2025 Fantasy Baseball: Top 250 BestBall Cheat Sheet Rankings
With pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training over the next week, the interest in fantasy baseball will start to gain momentum and eyeballs. I’ve researched and documented about 250 MLB players to help fantasy owners prepare for the drafts over the next six weeks. Here are some key points about the rankings:
I wrote players in groups of 15 based on early ADPs from the National Fantasy Baseball Championship. Once I started this process, I had to stay in an ADP time frame to ensure I didn’t miss any players that might jump up a tier by changing the date of research data.
After writing about 15 players at a position by their ADP, I reranked them from my research. I’ve only documented 15 players at each position in the infield, but there will be cases where I like a player from the remaining unresearched options. For example, Masyn Winn ranks 15th at shortstop by the latest ADPs in the NFBC. I haven’t done his player profile, so he doesn’t rank in the top 15. I know he will after documenting his player write-up.
When making my way through outfielder and starting pitchers, I did 75 players at each position. I didn’t jump players from one grouping to another. Another example: In the second group of 15 starting pitchers, I moved Hunter Brown up to SP31 but not into the next tier (too much jockeying of text), where I believe he’ll move to when the lights come on in spring training.
When researching ADPs, the goal is to find public opinion on players at each position – who is moving up and down? A sliding player doesn’t necessarily mean he will be a value. This data is often news-driven, but the fantasy market over projects in some instances while dropping the ball in others. Draft players you like and buy sliding players if your view is against the grain.
I haven’t written about any DH player (next week) other than Shohei Ohtani (l listed him as an OF1 when writing about the players). I’m working on each team’s bullpen this week, but I haven’t researched the closers ranked 16 through 30. I included them by ADP but removed handcuff options and placed them in the closer-in-waiting tier (not ranked yet).
Here are my top 250 players until I swing back through the infield next week:
Top 15 Catchers and First Basemen
Top 15 Second and Third Basemen
Top 15 Shortstop and Top 15 Outfielders
Second and Third Outfielders
Fourth and Fifth Outfielders
Designated Hitters and Top 15 Starting Pitchers
Second and Third Starting Pitchers
Fourth and Fifth Starting Pitchers
All 30 Potential Closer
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With 20+ years of experience in the high-stakes fantasy market, I aim to research and compete at the highest level in baseball and football each season. I've contributed as a writer/analyst for Sports Draft Daily, ScoutPro, Scout Fantasy, Fulltime Fantasy, FFToolbox, and Sports Illustrated Fantasy. I'm honored to be in the National Fantasy Baseball Championship Hall of Fame. My drafting philosophy is risk-averse yet open to betting on potential game-changers. I approach player selection with a neutral perspective, acknowledging that fantasy sports are inherently unpredictable due to injuries, performance dips, and managerial decisions. My work focuses on these main areas: - Season-long fantasy baseball and football - BestBall Baseball and Football Events - Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS): DraftKings, FanDuel, and Underdog - Long Shot Player Prop Parlays for NFL I participate in various leagues and contests, including NFBC, NFFC, RTSports, FFPC, DraftKings, Underdog Fantasy, FanDuel, and FFWC, with the goal of leveraging my extensive experience and research for success in each game format. A fantasy follower can expect in-depth profiles of NFL and MLB players, along with season-long and weekly projections for each fantasy football season. In addition, I have many strategy articles to help develop fantasy players' learning curves.