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Hitter List 4/5: Top 150 Hitters – Week 1.5 Fantasy Baseball 2023

The top 150 hitters for 2023 fantasy baseball, plus a taxi squad.

The season is underway and we’ve already got some movers and shakers on the Hitter List! While it’s important to avoid overreacting in April to stat lines, we can still take note of things like playing time, managerial tendencies, and initial responses to the new rule changes.
As always, let’s get some basics out of the way in terms of how to interpret these rankings. None of this stuff should come as any major surprise, but it never hurts to provide background:

 

 

 

 

  • Tyler O’Neill is playing every day right now, which is great. Now he just needs to stay healthy and keep playing every day when Nootbaar returns.

 

  • C.J. Cron was excellent on opening weekend on the road, which is neat, but he also hasn’t been impacted by the Coors effect quite yet since he hasn’t actually played any games in Colorado. The Coors effect, where hitters have to adjust between how pitches move in the altitude at Coors Field versus other environments, doesn’t really kick in until you’ve played in Colorado, and so far the Rockies have only played in Arizona, San Diego, and LA.

 

  • I want to be as patient as possible with Nick Castellanos, but the strikeouts are mildly concerning after he went through a swing change this offseason.

 

  • Max Muncy is striking out a lot, but the home run on Tuesday was a decent sign. If the strikeout rate remains north of 30% two weeks from now, we may need to take a deeper dive.

 

  • Jorge Polanco may not be back for a few more weeks, but this ranking still feels right. He’ll slide up as we get more (hopefully) good news about his potential return.

 

  • Come back soon, Lars Nootbaar. This ranking assumes he returns to a nearly every day role like I projected in the spring, but the Cardinals have crazy depth in the corners and at DH, so a prolonged absence plus a hot performance from a guy like Nolan Gorman could put pressure on Nootbaar’s playing time.

 

And here’s the Taxi Squad, presented in no particular order:

Scott Chu

Scott Chu is a Senior Fantasy Analyst here at Pitcher List and has written about fantasy baseball since 2013. He's also the inventor of Fantasy Curling (as seen the Wall Street Journal) and co-host of the Hacks & Jacks Podcast on the PL Podcast Network, and 4x FSWA Award nominee for Best Fantasy Baseball Podcast. In addition to being a fantasy analyst, he's a dad of three, animal lover, Simpsons fanatic, amateur curler, a CODA, and an attorney.

11 responses to “Hitter List 4/5: Top 150 Hitters – Week 1.5 Fantasy Baseball 2023”

  1. Simsbad says:

    Gabriel Moreno and Mitch Garver not on your Taxi Squad? Thoughts on both? Also thoughts on Grandal?

    • Scott Chu says:

      Hey Simsbad! No, not right now—but that’s because in 1-catcher leagues I’m not interested in very many catchers. If Moreno can continue to get consistent playing time and start getting some hits, he’d be of interest. Otherwise, he’s just a streamer.

      Garver had that nice double-dinger game to start, and if he plays 4 times a week or so, he’d be on that streaming list too. Garver had that big 31 HR season…but that was 2019. We haven’t seen him play a ton since then.

      Grandal has been hurt, bad, or both in two of the last three seasons. There’s maybe something there in an OBP format, but he’s a second catcher at best for me right now.

  2. RJ says:

    You that low on Wil Myers that he doesn’t even make your taxi squad?

    • Scott Chu says:

      Yes. I guess he could be a taxi squad guy, but he doesn’t move the needle for me in a 12-teamer.

  3. Mike Honcho says:

    No Joey Wiemer??
    Gotta rate a mention more than temp Juan Yepez and guys not even in the bigs.
    Just sayin’

    • Scott Chu says:

      Probably should have included Wiemer. Power and speed is intriguing, but ratios will likely be rough.

  4. Jim says:

    Understood he just hurt his thumb but Darick Halls HR potential isn’t doing it for you?

  5. Mitch says:

    How close is Esteury Ruiz? I’ve got a lot of other speed guys and gotta improve average somewhere

  6. Christopher Olson says:

    Wondering about your thoughts on Logan O’Hoppe?

  7. James Kiley says:

    Since spring training I’ve thought people are sleeping on Conforto. I’ve listened to every PitcherList, Rates & Barrels, FantasyPros, Rotograph, and Fantasy Baseball Today podcast since February and no one has said his name yet. And you said he’s off to a slow start, he’s not! Tomorrow you’ll still be sleeping on him! Don’t. He’s looking good out of the gate even with all that rust. He’ll be one of the top 75 hitters this year or I’ll eat a Conforto jersey.

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