FDH Fantasy Newsletter: Volume IV, Issue VIII

Welcome to our 121st edition of the FDH Fantasy Newsletter, as we continue to bring you weekly fantasy sports updates in addition to our usual content on FantasyDrafthelp.com. Our archive of past editions is available right here on The FantasyDrafthelp.com Blog and specific links to past editions are available at FantasyDrafthelp.com.

This week, we bring you the best fantasy baseball players of 2010.

Ranking Baseball’s Best in 2010

FantasyDrafthelp.com utilizes cutting-edge statistical methods in pursuit of fantasy sports value. Specifically, we use a statistic – our Ultimate Quantitative Baseline (UQB) – for baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, drag racing and NASCAR based on the concept of standard deviation from the mean. The linked explanation of the concept in Wikipedia is a bit complicated, but we include it to show the intellectual foundation of our work. What does it mean in simpler terms? Imagine, if you will, a spectrum from left to right, with zero in the middle of the spectrum. Numbers to the left of zero are negative, while numbers to the right of zero are positive. For each commonly utilized fantasy statistical category in a given sport (i.e. home runs in baseball), we calculate this standard deviation from the mean number, and then add up the numbers from all of the categories (making necessary adjustment) to find a composite score. In so doing, we measure production on a per-at bat or per-innings pitched basis in baseball or per-game or per-race basis in the other sports and NASCAR. This statistic allows you to measure proportionately how much some players help you in some categories (i.e. Carlos Pena’s home runs or Ichiro’s batting average) and exactly how much some players hurt you in some categories (i.e. Carlos Pena’s batting average or Ichiro’s home runs). While nothing that happens the previous season is a completely reliable predictor for the next season, this statistic offers the most accurate baseline possible in terms of measuring productivity.

These numbers represent the production of every player in 2010 to post a UQB number north of 300 – which is the benchmark of very good production on this system – with the exception of players with very small sample sizes. 750 is a perfect score on the UQB system for baseball.

TOP TIER

1T Jose Bautista 750

1T Miguel Cabrera 750

1T Carlos Gonzalez 750

1T Josh Hamilton 750

1T Troy Tulowitzki 750

1T Joey Votto 750

7 Albert Pujols 697

SECOND TIER

8 Justin Morneau 665

9 Brett Gardner 649

10 Kevin Youkilis 640

11 Joe Mauer 627

THIRD TIER

12 Carlos Marmol 529

13 Carl Crawford 528

14 Nelson Cruz 522

15 Alex Rodriguez 515

16 Robinson Cano 510

17 Paul Konerko 508

18 Dan Uggla 506

FOURTH TIER

19 Joakim Soria 466

20 Andrew Bailey 463

21 Heath Bell 462

22 Brian Wilson 458

FIFTH TIER

23 Jayson Werth 415

24 Hanley Ramirez 406

25 Rafael Furcal 405

26 Buster Posey 404

27 Josh Johnson 401

28 Felix Hernandez 392

29 Mark Teixeira 390

30 Rajai Davis 389

31 Ian Kinsler 388

32 John Jaso 384

33 Evan Longoria 378

34 Chase Utley 376

35 Daniel Hudson 372

36 Adam Wainwright 371 *** OUT FOR THE 2011 SEASON

37 Delmon Young 365

38 Mariano Rivera 361

39T Roy Halladay 359

39T Corey Hart 359

39T Victor Martinez 359

42T Magglio Ordonez 352

42T Juan Pierre 352

44 Dustin Pedroia 350

45 Clay Buchholz 349

46 Billy Butler 343

47T Matt Holliday 337

47T BJ Upton 337

49 Ryan Braun 334

50 Ryan Howard 325

51 Colby Rasmus 322

52T Mike Napoli 319

52T Juan Uribe 319

54T Carlos Ruiz 315

54T Rickie Weeks 315

56T Aubrey Huff 314

56T Geovany Soto 314

58 Ryan Zimmerman 312

59T Martin Prado 310

59T Drew Stubbs 310

61 David Ortiz 309

62 Adam Dunn 308

63 Carlos Quentin 307

64T Roy Oswalt 306

64T Will Venable 306

66 Omar Infante 305

67 Matt Latos 304

68 Adrian Beltre 301