I finished my baseball rankings early this week, and before I tinker with them any further, I wanted to post this early snapshot. Every time I read other's people's opinions on Twitter or discuss why I have a player where I do it forces me to re-think my initial instincts, and I'm sure as we get closer to March I'll have acquired all kinds of new beliefs and habits that are take me farther from where I started.
These rankings were generated solely from clicking on the links in the RotoWire Depth Charts, team by team, and estimating (and adjusting) where each player should fall on the spread sheet. I looked at their player pages and read their 2018 Outlooks, latest news, statistical profiles, histories, health status, roles and team contexts. There was nothing scientific or especially rigorous about it except that I tried to be as comprehensive as possible and take almost nothing for granted.
Here are the results:
| C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sanchez | Goldy | Altuve | Arenado | Turner | Trout | Kershaw | Jansen |
| Posey | Freeman | Ramirez | Bryant | Correa | Stanton | Scherzer | Kimbrel |
| Contreras | Votto | Dozier | Machado | Seager | Harper | Sale | Chapman |
| Realmuto | Rizzo | Gordon | Donaldson | Lindor | Betts | Kluber | Allen |
| Perez | Abreu | Schoop | Ramirez | Bregman | Blackmon | Synderg. | Osuna |
| Molina | Encarn. | Cano | Bregman | Segura | Judge | MadBum | Knebel |
| Gattis | Bellinger | Baez | Rendon | Story | Bellinger | Strasburg | Rivero |
| Castillo | Myers | Murphy | Turner | Baez | Yelich | deGrom | Iglesias |
| Ramos | Cabrera | Merrifield | Shaw | Bogaerts | Martinez | Carrasco | Diaz |
| Zunino | Hosmer | Happ | Lamb | Andrus | Springer | Severino | Vizcaino |
| Iannetta | Posey | Taylor | Seager | Beckham | Buxton | Verlander | Hand |
| McCann | Zimmerm. | LeMahieu | Beltre | Simmons | Upton | Nola | Giles |
| Grandal | Desmond | Odor | Sano | Arcia | Ozuna | Greinke | Doolittle |
| D'Arnaud | Hoskins | Albies | Gallo | Gregorius | Marte | Quintana | W. Davis |
| A. Barnes | Olson | Moncada | Devers | M.Gonz | Pollock | Archer | Treinen |
| Lucroy | Bird | M.Gonz | Moustakas | DeJong | Benitendi | Paxton | Neris |
| Barnhart | Thames | Gennett | Longoria | Russell | Hamilton | Darvish | Colome |
| Hedges | Carpenter | Villar | Castellan. | T.Anders. | Puig | Ohtani | Bradley |
| C.Vazquez | Bour | Nunez | Nunez | Semien | Cespedes | Ray | Morrow |
| T. Murphy | Smoak | Castro | Andujar | Cozart | Pham | Cole | Herrera |
| R. Martin | Gallo | Kinsler | Healy | Peraza | Cain | Keuchel | Parker |
| Chirinos | C. Davis | Kipnis | Suarez | J.Polanco | Acuna | C.Martinez | Melancon |
| Flowers | Santana | Kingery | Franco | A.Cabrera | Eaton | Castillo | Greene |
| Suzuki | J.Mart. | C.Hernan. | Spangen. | Reyes | Inciarte | Arrieta | Brach |
| J.McCann | Healy | Harrison | Harrison | Tulowitzki | K. Davis | Walker | Rodney |
| Alfaro | Gurriel | Mondesi | Chapman | K. Marte | Desmond | Hill | A. Miller |
| Vogt | Alonso | Peraza | Gyorko | Owings | Hoskins | S. Gray | Familia |
| Castro | M.Gonz | A.Cab. | Crawford | Swanson | Braun | Tanaka | Soria |
| Gomes | McMahon | Reyes | Flores | A.Rosario | Happ | McCullers | Holland |
| Wieters | Morrison | Owings | A.Cabrera | Crawford | G.Polanco | Wood | Madson |
| Sisco | Belt | Wong | Reyes | Solarte | A. Jones | Hendricks | Claudio |
| Herrman | J. Bell | Solarte | H. Perez | Barreto | Taylor | Price | Reed |
| Joseph | A.Gonz | Drury | Torres | Galvis | Peralta | Wacha | Peacock |
| Maldonado | Mancini | Panik | Frazier | J.Mateo | McCutchen | Weaver | Devenski |
| Caratini | Bauers | D. Travis | Senzel | Rodgers | A. Garcia | Lester | Betances |
| Stassi | Moreland | B.Miller | Candelario | Mercer | Mazara | Bauer | Gregerson |
| Mejia | Flores | Barnes | Kang | Pinder | DeShields | Salazar | Robertson |
| Cervelli | Adams | Forsythe | D. Wright | Machado | Gardner | Lamet | Steckenr. |
| B.Nicholas | Mauer | Lowrie | Duffy | Difo | Hicks | Berrios | Barracl. |
| Leon | Cron | Zobrist | Arroyo | Valaika | Dahl | Gausman | Boxberger |
| Mathis | Duda | Wendle | Solarte | Torreyes | Margot | G.Gonzalez | N. Jones |
| Maxwell | D. Smith | Pedroia | Valbuena | Iglesias | M.Gonz | Happ | Petit |
| Swihart | Headley | Cecchini | E. Escobar | Hechev. | Castellan. | Manaea | Strop |
| Murphy | Valbuena | Machado | Headley | Camargo | D.Santana | C.Anderson | Hader |
| Mesoraco | Aguilar | Difo | Freese | Riddle | Kiermaier | M.Fulmer | Ramos |
| Avila | Volt | Y.Sanchez | Y.Sanchez | Ahmed | Souza | Stroman | Lyons |
| Pina | Vargas | Torreyes | Dietrich | Rojas | Kepler | Richards | Leone |
| Garver | T. Joseph | Moroff | Prado | Reddick | Samardz. | Nicasio | |
| Narvaez | A.J. Reed | Frazier | Y. Diaz | DH | Rosario | Godley | T. Hunter |
| Rupp | T. Austin | Saladino | Schimpf | Cruz | Bradley | Cueto | Neshek |
| Hundley | Hicks | Descalso | Sandoval | H.Ramirez | Haniger | Morton | Kahnle |
| R. Perez | Napoli | Sogard | B.Anderson | Morales | Schwarber | J. Gray | Kela |
| Sucre | T. White | Eaves | Cuthbert | V-Mart | Bruce | Taillon | Kittredge |
| Romine | Hearn | Asuaje | Davidson | Pujols | Nunez | Snell | Ziegler |
| Norris | M. Ford | Saladino | Ohtani | Zimmer | Mikolas | Diekman | |
| Severino | Vogelbach | A. Riley | Moss | Robles | A. Sanchez | A. Reyes | |
| Farmer | Ruiz | Herrera | Hernandez | Bedrosian | |||
| C. Kelly | Camargo | M. Taylor | Corbin | Barnes | |||
| Chavis | Tomas | Honeywell | Yates | ||||
| H. Dozier | Duval | Maeda | Hildenb | ||||
| R. Jones | Fowler | Odorizzi | Casilla | ||||
| Vlad Jr. | Schebler | Cobb | Oh | ||||
| Piscotty | Pomeranz | Kintzler | |||||
| Brantley | Ryu | Dyson | |||||
| Parra | Bundy | Edwards | |||||
| Altherr | Duffy | Cishek | |||||
| Pillar | Porcello | J.Johnson | |||||
| Grichuk | Hamels | Baez | |||||
| Soler | Faria | O'Day | |||||
| Du. Fowler | Clevinger | Minaya | |||||
| W.Calhoun | Rodon | Hirano | |||||
| Winker | E-Rod | Phelps | |||||
| Mancini | Sabathia | J.Jimenez | |||||
| Choo | Roark | J. Smith | |||||
| Trumbo | Leake | Britton | |||||
| K.Calhoun | Kopech | Albers | |||||
| Dickerson | Giolito | Strickland | |||||
| F.Cordero | Teheran | Thornburg | |||||
| N.Williams | Heaney | Olson | |||||
| Brinson | Santana | J. Ramirez | |||||
| Grandy | Chatwood | Sherfy | |||||
| Conforto | Skaggs | Tepera | |||||
| Kendrick | Shoemak. | Alvarado | |||||
| A. Frazier | R. Lopez | Andriese | |||||
| Hays | M.Montg. | S.Freeman | |||||
| Pirela | Gohara | C. Smith | |||||
| Kemp | J.Montg. | Kontos | |||||
| C. Gomez | Straily | Buchter | |||||
| Martin | Woodruff | Peralta | |||||
| T Hernan. | Marc.Gonz | K-Rod | |||||
| Owings | Lynn | W.Harris | |||||
| Mahtook | Musgrove | Feliz | |||||
| C.Gonz | Nova | Hudson | |||||
| Marisnick | Estrada | Maurer | |||||
| Bonifacio | Minor | Capps | |||||
| Delmonico | Velasquez | ||||||
| A.Jax | McHugh | ||||||
| Tilson | Marquez | ||||||
| Broxton | Newcomb | ||||||
| Profar | Dickey | ||||||
| Ellsbury | Eickhoff | ||||||
| L. Garcia | Glasnow | ||||||
| M. Smith | Stratton | ||||||
| Heyward | E. Ramirez | ||||||
| D. Fisher | Flaherty | ||||||
| Almora | B. Mitchell | ||||||
| Chisenhall | Strahm | ||||||
| H. Perez | Erlin | ||||||
| Zobrist | Junis | ||||||
| Span | Lackey | ||||||
| Pederson | Fister | ||||||
| Pence | Harvey | ||||||
| A. Toles | Wheeler | ||||||
| M. Sierra | M. Keller | ||||||
| Markakis | Whitley | ||||||
| Luplow | A. Hansen | ||||||
| Renfroe | Chen | ||||||
| Joyce | Davies | ||||||
| Maybin | Stephenson | ||||||
| Verdugo | S. Wright | ||||||
| Pearce | Gsellman | ||||||
| Canha | Kuhl | ||||||
| Carrera | Tomlin | ||||||
| Duggar | Cahill | ||||||
| J. Dyson | Lugo | ||||||
| R. Davis | T.Williams | ||||||
| A. Gordon | J. Cotton | ||||||
| Gamel | Mengden | ||||||
| V. Reyes | Folty | ||||||
| Quinn | M. Bush | ||||||
| C. Frazier | Fedde | ||||||
| Holliday | C. Green | ||||||
| B. Phillips | Urena | ||||||
| A.Alford | Kennedy | ||||||
| Naquin | Kazmir | ||||||
| Jones | Matz | ||||||
| Burns | Alcantara | ||||||
| B. Lee | DeSclafani | ||||||
| Tapia | A.J. Cole | ||||||
| Jay | Vargas | ||||||
| Werth | Y. Chirinos | ||||||
| Orlando | J. Nelson | ||||||
| Meadows | T. Ross | ||||||
| Jankowski | S. Miller | ||||||
| Engel | M. Baez | ||||||
| T. Kemp | Borucki | ||||||
| K. Tucker | M. Moore | ||||||
| Granite | Buehler | ||||||
| Pinder | F. Perez | ||||||
| Hazelb. | McKenzie | ||||||
| Bader | Wainwright | ||||||
| Brito | A. Abreu | ||||||
| J. Jones | Duplantier | ||||||
| E. Young | McCarthy | ||||||
| Descalso | Alzolay | ||||||
| Rickard | C. Fulmer | ||||||
| K. Wright | |||||||
| Burrows | |||||||
| Faedo |