Can you believe it? We’re about to embark on our 21st season on this Interweb thing. Who knew, way back in March of 1997, what the next twenty years would bring. For me, it paved the transition from a career as a peptide chemist to making my living as a fantasy writer. We’ll have plenty of time to reminisce as we celebrate our 20th anniversary in the spring. Of immediate focus is…

Platinum 2017 will be launching on Tuesday, November 15!

Once again, we’re the FIRST source of projections, rankings and dollar values specifically tailored to fantasy baseball enthusiasts, like yourself. The initial drop will be just projections. As always, we’ll roll out all our additional content throughout the off-season. This includes Lawr Michaels unique Top-250 Minor League rankings, Perry Van Hook’s minor league rankings focusing on the 2017 season and of course my player profiles and all the other goodies to aid in your draft prep.

New this season, I’m writing The Z Book, a collection of strategy and game theory essays. I promise you won’t find anything like it anywhere. The Z-Book will be part of your Platinum subscription as well as available for separate purchase. The ETA is February 15, giving you ample time to digest everything in time for the primary drafting season in mid to late March. Topics will include

  • Detailed review of projection theory
  • Detailed review of player valuation
  • Using projection theory and player valuation to win your league
  • Scarcity, Shmarcity
  • Park Factors: A Necessary Evil
  • Using wOBA and K% for DFS: When are splits actionable?
  • Rethinking how we rank catchers
  • And more!

Let’s be honest. If you’re already yearning for projections and rankings, there’s a good chance you’re preparing for the early pay-for-play drafts. Granted, there are exceptions, those that want to get going on keeper and dynasty league preparation but most early subscribers are getting ready to draft in high stakes contest. The majority of these are of the draft and hold variety, with ultra-deep rosters. As such, you’ll want projections and rankings for everyone with a chance to see action anytime in 2017.

Don’t worry, we have you covered!

We’ve gone over the prospect lists and will have a projection for any player with a modicum of a chance to play this season. Anyone missed that’s drafted in any national contest will be added to the next posted projection set. Shoot, if you’re thinking of drafting a player not projected, drop me a line and I’ll ask my little black box to do its thing.

More good news for those that play in leagues with non-standard categories. I’ll be adding new statistics to the projections, most notably quality starts for pitchers among others. I can open the floor for requests, with the understanding I may not be able to honor it. If the data is available and the projection is easily automated, I’ll gladly add it.

Why use Mastersball Platinum? Four of the past five National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) Main Event Champions are subscribers. This includes our own Greg Morgan, who writes a monthly column on the NFBC, available free the first Thursday of each month. The Mastersball staff aren’t just writers, we play too. Lawr Michaels is a two-time AL Tout Wars champion, Brian Walton has won NL Tout Wars while Zach Steinhorn is the defending champion of Mixed Auction Tout Wars. Pardon the humblebrag, I won both NL Tout Wars and Mixed LABR in 2016, along with being among the career earnings leaders in NFBC auctions, including winning the NL only league three times and co-owning an Ultimate Auction winner.

The price for 2017 Mastersball Platinum will be $39.95 – worth all 3995 pennies, I promise. If you haven’t registered, please take a moment to do so, using the box in the upper-right part of the home page. Then on Tuesday the 15th, log-in and click on the SUBSCRIBE NOW link under the site masthead on the right side. At the bottom, you’ll see SUBSCRIBE button taking you to the PayPal subscription page. You’ll have immediate access to the 2017 initial projections and rankings. If you prefer to pay by check, drop a note to support@mastersball.com and we’ll arrange payment and prompt access.

Questions? Hit me up in the comments section.

Fasten your seatbelt, 2017 promises to be our best season yet!