[hitter_list list_id=”16433″ include_stats=”1″ season=”2018″]
Welcome back to Hitter List. Every Wednesday during the regular season, I’ll rank the current value of the top 150 hitters for the remainder of the year. Use these rankings to help get a sense of both a player’s expected performance and his trade value in your fantasy leagues moving forward. They’re constructed with 12-teamer, H2H, 5×5 leagues in mind; adjust as needed for your specific setup.
As you might expect, there’s not a ton of movement since last week for most of the players on the List. Five or six games aren’t really enough to drastically alter opinions on a player – or, at least, they shouldn’t be. The fact that Paul Goldschmidt only has one hit so far doesn’t mean much. Unless you own him in one of my leagues – in that case, it’s time to trade him to me for pennies on the dollar.
There are a handful of movers and shakers this week, though. Let’s talk about them!
- Bryce Harper gets a bump in honor of his scorching-hot start. There’s not much separation between the elites, so Harper hitting moon shots like this one (four in five games thus far) earns him a spot in the top five – especially because it was literally two seconds after some jabroni in the stands yelled, “OVERRATED!” Durability will always be a concern, but when he’s healthy, he’s terrifying.
- Miguel Cabrera a boost. Even after going 0-for-4 Tuesday night, he’s hitting .286/.375/.571 with a home run and three doubles in the early going. There’s a lot of season left, but it’s an extremely encouraging start after that lousy 2017 performance raised serious concerns about his future. As long as his body cooperates, Miggy will easily earn a profit for fantasy owners who took a chance on him this year.
- Lorenzo Cain and Adam Eaton are both off to great starts this year. Cain went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts on Tuesday, but is still slashing .409/.458/.682 with a home run and three stolen bases. The Brewers have established that they’re aggressive on the basepaths and Cain’s career success rate checks in at 84 percent. He could swipe 30 bags for the first time in his career. Eaton, meanwhile, returned from last season’s ACL tear to capture NL Player of the Week honors. He’s leading off in a fantastic Nationals lineup.
- Mitch Haniger went deep twice in his first four games, driving in five runs and scoring three himself. His rookie season was marred by injuries and a prolonged slump, but he still put up a .282/.352/.491 line with 16 bombs in 96 games. It’s easy to dream on the potential of a full, healthy season here.
- Given the severity of the injury and the lack of precedent for hitters, many – including yours truly – were reluctant to invest heavily in Michael Conforto. He’s on the verge of proving the doubters wrong, with a return to action appearing imminent. Credit where it’s due – Conforto has passed every physical test with flying colors and looked great in his limited spring action. He appears poised to reward owners who took a leap of faith.
- Speaking of injured shoulders, tough break for Jake Lamb as he suffered a sprain whilst making a diving catch and then landed awkwardly on the same shoulder during a slide into home plate in Arizona’s extra-inning win over the Dodgers on Monday night. There’s no official timetable for his return, though the team is hopeful he won’t need much more than the minimum 10 day DL stint. This does improve Chris Owings‘ outlook enough for him to crack the List, though.
- Ian Kinsler and Delino DeShields also suffered injuries that dropped them on the List this week. Kinsler’s groin issue doesn’t appear to be too serious, but that kind of injury tends to be easily aggravated, especially for a guy who will be 36 in June. DeShields’ hamate bone fracture will sap what little power he had, but you drafted him for his legs, and those will still work fine when he returns.
Xander moves down after 6 XBH in 6 games???
Fair point, but he’s still just outside top 40 – only dropped one slot due to Miggy getting bumped up.
What are the reasons to have Judge ahead of Stanton? Stanton is better, and has better projections across almost every single category, and hitting in a more premier spot in the lineup?
In his first year playing judge was almost as good as stanton has ever been. No reason he should be ranked below stanton. He’s a different caliber of talent.
Covered in last week’s List – can’t ignore Stanton’s injury history.
Tim Anderson, Scott Kingery. It’s time to admit Eva Longoria can’t hit.
They’re likely to appear here moving forward, but I’m not sold on Anderson’s start and Kingery has 14 MLB at-bats to his name and at least a small degree of uncertainty w/r/t playing time. Longo’s literally as close to being off the List as he can while still being on it, so he’s on borrowed time as well.
Agree and TY. Anderson needs to move in lineup and kingery needs the playing time imo. Also how about Ohtani, he finally sold me after launching Klubot even at around 3 days a week he could/should be considered. Thank you for the list and to Nick and all for the fabulous website.
I honestly almost took Longo off in favor of Ohtani in jest after his first HR. After today I’m wishing I had. It’s extremely hard to accumulate significant fantasy value as a hitter when you’re as limited in plate appearances as he’s likely to be, though. It’s also tough to develop as a hitter when you’re not devoting a significant chunk of your practice/prep time to it. When pitchers inevitably adjust, it’ll be that much harder for him to adjust back since he’s got to devote a significant portion of his energy to pitching as well.
On the other hand, he just took Corey goddamn Kluber deep so maybe he really is Babe Ruth. I have no idea, and that’s what makes Ohtani so much fun.
Bit of a pinch bud, next week Acuna and Zunino.. roster full. First inclination though any move is going to hurt and come back on me is kingery and eduardo or i could punt saves(kela) though i’m winning this week 2-0. Will make initial move to add a dl and new na 12 team h2h. standard 5 by 5. Any advice Appreciated
C: Empty
1B: Rhys Hoskins
2b: Schoop
3B: Machado
SS: Trea Turner
OF:JD Martinez
OF: Michael Conforto
OF: ADam Eaton
Util: Josh Bell
Util: Ozzie Albies
b: Tim Anderson
b: Scott Kingery
b: Ohtani (had Grandal for zunino filler)
b: Jose Martinez
Dl: Zunino
NA: Acuna
SP: Greinke
SP: Berrios
Rp: Kela
Rp: Empty
p: Ohtani
p: luis castillo
p: Godley
bn Bundy
bn: Chase Anderson
bn: JorMont
bn: Eduardo Rodriguez
DL: Danny Salazar
No Avisail Garcia?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I flatly refuse to believe Avisail Garcia is actually good. .392 BABIP last year was 18th highest of any qualified batter in the last 70 (!) years. Only hit 18 homers in a season where Scooter friggin’ Gennett hit 27. .695 career OPS entering last year. But mainly, it’s that we live in a post-truth society and I need to hold on to something that I just know in my bones, which is that Avisail Garcia is bad.
Josh Bell needs some helium. Dude can flat of rake, despite playing in that cavernous park.