About RankFantasy
Fantasy ratings you can check — built by a player, for players.
Who built this
I've played fantasy football for over a decade, and picked up baseball and basketball along the way. For most of that time I did what everyone does: pull up the weekly rankings, frown at the order, and go with my gut. What always nagged at me was that I never knew whythe numbers landed where they did. Every site I used guarded its formula like a recipe. For a hobby that's supposedly about the numbers, that never sat right.
So I built RankFantasy. Take the same open data the analysts use, write the formula down, and put all of it on the page. If I got the math wrong, you can find it. If a weight is arguable, it's labeled — so argue with it. The work doesn't need to be hidden to be worth something.
Every tool here is free, needs no account, and shows its methodology before it shows you a number. Football, baseball, basketball — same rules for all three.
What we publish
The anchor is the Start Score: a 0–100 per-game player rating built from primary-source open data, computed deterministically — no machine-learning model sits between the data and the rating. Every input is named; every weight is surfaced; the exact formula is published on the methodology page. There are three versions: the NFL Start Score (QB/RB/WR/TE), the MLB Start Score (eight position buckets: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, OF, SP, RP), and the NBA Start Score (all five positions).
Around the Start Scores is a growing suite of free tools for NFL, MLB, and NBA — strength-of-schedule rankings, bye-week planners, pitcher reports, matchup raters, streaming finders, schedule analyzers, snap-count reports, ADP value finders, and more — all computed from open data, all with the methodology stated up front.
Our data sources
RankFantasy runs on open, citable data sources — different for each sport, each documented per tool:
- nflverse (CC-BY 4.0) — open-source NFL play-by-play, player stats, rosters, schedules, and snap counts. The backbone of every NFL tool on this site. We credit nflverse on every tool that uses it and comply fully with the CC-BY 4.0 license.
- Sleeper API — two specific, stable fields for NFL: injury status and weekly trending adds. Used only where documented.
- MLB Stats API (statsapi.mlb.com) — official MLB REST API, free and unauthenticated. Season batting and pitching stats, active rosters, 9-day game schedules, and probable starting pitchers. The sole data source for all MLB tools.
- FanGraphs park factors — five-year regressed ballpark run and HR factors, manually sourced once per season and used as the park environment signal in MLB scores.
- balldontlie.io — NBA game logs, season stats, and schedule data. Used for all NBA tool computations.
- NBA Stats API (stats.nba.com) — defensive breakdowns by position, pace stats, and injury reports for NBA tools.
We compute our own projections from primary inputs. We never resell or repackage another site's black-box projection as our own.
Why trust this
You don't have to take my word for anything. Every rating is reproducible: the data is public, the formula is published, and you can redo the math yourself. Where a tool makes a judgment call — weights, baselines, pool sizes — that call is labeled and explained, not buried in a model you can't open.
I'm also upfront about what these tools aren't. Start Scores are estimates, not certainties. When the backtests look bad, we publish them anyway. When a tool is weak at something, we say so instead of dressing it up in confident language.
Our commitments
- Transparent.Every rating shows its work — the component scores, the underlying inputs, and the published formula. A rating you can't inspect is the thing we're replacing.
- Free & no sign-up. All tools are public and stateless. Nothing to buy, no account, and nothing you do on the site is tied to an identity.
- Honest about limits.Projections are estimates, not certainties. We never claim an accuracy figure we haven't measured, never call anything a "lock," and never give betting or DFS advice.
- Corrections welcome.If a rating looks wrong, email us the player and week — we'll check the inputs and respond.
What this is not
- Not affiliated with the NFL, MLB, or NBA. RankFantasy is an independent project with no affiliation with, endorsement by, or connection to any professional sports league, its teams, or its players.
- Not betting or DFS advice. All content is for fantasy sports entertainment and informational purposes only. Nothing here should be used as the basis for any wager or daily fantasy entry.
- Not a guarantee. Player projections are estimates derived from historical data and are inherently uncertain. Past scoring patterns do not guarantee future results.
RankFantasy is part of the Veraino network — a growing network of free websites. Covering NFL, MLB, and NBA fantasy.
Get in touch
Corrections, data questions, tool suggestions — we read every message and follow up on anything substantive.