Stream of Gut: How to Create an Unbiased Top 100 Fantasy Ranking List, Revisited and Revised

With all the Fantasy Pop Culture content in good hands and a hangover to end all others, The Wolf finally returns to his Stream of Gut. In the time off, however, he has realized the process needed some updating.

Written on a gorgeous Saturday morning during Memorial Day weekend, published Tuesday because who the hell would read this while not bored at work?

Ah, Memorial Day weekend. The extra day off…eighty-seven degrees and sunny on Saturday. All the families and friends in town.

Could you ask for better weather… to be completely laid up in bed with a murderous hangover. Completely incapable of anything besides chugging lukewarm tap water out of a Gatorade bottle, eating Honey Roasted peanuts (the lone source of sustenance in my apartment), drooling, and ranking my top 100 fantasy football players. Soak in the sun.

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Friends: “going to the beach, wanna join?”            Me: See above

 

Admittedly, in the whirlwind of getting Fantasy Bachelorette and Fantasy Game of Thrones off the ground, football has become somewhat of an afterthought for me… Well, at least in terms of writing; I still haven’t missed a Rotoworld Blurb between the final Super Bowl whistle and the penning of this article, and I’ve ashamedly sat through three weeks of RedZone’s Replays. Addict 101.

Thankfully, Chris and Jimboslice have picked up the slack with Daily Fantasy Stock Reports, injury reports, undervalued players, rookie fits (good and bad)…even  analysis on  the Madden Cover Curse and if it should worry Gronk investors.

With our Fantasy Pop Culture content now in good hands, I finally feel ready to begin contributing to the Fantasy Football world again, and the timing is impeccable. The NFL draft is well in the books (and Mel Kiper back in his cave). The coaching carousel has stopped spinning. All noteworthy free agents settled in their homes (outside of Arian Foster). Player values are firm, draft prep season’s on the horizon, and, as mentioned, a jackhammer is pounding into my brain.

Time to bring back the Stream of Gut, except revised and revamped.

Staying the same

The core goal of SoG remains the same from my initial post: create a set of uninfluenced, yet informed rankings that are purely from my own gut feelings. Many pieces of the process for achieving this are similar:

Step 1 – The Hangover: Get completely hammered to produce a harrowing hangover. The logic: over analysis is impossible and if you happened to see outside rankings, the ringing head pain will erase them all and reduce you to only your gut impulses.

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The odds indeed are not.

Step 2 – Avoidance: Painstakingly avoid ADP, Mock Drafts, and FantasyPros composite rankings until your own are complete…this late in May is a new personal record for avoiding fake drafts for fake football. Mom’s so proud.

The steps that follow, however, have been altered for the better..

Previously, I had been releasing “Talent Tiers” one by one… And only made it through 2.5 sets, thus showing my thoughts on a grand total of 8 players. Useful.

This way of ranking had flaws beyond just a lack of players and content, though.  Without ranking out a larger amount of players to start, gaining a true sense of positional depth, and seeing where the talent drops off, was difficult.

Thus, Step 3 – Rank Holistically: Rank and create tiers for each fantasy position (QB, RB, WR, TE). Make sure the tiers drop off logically, not randomly i.e. here’s the guys I’d trust as a high-end RB2, here’s the next group that’s serviceable but not as sexy.

Step 4 – Mesh: Create a Top 100 Big Board by comparing the different positional tiers, depth, drop-offs, and gut feels.

Congrats, you’ve now surely done all four steps and have a list of your own, unique thoughts as the base for your 2016 draft prep. Now, any success or failures are a direct result of your own opinions + your willingness to sway them with the right information and research.

What to expect from here

Throughout the week, I will be releasing a Positional Ranking each day. Quarterbacks will lead off later today, followed by running backs on Wednesday, wide receivers on Thursday, and Tight Ends on Friday. By next Monday, The Top 100 Big Board will be finalized and ready for debate — on our first ever Podcast. Hands on face gasping out a ghost emoji.

From here, the Top 100 Board will be updated weekly based on any major value swinging moves. It’ll also serve as a launching point for our Talent Tier Breakdowns and Gut Checks, where I will use our Stock Ranking System to grade the fantasy value of players I am abnormally high or low on (compared to ADP and FantasyPros rankings). This way, I can see if my gut feelings match the actual stock or if other experts had it right.

Thus, keep it locked in to The RSJ as we put our foot down on the fantasy football gas pedal and storm straight into Draft Prep Season. Meanwhile, my eyes refuse to stay open at 5:19pm, despite not moving a ligament all day. Time to give in and pass out.

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Author

  • Founder of Roto Street Journal. Lover of workhorse backs, target hog wideouts, and Game of Thrones. Aspiring to be the "Brady" and "Leo" of the fantasy universe.

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