Sorare Ranks Update #4 - April 20th, 2023

Another week of ranks ready to rock - complete with adjustments & improvements!

Aight fam, we are almost four weeks into the regular season.

We’ve got rookie call-ups, plenty of injuries, and numerous early-season hot starts that are pulling at the attention of the Sorare Market.

As always, some of this is warranted - since you can’t always catch a breakout player without reacting quickly.

But that isn’t what these ranks are for. These are custom-built to help you uncover the values that nobody else is paying attention to.

It may not be as sexy as overpaying for the flavor of the month, but over time you will build stronger, more competitive teams for less of your hard-earned ETH.

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Rankings

Before we dive in, I got a great question on Twitter from DaColonel3:

Is there a place where you've described the inputs for soranks?

This made me realize that a quick run-through of how I arrive at these ranks is in order. It helps you understand my process and make a reasonable conclusion on why you should pay attention (or not, you do you).

So let’s do it.

I love Excel/Google Sheets, my process starts there.

I combine industry expert redraft ranks, dynasty ranks, and projections to get a rough baseline. This helps balance the desire to “win now” in Sorare with the reality that a card purchased can be played for years to come.

Then comes the secret sauce - manual adjustments - I tinker with positional scarcity, near-term vs. long-term weights, and adjustments for the roster size of Sorare competitions. This takes a vanilla Fantasy Baseball ranking and custom fits it to Sorare MLB.

Finally, I overlay card pricing data to help outline what the manager base at large believes a player’s rank might be - I call this implied rank since it is implied by the card price - and compare it to my forward-looking ranks.

The comparison is what drives the Value and Overvalued sections below.

What you see each week in the ranks is the result of all this analysis distilled down into the simplest format I could devise.

If that sounds cool, check ‘em out using the button below ↓

Note: Value is extremely subjective.

Therefore all this is to be taken as a guide to playing the game of Sorare better over a long time horizon, not as investment advice or as the only way for a player to succeed.

This is a tool, not a magic crystal ball.

10 Value Candidates

I left Ke’Bryan Hayes off the list this week, you all already know my love for him runs deep.

• Brandon Woodruff* - MIL - SP

  • SoRank: 39 | Implied Rank: 105 | -66 slot differential

  • Yes, he has a long-term injury, but remember that multi-year outlook I mentioned before? He’s worth a look if you are willing to wait for an excellent pitcher.

• Eloy Jimenez - CWS - OF/DH

  • SoRank: 41 | Implied Rank: 110 | -69 slot differential

  • Barely back from injury and already people are fading the guy. As always, patience is your friend here. He and Luis Robert make for a fun underrated pair.

• Tommy Edman - STL - MI

  • SoRank: 71 | Implied Rank: 190 | -119 slot differential

  • Edman returns to the values this week, but the window might be small. As of this writing, he is destroying GW 6.

• George Kirby - SEA - SP

  • SoRank: 86 | Implied Rank: 167 | -81 slot differential

  • Kirby was a top prospect just last year. We’ve yet to see anything earth-shattering from him, but I’m willing to give it time.

• Christian Yelich - MIL - OF/DH

  • SoRank: 87 | Implied Rank: 155 | -68 slot differential

  • Another candidate for the “All-Unloved” team. He is a favorite of mine to slot into one of your Flex slots

• Tyler O’Neill - STL - OF

  • SoRank: 89 | Implied Rank: 222 | -133 slot differential

  • This is not just because I won an O’Neill card last week. He’s got monster power and all the tools to be a top producer. I don’t see how his 34-homer season of ‘21 is just an anomaly.

• Josh Bell - CLE - 1B/DH

  • SoRank: 131 | Implied Rank: 203 | -72 slot differential

  • He’s not been great to start the season, but he’s batting 4th for the Guardians every day. So he sucked in San Diego last year, he was great the two years before that.

• Ezequiel Tovar - COL - SS

  • SoRank: 149 | Implied Rank: 215 | -66 slot differential

  • The once-overvalued rookie has now flipped to the value section. He’s just a couple of weeks into his big-league career and plays in a highly attractive home park (Coors).

• Lucas Giolito - CWS - SP

  • SoRank: 156 | Implied Rank: 266 | -110 slot differential

  • I’m still on the Giolito train! Woot woot! I love his stuff and his potential, it just needs to come together.

• Oscar Gonzalez - CLE - OF

  • SoRank: 176 | Implied Rank: 418 | -242 slot differential

  • Another Guardian making the list. He’s young, cheap, and stacks nicely with JRam and Bell.

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10 Overvalued Candidates

As always, now it is time for the overvalues. Just a reminder, these guys are not bad - in fact, many are off to particularly hot starts. Which is why managers have jumped all over ‘em. Some were even values as recently as last week!

• Justin Verlander - NYM - SP

  • SoRank: 72 | Implied Rank: 42 | 30 slot differential

  • He’s coming back from injury already and has thus far defied traditional aging curves - but I’ll be looking elsewhere for pitching.

• Brandon Lowe - TB - 2B/DH

  • SoRank: 115 | Implied Rank: 69 | 46 slot differential

  • Hot team, hot player. I love the guy and am here for a career resurgence, but he did pop out in the model so caution is warranted.

• Max Muncy - LAD - 2B/3B/DH

  • SoRank: 117 | Implied Rank: 74 | 43 slot differential

  • Muncy was a popular sleeper coming into this season and now is off to one of the best starts in the league.

• Matt Chapman - TOR - 3B

  • SoRank: 141 | Implied Rank: 45 | 96 slot differential

  • Good gracious, he is hitting everything in sight. This is either a monumental breakout on an already great team or merely another hot start.

• Anthony Rizzo - NYY - 1B

  • SoRank: 148 | Implied Rank: 118 | 30 slot differential

  • Yankees Tax.

• Eugenio Suarez - SEA - 3B/DH

  • SoRank: 196 | Implied Rank: 106 | 90 slot differential

  • This is not the first time Suarez finds himself on the overvalued list. He’s got a lot of swing and miss to his game, but that far that has been balanced out by a nice smattering of HRs.

• Austin Hays - BAL - OF

  • SoRank: 193 | Implied Rank: 76 | 117 slot differential

  • Once a value, the sheer magnitude of the Orioles and Hays’ start has boosted his Implied Rank significantly. What a difference a week makes.

• Brandon Marsh - PHI - OF

  • SoRank: 248 | Implied Rank: 172 | 76 slot differential

  • Marsh has been tearing it up for the Phillies, and the people are taking notice.

• Brett Baty - NYM - 3B

  • SoRank: 234 | Implied Rank: 154 | 80 slot differential

  • I love this kid. He just got the call-up, so the hype is real right now.

• Joey Gallo - MIN - OF

  • SoRank: 298 | Implied Rank: 199 | 99 slot differential

  • Speaking of swing and miss… Gallo pretty much takes the cake there. Tons of power, but at what cost?

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There you have it, rankings and comments for each of my 10 & 10.

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