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Today we continue our positional tier rankings. Last offseason, Derek Carty tackled the tiers by himself; this spring, we've decided to attack them as a team. Players at each position will be divided into five tiers, represented by the number of stars.

Five-star players are the studs at their respective position. In general, they are the players that will be nabbed in the first couple of rounds of the draft, and they'll fetch auction bids in excess of $30. Four-star players are a cut below the studs at the position. They will also be earl- round selections, and they're projected to be worth more than $20 in most cases. Three-star players are the last tier in which players are projected to provide double-digit dollar value in auctions, and two-star players are projected to earn single digits in dollar value in auctions. One-star players are late round sleepers and roster placeholders. As was the case with our positional rankings series, the positional tiers aren't simply a regurgitation of the projected PECOTA values.

We retained last year's roster requirements for the positional tier series. Dollar values come from our PFM using a 12-team, standard 5×5 scoring format, with 23-man rosters and the following positions: C (2) 1B (1) 2B (1) 3B (1) SS (1) CI (1) MI (1) OF (5) UT (1) P (9). The minimum bid for players is $1, and, as we did last year, we'll allocate $180 of a $260 budget to hitters. Players needed to play in 20 games at a position to qualify there. The PFM is customizable, so if your league uses a different format, you can adjust it to match your league settings and see how it impacts players’ dollar values.

You can find the previous Fantasy Tier Rankings posts here:

We have split the outfielders into two articles. The National League tiers are below; you can find the American League tiers here. 

Five Star

Player

POS

Team

Mixed $

NL $

PA

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

Ryan Braun

LF

MIL

$43.69

$40.09

679

102

34

107

24

0.302

Matt Kemp

CF

LAN

$35.92

$36.03

691

97

30

97

26

0.282

Carlos Gonzalez

LF

COL

$20.66

$27.69

565

79

23

81

19

0.298

Unlike other positions on the diamond, outfield is deep enough where the five-star cutoff sits at $35 as opposed to $30. This is especially true in the National League, where you could make cogent arguments to expand this tier and include Andrew McCutchen, Giancarlo Stanton, and/or Justin Upton. Gonzalez is the guy some might question here—and PECOTA doesn’t like him—but even taking his ridiculous 2010 out of the equation, he earned $30+ in 2011 and 2012. His production is sort of “boring” for a top-tier player, but the stability is worth a few extra bucks. Braun almost deserves his own tier; if he isn’t suspended due to the Biogenesis matter, he’s a safe number-one pick in any format.

Five Star Value Pick: Gonzalez, for the reasons already mentioned.

Four Star

Player

POS

Team

Mixed $

NL $

PA

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

Andrew McCutchen

CF

PIT

$26.29

$30.29

681

90

22

87

24

0.278

Giancarlo Stanton

RF

MIA

$31.64

$29.01

631

93

40

110

6

0.267

Justin Upton

RF

ATL

$21.92

$27.15

644

85

24

85

19

0.272

Bryce Harper

CF,RF

WAS

$21.79

$27.39

682

86

23

85

23

0.257

Jason Heyward

RF

ATL

$19.87

$24.04

655

93

23

76

16

0.257

If you wind up with any of these players as your first outfielder, you’re not going to shed a tear, but there are just enough questions to keep all of them out of the five-star group. McCutchen’s BABIP should correct, pushing down his batting average along with the rest of his counting stats. Stanton fails to crack the top-tier not because of unfounded concerns about his RBI/runs, but because without significant speed or a higher average, he just can’t get there. The temptation is to push Harper up, but at the tender age of 20, there’s just as much room for slippage as there is for growth—at least this year.

Four-Star Value Pick: It’s tough to call any of these players a true “value” pick, but Heyward comes closest to fitting the bill. PECOTA takes a dimmer view of him than the rest of these outfielders, but he’ll come a little bit cheaper than McCutchen, has a longer track record than Harper, and comes with fewer injury concerns than J. Upton.

Three Star

Player

POS

Team

Mixed $

NL $

PA

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

B.J. Upton

CF

ATL

$17.94

$27.40

605

89

17

59

37

0.245

Jay Bruce

RF

CIN

$12.53

$19.89

559

74

28

84

7

0.254

Matt Holliday

LF

SLN

$18.26

$23.32

616

81

23

86

7

0.292

Allen Craig

1B,RF

SLN

$16.78

$21.52

617

84

25

80

4

0.28

Shin-Soo Choo

RF

CIN

$22.08

$26.27

641

94

21

74

19

0.275

Hunter Pence

RF

SFN

$7.09

$17.78

595

68

18

73

9

0.266

Carlos Gomez

CF

MIL

$7.38

$22.51

537

69

14

53

34

0.245

Carlos Beltran

RF

SLN

$13.16

$20.41

582

82

21

70

10

0.273

The three-star outfielders are either players that do a little bit of everything well but don’t do anything spectacularly, or one- or two-category giants that have deficiencies elsewhere. Choo is a strong example of the former: He’ll contribute in all five-categories but is unlikely to come out of nowhere and suddenly blast 30 homers or swipe 30 bags. Although PECOTA sees a regression in steals for Pence, he fits this mold as well.

Bruce is every expert’s darling this year, but the low batting average and lack of speed make him a reach anywhere past this point. He has been going for a comparable draft pick/salary to Holliday even though his isolated power hasn’t increased significantly or shown any real growth in the last three years. A 40-45 bomb explosion from Bruce would be exciting, but PECOTA is right on here; he hasn’t done anything to show that this is a given in 2013.

Three-Star Value Pick: Batting average concerns add some risk to his profile, but Gomez has the potential to be a $30 earner in NL-only formats. The power spike was legitimate, and with the Brewers buying out Gomez’s free agent years to the tune of three years and $24 million, unless he hits .200 or so, Gomez will play. In standard 5×5 leagues, Gomez earned just about as much per plate appearance as Stanton did in 2012.

Two Star

Player

POS

Team

Mixed $

NL $

PA

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

Martin Prado

3B,LF

ARI

$7.72

$18.60

647

68

13

72

9

0.284

Carl Crawford

LF

LAN

$2.30

$18.58

486

65

9

43

27

0.268

Norichika Aoki

RF

MIL

$17.17

$27.79

617

84

9

55

32

0.3

Ben Revere

CF,RF

PHI

$3.00

$20.61

561

67

3

36

35

0.271

Andre Ethier

RF

LAN

$5.31

$15.60

563

66

19

74

2

0.275

Michael Cuddyer

1B,RF

COL

$2.93

$15.75

502

61

17

66

8

0.276

Angel Pagan

CF

SFN

$13.97

$25.41

669

83

8

55

33

0.27

Jayson Werth

RF

WAS

$9.68

$19.52

567

73

20

73

14

0.257

Dexter Fowler

CF

COL

$7.85

$18.38

624

79

9

58

16

0.274

Starling Marte

LF

PIT

$11.43

$23.00

591

78

14

57

26

0.266

Cameron Maybin

CF

SDN

$0.53

$16.43

535

62

9

50

23

0.253

Corey Hart

CF

SDN

($2.44)

$12.00

422

52

17

59

6

0.264

More than half of the hitters in the two-star tier are either pure-speed plays or provide most of their value through steals. In a mixed league, if you’re going to take one of these guys, you definitely want to grab some power with your speed. Marte and Crawford fit this profile.

The non-speed players here are mostly older veterans who provide stability but are unlikely to break out in any big way. Ethier and Cuddyer are okay to own, but if you’re banking on these guys as the cornerstones of your imaginary franchise, you’ve got a big problem.

Prado is probably going to slot in at third base in most leagues, but it’s worth mentioning that he’s been a pretty strong option in the outfield in two of the last three years. He does a little bit of everything and should continue to provide this kind of stability for the Diamondbacks and his fantasy teams.

If Werth can stay on the field, he could shoot past this group as well. Opinions are mixed on Werth, to say the least: I’ve seen him go early in drafts, but I’ve also seen him sit around for a long time. A 20/15 season like PECOTA projects would be nice.

Two-Star Value Pick: Aoki gets a lot of fantasy press/buzz, but Pagan will probably put up nearly the same numbers and is going much lower in drafts according to ADP. He offers more power than speed-only types like Revere do and won’t get pushed up by the hype machine the way that Marte will. He’s a boring pick, but I like my boring picks with 30+ steals and a batting average that won’t hurt me.

One Star

Player

POS

Team

Mixed $

NL $

PA

R

HR

RBI

SB

AVG

Adam Eaton

CF

ARI

$5.99

$20.46

547

73

6

45

28

0.281

Jason Kubel

LF

ARI

$3.18

$14.04

534

63

22

74

1

0.257

Alfonso Soriano

LF

CHN

$5.43

$15.80

552

66

25

77

6

0.237

Garrett Jones

1B,RF

PIT

$6.52

$16.84

566

67

23

76

7

0.25

Juan Pierre

LF

MIA

($5.04)

$14.78

448

53

0

26

30

0.277

Ryan Ludwick

LF

CIN

($0.01)

$12.31

484

58

21

69

1

0.254

Carlos Quentin

LF

SDN

$2.93

$13.78

495

64

23

72

2

0.251

Tyler Colvin

1B,CF,RF

COL

$2.44

$14.41

507

65

20

63

6

0.255

Denard Span

CF

WAS

$4.85

$18.17

604

73

6

49

20

0.279

Justin Ruggiano

LF,CF

MIA

$6.52

$19.30

552

67

16

65

19

0.259

Cody Ross

LF,RF

ARI

$1.00

$13.51

535

60

18

69

5

0.253

Jon Jay

CF

SLN

$3.95

$16.91

571

70

9

52

14

0.285

Logan Morrison

1B,LF

MIA

($2.13)

$9.13

486

54

14

59

1

0.253

Delmon Young

LF,DH

PHI

($9.30)

$7.88

409

42

12

49

2

0.27

Will Venable

CF,RF

SDN

($4.46)

$12.86

421

50

11

46

19

0.247

Lucas Duda

LF,RF

NYN

($6.30)

$8.47

414

49

16

55

1

0.253

Domonic Brown

LF,RF

PHI

($1.28)

$12.80

492

59

15

56

9

0.255

David DeJesus

CF,RF

CHN

($0.75)

$12.02

555

66

11

53

6

0.263

The negative values in the mixed column are no accident. You might disagree about who belongs in the red and who doesn’t, but this is mostly NL-only territory.

Ruggiano’s power-speed combination makes him look miscast here, but a .401 BABIP in 2012 screams fluke. Jason Collette identified Ruggiano as a candidate to be designated for assignment by this summer, and I think Jason is absolutely correct. Avoid Ruggiano if he creeps past the one-star tier.

This tier is a good source for some cheap power in 2013, though. PECOTA projects six of these outfielders to hit 20+ home runs and 10 to hit 15 or more. The downside is the subpar batting averages that are tied to most of these players.

One-Star Value Pick: Ludwick. You’re unlikely to find a single fantasy website singing Ludwick’s praises, which of course is what makes him a value pick. Naysayers will look at Ludwick’s career and point to poor numbers in 2010-2011, but pitcher-friendly parks were the culprits in both cases. Unless Billy Hamilton steals (haha, steals) his job midyear, Ludwick is a fairly safe bet for 20 home runs.

Thank you for reading

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jlowery
3/25
How could Braun possibly be worth less in NL-only than he is worth in mixed formats?
MikeGianella
3/25
The replacement level player in NL-only is much worse than in mixed. In a mixed format, Cody Ross or someone similar is going to be available in the free agent pool, which is why Ross is valued at $1. Since there are so many players like Ross floating around, the value of Braun "increases" since while there a theoretically a dozen Cody Ross types out there at one time or another there is only one Ryan Braun.
ares1800jr
3/25
with G Parra, going to play 8+ weeks, what are the chances that he plays well enough so that he cant be benched? is he still just a 1 star kinda guy?
MikeGianella
3/25
That's an excellent question. My thinking is that Eaton will probably get the job back when he returns, so I'd leave Parra in the one-star category. He could certainly move forward if Eaton flops or if Parra is incredible, but based on what we know today, still one-star for me.
misterjohnny
3/25
This would have been helpful Friday, as would the Nationals Top 10 prospects list.
Dillon415
3/26
What is the story with this Puig guy in LA? Worth snagging in a mixed 12-team?
sporer24
3/26
Probably not, Dillon, unless y'all have super-deep rosters. It'd still be a huge upset if he made the squad.