The Stacking Dingers Show Episode 4

Welcome to The Stacking Dingers Show, your go-to video podcast for all things Underdog fantasy baseball, diving deep into the exhilarating world of best ball drafts! In this episode, Brendan and Matthew discuss the exciting release of the Stacking Dingers Top 100 Underdog Rankings. They discuss their process of creating the rankings, recommendations on how best to use them, and get into some of the fun players they’re ranking way differently from the field. Go to www.stackingdingers.com to view the list!

Join us each week as we unravel the strategic intricacies of the best ball format. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran or a rookie in the fantasy baseball universe, this episode offers tips and tactics to optimize your draft strategy. Our rotating panel of experts shares their thoughts on player values, hidden gems, and essential drafting techniques to give you an edge over the competition.

Don’t miss out on this episode packed with expert advice, practical strategies, and the enthusiasm that defines the Stacking Dingers experience. Like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell to stay updated with our latest insights into the world of fantasy baseball on Underdog!

Hello and welcome to the stacking Dinger Show I am your host Matthew AKA sheep AKA dark sheep I am joined tonight again by the lovely the amazing Brendan Tuma or at to much Tuma on everything um Brendan welcome how are you doing Matt happy New

Year Happy New Year to you our uh our our buddy Chris is again skipping out this week but uh I think this January his schedule should open up so we’ll be seeing him a lot more and uh yeah we are diving straight into something kind of

Fun tonight uh we have put together uh between the three of us a top 100 rankings uh so uh if you’re seeing this video uh there’ll be a link in the YouTube description uh otherwise there’ll be a link in the um in the substack on the same post uh to the

Sheet it’s a Google sheet uh it is a kind of fun thing that uh it has all three Yours Mine and Chris’s uh top 100 ranking separate and then a sheet that uh kind of Compares them all and makes kind of a composite ranking yeah I think that uh it’s

January 2nd we’re recording this so um you know hence the the happy New Year and I think that we were just talking about off line a little bit that it feels like it’s the you know unofficial start of baseball prep fantasy baseball prep all that so um I think getting this

Top 100 out for people who might just be diving into uh you know the baseball contest on Underdog or are ready to start you know really gearing up with some of their drafts uh it seems like a great time to get it out and I think you

Know tonight we want to talk about not just like how to use these rankings but how to use rankings in general and then I know some of the more fun conversations that we’ll probably have you know hosting this entire show this offseason is going to be on some of the

Specific player uh differences who we higher and lower on yeah and as we go through the offseason we’ll be probably doing one or two updates to the rank or I don’t know exactly our update schedule kind of as we feel it’s necessary but we’ll be coming back to maybe talk about why and

How we’re updating them additionally and uh our goal is to have like a more like a 200 240 rankings by the time the main Dinger contest rolls around but uh we have this top 100 as a starting point although I will admit uh I did have I have like 106

Uh this was my first time ever really setting up any sort of rankings to share with other people uh oftentimes I’m like using other people’s rankings as a means of getting different uh with my thoughts or I’m using just straight projections or just straight ADP so it

Was interesting for me um to get into it so I think the the first question is why does someone want to make rankings yeah so you um mentioned like you know just first time going through it and everything first of all I think anyone who’s uh you know playing you

Know fantasy sports or some of these games and Underdog it’s it’s always going to be a helpful exercise whether you you know you are someone who’s a content creator or if again if if you’re just um you know playing I think like you said like it it makes you think

Differently about certain players and similar to when you’re in a draft and you have to make that decision do I want you know player a or player B when you’re making rankings and especially when you put them out in the world it really makes makes you want to make sure

That you can like you know back that up and and and give a why and everything so so um I I think just that process is something that you know everyone should go through obviously um you know some people just want to rely on uh another ranking list or projection like you’re

Saying that you have in the past and I think that therefore what we want to talk about tonight a little bit is you know how we came about these rankings it’s it’s for me you know it’s it’s definitely not as black and white as here’s the rankings draft these players

In this order and you’re good to go now we you know construct them uh you know especially my list in a way where if you are drafting off you know my rankings you’re going to end up with players who I value higher than the market and and

You’re going to not end up with ones who I think are clear Fades um but again even within that there’s you know specific nuances to talk through yeah and the other reason to do to doing rankings is uh kind of of simple that people want them uh as much as we love

To sit here and talk in depth dive deep on subjects uh not everybody cares it’s a simple thing uh I think there was a thread um on on X Twitter whatever you want to call it uh by JJ zachar and the late round QB that really

Kind of open my eyes to this I think it was sometime in this offseason of the football offseason uh he put out a thread just be saying you know I love doing all these in-depth content things like his newsletter is amazing his his picks and his holds and whatever that

Article is the uh I do get it but I can’t remember the name of it right off top head but the thing he does in season and even before the season all of his in-depth uh data analysis and all that but the point of the thread was people

Just want rankings what for right or wrong like like they like to see those numbers they like those lists I mean it’s just fun too 100% And I think you know that can lead us into a little bit here how we each set up our own

Rankings and and you know kind of our you know as you phrase it some of the the goals for yours um I want to say like for me like the the number one thing that I’m trying to do with this is someone who has a bit of a LoveHate relationship with creating rankings

Because there is so much value into it and people do want you know it’s quick it’s easy um but it’s just it does not mean that you know the player I have ranked 14th I’m not saying they are 100% always going to be better than the

Player I have ranked 17th and you know even 24th exactly the deeper you get in a draft um that’s going to change you know like 190 versus 210 is really not that big of a difference like 14 vers 17 is probably a bigger difference than

That so I think that’s part of why we we wrapped it off at a top 100 right now because just this early in the off season you know we want to be honest with you know anyone using them or uh you know listening to us here and and

Say that these are the ones I feel best about if we went deeper I wouldn’t have felt as good about you know again like 160 versus even like 180 and certain things like that so for me so much of the rankings is about getting in the right Ballpark and like for an

Example for me is y Diaz who I just think is several rounds mispriced and that’s an easy one for me to to kind of just move him way up compared to where he has at ADP right now and when I did my rankings in in another Google sheet of mine um I

Compare the my rank to 80P and then I color code it so if it’s like green that if it’s like bright green that’s saying you know this is someone who who’s a big Target because the ADP difference is is that big sort of thing so um for me uh

It’s you know it’s really about uh first and foremost just just getting players in the ballpark and that’s especially true on Underdog baseball where ADP is is so soft um there there there are some big differences way more so than I would have had for for NFL entering this season for

Instance yeah um and like um yand Diaz is a good example of a person that you you have ranked very high uh and I think uh uh Chris and myself who have him much lower don’t dislike him more or we like him just as much as you it’s just uh

You’re making him more of a priority by putting him that high uh out of ADP so there is for me some of it is uh also like lining up where I think I need to start trying to get him based on where he’s going at ADP also yeah and that

Again this is again going to be the first or second bullet point of a million nuances that we can discuss with like creating these rankings and everything but but that’s an excellent point like I put him I forget if it was something like 30 spots ahead of ADP or

Whatever it was and and part of that is because if his ADP does rise I don’t want to then have to go right back into the ranks and move him up a little bit more like I you always want to be sensitive to ADP and what the Market’s

Saying but just in terms of like actually physically going into the dock and doing that you know this is me saying like hey like I would be comfortable taking him this early but obviously if you’re doing a lot of drafts and you’re looking at the rankings comparing where I have them

Where we have them to ADP you don’t need to take them at that spot but it’s it’s just highlighting hey the next few rounds this is someone to you know prioritize sort of thing yeah um and before yeah we kind of get deeper than quicker than I wanted to but uh that was

Just what I made me think about yandi um but sort of uh my goal was slightly different when I was setting up my rankings than uh than featuring that sort of stuff uh my goal was to have it set up so that uh basically if somebody

Just drafted like off the top one or two three people in the queue they would end up with a team that I personally was getting uh without rankings so uh basically uh mine has a lot of tiers of different uh positions uh or groups of where I’m targeting different positions

Um so what I did while I was making them is I I did a first pass I just sort of did them and then uh I did a draft and I thought and then I looked you know I I forced myself to do a draft where I had

To take the person at the top of my queue each time uh and so that that let me make some adjustments fine-tune some like this guy versus that guy like okay well I I I would actually would prefer this guy here compared to uh like for

Example uh Dylan CE was a guy that I had um a little bit higher rank than I really wanted him when it came time to actually select player and it was him versus another pitcher uh so bumped him down and then I did that like over three

Or four drafts uh and my goal was by the time I hit you know the end of the rankings I had a start that was similar to what I personally would have done in like a handpick draft that makes sense and I think that uh you know I have some players like

That where it’s like oh my God this guy’s got an ADP of 28 I have him at 50 is that outrageous am I dropping him too much and your CE example reminded me of that I think like Adis Garcia is someone I have a decent bit lower for the fourth

Third fourth year in a row whatever it is now so ready to be dunked on for that again but uh just using him as a random example right now um he’s someone where again I come back to the underdog side of this and if you are you know finding

Yourself you’re in rooms and this specific room is is really paying attention ADP then you can use that to your advantage and you can wait you know to get to get yandi at cost for instance um but just in general I especially once you get you know halfway through I am

You know would not be afraid to to be jumping around uh you know grabbing guys later or earlier um depending on if if you agree where the ranks line up yeah and um the let’s see so I think we should get into those uh those lettered bullet points of yeah of

What we have there there’s let’s say I’m Joe or Josephine public here and I’ve never drafted Underdog before I wanted I got a little bit of football money sitting my account I had a good football season on Underdog I’m gon to try some baseball I used to watch baseball

As a kid with my dad and uh I wantan to I want to try a few drafts so uh I’m gonna come there’s this great site stacking dingers dcom by these guys who seem to know what they’re talking about or at least they talk a lot so they must

Know what they’re talking about um so I’m gon just gonna download this sheet I’m gonna load it up into Underdog and I’m gonna start drafting so uh how many red flags do you think uh you would say is in that story uh I think that’s you know that’s

You know kind of what we’re hoping for with people getting into baseball so I I love the overall picture of it um when you say red flags are you talking about ways that you can go wrong then with the ranks yeah yeah so just just straight loading into the CSV into your rankings

And starting a draft first one so I would say that the the biggest thing that you want to pay attention to with any rank because for instance if if uh you know I think if you use the rankings every single time you’re got to end up with

The same team you know basically all the time especially at this point in the off season like I have William contras um he’s not in my top 100 but some of the the drafts that I’ve done I lit I literally take him every single time because he’s that egregiously mispriced

I think and it’s just too good of a value to pass up but I don’t care if I’m Overexposed to him like um but that’s such like a rare example that that you’re probably not going to run into uh and and that being said the the number

One thing you still want to think about with these rankings is just diversification in general because you know you can just be so sure about a player entering a season and it’s um it’s still going to be better for you in the long run over time across so many

Different players to just make sure you’re getting exposure to everyone you know like I thought Corbin Carroll’s price was getting way too high this past off season I thought Bryce Harper was egregiously mispriced on Underdog I thought Christian Javier was a no-brainer at so many points in the

Draft and just like you can just be so sure you know analytically I testwise and you just want to make sure you’re diversifying so uh I’m pulling up my first round here and like for instance like one of the biggest questions I think is still a topic for a show I want

To do is you know r these first round outfielders because yeah everyone’s taking aunia first overall and then it does seem to be a little bit of a sto than judge consensus but but then you know you can kind of bounce around and um just because I have you know Jordan

Alvarez a few spots ahead of Julio that doesn’t mean I want to end up with zero Julio so I think like the that’s like the easiest example I can give is the first round is um you know make sure you’re getting a little bit of everyone

At some point and if you do have like a really strong leaner favorite take them more often than not but still not every time yeah uh I totally agree I know uh in in the in the first round I usually have guys that I do close to fade uh and

Some guys that I you know go over twice the field on because uh I personally have a risk tolerance level that can handle when that guy that I have 20% of gets hurt the second weekend of the season so um that’s another thing to consider if you’re just jumping into

This for the first time you’re using rankings is what is what is your risk tolerance uh of throwing out uh a lineup uh so part of that also is how many teams you’re going to to plan on drafting so one of the big things that sort of changed for me uh in really

Starting to succeed at uh DFS fantasy and stuff was I started uh considering that like how much of this uh sport how much of this style of contest and so on am I going to play so how much am I going to play Roto this year I’m I’m

Planning this out in my head now how much I want to plan on Underdog and that helps me develop my risk tolerance within those platforms too and overall like uh maybe maybe I know I’m going to Target somebody I really like in Roto uh more than Underdog or something like

That and I’m G to balance where I’m I’m risking them uh depending on the format and just trying to diversify in other ways also so diversify and like look actually like not just firing drafts until you get bored but like thinking through and planning is a

Big big p point of emphasis that I’d really like people to think ahead on that’s a that’s an excellent thing to cover and you know like you said the number of drafts really matters because if you’re going to do over the course of the entire offseason 200 MLB drafts then

Um you know for me I I would doesn’t have to be exact the same you know roster ship across the first round evenly but but I would consider personally um you know diversifying a little bit more whereas if you’re only going to do four best ball drafts on

Underdog and you’re just like no Julio’s go to win MVP this year then sure like take him in each one sort of thing so um I I I think that’s like a a really important thing to consider within there obviously there there’s a ton of ranges uh that you can fall

In I I like your example there because uh I I have been uh mentally getting on the the Julio for MVP train this year um uh something else that I want to you know know about getting these rankings up and everything is is just the idea of new information and

Um that’s why I again focused before on the idea of getting players into the right ballpark sort of thing thing because I’m trying to think of another example here within my top 100 but like for me already like the the whole Outfield problem that’s probably what

I’ve been focusing on the most so far this offseason and really thinking through and and trying to apply how does this look and drafts how does this look in rankings um and that’s something that I wasn’t thinking about on you know the the day this contest launch sort of

Thing so a as we continue to evolve our our draft strategies you know our specific ones especially you know that’s something that might change rankings um something else like small and obvious that could change like I put out today that like Pete cow again this this is

Talking a little bit outside top 100 now but just the idea of new information right like if um obviously if a player gets hurt or is we get worried that there’s going to be more playing time like that sort of thing like those are big ones but sometimes you just you know

Like Nolan Jones I I I have an idea of why where I’m at with Nolan Jones but I still haven’t done this deep dive article that I’ve um you know even queued up in my drafts on stepback and everything and that’s like iy might look

At that and be like oh my God I was way off like I’m not into Nolan Jones and um or I might look at it and and and think you know he’s he’s a priority my point is that you know these are takes are you know perceptions of

Player value you know new projection systems are going to come out that could highlight some other players and um present us with new information that way p c Armstrong the Cubs could come out and say he’s going to be our everyday center fielder from day one that would

Change things they could resign Cody Bellinger and then another first baseman or center fielder that would change things in the negative way for him you know um I don’t think anyone should at any point in the offseason draft process you know get get themselves into take

Lock you you know you should always be um flexible you should always be open to the entire player pool and depending on that specific Moment In Time be willing to attack drafts in different ways that’s that’s a great point because um that’s something I find myself personally getting having a problem with

Is is some take locks uh I think I’ve even even year to year sometimes I I don’t adjust properly um try something I’m always trying to get better at um but if you’re just drafting based off of someone’s else’s rankings um you have to know that their player takes are built

Into that um so if you have a different one just just don’t just change it so like don’t get too locked into someone else’s takes either um and right now we still have a bunch of people on signed it’s been fairly slow in terms of signing so there’s definitely like you

Highlight the Cubs um like Toronto seems like they really need to still sign someone for the lineup uh and um you can also get some peripheral things like if Cody Bellinger goes to Toronto that’s a boost to Vlad and Bo a little bit uh because some of the reasons we’re down

On them is because the overall lineup so there’s definitely a ton of new information and then a whole bunch of new information once spring training starts too for sure I think relating to that is and this is what makes Underdog really unique is the idea that these tournaments you know are

Typically being drafted you know definitely over several weeks sometimes several months and and adps are going to move so it does put you in the spot where you got to think through like hey here’s this you know player who has a really late ADP who I think is going to

Rise but you might not even like that player but does it make sense to take them just because you have a feeling that you’ll gain um closing line ADP um over you know the rest of the field and I think when you know that’s something that we you know should have

An entire conversation about at some point and I think you know related to that is if you do like the player then then you really want to be taking them right now um J I’ll come back to Junior Camero for a sec who his ADP right now

Is 196 a few weeks ago it was in the 230s so it’s on the Rise um and I just I just don’t see there’s any whe there’s any way where it goes the other way so I guess you know that you gotta kind of ask yourself if if you want junior

Camero you know the price is is better now than then it’s going to be um later on yeah uh example of that again a little bit out of this 100 range recently for me was Jared Kellick who uh I you know as soon as he got traded to

The Braves um I knew his price would be going up and I honestly don’t really love him and sort of the all the struggles he had and then the second half that he had last year kind of scared me away from him but he’s an outfielder on the Braves uh and I want

Some of him so I really made a point and I’m still grabbing him but he’s already been I don’t remember exactly how much but he’s up 20 spots or something uh and now Von Grisham is gone so even that somewhat of a threat of some playing

Time there is gone so he’ll keep going up so that’s an example of a guy that um you know is I would have like if we had gone through the rankings I would have had him higher than where he was at but I also was doing that so I did get some

Before he got too expensive and that’s where um you know I don’t want to harp on this specific topic right the second necessarily for too long but that’s where it becomes you know it can become like a struggle with as ADP shift okay now I want to move him up a little bit

Uh to say ahead of ADP now the ADP is too high I want to move him down oh but now I just read about you know this the swing change that he he’s making and looks like he’s got to get more time so I’m I’m going to be a little bit bullish

Again and that’s where you can you know it’s really important to just kind of get in that General range with what you’re comfortable with and um having you know a projection or a rank to to Anchor yourself to um something else that I’m oh I was gonna um just ask like

You know something I’m curious that I think you know you’ll be able to speak really well to having you know been drafting this game for for a number of years now and you know being a volume drafter is the idea of of what your roster needs at that specific point of

The draft so if someone’s using our rankings um you know they they start out for whatever reason they take three outfielders in the first four rounds and then they’re on the clock and you know our highest rank players in Outfield how are you approaching that at various

Points in in your drafts yeah so that uh also goes back a little bit starting on figuring out how much you’re going to draft uh because um if you want to distribute structures throughout the amount of drafts that you’re going to do uh there’s there’s

Somewhat of a I don’t I don’t do I don’t write this down uh but there is somewhat of a mental uh okay I start two outfielders uh I want 30% of the time to take an infielder after that 30% of the time I want to take a picture or uh I start uh

Outfielder infielder that that’s a really interesting decision uh where I want to distribute that next pick throughout the drafts where I want to go I want to spend on another one of those like top tier infielders maybe 30% of the time uh or at that point I want to

Get one of those uh middle like the Christian Yelich Luis Rober tier as my second Outfield about 30% of the time uh so I think there’s probably some mental stuff that just drafting can get you practiced at that uh but if you want to get better at it I I would say

Write write down what you want and maybe um and maybe like you don’t you never want to go into the the whole idea that you don’t want to go into a draft with like a concrete plan but uh if you write down like some of these structures

And stuff that you want to get at different percents or you’re on your or you’ve done your first like five drafts go through all those lineups and see how you started in those first five drafts and write it down and say okay do I want

To keep doing this am I happy with this uh and then each time you draft after that may maybe you’re looking at that list and at certain points and you’re saying okay I want to go this direction a certain amount of the time Absolut yeah so I the you know kind

Of a little bit tying it all together for me is in this conversation is um you know what you Chris and I all try to do is set up these rankings in a way where we feel that this will create the best team for you because it’s so like you

Can look at our rankings and you can look at you know player 35 versus player 38 and just be like player 38 is better and you know I you know we’ve said you know we probably won’t disagree with you like in the sense of you know there are

Paths to that happening of course um I know so much from me about playing this game still right now I is the macro and trying to figure out um the big edges to be had before getting really granular with the player take and I definitely spend a lot of time

Trying to construct my rankings in a way where you’ll have this Outfield base early which you can then supplement with some high-scoring infielders who are mispriced which you can then supplement with this big range of pitchers but you don’t just want one of them you want

Like three or four of them so they’re all much together my and it’s just like that that’s try to how I set up um my rankings and again creating the super team for football fans out there we we saw this puzzle being um or happening in real time this past season where the

Wide receivers just started going so early and for a lot of wide receiver heavy drafters that was uncomfortable early in the off season but well I think the best uh you know drafters did by the end of this past summer drafting for football was understanding that we can

This allows us to get one or two anchor wide receivers and then if we can pinpoint the right running backs we can still have top running backs and you can kind of create the super team and you know there might be some individual players that Miss but but that structure

Has you know just just really high ceiling and and that’s how I’ve been going about baseball this off season where I think there’s a construction to get the highest sorting team and if you’re drafting enough and diversifying enough along the way within that structure that that you’re just

Increasing your chances of hitting on the right players uh if that all kind of makes sense yeah and that totally makes sense and the the example that you use like player whatever 34 versus 37 if you like 37 more and you think he’s better and uh you it’s not the position that or

Perhaps the reason that we don’t have them ahead of player 34 is because of the position uh scarcity element then take take the player that you like uh on our rankings and then uh figure out how that affects your build um and if you’re looking at it our rankings and you don’t

Like the outfielders that we have at the top scroll down because maybe the signal there is that we’re thinking you should maybe be grabbing an outfielder there um is there anything else you wanted to cover about just you know how to use rankings and how we develop them

Before we get into the she a little uh the one thing I would really uh emphasize maybe not emphasize but uh I would suggest highly suggest is that if you are brand new uh to um baseball uh if you’re brand new to starting if you’re just getting started drafting

This year and maybe you’ve done some in the past and you want to use the rankings that we’re putting in out uh I would still do at least one just without them like I would not go straight to the rankings do one I would say depending on how many total you’re

Going to do uh you know I would do 10% without rankings first of my total drafts and get just get a feel for the rooms and practice that um understanding what other players are doing uh at certain points in the draft before you really start zoning in maybe on players and

Rankings for sure yeah that’s that’s really well said I think um you know that that about covers you know my end of it too about kind of this process and these are little like you know I’m sure throughout future episodes we’ll be you know chiming in with little points like

Hey this is you know something about the rankings um that we’re thinking right now and and also just want to put out you know speaking for all of us that you know were really you know receptive to to feedback on this sort of stuff not just you know hey why don’t you have

Ellie hire but um but but but also like hey I I noticed you said this about how you’re developing your rankings but do you consider this as well and um you know rankings are similar to projections you can only pick one number you know you can only have you know someone’s got

To be pick eight and you can only have one person at that spot so um there there’s you know realistically a greater spread within that number and um I I think especially compared to just Underdog ADP right now that these rankings will give you an ed so with

That being said let’s dive in a little to the sheet I think I do I do have one more thing um it’s important to um when you’re using the rankings we’ve talked about this a few times on other shows uh to be aware of the blind spots of the

Rankings uh so the the Paul gold Schmid problem as well we like three well I’m just coining that but we we referred to it two years ago Paul Goldman’s like insane season that we mostly missed out on because of uh the position scarcity thing and we weren’t looking for

Infielders at that spot so the way that these rankings are set up there are blind spots of players that have really high upside um that could go off at a good price and like get multiple rounds of value that uh you might miss out on if you follow them straight up and um

That’s why sometimes you know or that’s also why doing those before rankings drafts kind of gives you an idea of where those players actually sit and where they come off the board um so be aware of that and make sure you understand what players you might be

Also missing out on that um you either you’re okay with that like I am uh just based on how I’m overall drafting or you have uh a way in your process to overcome that and get some of that player for sure all right so let’s let’s let’s jump

In I think we got all the stuff covered um all right so here is the sheet uh again the the link will be in the YouTube uh description uh otherwise if you’re viewing this on the substack the link will be there um this is the beautiful sheet that the sheet Master

Chris has put together uh so there is a few tabs that we’re going to highlight the first and I think most fun one is the uh composite so we’ll we’ll come back to this one U but basically if you dig down into these couple other tabs you’ll get to our individual rankings so

Maybe you uh think uh this sheep guy is a and I don’t want to listen to him uh so I’m gonna look at Chris’s and uh Brendan’s uh so you can do that individually um there is some interesting stuff here if you get into here uh you can see some of their uh

Projections based on steamer right now uh I’m sure we’ll get added columns uh as Chris is able to other projection systems come out um and then um the position ADP Trends uh and then some sort of tier rankings uh that I I requested and then didn’t

Use but um yeah you can look at the individual teams here rankings uh if you want to ignore a certain person on the crew no hard feelings okay maybe some but uh so that’s there um and this is this sheet is pulling in live ADP um

Through some HTML magic um so it should keep updating and like I said will be updating our ranks as we see uh necessary so uh this main sheet got your Underdog name um there is some hidden columns here uh that when you if you want to download

These and upload to Underdog um and maybe maybe we do a little tutorial video separate from this on how to do that that might be something that people like um if you’re new to Underdog and haven’t uploaded rankings before um but uh if you download this sheet uh you

Will get uh the information that you need to upload to underdog um I guess we might have changed the heading column for that I don’t know we’ll talk about that but that will be available um so then you have the positions teams live ADP uh and then

This column this main column here this sdore rank is our uh averaged ranking between the three of us um and then it shows you our individual rankings uh and that’s followed by a little column that shows you the difference between our ranking and uh the live

0p and then there is this fun column the spread if you want to see how much we disagree on a guy so that uh shows you the difference between the highest rank and the lowest rank between the three of us so that kind of also uh if you’re

Looking at that uh you can get an idea of maybe um adjust uh your your thoughts based on how volatile the even between the three of us are that’s a really great rundown I think of of had to use it all I’m um as I alluded to at the beginning of the

Show you know I think one of the most fun things that uh we’re going to have or one of the most fun topic or conversations that we’re going to have all through draft season especially when the danger comes out and you know we really start honing in on these ranks is

Is kind of the specific places that that we have some some of these guys I know I took a quick peek to see who I’m highest on to see who I’m lowest on and um I think we want to hit a few of those tonight um of just some early thoughts

Get get the brains working a little bit Yeah so the F the first thing that stood out to me uh once we had uh Chris got his in today and we had all three of ours and he did some cleanup work on this uh the first thing that I noticed

Was uh that we we all pretty much agree with the uh the first 10 outfielders we didn’t no one really stuck an infielder in there yeah and you know again we’ve been kind of beting it’s tough because there there might still be you know some new people joining and everything but but

The idea is is really just you know Outfield is so scarce so many of the best players are outfielders anyway even if you play in you know rodo or something where the positions G City might not be as big of a thing um so when you combine like the highest

Scoring players play the most scarce position it’s just really a no-brainer there’s you know unless you’re doing 150 drafts and you want to work in Freddy Freeman at pick four to to get some interesting build or something like other than you know something like that which you might not even want to do

Anyway um there’s there’s just no reason to to fade those first 10 outfielders and I then took that even you know one step further with a lot of this Outfield thought that I’ve been working on and I’ve just had enough of it at this point

And I put Kyle schwarber 11th and I put Mike Trout 12th so I am you know saying if you have first pick you you better be getting an outfielder yeah that that is interesting I have not uh got to there in the drafts that I’ve been doing um uh I have been

Getting them in the second round uh as I see as I see fit but uh yeah I still have you know this uh and I I think I think that um you know this isn’t an accuracy competition in the way some other you know rankings providers might

Just want to get as as close to to what the end Finish is going to be points wise or whatever it might be as possible you know I’m doing this in a way of of you got to have an understanding of ADP like we’ve talked about and everything

Too so you know Mike Trout let me see um his exact live ADP at the moment it’s here it’s here in the 21.3 right now oh right 21.3 I know I was blind I couldn’t see on the streamyard um I don’t have my glasses on so anyway so

Mike Trout has sorry to pull it up on my sheet so Mike Trout’s live ADP is 21.3 if you have the um you know 12th pick well I guess that you know that’s back toback anyway I think my point with it is saying you know that doesn’t mean

You have to take him ahead of Freddy Freeman necessarily but what I’m what I’m kind of signaling with that is to say hey even if you don’t take this guy you know with your first pick if he’s available basically anywhere with your second pick you know just take him and

That’s kind of what what what I’m trying to signal with that um going back to you know what we talked about leading into this just all the the reasons to use rankings and how to use them and all that sort of stuff yeah um so then going

Down a little bit uh the other thing uh we do have we do have Strider and Cole as our top two pitchers uh but based on our rankings you’re probably not getting them if they fall unless they fall um and even I haven’t even like I don’t even know if I would

Take them at where I have them ranked but it’s a similar thing to the Outfield is having them there uh at a certain point where if they are still there um you have to think like if there are a couple spots down on the rankings and you’re picking in the second round at

The end of the second round and they’re still there for some strange reason I I want you to realize that and think about that um you’re getting a good value sort of thing I think uh something else that you know might help people using this is

You know kind of that uh column second from the right the rank ADP difference all the way over on the right side is is really look at that and um think through what that means in terms of Strider we have five picks off and in the early

Rounds that that is you know a quote unquote decent amount but but then if you look at you know the composite that’s a big reason is because that I have him all the way down at 23 where I had him even you know where Matt has him

At 18 it’s going to be a lot closer sort of thing but for five picks off you know SM Strider he at that point maybe isn’t someone you want to necessarily be fading but the more you scroll down that column and you see there are some

Players who are you know 20 30 spots off that were consensus like hey this is you know someone to not consider at this point talked about earlier yeah ell oh ad adise yeah um I think Ellie was another um but but that’s someone where you might want to take you know a

Stronger fade stance um again than just Strider because you know five picks is not that much where you know I I’ll be like I’m not comfortable going in with like zero stride or anything but I might be comfortable going in with zero Ellie if his price holds so um

Those are just again again another way to like kind of use this sheet that that might be helpful for people yeah and I guess that that would be a good suggestion just to uh I know maybe if you’re brand new to Underdog or you’re brand new it’s just starting for the

Year it’s kind of tough to be looking at the draft and have another sheet open uh but I find that uh one now that I have my ranks uh developed I’m going to take them off personally as I draft uh and I’m gonna have them open on a separate

Side or I kind of have them in my head already just from doing them uh so that’s where practicing is helpful uh and getting those first set of drafts so you know the flow of rooms and the flow of drafts so you can then you don’t have to upload the rankings directly to

Underdog you can multitask a little bit better because you know uh where decision points come and stuff in a draft and you’re not super focused on those decision points and you can take a little your mental process to analyzing the ranks versus um the draft that’s a reason and I know I’m a

Little bit of a sickle for this but I’m a huge fan of slow drafts and I always give the caveat that you can’t just Join one slow slow draft and expect it to be a great time because it’s going to drive you mad but you got to join like you

Know 5 to 10 at once because that way every couple hours you’re coming up with a pick in a certain draft but because it is a slow draft you can take that time so I can look and say oh I’m on the clock I’m busy right now I’m gonna take

20 minutes and then I’m GNA go on my computer pull up the ranks see who’s still available and and kind of compare that way you you can more so take your time with with that but again I know slow drafts aren’t for everyone yeah and um let’s see so somebody else

That stands out to me that uh I think is pretty fun this is more just a player take we’re all we’re all pretty much in a similar range on Pablo Lopez uh and he is not someone I expected to like as much as I did this year um and so we are

Uh ahead of ADP by uh a half round um so we’ll be getting him a little more often based on our ranks but yeah that’s where you can compare the ADP and our spread and see our rank versus ADP and uh make decisions based on that so so

Much of what happens with you know at this point in the the life cycle of Underdog baseball as a game what happens is I’m I’m so focused on the macro that I’m trying to think like okay this range of quote unquote SP 1s who’s the worst

One that I can get the best price on and that kind of becomes your poster boy for for that macro topic like for me last year Luis Castillo was someone who was being drafted as an SP2 but I thought was an sp1 and he just became the poster

Boy for hey you don’t need to take Strider because you can take you know this ace at this better price and I wonder if that’s part of what happened with with all of us with Pablo there yeah uh I think uh that kind of leads

Into just to hop over to my rankings I do have uh this uh this pitcher tier uh where uh I have them all in a row they all have kind of drastically different adps with Corbin Burns being 26 uh so it this is where as you’re Drafting and you’re you’re looking ahead

Into the ranks a little bit further uh kind of you can kind of group you know similar players um and know like again this is where you’re making uh mental notes of who you already have taken in drafts uh assuming you’re going to do some volume

And um you know Corbin Burns we kind of have ranked similar to gausman and Castillo uh no Gusman well yeah Burns and gausman are the example here where we kind of think of them similar to Castillo and Wheeler uh and if you’re drafting based on ranks

You’re going to get a lot more Castillo and Wheeler uh but you have and you have to be aware of that and sometimes click on burns win uh he’s not the top of the ranks if if you want him and not totally want to fade him exactly and that’s

Where it becomes about you know kind of that puzzle of what’s you got to think through not just what’s the sounds are kind of intive but it’s not just what’s like the the best pick I can make here but but what’s the best pick I can make

That’s going to give me you know the best team overall and a lot of that is leaning into position scarcity and and trying to get those um guys who are mispriced and guys who might be similar but have really differing adps and it it just kind of makes your choice for you

In that sense so um you know I I’ve been again like last year you know we talked so much about round one Outfield and and really B in that home and then kind of okay now we’re we’re off like this year for me it’s a lot more about getting

That out out field base early you know Christian Yelich um you know as we head into round three is someone I really like there’s George Springer uh Brandon nmo are guys who I’m just you know really you know trying to build an outfield base on and through five rounds

Have have three outfielders that I feel really good about it frees you up um in other areas of the draft so much where you don’t have to be reaching multiple times and you can just get these you know mispriced infielders and pitchers in the middle round so I’m willing to

Give up a little bit of projected points you know even within the first five rounds to to get those outfielders I feel good about um that’s something that and and then therefore it comes back around where you know because so many of my drafts I’m a little weak at infield

By the middle rounds so that’s why I look at yandi I’m like okay I need to make sure I get yandi because he’s someone who’s similar to your tier of pitchers that you were just talking about you feel you can get on the back end who’s close enough to the front end

Guys but at such a better price um that that’s what really drives a lot of my ranks yeah so this uh this happens to be right now our biggest discrepancy on infielder uh you do have him at 46 uh and Chris and I are uh quite a

Ways behind you but again this isn’t uh we have 80 and 86 uh so he comes out to be 71 which is still like two rounds ahead of ADP uh so you’re still going to wind up with him a lot uh and this is where for you he’s

Going to be someone that’s sticking out uh early and you want to focus on yeah and again so much of it is really just you know how and that’s why the composite ranks are really good in in a lot of ways because it it you won’t end

Up with yandi like crazy early um but but again it just like it’s such a highlight for me of hey like you know if this guy ever Rose to this point you know he would he would still at least be in consideration but but pay attention

To the live ADP and if if you are making these certain builds you know he he’s kind of a key to it all yeah yeah whereas uh he’s kind of the opposite of Ellie De La Cruz whom uh I am the lowest on uh I have him rank

Down in with Royce Lewis and O’Neal Cruz um uh but overall um you having him at uh 68 and Chris having him at 54 and me at 79 uh is someone you’re never going to get in the draft it it’s almost you know I put him down at 68 where it’s

Almost even it it wouldn’t have matter if I put him 60 because his ADP is 32 you know wouldn’t have matter if I put him like at that point you it’s such a clear fade and it really just comes down to like okay let’s see ADP wasn’t a

Construct like where would I actually start considering him um you know when when you factor in if he hits his best case scenario um all that sort of stuff but the fact that we’re as a group you know 34 you know picks off is is that’s where you can start asking yourself like

And this is I don’t know I might try to write an article on this um is just a question of like is are you okay having zero Ellie and you know I’m I know you’ve mentioned you know multiple times on on this episode even that you know you’re comfortable taking some of those

Like quote unquote risky or stances and I think Chris might lean even more you know wanting to diversify and all that sort of stuff but it’s like at some point you know there’s there’s a question of is is someone just always a bad pick no matter what even if they hit

All their their upside scenarios I think um pacaran for football this offseason was talking about cadarius Tony at one point when he was going so early it was like he was like I don’t care even if he hits you know whatever percentile outcome like it’s still a bad pick um

And and that that’s a real question with Ellie um at this price it’s it’s it’s really it’s really hard and um I think we’re kind of making a statement that you know it’s just not a consideration um with with where he’s going right now yeah yeah and um I like

I could have left him out of my top 100 because of the fact that I would never get him uh but to me the uh when I was wanting to place him in the list it was who I liked in similar upside cases and and in this

Case it was O’Neal Cruz and Royce Lewis so that’s how I ended up with giving him a 79 uh even though I’m never going to get him in the top 100 I think the in the last last thing I want to say about him is you know something that I’ve been really championing

Championing um the past couple offseasons that you mentioned is you know to me like I would I’ve I think on nfbc for instance he’s in like the late 20s I could be wrong in that but but it’s still early it’s technically even a little earlier but to me like if Ellie

Hits it’s going to be such a bigger hit in Roo than it can be on Underdog because of just what the stolen bases would do for you in a category format because he plays you know the deepest position on Underdog um so so if you really are you

Know that big of an Ellie fan you know my advice based on what we’re looking at this price is to just take him in Roto um you know join a startup Dynasty league and take him there um th those are the ways to play it more so than

Than loading up your bags and Underdog yeah or just take him on Underdog and enjoy that’s you know we should have put that caveat really at the front of all this discussion uh if you want to use the ranks you should also just have fun make sure you’re having fun too yeah if

There’s something you don’t like about the ranks there’s no reason to get like say the whole thing’s wrong just have fun make your adjustments uh we’re g to be wrong most of the time to to be perfectly honest we’re going to be so wrong about this list and

We’re going to have a fun time looking back at even in a month maybe for sure like we said um you know there’s a lot to change that’s going to come you know new player takes new new macro thoughts um and honestly just just more baseball news which hopefully

Starts to come a lot sooner yeah so something fun that I kind of wanted to look at the end here was start to look at some of the players that uh aren’t going to show up really quite the same right now based on top 100 100 because

One one of us doesn’t even have them in the top 100 so I think Chris isn’t here to defend himself but uh the first player we get to uh based on uh oh actually let’s sort this by live 80P here yeah that’s what we want to

Do uh yeah so this is uh this is this is the name I was looking for yeah so I’m sorting BAS on live 80P uh and with a full on fade from all three of us in the top 100 is laye Thomas he’s the top

Guy that’s that’s so funny to me I was scrolling down a bit and seeing the um you know gray boxes obviously indicates that we didn’t rank that person in the top 100 that’s one of the downsides of you know limiting ourselves to a top 100 again we talk through um the reason why

We did it earlier but um but yeah that that’s a great um I don’t know it would have been a good like trivia question going in to ask like who’s the first player in ADP who none of us ranked yeah and very similar Cedric Mullins uh Chris

Did get him uh in there but you and I do not have him um we got a we got a Shane beeper who both you and I are out of our top 100 Chris has him right on the edge uh I think I think it is interesting that some of these are outfielders

Considering we’re talking about outfielder scarcity uh so some of us are having strong opinions about some of them towards the back part of the top 100 that they might belong in the top 120 or 140 more like yeah Stephen Quan is really interesting is is someone who’s you know

Not someone I’ve been really high on in in any years entering um but what one you know there’s all these things that we’re thinking about individual player takes macro thoughts something that I think’s gotten lost in the shuffle that I even think I really fell victim to last year is just

Realizing or remembering or understanding how Underdog points are scored and it’s points based it’s cumulative it’s volume it’s playing time Stephen Quan hits first for the Guardians basically every single day um his skill SC is you know pretty good for for Underdog scoring and he it’s it’s

It’s just kind of a boring pick but um it’s a scarce position and he kind of just volumes his way into being the Steady Eddy um for for for your team the way the way those points come together yeah and here’s a case where uh I have ouna at 72 and Quan at

75 um and this is a case where I’m doing more of a comparison of who I have at the Outfield position uh and if I want a floor guy I will scroll down or I guess not scroll yeah scroll down in my ranks to adct Steven Quan um so that’s

Again we’re practicing and knowing where these guys go normally uh and making those decisions as you draft also on who you already have drafted uh some other fun names here um we’re getting towards to the end of the top 100 ADP but uh we don’t have CJ

Abrams or Nathaniel low uh ranked at all I feel like they’re just victims of uh the position and I think I I don’t love CJ Abrams uh just because I don’t know I it feel felt weird maybe he changed something maybe the the power just sort of came out of nowhere

Uh and so I’m I’m maybe that’s a take lock or whatever but I’m I’m personally not always going to love guys that have just like one season out of nowhere and maybe I’m wrong there and again you’re you’re the better player analyst than me

And uh this is more of a gut feel on him um I I think Abrams you really got to look at it from like an AG and curve perspective and and you know try to remember that this guy was was a really top a high Prospect and um you know

Didn’t happen for him right away and that leads so many of us to just like kind of writing him off I’m forgetting about him um that being said like obviously I didn’t rank him either so I’m not necessarily uh you know a huge believer you know again he’s a stone

Based guy that that’s just gonna play better than rodo I think to be a middle round in or to be a infielder just going in kind of the middle-ish rounds on Underdog you you really do need to to separate s like I’ve obviously made the statement that that yandi does separate

Um in a way where some of these other guys for from my um Viewpoint just just just they’re not able to and and Abrams while he’s so fun in Roto because he could be upand coming he could keep getting better he could steal you a ton

Of bases and those are tough to get it’s just he doesn’t have as many paths to to um to being a Difference Maker for you on on Underdog especially yeah I think good comparison here at similar ADP is Dan B Swanson who is not does not have

Uh well probably two years ago was his Peak right the two years ago with the Braves where he was leading up he hitting early in that order if you’re looking at his scoring potential this year uh it’s doesn’t it doesn’t have a ceiling similar to what could possibly

Come from CJ Abrams and again um that’s where you need to consider who you already have on your team uh and how you want to just attack INF field position overall um so I don’t know that’s yeah no like you said he falls victim to where um it’s not just that even

Necessarily about him sometimes it’s just you know you can keep scrolling down look at the live 8p and there infielders that I’m comfortable with I always know I have William caneras in my back pocket if I need an upside pick I got Junior kimero in my back pocket late

It just that’s kind of just the the way it works out yeah we get we we need to talk about this uh Riley green not rank here let me pull something up real quick oh you uh came prepared yeah I know I know Chris is even higher on him um uh

Actually these these two these three guys uh Riley green James outman and Eloy are ending up like one of the three is in pretty much I don’t know 75% of my builds uh and that might be that might be a positionality thing too when it comes down to it I think Raleigh green

For me it’s a little bit of a soft fade for um he had elbow surgery and um not that that’s going to cause him to necessarily Miss like in a crazy amount of time I think he’s do back a around opening day but but even that aside like

I just got like we’ve had two instances now um of players who had elbow surgery hitters even not pitchers who came back but clearly just weren’t themselves it took a few months Max Muny happened to him a couple years ago and Bryce Harper happened to him and they both did you

Know get back so long term you know I’m not necessarily like a like gun Giant on Riley green or anything like that but but that’s in my head where more and more I mean honestly like I’ve considered that with Otani and I’m I don’t even want to like say that out

Loud and make it seem like I would be willing to fade Otani or anything like that you can see where I have him ran but uh just that that idea of this guy’s coming off elbow surgery and just seeing what happened to Muny and Harper for the

First few months of their return like that’s definitely in the back of my head a little bit um and I just hate cica park for hitters but fair so so those are kind of yeah things to consider with all these ranks yeah uh I am I do kind

Of well I I started early on Otani and I was excited about him and then I really started thinking about it and uh in the process of doing these ranks uh I kept bumping him I had him like fourth uh when I started doing this ranks and I

Kept bumping him down because I don’t know I might just end up with a soft fade from here on out just because of the risk yeah and that’s why we need to have a you know a show on th those top 10 outfielders and and trying to figure

Figure out what the right order is because it it’s it’s something that’s like not that important like whatever just take your favorite one at the time but um but it’s something that I think uh you know could could end up really mattering and and I don’t think it’s you

Know pure Randomness or variance something like that all right any other player you want to take a quick look at before we get out of here um I think I hit you know you know my my biggest ones let me check um should we check your guy that you’ve

Uh you’ve got you’ve become synonymous with the Tristan c casses yeah um I guess yeah something I would say about him just so I’ll just end with this I guess comparing that situation to like CJ Abrams where casus is this mid round infielder who if you just look at

Projections like you know he’s going to come out you know probably about where he’s going um and you do need to kind of take that leap of faith and say hey I think he was young player who was different you know from May on than he

Was in April especially but um and then you know particularly in the second half this guy really caught lightning in a bottle it’s an incredible home park um you know I’m not sold that the lineup’s one of the best in baseball but but the home park is really good the skills are

So good he’s someone who um could make you know a leap that we’re drafting several rounds earlier next year so when you’re when you’re looking for someone at a deep position like in field on Underdog those are kind of the questions I want to be asking myself and then you

Want to pair those players with some sturdier options so if I’ve been taking a few vanilla infielders you know just off the top of my head maybe guys like Marcus semian or Alex bregman guys who are just very projectable kind of G to be getting points every week then then I

Can add a Tristan kasus on top of that like that that’s an interesting uh infield construction to me yes excellent point all right let’s get this out of here um I guess that’s that’s our that’s our topics for the night um we are uh going to be well obviously if you’re

You’ve got to this you’ve probably looked at the rankings uh along with us we’re goingon to be releasing these together uh like I said we will be working on getting the full ones by the time the Dinger contest is out um and I don’t know what else we got on to

That I not thinking about yeah I think just you know baseball’s kind of going to be you know really picking up here a bit now that now that football is ended um if you’re enjoying the ranks let us know if if you have questions about it

Um let us all know and if if you’re if you’re angry about anything in particular then then direct that towards towards Matt and Chris that’s fine you can send me all the angry things you want I I will eat that up that’s fine just kidding we we do you know appreciate feedback especially

Especially if it’s you know in a constructive manner um yeah so it’s you know it’s it’s a lot putting you know your ranks out there and letting people pick them apart and and say like hey why why does he have this guy so low but um

I think I always try to approach these things with by giving reason and I’m definitely not afraid to say hey yeah this is this is wrong by me um Let me let me flip something here so um yeah no hope to hope that it honestly creates more conversation and questions than

Than it answers I think that would be you know a goal of ours to come from this yeah excellent excellent way to put it um next week uh I think we should have another episode of this show out uh we’re kind of maybe gonna try and get a

A guest on next week we’ll see if that lines up with other schedules but uh we’ll be back um and hopefully we’ll get Chris back uh out of the uh the world of work and uh moving and all that that he’s been busy with so uh for Brendan

And myself and Chris uh thanks for watching uh and uh enjoy those rankings