Welcome to the position tiered rankings for 2015. The tiers are broken out into five tiers with five being the highest and one being the lowest. Five star players are players that will be taken in the first couple of rounds or will go for $30-plus. Four star players will have $20-plus. Three stars $10-plus, two stars $5-plus and the one star are players you want to avoid or players to stash on your bench.
The statistics for each player are my semi-final projections. The projections are going to change going forward, but if you follow me on Twitter @MattCommins I will tweet out when my projections are updated and posted on MattCommins.com. If I was a reader I would focus on the tiering of players and the overall idea of the projections. For example, if I project a player for 28 home runs that means I think he’ll hit for a lot of power.
Links the other position previews:
The state of the outfield position depends a lot on how deep your league is. Since there are so many high upside two star players you can wait to draft an outfielder in the later rounds in a 10-team mixed league. For example, if I drafted two outfielders early in my draft I would fill out my other positions before filling out the other three outfielders. If I was in a 12-team mixed league I want to make sure I have at least three players from the first four tiers. Lastly, when I look at the players in the Two Star category except for three players (Ben Revere, Denard Span and Nick Markakis) I can envision scenarios where all of them finish the year in the Four Star category.
Five Star
| Player | AB | AVG | HR | RBI | R | SB |
| Mike Trout | 600 | .293 | 36 | 113 | 115 | 16 |
| Andrew McCutchen | 575 | .315 | 24 | 88 | 90 | 20 |
| Carlos Gomez | 560 | .284 | 23 | 79 | 94 | 35 |
| Giancarlo Stanton | 520 | .270 | 38 | 106 | 90 | 8 |
Five-Star Value Pick: Carlos Gomez
As of now I have Andrew McCutchen rated higher than Carlos Gomez but as it gets closer to draft time I may rate Gomez higher because Gomez may be safer in stolen bases. Also, I would be shocked if McCutchen only stole 10-15 bases, but at the same time I wouldn’t be shocked if he hits 30-plus home runs too.
Four Star
| Player | AB | AVG | HR | RBI | R | SB |
| Michael Brantley | 580 | .301 | 16 | 92 | 92 | 21 |
| Jacoby Ellsbury | 575 | .285 | 15 | 80 | 80 | 39 |
| Adam Jones | 640 | .283 | 29 | 95 | 90 | 10 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | 450 | .298 | 22 | 86 | 79 | 16 |
| Yasiel Puig | 560 | .275 | 22 | 90 | 90 | 11 |
| Starling Marte | 530 | .285 | 13 | 74 | 67 | 35 |
| Jose Bautista | 500 | .265 | 29 | 89 | 89 | 5 |
| Jayson Werth | 520 | .292 | 20 | 85 | 85 | 7 |
| Justin Upton | 560 | .259 | 25 | 85 | 90 | 12 |
| Charlie Blackmon | 570 | .283 | 15 | 70 | 89 | 20 |
| Corey Dickerson | 550 | .284 | 19 | 85 | 86 | 10 |
| Jason Heyward | 550 | .283 | 16 | 85 | 70 | 21 |
| George Springer | 550 | .232 | 28 | 84 | 84 | 22 |
| Hunter Pence | 625 | .271 | 18 | 90 | 85 | 12 |
| Shin-Soo Choo | 550 | .284 | 20 | 65 | 96 | 10 |
| Melky Cabrera | 560 | .301 | 15 | 66 | 100 | 5 |
| Bryce Harper | 550 | .265 | 27 | 88 | 79 | 7 |
Four-Star Value Pick: Starling Marte
I would have projected more runs and RBIs for Starling Marte, but I think he’s going to bat fifth (he should be batting second) and the lineup after him is going to be really bad. If he played most other teams he would bat third because his offensive talents are that good.
Three Star
| Player | AB | AVG | HR | RBI | R | SB |
| Christian Yelich | 600 | .285 | 12 | 58 | 91 | 21 |
| Matt Holliday | 540 | .290 | 19 | 97 | 84 | 2 |
| Billy Hamilton | 560 | .245 | 6 | 45 | 79 | 55 |
| Alex Gordon | 570 | .265 | 19 | 76 | 88 | 11 |
| Nelson Cruz | 580 | .265 | 23 | 105 | 70 | 2 |
| Yoenis Cespedes | 500 | .271 | 22 | 86 | 70 | 7 |
| Rusney Castillo | 500 | .245 | 17 | 70 | 70 | 30 |
| Gregory Polanco | 520 | .252 | 12 | 68 | 68 | 35 |
| Alex Rios | 550 | .274 | 14 | 70 | 70 | 20 |
| Josh Reddick | 500 | .265 | 20 | 80 | 80 | 7 |
| Avisail Garcia | 540 | .262 | 18 | 85 | 65 | 15 |
| Matt Kemp | 540 | .279 | 19 | 80 | 73 | 5 |
| Michael Saunders | 480 | .258 | 22 | 75 | 75 | 11 |
| Brett Gardner | 550 | .264 | 9 | 60 | 92 | 21 |
| Adam Eaton | 550 | .275 | 4 | 55 | 94 | 23 |
Three-Star Value Pick: A.J. Pollock
What’s not to like about A.J. Pollock? He’s a five category producer who plays in very hitter friendly ballpark. If Paul Goldschmidt is fully healthy Pollock would score 90-plus runs.
Two Star
| Player | AB | AVG | HR | RBI | R | SB |
| Austin Jackson | 580 | .264 | 9 | 50 | 84 | 28 |
| Marcell Ozuna | 550 | .257 | 23 | 85 | 68 | 5 |
| Denard Span | 590 | .281 | 4 | 44 | 85 | 25 |
| Kole Calhoun | 525 | .272 | 14 | 60 | 94 | 4 |
| Steven Souza | 500 | .255 | 18 | 65 | 65 | 18 |
| Ben Revere | 550 | .298 | 0 | 29 | 70 | 35 |
| Ryan Braun | 470 | .274 | 15 | 70 | 70 | 9 |
| Carlos Beltran | 510 | .255 | 20 | 84 | 76 | 1 |
| Joc Pederson | 500 | .259 | 14 | 65 | 65 | 20 |
| Mookie Betts | 500 | .284 | 7 | 58 | 68 | 20 |
| Yasmany Tomas | 500 | .248 | 24 | 70 | 70 | 7 |
| Khris Davis | 500 | .252 | 24 | 75 | 68 | 4 |
| Wil Myers | 500 | .266 | 17 | 75 | 69 | 4 |
Two-Star Value Pick: Marcell Ozuna & Steven Souza
Marcell Ozuna’s power is legit and he has the speed to steal 10-plus bases if wanted to. Maybe this is the year he has a Todd Frazier season and starts stealing bases unexpectedly. Without looking at my projections what is the difference in upside between Kole Calhoun and Steven Souza? For me, there isn’t much of a difference, Calhoun is going to go far earlier before Souza.
One Star
| Player | AB | AVG | HR | RBI | R | SB |
| Oswaldo Arcia | 500 | .259 | 23 | 78 | 62 | 1 |
| Lorenzo Cain | 500 | .261 | 6 | 65 | 65 | 23 |
| Curtis Granderson | 530 | .238 | 23 | 70 | 70 | 8 |
| Torii Hunter | 530 | .281 | 15 | 77 | 66 | 2 |
| Desmond Jennings | 500 | .250 | 12 | 46 | 78 | 20 |
| Dayan Viciedo | 520 | .254 | 21 | 75 | 65 | 0 |
| Dexter Fowler | 500 | .275 | 10 | 45 | 75 | 13 |
| Leonys Martin | 510 | .270 | 8 | 53 | 38 | 32 |
| Jorge Soler | 500 | .251 | 20 | 77 | 62 | 2 |
| Carl Crawford | 400 | .283 | 8 | 45 | 68 | 16 |
| Michael Cuddyer | 400 | .270 | 15 | 59 | 59 | 10 |
| Dalton Pompey | 500 | .255 | 9 | 55 | 55 | 25 |
| Dustin Ackley | 520 | .262 | 13 | 60 | 65 | 10 |
| Colby Rasmus | 440 | .220 | 26 | 65 | 65 | 4 |
| Norichika Aoki | 540 | .279 | 3 | 40 | 70 | 17 |
| Alejandro De Aza | 460 | .263 | 10 | 49 | 60 | 16 |
| Domonic Brown | 480 | .259 | 14 | 66 | 52 | 7 |
| David Peralta | 420 | .271 | 9 | 45 | 60 | 10 |
| Angel Pagan | 400 | .285 | 5 | 33 | 60 | 15 |
| B.J. Upton | 500 | .221 | 14 | 55 | 52 | 22 |
| Jarrod Dyson | 270 | .263 | 1 | 35 | 35 | 35 |
| Josh Hamilton | 400 | .242 | 15 | 65 | 55 | 1 |
| Rajai Davis | 350 | .258 | 4 | 39 | 30 | 30 |
| Matt Joyce | 400 | .240 | 13 | 55 | 55 | 3 |
| Anthony Gose | 420 | .235 | 3 | 45 | 45 | 25 |
One-Star Value Pick: Matt Joyce & Oswaldo Arcia
As of mid-February I may be too low on Matt Joyce. If Josh Hamilton misses a lot of time Joyce could hit fifth behind Mike Trout and Albert Pujols. I don’t see a lot of upside in Joyce, but I definitely like his opportunity. Oswaldo Arcia, who will only turn 24 in May, has tremendous power and I wouldn’t be surprised if hit 30-plus home runs in 2015.
