Tier Drafting or Overall Drafting?

[daniel80111]

I just wanted to ask you guys whether you like to draft off positional tiers more or like to look at overall rankings more?? A good example of this is the first base situation this year. That position is so deep in that there are a lot of players that have high overall rankings, but the difference in tiers is not as huge as other positions. So when you're about to make a pick and you have say, Lance Berkman on the board, and also BJ Upton, do you look at the tiers and take Upton? Or do you look at their overall rank and take Lance Berkman. This is an interesting dilemma because I have quite a bit of trouble constructing my top 200 overall rankings, since I know deep down the positional scarcity that exists this year. What do you guys think? Thanks!

[Russell James]

I guess I am more of a tier drafter, but I go both ways.

[BALCO All-Stars]

I go overall first because I'm a proponent of best available, but then I use tiers to help distinguish between players that are closely ranked.

[BronXBombers51]

I split all of my positional rankings into tiers, mostly because I don't like to have it set in stone that I'll take Player A over Player B. I like to create a group of players who are around the same level, and decide what my team needs the most (if I'm lacking speed I might take Furcal over Tejada, but if I'm lacking power I might take Tejada over Furcal.)

Once I do that, I put my top 200 together. While positional scarcity is important to think about, I usually take the best player on the board early on in the draft. Guys like Upton will put up great numbers though, so it's not hard to have him ranked high on your overall list. Basically, keep scarcity in mind, but don't start taking guys like Kelly Johnson over Travis Hafner just because he plays 2B. Draft for value.

[Yoda]

I split all of my positional rankings into tiers, mostly because I don't like to have it set in stone that I'll take Player A over Player B. I like to create a group of players who are around the same level, and decide what my team needs the most (if I'm lacking speed I might take Furcal over Tejada, but if I'm lacking power I might take Tejada over Furcal.)

Once I do that, I put my top 200 together. While positional scarcity is important to think about, I usually take the best player on the board early on in the draft. Guys like Upton will put up great numbers though, so it's not hard to have him ranked high on your overall list. Basically, keep scarcity in mind, but don't start taking guys like Kelly Johnson over Travis Hafner just because he plays 2B. Draft for value.

Similar to what I do. I also have the tier list linked to overall list so that if a player gets taken, I can just find and delete a player on my tier list which will also delete that player from my overall list.

[horatio]

Given that Upton still has 2b eligibility I would take him over Berkman.

I figure I'd rather have BJ Upton and either Tod Helton or Nick Swisher than Berkman and perhaps Kelly Johnson or Dan Uggla.

Short stop is a position that concerns me the most and I'm very unlikely to grab one of the top 3 so I'd probably even look at Tulo or Guillen before Berkman. Then again I felt fine taking Berkman in the 2nd round last year so if he's still sitting there in the 4th round I sure would have a tough time not taking him and then just wait a while for possibly Furcal.

[jcook3127]

Yoda is there a simple way to do that on excel that you wouldn't mind sharing?

Over the past couple of years I've become much more into tiering in both baseball and football...and it's because of the difficulty in coming up with an overall top 200 list...

You get 20-30 deep just fine and then when it comes time to integrate the Sabathia's and Beckett's and Bedard's there really is no way to weed them into the hitters without coming out with a list that seems very arbitrary..

With Tiering, you can be relatively arbitrary without really sacrificing accuracy..because the only accuracy that matters is grouping players into the same production levels...

You also don't have to go strictly off what tiers tell you to do...it's just really a fail-safe that allows you to maximize your teams value without reaching

[daniel80111]

I split all of my positional rankings into tiers, mostly because I don't like to have it set in stone that I'll take Player A over Player B. I like to create a group of players who are around the same level, and decide what my team needs the most (if I'm lacking speed I might take Furcal over Tejada, but if I'm lacking power I might take Tejada over Furcal.)

Once I do that, I put my top 200 together. While positional scarcity is important to think about, I usually take the best player on the board early on in the draft. Guys like Upton will put up great numbers though, so it's not hard to have him ranked high on your overall list. Basically, keep scarcity in mind, but don't start taking guys like Kelly Johnson over Travis Hafner just because he plays 2B. Draft for value.

Similar to what I do. I also have the tier list linked to overall list so that if a player gets taken, I can just find and delete a player on my tier list which will also delete that player from my overall list.

Thanks for the feedback. Last year I used tier drafting and I won my league by over 20 games. It really makes it easier for me to break down what I need and how much value a player has when I use positional tiers. But then again there are so many people that use overall ranks that I get confused and bogged down by which strategy I should stick to. Sounds like you guys use a combination of both to make your picks. Do you use something similar to the cheatsheet on MDC with the tiers??

[Yoda]

I split all of my positional rankings into tiers, mostly because I don't like to have it set in stone that I'll take Player A over Player B. I like to create a group of players who are around the same level, and decide what my team needs the most (if I'm lacking speed I might take Furcal over Tejada, but if I'm lacking power I might take Tejada over Furcal.)

Once I do that, I put my top 200 together. While positional scarcity is important to think about, I usually take the best player on the board early on in the draft. Guys like Upton will put up great numbers though, so it's not hard to have him ranked high on your overall list. Basically, keep scarcity in mind, but don't start taking guys like Kelly Johnson over Travis Hafner just because he plays 2B. Draft for value.

Similar to what I do. I also have the tier list linked to overall list so that if a player gets taken, I can just find and delete a player on my tier list which will also delete that player from my overall list.

Thanks for the feedback. Last year I used tier drafting and I won my league by over 20 games. It really makes it easier for me to break down what I need and how much value a player has when I use positional tiers. But then again there are so many people that use overall ranks that I get confused and bogged down by which strategy I should stick to. Sounds like you guys use a combination of both to make your picks. Do you use something similar to the cheatsheet on MDC with the tiers??

I use ADPs. When Rookies and Cream finishes his comprehensive list then I'll probably incorporate those as well.

[glcmustliveon]

Given that Upton still has 2b eligibility I would take him over Berkman.

I figure I'd rather have BJ Upton and either Tod Helton or Nick Swisher than Berkman and perhaps Kelly Johnson or Dan Uggla.

Short stop is a position that concerns me the most and I'm very unlikely to grab one of the top 3 so I'd probably even look at Tulo or Guillen before Berkman. Then again I felt fine taking Berkman in the 2nd round last year so if he's still sitting there in the 4th round I sure would have a tough time not taking him and then just wait a while for possibly Furcal.

God I'm having fits with SS this year too. I know i'm not going to get the big 3, my brother is keeping Tulo, so it leaves me with only Guillen and Jeter to choose from. It's almost like I "have" to take one of those guys in the first or second round (remember its a keeper league, no flaming please )