As I’ve alluded to in a number of posts over the past few months, I have been hard at work on a project which so far has remained behind-the-scenes as I wait to be finished with the entire thing. As some of you who have read these posts likely know, this project is designed to be a very comprehensive set of rankings, specifically created for keeper/dynasty league players. What I want to walk you through today is how I’ve set up these ranks, what type of information you can expect to find within these ranks and when you can expect to see them.

So let’s start at the beginning with a question. How are my rankings going to be different than what you can find elsewhere on the interwebs? The simple answer is that they are the only comprehensive rankings out there that are a marriage of both major league players and prospects in the specific context of a long-term format. For example, if you want to know whether I think Wil Myers is more valuable in a dynasty league right now than Austin Jackson, you can tell that straight from my rankings. Carlos Correa vs Ian Desmond? Jonathan Singleton vs Paul Konerko? It’s all there, from both a positional standpoint and from an overall standpoint. And as you’ll be able to tell from the schedule at the bottom of the post, the rankings are going to be posted from three separate angles (the third being straight dynasty league prospect rankings).

One important thing to note about the way the rankings were set up, is that I had to assume some level of standard league type and depth in order to place the minor leaguers in the right places. For these purposes, I used approximately a 14-16 team rotisserie league as the baseline. So if you’re in a 10-team dynasty league, then the values of the minor leaguers on both the individual and positional lists should be higher for your league’s purposes, and vice versa. If I’m in a 15-team league, I’d rather have Matt Joyce than Tyler Austin, but if I’m in a 10-team league, I’d rather have Austin because Joyce is closer to replacement level, while Austin still has the same upside. On the other end of the spectrum, prospects with a lower ceiling and higher probability have more value when you’re looking through the lens of a 20-team league – so for a league like that I might bump Rob Brantly a little higher up my catcher list, or Kyle Gibson a little higher on my pitcher list, for example.

When the prospect lists run, they’ll provide a very brief comment on each player (with links to any other posts that have been written about them), along with the level they are anticipated to start at in 2013 – and unlike the position lists, they will count down from 150 to 1, because the reveal is more fun. When each position list runs, there will be some quick commentary on the position as a whole at the top, followed by the full list with notes on either individual players or tiers of players. At the end of the entire project, I will post both a Top 500 Overall list and make available an Excel file which has all of the individual rankings neatly organized in tabs for your easy reference.

So, without any further ado, here is the official schedule for when you can expect to see all of this:

January 14, 2013 – Top 150 Dynasty League Prospects, Part 1 (Nos. 150-101)
January 15, 2013 – Top 150 Dynasty League Prospects, Part 2 (Nos. 100-51)
January 16, 2013 – Top 150 Dynasty League Prospects, Part 3 (Nos. 50-1)
January 17, 2013 – Top 50 Dynasty League Prospects, 2012 Signees Only
January 22, 2013 – Top 50 Dynasty League Catchers
January 24, 2013 – Top 50 Dynasty League First Basemen
January 28, 2013 – Top 50 Dynasty League Second Basemen
January 29, 2013 – Top 50 Dynasty League Shortstops
January 31, 2013 – Top 50 Dynasty League Third Basemen
February 4, 2013 – Top 150 Dynasty League Outfielders, Part 1 (Nos. 1-75)
February 5, 2013 – Top 150 Dynasty League Outfielders, Part 2 (Nos. 76-150)
February 7, 2013 – Top 75 Dynasty League Relief Pitchers
February 11, 2013 – Top 225 Dynasty League Starting Pitchers, Part 1 (Nos. 1-75)
February 12, 2013 – Top 225 Dynasty League Starting Pitchers, Part 2 (Nos. 76-150)
February 13, 2013 – Top 225 Dynasty League Starting Pitchers, Part 3 (Nos. 151-225)
February 14, 2013 – Top 500 Dynasty League Overall Ranks

As you can tell, it’s a ton of information. The only downside to providing so much information within such a short period of time is that I’ll be cutting back on my posts between now and January 14th in order to get the whole rankings package ready. That means, I’ll likely only be posting twice a week for the next month or so. But do not fear, it will be for a very good cause and that will tick back up again after Valentine’s Day. So hopefully this whetted your appetite for what’s to come. It’s going to be a lot of fun to complete, share and participate in the discussions that will inevitably follow once everything goes live.

One important final note: I have no interest in using this project as a way to turn this into a pay site, though I do understand why some sites require subscriptions or fees for specific content. For me, what I put into The Dynasty Guru is a huge amount of time and effort, but nothing that requires me to shell out cash (except for minimal web fees). The model I’ve always wanted to take with this is the “pay what you feel is appropriate, if you feel it’s appropriate” one. Essentially that means that the information here is freely available for anyone to use, but if you feel that there’s monetary value to what I’m providing, I ask that you donate whatever you believe that monetary value is as appreciation for the hard work I’ve put in here. When the dynasty ranks go live, you are going to see a PayPal button on the top right hand corner of the homepage, which will take you directly to a place where you can securely make whatever payment you feel is appropriate for the information that I am providing, if you feel it’s appropriate.