The best players in the game right now
October 10, 2024 by Ultiworld in Opinion with 0 comments
There’s no shortage of talent in the USA Ultimate Club men’s division. We look a lot at team success, and often see familiar names and faces in those discussions. But who are the best individual players? Who brings the most value to winning a championship? Figuring out which stars shine the brightest is more art than science, but perhaps there’s democratic power in numbers.
So who are the best players in the division right now? To try to clear away as much of the white noise created by circumstance as possible and get to the heart of each individual’s value and contribution, we asked a diverse group of twelve members of our coverage team, as well as an anonymous group of elite players, to weigh in on the following prompt:
If you were starting a club team today with the singular goal of winning a theoretical Club Championship this October, how would you rank the players within the division? You aren’t building a team of all of your selections, so don’t worry about how the players complement each other. Consider each pick the first pick of a team, drafting in order, only you can’t pick the players you’ve already ranked above. All players who were on a 2024 USA Ultimate Club men’s division roster of a team that reached regionals are eligible to be drafted. With regards to injuries an absences, we will include all rostered players unless there is confirmation a player will not be competing, or would not be able to compete, at Nationals.
In order to improve how representative our rankings are of the opinions of our voters, we have iterated until arriving at this process. We each listed out our top 35 players to iron out some of the gradations on the fringes and then combined our lists to create a composite ranking. In addition, we included the ballots of a few anonymous elite players and coaches from different teams and regions. We used a weighted scoring system for votes, with Participants’ Ballots counting as 60% of the value of Staff Ballots.1
We’ll start with our top 10, and discussion about that group. Then we’ll reveal the entire top 25, followed by the complete ballots, and additional conversations about the rankings.
Staff Voters
Alex Rubin (Senior Staff Writer)
Graham Gerhart (Senior Staff Writer)
Graham Gordon (Club Reporter)
Edward Stephens (Club Editor)
Emmet Holton (Staff Writer)
Keith Raynor (Senior Editor)
Patrick Stegemoeller (Senior Staff Writer)
The Top 10
Overall Rank | Player Name | Ranking Pts. | Edward Stephens | Alex Rubin | Graham Gordon | Keith Raynor | Graham Gerhart | Emmet Holton | Patrick Stegemoeller | Participant (4) Rankings | Subscriber (6) Rankings |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Joe White | 3510 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
2 | Christian Boxley | 3388 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 |
3 | Jeff Babbitt | 3311 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
4 | Raphy Hayes | 2975 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 22 |
5 | Jonny Malks | 2952 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 3 |
6 | Chris Kocher | 2831 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 16 | 7 |
7 | Quinn Finer | 2645 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 21 | 12 |
8 | Alex Atkins | 2481 | 6 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 20 |
9 | Henry Ing | 2451 | 12 | 5 | 10 | 19 | 11 | 17 | 19 | 9 | 2 |
10 | John Randolph | 2348 | 18 | 8 | 22 | 6 | 6 | 14 | 8 | 13 | 9 |
[Editor: There may be some sorting issues with the table that cannot be altered at the time. Our apologies for the inconvenience.]
Most of our voters shared the same #1 pick: Joe White. What is it about White that stood out this year?
Two of our voters (Edward and Patrick) not only went a different direction, but dropped everyone else’s top pick to #5. Why did you see it differently?
Graham Gerhart (Senior Staff Writer): In the NFL, the default for MVP voting has become “The Best Player on the Best Team.” Not saying that this is always necessarily correct, but it’s definitely a good starting point.
For me, in a year where I had a lot of players who I thought could make the #1 on this list, no one clearly made a better case than Joe White, so I reverted to the default: the best player on the best team (that we’ve seen so far).
Keith Raynor (Senior Editor): It is surprising to see so much consensus when there are a good crop of worthy #1 contenders that stack up well against one another. The cases for Boxley and Babbitt are pretty clear and you could compel me with Hayes, or perhaps Malks and Kocher.
To me, White has smoothed out many of the sharp edges of his game. While that has most famously been the turnovers, which he has reduced as part of dialing in on the right risk-reward ratio of his daring throwing looks, I also mean defensively and as a deep cutter.
Close competition but his case is marginally better.
Edward Stephens (Club Editor): You say that the cases for Babbitt and Boxley are clear… maybe, but let me make my case for Jeff Babbitt anyway: He’s the least guardable player in the game in the end zone right now, and he’s leaning into that role harder than ever before. It’s a little weird that for the second year in a row I’ve ranked a finisher in the top slot — I had Boxley there last year; some injury concerns for him this year kept him out of consideration for it this time — but that’s the way I see the game. In a world where every defense knows exactly what kinds of patterns to expect in the red zone, give me the guy who overpowers it. Right now, that’s Babbitt.
When I see Jeff Babbitt (PoNY) languishing in the upper-teens on most of your lists, I see a lack of imagination. Because you all clearly have him on the D-line in your minds. On my imaginary team, on the other hand, Babbitt is playing offense.
If he isn’t the most imposing athlete in the game right now, I don’t know who is. He could be the focal point of any offense and make it a contender. On top of the obvious benefits of his size and strength, he hardly makes any mistakes with the disc. He’s the #1 ticket to easy points, over and over and over again.
With the caveat provided by the terms of the exercise that he’s healthy, I don’t see how he isn’t the hardest cover in the game and every thrower’s dream target, on top of being the single most impactful defensive player in the game.
Graham Gordon (Club Reporter): I didn’t feel 100% about Joe, but ultimately, it came down to the fact that he’s top-class at pretty much every skill. He is a tough cover at all three levels of the field, can break any mark and huck with the best of them, and when he’s locked in, is a bulldog defender. Babbitt and Box are better at certain skills, but neither have the consistent body of work that Joe does, nor do they garner the same sort of attention from opposing defenders.
Emmet Holton (Staff Writer): Babbitt has suffered a bit this season simply because DiG lack the handling top end of a lot of the other top teams. He’s undoubtedly borderline unguardable around the end zone, and remains singularly intimidating on defense, but DiG’s particular approach has hamstrung his upside a bit to me. It’s allowed him to get a lot more touches than he did on PoNY, but I don’t think he’s able to truly be the most dominant force in the game, simply because his most complete game relies on having a great thrower to put up shots to him. That’s something DiG have seemingly lacked, though maybe McDonnell lights it up at Nationals and makes this take look silly.
Alex Rubin (Senior Staff Writer): Others have said enough about his talent that I don’t need to glaze Joe White any more other to say that he makes the game look like everyone else is playing pickup. He moves through the offense so smoothly and reads the game better than the players around him.
Stephens: Nearly ever voter had Raphy Hayes in the top five, so there is no controversy about his talent. That said, what elevates him to #1 for you, Patrick Stegemoeller?
Patrick Stegemoeller (Senior Staff Writer): Hayes and White are the two most talented across the board players in the division right now, but I see Raphy accessing that talent in ways that are more valuable than anyone else. It’s not just that he has the ability to play almost any role on the field – he actually does it well in the moment. To put it bluntly, he hits the “go” button better than anyone else, in the times that call for it.
This year was the least clear I’ve felt about who should have the #1 spot (partially because of Worlds and the resulting club season disruption), but Hayes felt to me like the player I could most rely on to use every inch of his immense talent in ways that most directly impact winning.
Which top 10 player on someone else’s ballot seems out of place?
Stephens: Emmet, I’m a certified Sam Little fan since before I started writing for Ultiworld. I didn’t have a place for him this year though. Did I miss something on tape or are you imagining things?
Holton: To me, he feels right at home in the high-throwing-responsibility cutter hierarchy: just below Chris Kocher and just above Ben Dameron. He’s obviously not as flashy as some (that’s a well-tread narrative at this point) but in terms of sheer importance to an offense, he’s right up there. He’s absolutely one of the best continuation throwers in the game, and is one of the best at making use of his threat as a thrower to get wide open deep. He’s the second most important player on PoNY (notwithstanding Jagt’s injury troubles this season).
While we’re on the topic, what’s your thought with Tobias Brooks? He’s undeniably great, and will certainly be in the mix for the college PoTY come May 2025, but to me he’s still proving his spot in the top 15-20, rather than having cemented himself in the top 10. For my money, he’s fourth or fifth in the Bravo hierarchy after Finer, Atkins, and Coolman (who a lot of people were too low on with their lists. That guy is, like, the most electric two-way player in club right now), and neck-and-neck with Grant Lindsley.
Stephens: What do you all want me to say about Tobias Brooks? He’s the best young talent the men’s division has seen since I started covering the sport in 2019. He’s a problem everywhere on offense. The defense is coming quickly. He has the best hammer in the game. He’s a tank when it comes to dealing with contact on tight plays. He is as important to Bravo as Finer or Atkins.
Stegemoeller: Two things that can be true: 1) Brooks is historically good after just his freshman year of college and is ahead of where guys like John Randolph were at this point 2) there’s still a lack of polish to his game that separates him from the top tier of guys who have the highest value when the game is played at the highest level. Brooks is best 19-year old in the division since the Freechild/Mickle generation, but I wouldn’t have had those guys in my top 10 back in 2011, either.
Raynor: How about Alex Rubin with Henry Ing at a high of #5?
Rubin: Ing gets the ball often on a crowded Rhino offense and rarely does the wrong thing with it. He is capable of flashy plays on both sides of the ball. What’s not to like? Maybe I’m a bit softer on him because I’ve seen him dominate in mixed for so long but the skills clearly translate.
Stegemoeller: Mac Hecht at #8 raises some eyebrows for me. He was outstanding last year in his return to DiG, but I haven’t seen him as a top 10 guy this year, or certainly when he was on Sockeye. System player allegations???
Holton: I agree with Pat here, he’s been a great centerpiece for several years now, but to me he doesn’t feel like he’s put to together a top ten individual season. I wouldn’t be shocked if he leads Nationals in assists, but I also wouldn’t be shocked if, in typical Revolver fashion, he’s one of half a dozen guys with major throwing responsibilities and he ends up being somewhere in the middle of the pack. His skillset is unique, he’s probably one of the five best throwers in the club field, but he doesn’t bring as much outside of that as a lot of his competition.
Our experience has shown that participants’ ballots trend towards regional concentrations and emphasizing the strength of their teammates, as well as other quirks such as occasionally not ranking themselves, which is why their ballots are weighted in this manner. ↩
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