Tiers are an alternate form of rankings that stresses the big picture rather than parsing the details. Alike players are grouped together at each position, thereby denoting the biggest drop-offs within the rankings. This way, you can control for position scarcity in the heat of the draft. The position nearing a drop-off is generally the one you'll want to target.
Below are the relief pitcher tiers for 2023, which read like a hierarchy of closers. The Next-Best Things form a dividing line between those who clearly have the job and those who don't.
For a deeper look at the position, check out Scott's RP strategies.
The Elite: Edwin Diaz, Emmanuel Clase, Josh Hader, Devin Williams
The Near-Elite: Raisel Iglesias, Jordan Romano, Felix Bautista, Ryan Pressly, Kenley Jansen
The Next-Best Things: Ryan Helsley, Camilo Doval, Clay Holmes, David Bednar, Alexis Diaz, Daniel Bard
The Fallback Options: Scott Barlow, Paul Sewald, Peter Fairbanks, Jhoan Duran, Craig Kimbrel
The Last Resorts: Andres Munoz, Alex Lange, Kendall Graveman, Dylan Floro, Jose Leclerc, Kyle Finnegan, Daniel Hudson, Carlos Estevez, Brandon Hughes, Trevor May, Mark Melancon
The Next in Line: Evan Phillips, Giovanny Gallegos, Aroldis Chapman, Dany Jimenez, Reynaldo Lopez, Jorge Lopez, Seranthony Dominguez, Brusdar Graterol, Jimmy Herget, Brad Boxberger, Jason Adam, A.J. Minter, James Karinchak, Dillon Tate, Erik Swanson, Joe Mantiply, Kevin Ginkel, Taylor Rogers, Liam Hendriks, Jonathan Hernandez