Fantasy Sports - Preseason Draft Rankings (Positions)

For those of you that participate in Yahoo leagues, many players have multiple position eligibility. Because baseball is a sport in which positional issues are paramount and most players have only one position, you need to consider the effects of players with multiple position eligibility and how to value them.

1) When putting together projections, value the player at the weakest position that they play. An example is Adam Dunn who has 1b/of eligibility, but his projections show that he is more valuable at 1b (he rates 5th at 1b and 7th in the of).......these same things occur for most of the 1b/3b eligible players as they usually end up being a few spots more valuable at 3b

2) Consider how valuable a player playing multiple positions is for low traffic days. It is pretty likely that the examples above don't add much extra valuable on Thursdays (for example), but some positional eligibility does.....mainly guys that have C eligibility (Brandon Inge) or SS/2B eligibility (Alexei Ramirez & Mike Aviles). Guys that are eligible in the middle or at C provide extra value as they can get you key at bats on days when regulars are off, or when there aren't a lot of games going on. These players are valuable in Head to Head leagues and Roto leagues with more counting stats than metrics.

In closing, considering a players extra eligibility can add some value, but don't over do it, just because a guy plays two positions generally doesn't make him much better than his projection shows. Some teams overvalue these guys, don't be them, but understand where these players do help.