Last Player Picked

Did you know that you can add the Price Guide’s dollar values to your fantasy league’s website (Yahoo, ESPN, CBS Sportsline, or Allstar Stats)? Here’s what it looks like on a public CBS league:

These are dollar values that are customized to whatever settings your league is using and that only show up on your computer. During the preseason, you can use the projected stats on this site or your own customized projections. Once the season starts, you might instead show each player’s actual, year-to-date dollar value.

The dollar values are easy to add. Since CBS already has their leagues up, here is all you need to do to add them:

1. Download Mozilla Firefox and Greasemonkey. Firefox is an internet browser that works as an alternative to Internet Explorer. Greasemonkey is an add-on to Firefox that allows you to customize how pages appear.

2. Enter your CBS Sports league settings into the Price Guide. For a public league, you should only need to change the number of teams from 12 to 10. If you use “Standard Roto” (i.e. 4×4) rules, you will also want to remove batter runs and pitcher strikeouts. (If you have a Premium league at CBS, you may need to change more settings to match your league.)

3. Click the link on the results. At the top of the Price Guide results, you should see a link to add dollar values to a CBS Sportsline league. Click the link and Greasemonkey should recognize and install the script.

4. Check it out on your league homepage. Go to your league, and you should notice the dollar values showing up next to each player’s name.

While CBS provides player rankings that give you an idea of a player’s value, remember that these are not customized for your specific league. Also, it might be valuable to know places where the Price Guide’s projections diverge from CBS’s. Compare CBS’s 2B rankings to what the Price Guide thinks:

While much of those rankings line up, the Price Guide’s projections put much less weight in Aaron Hill’s and Ben Zobrist’s remarkable 2009 improvements, expecting them to settle somewhere in between 2008 and 2009.

At 3B it is clear that the Price Guide continues to put less emphasis on one year’s stats: The projections don’t discount David Wright’s mysteriously poor 2009 as much as CBS does, placing him at $28 and the 2nd best 3B.

While you certainly don’t have to agree with one or the other, I think those kinds of discrepancies can be valuable to realize. Also remember that these values will update as the Price Guide updates this spring. During the year, they will update daily based on the latest year-to-date stats.

Using the inseason dollar values from the Price Guide through yesterday, here are my lineups for the Fantasy All-Star team:

C – Joe Mauer ($38)
C – Victor Martinez ($30)

Brandon Inge ($27) is worth mentioning here, too, but he falls a little behind these two. No one else is even close to these three.

2B – Chase Utley ($29)
SS – Hanley Ramirez ($31)
MI – Ian Kinsler ($26)

Absolutely no surprises there, as those three were all early round choices. Aaron Hill ($25) has provided a nice windfall for fantasy owners.

OF – Carl Crawford ($34)
OF – Torii Hunter ($31)
OF – Ryan Braun ($30)
OF – Raul Ibanez ($27)
OF – Jason Bay ($24)

Carl Crawford’s incredible stolen base total has placed him as the #2 most valuable hitter, behind only Albert Pujols. Torii Hunter has apparently become a five-category talent this year to win a starting nod on the team.

Either Johnny Damon ($24) or Adam Lind ($23) can take the place of the injured Ibanez.

1B – Albert Pujols ($46)
3B – Mark Reynolds ($30)
CI – Justin Morneau ($29)
Util – Prince Fielder ($29)

Pujols has been the clear first half MVP, leading the next best hitter by $12. David Wright ($23) has not shown any power so far, but he’s been good enough elsewhere to still be a valuable player.

SP – Dan Haren ($39)
SP – Zack Greinke ($34)
SP – Tim Lincecum ($34)
SP – Roy Halladay ($26)
SP – Felix Hernandez ($23)
SP – Matt Cain ($23)
RP – Jonathan Broxton ($19)
RP – Joe Nathan ($14)
RP – Heath Bell ($14)

The early half of 2009 has seen some strong performances by starting pitchers, with just about all of the top ten all having ERAs below 3.00. Yovani Gallardo ($23), Chris Carpenter ($22), Edwin Jackson ($22), Javier Vazquez ($22), and Josh Johnson ($21) all deserve a mention here.

Relative to that, relievers haven’t been that spectacular. Ryan Franklin ($13) and Andrew Bailey ($11) have been pleasant surprises for save-chasers this year.

Anybody I’m leaving out?