you some saves early in the season and even some of those are on rocky footing.

ADP Targets

Kenley Jansen lands in Atlanta and boots Will Smith out of fantasy relevance (we think). I except his ADP to rise from its current level right around pick 100, but I’ll likely still be in even with a few rounds of helium…  Jordan Romano (106) was an absolute stud in 2021 and if he gets the role consistently could easily breeze into the top five at the position… Blake Treinen (135) may be one of the most fun relievers to watch and he’s could pile up a TON of saves for the loaded Dodgers. Joe Barlow (208) and Gregory Soto (209) are safer than you think while pitching for teams that will be better than you think. Paul Sewald (284) proved worth it without the saves last season, maybe he can take the job and run with it.

ADP Fades

They are both awesome, but I’m out on both Josh Hader (37) and Liam Hendriks (40), there is just too much talent on the board to justify a top-40 pick on a closer.

2022 Relief Pitcher Rankings

Posted By:Bretsky on March 25, 2022

The top tier has been moving and shaking as Zack Wheeler showed up this spring with some shoulder soreness while his former teammate Jacob deGrom is surprisingly getting nothing but praise for his apparently not-as-torn-as-we-all-thought UCL.

Traditionally, I am all in on the offense early in fantasy drafts. However, with the recent volatility in the top I have found myself more and more taking the plunge one one ace in the top four rounds before really hammering away at the starters in round 8-15.

ADP Targets

Lance Lynn (56) is a perennial favorite with a solid floor to anchor your staff… We are hopeful for a return to form for Mike Clevinger (161) and the discount is right for a mid-round gamble. It will be exciting to see what Jon Gray (265) can do in anew environment… John Means (199), Patrick Sandoval (202) and  Aaron Ashby (285) have all flashed in the past and could emerge as top-30 arms throughout the season.

ADP Fades

He was certainly awesome last year but I’m just not quite ready to mint Luis Urias (28) as a workhorse ace… Jose Berrios (67) is so consistent.. and thats kinda the problem when you are putting up good but not great numbers.

2022 Starting Pitcher Rankings

Posted By:Bretsky on March 25, 2022

The outfield is my absolute favorite position in fantasy because thanks to the sheer volume and versatility. Of course, leagues with three outfield slots vs. those with five slots will significantly adjust the strategy but regardless of the league depth there are plenty of strong options and every price point.

Interestingly, we really don’t expect the top two options at the position to run that much, but the outfield remains a great spot to chip away with at the speed totals focusing on guys who have a shot to give you just a little something in the steals department.

ADP Targets

Kyle Tucker (13) is coming off a sizzling second half in 2021 where he slashed .327/.398/.631 and is a great way to get your draft started in the back half of the first round… J.D. Martinez (86) may be in decline but still has plenty of juice in a loaded lineup… Dom Smith (348) is reportedly healthy after struggling with injury last year, he’s a nice end game option to gamble on a bounce back to what was a very production 2020.

ADP Fades

While I sure am rooting for Byron Buxton (53) to stay on the field and put it all together, this is a round or two earlier than I am willing to invest… As someone who almost always leaves the draft table light on speed, it comes at little surprise that I rarely find myself in position to draft Whit Merrifield (34).

2022 Outfield Rankings

Posted By:Bretsky on March 25, 2022

The shortstop position took a hard loss with Fernando Tatis Jr. likely to miss up to three months of time this season. He tumbles from the top overall player on the board to a guy going around pick 100 in the first wave of NFBC Main Event Drafts. I just snagged Tatis in a somewhat shallow 12-team head to head league where I believe the upside for a healthy run during the H2H playoffs flips the risk paradigm from a roto league. Beyond that Trea Turner and Bo Bichette remain the only two players at the position going in the first round.

ADP Targets

Trevor Story‘s (41) ADP is likely on the rise now that he’s landed in Boston. Francisco Lindor (47) should bounce back in his second season in New York.  Gleyber Torres (166) added an element of speed to his game last season and is just a few years removed from being a serious power threat.

ADP Fades

While he was one of my targets last year and remains a very solid option, Xander Bohaerts (39) feels a bit pricey compared to some of the other veteran options available a couple rounds later. Jorge Polonco (79) had a massive second half in 2021 but I have questions about whether the power can stick and if not he’s little more than a high-floor volume bat.

2022 Shortstop Rankings

Posted By:Bretsky on March 25, 2022

With both Ferando Tatis Jr. and Ronald Acuna Jr. hobbled and slated to miss time, Jose Ramirez pops as the most serious 40/40 threat in the league. He’s probably the only third baseman who can offer you elite production in all five categories and belongs near the top of every draft list. While we also really like what Rafael Devers has been able to do, the value late at the third base position offers fantasy players the opportunity to really wait on the position and lead up.

ADP Targets

Kris Bryant (66) now plays 81 games in Coors (end of analysis)… Love the late value of Alex Bregman (73) and Anthony Rendon (100)… Despite advancing age Justin Turner (144) and Josh Donaldson (183) continues to mash.

ADP Fades

Due more to the fact that there really are a bunch of nice value options, we are likely avoiding Manny Machado (23) and Austin Riley (41) at cost.

2022 Third Base Rankings