Sorare Ranks Update #20 - August 17th, 2023
The 20th edition of my ranks has me thinking about things we control, and things we don't in the world of Sorare MLB.
This week I was thinking about the idea of control in fantasy sports.
Or rather, the illusion of it.
You see, we play a game in which we actually have very little control over the outcomes we see each week. We only have two levers to pull. First, where to allocate our precious resources (ETH/USD). Second, how to combine the players in a way that scores a lot of points.
Sometimes that can feel like a lot of control, but I’ll repeat that I believe more and more that it is an illusion.
We don’t control far more than we do.
Players age, they develop along their own paths unique to them.
We hardly ever get to see how they deal with stress as it relates to their game.
We don’t know how they are being coached from organization to organization - this goes double for players just called up from the minors.
We don’t know what they had for breakfast, or whether their back might tighten up at the last minute (looking at you Glasnow).
I say all of this not to scare you away from playing this beautiful game, but more to acknowledge that there should always be a reasonable level of uncertainty in any of your plays.
Your job is to make the best decisions possible with the information available to hopefully be right more often than not. Not to be right all the time, that is impossible and would be no fun.
My ranks below can help with this. No, they won’t be right all the time either, but they help point out areas where you as a manager can benefit the most from being a little contrarian.
Sometimes “overvalued” players have truly broken out, but many other times they are simply on an unsustainable hot streak.
Conversely, sometimes “undervalued” players are just washed, but often they are cold for a host of potential reasons relating back to age, development, injury, new teams, and the list goes on.
In both of these areas, there is little benefit to following the crowd to either buy high or sell low.
Why not leave some room for uncertainty and go against the grain?
We don’t control as much as we think we do, after all.
Rankings
Pro tip: click or tap the top of any given column to sort the data. You can also search for a given player using the “Search in table” box.
Players with negative numbers in the “+/-” column are “Values”, while players with positive numbers in that column are considered “Overvalues.” Lastly, if the google doc was your best friend, you can still find it right here.
Please note: based on how the pricing data is pulled, some players have blanks in their +/-. This will improve over time as more and more cards continue to hit the market for each player and more data flows to the provider.
10 Value Candidates
The place where you can buy low on guys with the potential to turn things around. Apparently, I am a White Sox fan now.
Dylan Cease - CWS - SP
SoRank: 41 | Implied Rank: 126 | -85 slot differential
Xander Bogaerts - SD - SS
SoRank: 47 | Implied Rank: 171 | -124 slot differential
Eloy Jimenez - CWS - OF/DH
SoRank: 52 | Implied Rank: 157 | -105 slot differential
Byron Buxton - MIN - OF/DH
SoRank: 54 | Implied Rank: 145 | -91 slot differential
Tim Anderson - CWS - SS
SoRank: 65 | Implied Rank: 258 | -193 slot differential
Carlos Rodon - NYY - SP
SoRank: 71 | Implied Rank: 250 | -179 slot differential
Andrew Vaughn - CWS - 1B/DH
SoRank: 72 | Implied Rank: 187 | -115 slot differential
Daulton Varsho - TOR - OF/DH
SoRank: 96 | Implied Rank: 261 | -165 slot differential
Tyler O’Neill - STL - OF/DH
SoRank: 128 | Implied Rank: 282 | -154 slot differential
C.J. Cron - LAA - 1B/DH
SoRank: 149 | Implied Rank: 339 | -190 slot differential
10 Overvalued Candidates
The place where you have a chance to exit from a player that simply may not continue at the pace of the recent past.
Felix Bautista - BAL - RP
SoRank: 95 | Implied Rank: 39 | 56 slot differential
Blake Snell - SD - SP
SoRank: 120 | Implied Rank: 60 | 60 slot differential
CJ Abrams - WSH - SS
SoRank: 152 | Implied Rank: 50 | 102 slot differential
Nolan Gorman - STL - 2B/DH
SoRank: 155 | Implied Rank: 51 | 104 slot differential
Cody Bellinger - CHC - OF
SoRank: 163 | Implied Rank: 33 | 130 slot differential
Chris Sale - BOS - SP
SoRank: 229 | Implied Rank: 137 | 92 slot differential
Marcell Ozuna - ATL - OF/DH
SoRank: 285 | Implied Rank: 154 | 131 slot differential
Joey Meneses - WSH - 1B/OF
SoRank: 288 | Implied Rank: 191 | 97 slot differential
Lane Thomas - WSH - OF
SoRank: 289 | Implied Rank: 57 | 232 slot differential
Justin Steele - CHC - SP
SoRank: 292 | Implied Rank: 161 | 131 slot differential
That’s a wrap on the rankings, values, and overvalues for the week!
I would be deeply grateful if you could share these ranks with a friend, then (if you like) trot over to Twitter and toss me a follow.
It may sound silly, but it is huge for helping this newsletter grow 🙌
Good luck out there this week managers!