Overall ranking method with 3 RB/WR flex positions

[packattack 0]

Last year, I was in a league (and I'm in the same league this year) with 1 QB, 1 RB, 1 WR, 1 TE and 3 RB/WR flex starters. I went with the Compiler Recommended method which favors RB's significantly over WR's and got punished for it.

 

I watched as many of the WR's that I passed over in favor of RB's (because the Compiler Recommended method had RB's ranked higher than the WR's that I passed over) outpeformed my running backs, badly in some cases.

 

I can see that in a league with no flex positions that RB's should be given more weight than WR's because of their scarcity and their consistency. But when you combine them as flex players you take away the element of scarcity. RB's are still more consistent than WR's but not nearly enough to justify the drastically heavy weighting that the Compiler Recommended method gives them.

 

So what method of overall ranking would you recommend in this league? I would think that a modified form of the Compiler RFecommenred method would be in order, where the RB's would only be weighted slightly more than the WR's.

 

(BTW, in spite of the troubles described above, I still managed to sneak into the playoffs and pull off a win in the league championship game, thanks to a handcuff of Travis Henry to McGahee and in-season FA acquisitions of Drew Brees, Jason Witten and Lee Evans.)

[Mike MacGregor 20]

So, you won right?

 

What RB did you take over WR you would have otherwise drafted? Obviously a guy like Kevan Barlow was a bad pick last year, and someone like Muhammad was a great late pick, but those discrepancies are more to do with projections than the overall ranking method. Not that anyone could have projected Muhammad to have that season he did.

 

How about you copy in your overall rankings this year based on the Compiler Recommended. Say, top 50, and make sure to include the FF points for comparison. Also, how many teams are in the league?

[packattack 0]

Well, I wish that I had last year's compilations still around but I don't. I can show you the top 50 overall for this year that I received using the Compiler Recommended method. I don't have to point out the aberrations produced by it; they are pretty apparent. Just look, for example, at all of the RB's listed before Owens and Harrison.

 

I'm not saying that I would or did ever blindly follow the overall rankings, but I used it strongly as a guide.

 

This is for a 10-team league, by the way. Here is the top 50:

 

LaDainian Tomlinson

Peyton Manning

Priest Holmes

Shaun Alexander

Willis McGahee

Edgerrin James

Daunte Culpepper

Deuce McAllister

Randy Moss

Domanick Davis

Rudi Johnson

Tiki Barber

Donovan McNabb

Ahman Green

Clinton Portis

Julius Jones

Corey Dillon

Kevin Jones

Terrell Owens

Antonio Gates

Marvin Harrison

Jamal Lewis

Tony Gonzalez

Torry Holt

Curtis Martin

Javon Walker

Brian Westbrook

Chad Johnson

Steven Jackson

LaMont Jordan

Tatum Bell

Reggie Wayne

Joe Horn

Trent Green

Brett Favre

Warrick Dunn

Fred Taylor

Andre Johnson

Jason Witten

Drew Bennett

Michael Bennett

Marc Bulger

Darrell Jackson

Ronnie Brown

Michael Clayton

Carnell 'Cadillac' Williams

Kevan Barlow

Alge Crumpler

Nate Burleson

Todd Heap

 

 

Certainly, the RB's should get some extra weight because of their consistency, but this is going way overboard. RB scarcity should not be an issue in this case, IMHO.

 

I'm going to switch to the "Last Starter Drafted" method and set some baseline adjustment, giving the RB's more weight than WR's, but not this much more. What would you suggest would be a good ajustment in this case, or would you stick to the RB/1.2 and WR/0.9 adjustment that gave me the results shown above?

[abhall 0]

My league uses the same lineup format. I adjusted the baseline for RB's to 1.1.

Originally, my baseline rank was 36 now it's set at 33.

 

Using last starter drafted with your format I have Owens and Chad Johnson ahead of Barber, Dillion, D. Davis based on FF Today's projections. None of those receivers listed above outscored any those RB's last year. And it wasn't even close either.

 

Unfortunately, I don't have time to try to prove how valuable RB's are when having the 3 RB/WR Flex option, but I would take these RB's over Owens and Harrison every day of the week.

 

Clinton Portis

Julius Jones

Corey Dillon

Kevin Jones

 

 

Keep in mind, this year there are less RBBC and a few RB's have emerged as potential dominating RB#1 's - McGahee, K. Jones, J. Jones. Last year a few WR's had huge years - Muhammad, Harrison, Owens so I understand your frustation if you drafted RB's ahead of them. I don't think the compiler recommended ranking method is flawed though..........

[Mike MacGregor 20]

Can you include the projected fantasy points for the top 50 from the Compiler? Then I could tell better whether I agree or disagree with the ranking of players to fill the flex spots.

[duntoldya' 0]

Hey Mike,

 

Great product, but as a rookie, I'm still trying to learn it. Have a question for you... my league only requires starting 1 QB, 1 WR, 1 Def, 1 K, and 5 WR/TE/RB flex positions. What would be the best method to set my baselines? I have the 1st pick and plan on selecting Peyton, and selecting the best possible player on the draft board after that, but under every scenario that I set my baselines and overall ranking method, Manning ends up in the 20's and 30's overall. How can I set the compiler to focus on the best player only and for the most part, ignore the positional rankings?

 

Also, for some reason, Ty Detmer ends up very high on the draft board each time.. one, I didn't know he was still playing. Two, is it something I did? Three, perhaps you are BYU fan and just playing a joke.

 

Thanks

d

[Mike MacGregor 20]

I have a weird sense of humor sometimes but not that weird. Not sure what is going on with Detmer in your copy. He should have nil projections, and therefore 0 projected fantasy points. Go to the QB tab, find him and see what is up on his row.

 

As for your league, given you start 6 skill position players vs. only 1 QB, the Compiler is unlikely to recommend Manning very high as you can tell. I would agree with that call to not draft Manning in the 1st unless your league scoring really rewards QB a lot more than RB/WR. The post by packattack not withstanding, I believe using the Compiler Recommended with no additional baseline adjustments is the way to go for your overall rankings.

[duntoldya' 0]

Hey Mike,

 

Thanks for the quick response... although i'm still a little confused. I just ran my compiler again and I'll give you an example:

FFPts

LaDainian Tomlinson 360.5

Priest Holmes 354.1

Willis McGahee 334.3

Shaun Alexander 332.7

Edgerrin James 308.0

Tiki Barber 290.2

Corey Dillon 289.2

Deuce McAllister 284.8

Julius Jones 282.0

Jamal Lewis 273.9

Clinton Portis 272.5

Kevin Jones 271.3

Rudi Johnson 268.4

Domanick Davis 263.5

Steven Jackson 261.8

LaMont Jordan 261.2

Randy Moss 341.9

 

This is how my overall rankings are appearing. My flex positions (WR/RB/TE) should be only based on total FF Pts, not on how important each position is... i.e. LaMont Jordan is ranked over Randy Moss even though there's a 80 point difference. Is is something that I'm doing wrong in scoring or on the baseline? How can I rank based on FF pts? I've read all the help sections and I hate to bother you...

 

Also, we award extra points for completion %... (also why Peyton is valuable)... is there a way to add that to the scoring?

thanks for your patience,

d

[packattack 0]

OK, Mike, I've re-run my compilations because I had messed up the number of backups, but I think my original point remains the same. The real Compiler Recommended rankings and numbers are this:

 

Rank Pos Player FF Pts Value

1 RB LaDainian Tomlinson 244.6 149.5

2 RB Priest Holmes 229.3 134.3

3 RB Shaun Alexander 226.1 131.1

4 QB Peyton Manning 354.8 118.6

5 RB Willis McGahee 193.9 98.9

6 RB Edgerrin James 189.2 94.1

7 RB Deuce McAllister 180.2 85.1

8 RB Domanick Davis 175.7 80.7

9 RB Rudi Johnson 175.6 80.5

10 RB Tiki Barber 174.7 79.7

11 RB Ahman Green 173.7 78.6

12 RB Clinton Portis 171.3 76.2

13 RB Julius Jones 167.9 72.9

14 RB Corey Dillon 167.9 72.8

15 RB Kevin Jones 167.7 72.7

16 QB Daunte Culpepper 308.6 72.4

17 WR Randy Moss 177.2 64.5

18 RB Jamal Lewis 157.7 62.6

19 QB Donovan McNabb 295.3 59.1

20 RB Curtis Martin 153.2 58.1

21 RB Brian Westbrook 152.1 57.1

22 RB Steven Jackson 150.2 55.1

23 RB LaMont Jordan 149.4 54.3

24 WR Terrell Owens 164.4 51.7

25 RB Tatum Bell 145.9 50.9

26 WR Marvin Harrison 162.3 49.6

27 TE Antonio Gates 124.9 45.9

28 WR Torry Holt 155.7 42.9

29 TE Tony Gonzalez 120.9 41.8

30 WR Javon Walker 153.2 40.5

31 WR Chad Johnson 152.7 39.9

32 RB Warrick Dunn 132.1 37.0

33 RB Fred Taylor 130.8 35.7

34 RB Michael Bennett 127.1 32.0

35 WR Reggie Wayne 144.1 31.3

36 RB Ronnie Brown ® 125.7 30.7

37 RB Carnell 'Cadillac' Williams ® 124.1 29.1

38 WR Joe Horn 141.6 28.9

39 RB Kevan Barlow 122.6 27.5

40 RB DeShaun Foster 119.3 24.3

41 QB Trent Green 258.3 22.1

42 RB J.J. Arrington ® 116.8 21.7

43 RB Chris Brown 115.5 20.5

44 WR Andre Johnson 131.6 18.9

45 QB Brett Favre 253.1 16.9

46 WR Drew Bennett 128.0 15.3

47 WR Darrell Jackson 127.1 14.4

48 WR Michael Clayton 125.9 13.2

49 TE Jason Witten 91.1 12.0

50 QB Marc Bulger 247.2 11.0

 

 

My original point was that RB's are given too much weight relative to WR's in this format (1 RB, 1WR and 3 RB/WR flex positions). Randy Moss is rated behind 14 RB's and guys like Drew Bennett are listed behind Chris Brown. In retrospect, I can see how I got into trouble last year by using this overall ranking method.

 

Before the weighting adjustments, the compiler set the RB baseline at 29 and the WR baseline at 21 (the 29th RB has about the same number of FF points as the 21st WR). That seems quite logical (assuming that there are 50 starters and 50 backups drafted). But then the weighting of RB/1.2 and WR/0.9 knocked that out of whack, resulting in the list shown above.

 

My contention is that a more modest disparity between RB and WR rating (e.g., RB/1.05, WR/1.0) would be in order in this case because scarcity of RB's is no longer an issue. When the 2 positions are combined, there are plenty of players to supply the 10 teams in the league. I would still apply a weighting adjustment to RB's to account for their superior consistency.

 

Using the Last Starter method, with adjustments of QB/0.8, RB/1.05, WR/1.0 and TE/0.65, here is the list that I generated and which I am inclined to use:

 

Rank Pos Player FF Pts Value

1 RB LaDainian Tomlinson 244.6 141.1

2 RB Priest Holmes 229.3 125.9

3 RB Shaun Alexander 226.1 122.7

4 QB Peyton Manning 354.8 118.6

5 RB Willis McGahee 193.9 90.5

6 RB Edgerrin James 189.2 85.7

7 RB Deuce McAllister 180.2 76.7

8 QB Daunte Culpepper 308.6 72.4

9 RB Domanick Davis 175.7 72.3

10 RB Rudi Johnson 175.6 72.1

11 RB Tiki Barber 174.7 71.3

12 RB Ahman Green 173.7 70.2

13 RB Clinton Portis 171.3 67.8

14 WR Randy Moss 177.2 66.1

15 RB Julius Jones 167.9 64.5

16 RB Corey Dillon 167.9 64.4

17 RB Kevin Jones 167.7 64.3

18 QB Donovan McNabb 295.3 59.1

19 RB Jamal Lewis 157.7 54.2

20 WR Terrell Owens 164.4 53.3

21 WR Marvin Harrison 162.3 51.2

22 RB Curtis Martin 153.2 49.7

23 RB Brian Westbrook 152.1 48.7

24 RB Steven Jackson 150.2 46.7

25 RB LaMont Jordan 149.4 45.9

26 TE Antonio Gates 124.9 45.9

27 WR Torry Holt 155.7 44.5

28 RB Tatum Bell 145.9 42.5

29 WR Javon Walker 153.2 42.1

30 TE Tony Gonzalez 120.9 41.8

31 WR Chad Johnson 152.7 41.5

32 WR Reggie Wayne 144.1 32.9

33 WR Joe Horn 141.6 30.5

34 RB Warrick Dunn 132.1 28.6

35 RB Fred Taylor 130.8 27.3

36 RB Michael Bennett 127.1 23.6

37 RB Ronnie Brown ® 125.7 22.3

38 QB Trent Green 258.3 22.1

39 RB Carnell 'Cadillac' Williams ® 124.1 20.7

40 WR Andre Johnson 131.6 20.5

41 RB Kevan Barlow 122.6 19.1

42 QB Brett Favre 253.1 16.9

43 WR Drew Bennett 128.0 16.9

44 WR Darrell Jackson 127.1 16.0

45 RB DeShaun Foster 119.3 15.9

46 WR Michael Clayton 125.9 14.8

47 RB J.J. Arrington ® 116.8 13.3

48 WR Nate Burleson 123.3 12.2

49 RB Chris Brown 115.5 12.1

50 TE Jason Witten 91.1 12.0