2018 Fantasy Draft Dive

Hey guys.

This year, I plan to track every Hazelweird trade. Every trade is easily presented on Yahoo!.  I'll just write down every trade in a notebook, and after a period of time we can offer some subjective analysis of the impact of the trade.  Trading is a really heavy part of Hazelweird (there's already been one!), but it's not something we've formally tracked in any way.  It might be interesting to see the frequency of types of trades, what types of trades tend to work (or not) for either (or both) partners, etc.  Eventually I'll post all trades, both providing and soliciting commentary and analysis on how the trade worked out.  So look forward to that.

Draft Perspective
This year I wanted to try something different to assess roster construction and positional strength. I used Yahoo!'s flex rankings to make a ranking of just RBs and WRs: the number assigned at each position is the player's rank among combined RBs and WRs.  The flex is assigned simply as the 3rd player to fill out a RB or WR category (and is labeled to identify position).  This analysis discounts depth: once a manager had three of one position and two of the other, I stopped adding a number.  QBs and TEs are shown with the separate individual position ranking: where people drafted multiple QBs or TEs I listed the highest rank.  In general, just think that lower numbers are better.

Listing things this way gives a chance to see how managers filled their rosters.  You see positional strengths and weaknesses, strength of flex, etc.  This analysis depends on Yahoo!'s ranking, of course, which you can disagree with.  It also doesn't take into account manager's own lineup choices: it may help to think this would be your optimal lineup if Yahoo! was setting it with your players.

Two Team Notes:
Patrick drafted the #2 and #12 TE, and might choose to start a second TE as a Flex, but the way I organized this list assumes the top available RB or WR is flex.

Joe's optimal lineup here includes RB/WR #49, who is suspended for four weeks.  As I was using overall ranking regardless of current injury status, depth chart status, etc.,  I also decided to leave the suspended player in the lineup here: suspensions are, like those other factors, baked into the player's rank.

Justin
QB: 14 TE: 9
RB: 3, 4 WR: 28, 45  Flex: 62 wr

Chris 
QB: 2 TE: 3
RB: 25, 39  WR: 5, 22  Flex: 54 wr
I
Patrick
QB: 4 TE: 2
RB: 15, 30 WR: 9, 87 Flex: 72 rb

Jerod 
QB: 8 TE: 5
RB: 17, 46 WR: 34, 38 Flex: 44 wr

Brad 
QB: 6 TE: 4
RB: 6, 42 WR: 24, 50 Flex: 76 rb

Joe 
QB: 16 TE: 11
RB: 49, 61 WR: 11, 13 Flex: 20 wr

Abe 
QB: 5 TE: 8
RB: 31, 36 WR: 10, 18 Flex: 33 wr

Kiah 
QB: 10 TE: 7
RB: 12, 41 WR: 14, 35 Flex: 37 wr

Jon 
QB: 3 TE: 19
RB: 1, 8 WR: 59, 60 Flex: 47 rb

Tony 
QB: 9 TE: 10
RB: 19, 23 WR: 29, 32 Flex: 40 rb

Bryan 
QB: 1 TE: 6
RB: 2, 85 WR: 7, 21 Flex: 58 wr

Nathan 
QB: n/a TE: 1
RB: 27, 43 WR 16, 26 Flex: 82 rb

Commentary
Top Unit
Justin's RBs have a total number of 7, which just edges Jon's RB total of 9, making it the strongest current unit.

Top Flex
Joe's Flex is the 20th ranked RB/WR, which would actually make him the best WR on five teams.

Worst Starter
As of now Patrick would be starting the 87th best RB/WR at WR, which is a little worse than Bryan's 85th best RB/WR at RB

Maybe we know better?
11 managers drafted QBs, but neither Justin nor Joe managed to nag a top-11 QB (they have #14 and #16 respectively).  Similarly, 12 teams have TEs but Jon has TE #19.

Balance (some might call it value)
Two teams have starting RBs, WRs, and Flex all rank between #10 and #40: Abe's rank between 10-36, with Tony's between 19-40.  Kiah (12-41) and Jerod (17-46) are close.

Solo Positions
Chris (#2 and #4) and Patrick (#4 and #2) both managed to grab both a top four QB and a top four TE. Nobody else had top five in both those solo positions. (Bryan and Brad were close). Five is an arbitrary number anyway, right?