New Interactive Lineup Tool Launched Nov 20, 2008 | More

Just in time for the fantasy playoffs, today marks the launch of the new interactive Who Sharks Are Starting. From the R&D division of the Stat Lab, ‘Who Sharks Are Starting’ looks at the thousands of individual lineup decisions made in the over 400 teams in the official and community leagues here at FantasySharks.com. Throughout each day, live lineups are downloaded and compiled to provide up-to-date player rankings. Unlike anything else you can find online, this is current lineup advice straight from the people in the FantasySharks community you already trust to help decide who to start.

Just like the biweekly StatLab report many of you have used, this new dynamic version of ‘Who Sharks Are Starting’ (WSAS) ranks players based on how they appear in actual shark lineups, on a decision-by-decision basis. To see how it works, let's have a look at some early rankings.

At the top of any of the position rankings, you're going to find players who are mostly must-starts for their team. If you drafted Frank Gore, Tony Gonzalez or Patrick Willis, you paid well for them, and had to pass on other strong players. Heavily drafted players who perform well are going to top these lists. Click on the names to see the detail, and you're just not going to find crazy things like Clinton Portis ahead of Ladainian Tomlinson, because you just won't find these two together on a team in the competitive leagues you find here.

Things get more interesting the further you go down the lists. Take a look at Ben Roethlisberger on the Quarterback section. Click on his name, and as you can see from his stat chart, he's coming off of a stretch of underwhelming starts, nursing a shoulder injury (you'll find this fact in WSAS as the latest injury report data comes in).

So click on Ben in the rankings on the left, and look at the Ahead/Behind lists. He wasn't cheap in the draft, so owner options are mixed. You can see a few owners with Eli Manning are split themselves, some starting him, some benching him. Click on Eli Manning in the Ahead/Behind lists on the right, and he'll be highlighted in the rankings, where he's pretty much in the middle. This is a situation where you probably want to check in, or seek some advice in the Who Should I Start Forum here to see what some of these owners are thinking.

Jumping over to the Tight Ends, here you'll find the kind of spot starts you'll only find by looking at just how competitive players run their teams. For example, Greg Olsen has jumped up the rankings, and you see some owners penciling him in over the likes of Antonio Gates and Chris Cooley in the detail. No doubt these owners looking for big numbers in a soft matchup against the Rams this week, and think it's a chance worth taking, at least for now.

IDPs were a big motivator in building WSAS. IDP rankings are scarce online, and for good reason: Defense is reactive. There are so many possibilities on any given play, and in any game. Making IDP decisions is hard, and explaining those decisions is even harder. IDPs are still gaining steam here, but with WSAS we can see the decisions of active, competitive players. IDP rosters are also highly dynamic, so you're also likely to find some waiver gems out of nowhere.

I've highlighted a few sections, but each position ranking has its own wrinkles and strengths. So check it out and bookmark WSAS here, especially for those last-minute and late game decisions. There's a link for feedback on the WSAS page, and I look forward to hearing from you. And as always, good luck this season -- unless you're playing against me.