Yahoo rankings

[loppantorkel]

Does anyone know what they're based upon?
There are a number of different settings that could alter the value of the players and I'm having a tough time figuring out if you can rely on Yahoo's rankings at all. Do they take your league's setting into account when providing the different ranks?
There the Pre-season rankings which can differ immensely from the Pre-draft rankings.
For example:
W. Karlsson Pre-draft rank of 72, Pre-season rank of 149, and a last season rank of 70.
A. Cirelli: 89; 251; 213
D. Toews: 153; 195; 86

I've bought the Dobber fantasy prospect guide and will take another look at it, but I still want to get a better grip on the above.

Anyone got some info to share?

[tweetdrivr]

Ignore the Yahoo rankings if you have Dobber’s. Yahoo’s rankings are not very good and probably mostly derived by a computer.

[everfeb]

Ignore the Yahoo rankings if you have Dobber’s. Yahoo’s rankings are not very good and probably mostly derived by a computer.

Sorry to jump in here,Was going to open a thread on fantrax rankings for points only compared to Dobber's guide...so hope you don't mind loppantorkel. Are the fantrax rankings generally OK. I've seen some wild differences between the 2 on the same player.? Thanks.

[tweetdrivr]

Your best bet on any of these, is to use the source you trust. Dobber and his fellow guide writers have been doing this for a long time with pretty reliable results. I don’t know who or how Yahoo or FanTrax or CBS or the NHL come up with their fantasy rankings. Oft times you see some players that are real head scratchers. In my opinion, those large site rankings are made by painting with a rather broad brush and are done with the casual fan in mind. If you are doing your research and are more serious about fantasy, you will take your trusted sources like Dobber and come up with your own draft list. This is what I do and I pay no attention whatsoever to yahoo or FanTrax or any other ranking. That being said, once you do compile a list, keep an eye out for players who you have ranked highly but your platform may not. Oft times these are players who will fall in a draft because they are ranked too low. These can be later round steals for you, the well informed GM. Looking at ADP numbers can also be quite helpful with this too.

[loppantorkel]

Your best bet on any of these, is to use the source you trust. Dobber and his fellow guide writers have been doing this for a long time with pretty reliable results. I don’t know who or how Yahoo or FanTrax or CBS or the NHL come up with their fantasy rankings. Oft times you see some players that are real head scratchers. In my opinion, those large site rankings are made by painting with a rather broad brush and are done with the casual fan in mind. If you are doing your research and are more serious about fantasy, you will take your trusted sources like Dobber and come up with your own draft list. This is what I do and I pay no attention whatsoever to yahoo or FanTrax or any other ranking. That being said, once you do compile a list, keep an eye out for players who you have ranked highly but your platform may not. Oft times these are players who will fall in a draft because they are ranked too low. These can be later round steals for you, the well informed GM. Looking at ADP numbers can also be quite helpful with this too.

I trust Dobber's rankings more, but it's some hassle to import them into the Yahoo draft rankings. One other aspect is that it's tough to convert Dobber's rankings into the specific Yahoo ruleset. ...either that or I'm not excellent with Excel files..

[tweetdrivr]

This is true and where some of the leg work/your own ideas comes in. You can also sign up on Fantasy Hockey Geek, create a league with your exact parameters, import Dobber’s data with one click, and produce a ranking from Dobber specifically for your league.

[Pengwin7]

Yahoo's rankings are pretty good.

In past years, they used a combination of the past TWO seasons of actual stats.
So guys that were injured in one of the past two years got dropped down the list pretty far.

THIS year, they've using SOMEBODY's projections/predictions.
I'm not sure whose... but there's some players that have abnormally HIGH projections... and some too LOW.
So - the hard part is figuring out which you trust.

A good way to verify:
1. Open up a Yahoo league.
2. Sort by PRE-SEASON, write down 3 players "Ranking" - I did this yesterday with Gaudreau, Lindholm, and Sam Reinhart.
3. Sort by REMAINING GAMES (PROJ), click CURRENT, write down 3 players "Ranking". Ditto.
4. Sort by 2020-21 Season (TOTAL), click Current. Kucherov, who didn't play, will sort to 1169... Panarin to 98... Makar (part injured) to 78.

In past years, these players that missed games would be farther down Yahoo list.


OK... so the important thing to know is that THIS YEAR... Yahoo's "Pre-Season" (the default) RANK is based on SOMEBODY's PROJECTIONS.
There are PROJECTIONS for a LOT of players.
I'm really curious to see where they came from.

SOME PLAYERS - did NOT get projections.
And in those cases... the "Projections" actually match last year's stats.
Ex. Somehow Arthur Kaliyev is projected for 1 shot... 1 goal... 1 block. WTF?
Well, it's because Kaliyev's actual one GP last year resulted in... 1 shot... 1 goal... 1 block.

Somehow Kaliyev gets placed at 331... even though his rank on PROJ is 919 and his rank from 20-21 was 920.

(NOTE: Ranks change from League-to-League. I'm looking at one of my leagues which uses G, A, PPP, SOG, FW, HIT, BLK)


OK... so, key here is to find players that YOU think have a Yahoo! Projection that is "too good" or "too low".
The Yahoo projections (whoever's they are)... ARE... In.My.Opinion... VERY GOOD.
Bold. Underline.

So I'd consider them... whoever's they are that Yahoo got them from.


Scour the "Remaining Games (PROJ") - though and make a list of:
TOO HIGH PROJ
TOO LOW PROJ

This will make you know when to pass on a guy when he's "on deck" in the pre-rank... and when to reach for.
Also - some guys were MOVED... shifted into higher "PRE-RANK" slots than where their PROJECTIONS take them.
This is usually for relative scarcity to players at their position... mostly D.

Some examples:
42. Quinn Hughes pre-ranks into spot 42. Probably for more scoring-centric leagues... but in a HIT, BLK league... he works out to PROJ spot 136. So a team should pass on him as a top 50 pick.
44. Aaron Ekblad. Ditto.
52. Brock Boeser. Doesn't HIT or FW... so he should be way lower for this league.

Already... in FW, HIT, BLK league... Yahoo! has guys too low. Yahoo's base format is G,A,PPP,SOG,+-,HIT... so leagues with ANY Other category (like BLK, or FW... won't have guys sorted well be Pre-Season).

61. Roope Hintz. This is first guy who is TOO HIGH, IMO. Yahoo has him at 73 with 67pts projected... I'll be surprised if he does 67pts. They also have him with 28ppp.
63. Evgeni Malkin. C'mon, the injuury.
67. Ondrej Palat. I think he's high because the assumption is that his +/- stat carries good weight, likely being +20 or so... so that really only applies in +/- leagues.


So... summary: Know what categories YOUR league has that is different from Standard Yahoo.

If your league has BLK... then guys like Quinn Hughes (who doesn't BLK a lot) should be drafted a lot later in your league.
If your league has HIT... then you should up-draft players that Yahoo isn't considering FOW from... like Elias Lindholm.

Elias Lindholm is at 84 in Yahoo - projected with the same 26g, 41a as Roope Hintz.


And also - search through projections and find stuff to say "I don't AGREE WITH THAT".
Like Roope Hintz 28ppp PROJECTED. C'mon. Not happening. So he should be lower.

PPP is a good one, it carries a lot of value... and if somebody projects it TOO HIGH or TOO LOW... that player will be ranked by Yahoo... TOO HIGH... or TOO LOW.
This is a great example. Alexis Lafreniere - as another great example... is in Yahoo Projections with a PPP total of... 0... 0ppp for Laf. No chance. But somebody did MOVE him.
His projections with 0ppp work out to a placement of 436... but somebody moved his rank spot manually to 135.

This is all good stuff to know to fully understand Yahoo Rank and how to prepare that players should/could be slightly above or below where they Rank on a Draft board.

Good luck.

[Invictus]

^^^
To add when Yahoo did them in the past based on previous two years, there would be usually 1-3 revisions after the fact to the list to fix the 'broken' players.

They may just be doing these fixes now before putting up their initial rankings.

[duntroon68]

Yahoo says their projections are “powered by Rotowire”. Weirdly, Fantrax is using the same projections. The league specific calculations aren’t too bad. Again, they depend upon the accuracy of the projections. The pre-season ranks, that first column, are all over the place.

[pmorrow]

I have always found Yahoos rankings a little bit unprofessional tbh. They have Andrew Shaw ranked fairly high, and as a result he is 7% owned. Do they just not care?

[duntroon68]

The pre-season default rankings are stupid but they do include a ranking tailored to your league which is much better. Which makes the days of taking Backes (or the modern equivalent) 200th overall in a banger heavy face off league less likely now.