Dynasty, in Theory: What is Value?

There's a lot of strong dynasty analysis out there, especially when compared to five or ten years ago. But most of it is so dang practical— Player X is undervalued, Player Y's workload is troubling, the market at this position is irrational, and take this specific action to win your league. Dynasty, in Theory is meant as a corrective, offering insights and takeaways into the strategic and structural nature of the game that might not lead to an immediate benefit but which should help us become better players over time.

What Is Value?

Two years ago, I wrote: "Dynasty, to me, is not a format for grand theories. It's a format for lots of small ideas linked together into a dense, rich framework. A format where outcomes defy simple explanation." At the same time, I wrote that if I were to advance a Grand Unified Theory of dynasty, it would be "value isn't everything, it's the only thing".

Value, you see, has a lot of very interesting properties in fantasy football. I could make statements about value that are simultaneously bold, provocative, and true—and I'll do so, eventually. But before I do, there's one question that needs to be addressed: what the heck even is "value"?

Let's talk about that. But first, let's talk about Platonic realism.

What Is a Rock?

Let's imagine I say the word "rock". What does that mean?

Does it mean a specific rock? Hopefully not, because then we'd need different words for every single rock on Earth, which seems rather unwieldy. Do I mean "a hard, brown, irregularly-shaped object"? If so, that would exclude things like soapstone (too soft), basalt (too grey), and granite (often quite regularly shaped), while including things like a branch from the acacia peuce tree (known for its exceptional hardness).

Is a rock anything that is made out of minerals? And if so, does that mean a ruby is a rock? Is sand just a bunch of tiny rocks? Is mineral makeup a rock? Does a rock need to be a specific size (measured by mass or volume), and if so, could one take the smallest possible rock, chip off a single atom of material, and in doing so render it not a rock?

So much of what makes a rock a rock remains unquestioned and undefined, yet I can say "rock" and you still somehow know exactly what I'm talking about.

How Is That So?

Plato's proposed answer to this problem was to imagine another universe composed entirely of Ideas (or Forms). In this universe, there exists the Idea of a rock, and this Idea includes everything that distinguishes a rock from everything that is not a rock. When I say "rock", I point not to any aspect of our own universe, but to this very Idea of rock-ness itself.  

But "rock" is not the only thing in this universe; any thought we can think exists in its truest form as an Idea, a universal. In this universe of Ideas, there exists the ideal Form of a triangle, say, that perfectly distills the very essence of triangle-ness, and the Form of the color red, which is perfectly red in every respect—not merely the most red red, but the least red red as well, and every other red in between, and embodiment of the very concept of redness.

This universe contains the Form of a chair, which is distinct from the Form of a sofa, the Form of a seat, the Form of a divan, and the Form of a settee, none of which is actually a chair or sofa or seat or divan or settee, but each of which perfectly encapsulates the meaning of the words.

Every rock we see in the physical world is just an imitation of this perfectly ideal concept of rock, lacking to some degree or another some of its perfect rock-ness. And these perfect Ideas are known as "Platonic ideals", the very essence of the words we use and apply to the poor imitations we encounter in our day-to-day life.

I can eat a delicious dinner, but it will merely be a pale imitation of the Platonic ideal of deliciousness. I can love my wife, but it will merely be a pale imitation of the Platonic ideal of love. And we can bandy about player values, but they'll always be a pale imitation of the Platonic ideal of value.

What Is Value? (Take Two)