The least valuable and reliable position in all of fantasy baseball, the Closer. That is to say outside of leagues that reward style points. The mustaches are the best among the Relievers. These rankings are comprised using player projections, injury status/history and job security. Our number one Closer was almost a Starting Pitcher this season. Neftali Feliz and the rest of our furlipped heroes are after the jump.

Corporate Ladder: Top 100 Starting Pitchers. It's roto season here at MDS headquarters. The rankings are now geared for Yahoo! style rostisserie settings (Innings cap). Strikeouts per Nine essentially replace Strikeouts. Use the metric scoring if you're ranking for head-to-head or roto formats where Innings Pitched are not capped. After the jump, your Top 100 Starting Pitchers.

The 2011 Third Base Rankings and Projections have been updated. Not much has changed. I added two HR to Jose Bautista's total. He's up to 43 now, oh baby! The biggest issue here is valuing Mark Reynolds' HR/SB total versus Martin Prado's AVG. The projections are there, rank 'em how you choose.

The 2011 Shortstop Rankings and Projections have been updated. The TTI metric scoring has confirmed what we all knew, Jimmy Rollins is overrated. Why Shane Victorino is not leading off in Philly is beyond me. In other Shortstop news, the the Medellín Cartel is taking over the position. A few handsome payoffs led to me smuggling the Escobar Brothers into the Top Ten. What can I say, even the Million Dollar Sleeper has a price. Plus they threatened to kidnap Virgil. I had to do it.

The 2011 Second Base Rankings and Projections have been updated. I have officially declared Ryan Raburn Top Ten material at the position. Virgil and I are throwing a party to celebrate the occasion. If you don't like Ryan Raburn, your name will not be on the guest list. Jason Donald is one of these anti-Raybites; he was taken out of the rankings and replaced by Orlando Cabrera. Jed Lowrie's At Bats were reduced after Zack Morris Theo Espstein declared Marco Scutaro, "our shortstop". The TangoTiger metric score says I was wrong about Chase Utley outproducing Robinson Cano if he remains healthy all season. Hmmmmmm.

The 2011 First Base Rankings and Projections have been updated, Tango Tango metric scores are included. Adam Dunn's Batting Average and the metric scoring did not get along. They started arguing, someone starting pulling hair and before I knew what was happening, Billy Butler passed up Adam Dunn. Believe me, I don't like it either. The projections are there, you can rank 'em whichever way you please. I've ignored the injury issues with Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Morneau and Kendry Morales. I'll keep an eye on these players in the coming weeks and make the necessary adjustments. The battle for At Bats in Arizona between Juan Miranda, Brandon Allen and Russell Branyan will be another situation to watch.

Update: I couldn't take it any longer. Adam Dunn moved ahead of Butler despite the TTI score. I still think he sits below Paul Konerko because you have to alter your draft in order to accomodate Dunn's terrible AVG.

The 2011 Catcher Rankings and Projections have been updated. I finally got around to revising my Mike Napoli/Jeff Mathis/Yorvit Torrealba numbers. Carlos Santana overtook Buster Posey, Geovany Soto climbed the ranks, John Buck fell a few spots, along with a few other minor changes. Included is a metric score that is used in the Tango Tiger projection contest. You can convert the score into auction dollars if that helps you.

We saved the best rotation for last. The Four Horsemen of the Mets Apocalypse have arrived. I hope the Eastern seaboard is ready for conquest, war, famine and death Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard, Arn and Ole Anderson. It's hard to look at the Phillies rotation and not yell, Woooooooooooo! After the jump, your NL East Starting Pitching projections.

The year is 2011 and you've been tricked into a snake draft league. If that weren't bad enough, the dastardly randomization tool just stuck you with a late first round pick. Hanley Ramirez went No.1, Troy Tulowitzki fell to No.5 and before you know it, you're on the clock. Telling the positional scarcity crew to hop on a grenade, you select the high-production pair of Carlos Gonzalez and Alex Rodriguez. After 10 minutes, the evil thoughts you've been wishing upon the Hanley owner subside and you plan a cunning strategy to select Alexei Ramirez after the hobgoblins of the league draft Jimmy Rollins, Derek Jeter and Elvis Andrus. Suddenly a dog-faced gremlin singles out Alexei while Jeter and Elvis are still wading in the player pool. A panic strikes the league igniting a run of Shorties, Jeter and Elvis: gone. Reaching into your bag of tricks, you come up with Plan C: Stephen Drew. Plan C is not pretty. Drew is OK, he'll give you useful numbers (.272-16-81-64-8), but nothing that is worthy of pulling the Stretch Armstrong. Your cool head does not react to the run of Shortstops and continues drafting high production players. Then, the shit hits the fan and someone snaps a tendon while reaching for Stephen Drew's 16 Home Runs. What is Plan D? Do we even have a Plan D? Looking over the remaining Ug Lees, you decide it doesn't matter if you draft a Shortstop now or in Round 21; you're going to get the same numbers from whichever jobber is left from the remaining tier. You forge ahead and continue filling your UT, SP, RP slots with more-than-useful players, ignoring your starting SS position. Round 21 finally arrives and you decide to grab someone before your sworn enemies start filling their bench slots with Middle Infielders. You've just punted Shortstop, who is your late round gem? The right-hand sidebar awaits your decision.

Jon Lester 19 Wins (from 20)
Justin Verlander 19 Wins (from 20)
Brett Anderson slight bump to BABIP/WHIP/ERA
Hiroki Kuroda slightly improved ERA
Jeremy Hellickson improved BABIP/WHIP/ERA
Brian Matusz ERA from 3.83 to 3.84!!!
Joel Pineiro ERA from 3.86 to 3.87!!!
Jaime Garcia 14 Wins (from 13)

The NL East SP Projections should be posted late Thursday or early Friday.
The Top 100 SP Corporate Ladder will be posted in a couple days (3-4).
The Top 100 Overall Player Corporate Ladder will be posted in a week or so.
Relief Pitcher Projections will be posted some day.
New poll on the right-hand sidebar: Punting Shortstop.
Starbonell Station, 7:00 PM Central on Thursday.

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