Something Really Annoying About Yahoo Rankings.

[abrunn11]

I just figured out that the yahoo player rankings are not based on your league settings. I am in a 9 x 5 league and the players rankings in that league are identical to the player rankings in my 5 x 5 league. I am not talking about O-rank or pre-season rankings, I am talking about current rankings. At first, I was really annoyed by this. Then I thought about it and how I can really take advantage of people with this knowledge. I figure at the 1/2 point of the season I will be able to do my own ranking with the formula that I already have and exploit this via trades. A person who is ranked 15th overall in the yahoo rankings could very well be the #1 ranked player and vice versa. You see how i can use this to my advantage. What do you guys think about this?

[SirDunkALot]

Well, it'd be something great to see if it adjusted to your settings. However, you've already done your homework anyway.

But then again, Yahoo is a free service and it's already good enough for me. I'm not complaining.

[nebgib5]

yahoo ranks really cannot be trusted in any sport. the algorithm they use is not terribly sound, and there are better tools you can use to gauge player value. if somebody in your league puts a lot of weight into them, you should certainly use that to your advantage.

[j24jags]

yahoo ranks really cannot be trusted in any sport. the algorithm they use is not terribly sound, and there are better tools you can use to gauge player value. if somebody in your league puts a lot of weight into them, you should certainly use that to your advantage.

Does anybody really know what exactly the algorithm they use is?

[bigken117]

Their rankings are like that in all sports. They run by default league settings. I won a bet with a friend on it because Kyle Korver was ranked something like 15th in one of my hoops leagues where 3 pointers didn't count.

[abrunn11]

I already have all of my formulas set up from my pre-season rankings. All I have to do is replace the projections with the actual stats and see who is the most valuable. As for other putting a lot of stock in yahoo rankings, i'd be willing to bet they rely solely on them.

[mbuser]

i agree that it wouldn't be a bad thing if the rankings were tailored to each league. i'm not an engineer and can't speak of the volume of effort that would entail though

that said, the in-season rankings should should be a bit improved this season

[Fantasy Sports Genie]

yahoo ranks really cannot be trusted in any sport. the algorithm they use is not terribly sound, and there are better tools you can use to gauge player value. if somebody in your league puts a lot of weight into them, you should certainly use that to your advantage.

Does anybody really know what exactly the algorithm they use is?

A fine point. Heck, to REALLY know, you'd have to have written the code or something

So I've written a fair amount about this in other threads. It is a popular topic. To sum up:

- Yes, statistical rankings are based off default league settings and always have been. It is on my (ever growing) to-do list to investigate tailoring rankings to each league. We know you want it, we'd love to do it, but there are performance concerns, and none of us would be happy if we implemented it and it brought the site to its knees

- The O-Rank involves hand tuning by our experts. This means it will never be tailored to individual leagues. It also means if you disagree with them, there is probably an interesting discussion to be had, because they are quite subjective.

- The other rankings (Season, Monthly, Weekly) are done using a purely statistical method that I rewrote in the last few months. Prior to that, I'd say our algorithm earned any naysaying it was getting here. Since it was rewritten, you are of course still welcome to doubt them, but while I'm not at liberty to say exactly what we're doing, it is nothing overly revolutionary, and our rankings don't seem to vary wildly from any number of other online sources at this point. In terms of trends, we don't seem to value pitching quite as highly as some others. But the differences are relatively subtle at this point.

Hope this helps...

[bravesfan07]

I've always wondered if rankings were done based on basic league settings or customized. Our league customizes things a great deal and I now need to see how to modify rankings for myself to rip off some people in trades. Pretty much everyone in our league relies on the player rankings when considering trades.

[abrunn11]

I've always wondered if rankings were done based on basic league settings or customized. Our league customizes things a great deal and I now need to see how to modify rankings for myself to rip off some people in trades. .

I agree completely. This is probably a good thing that we can use to our advantages.