Hitter List 7/11: Ranking the Top 150 Hitters To Own ROS

[hitter_list list_id=”23384″ 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. Position eligibility does factor in to a degree.

We’re entering the All-Star break shortly, which means that adjustments to the List will likely be more aggressive than they’ve been previously. Rest assured that any rankings you vehemently disagree with were explicitly an attempt to insult you and/or your favorite player(s) personally. Seriously, before you work yourself into a rage in the comment section, understand that this is only one person’s opinion. I’m wrong a lot! Comes with the territory of doing this sort of thing.

On to the highlights!

• Signs of life from Rougned Odor! All he needed to motivate him was the prospect of falling off the List, clearly. The Rangers’ second baseman homered on Tuesday night, giving him four in the last three weeks to go with four steals and a .281/.361/.500 slash line during that span. Lots of folks gave up, and you can’t really fault them for it given how atrocious he looked for basically the whole first half of 2018. Kudos to you if you kept the faith, or if you simply snagged him on the rebound.
• Even more signs of life from Billy Hamilton, as the time of year has arrived when he manages to hit for a few weeks and proceeds to steal bases at damn near every opportunity. The latter is especially welcome after the Hamburglar only bothered trying to swipe a bag 13 times in his first 70 games.
• Injury roundup: Yasiel Puig‘s oblique strain is the least severe grade but will still knock him out of action for the remainder of July. Oblique injuries also have a tendency to linger and nag. Todd Frazier was headed for a fall this week even before he wound up on the disabled list again; the injury accounts for only a small portion of that drop. The real story here is Gleyber Torres, whose excellent rookie season has been at least temporarily derailed thanks to a bum hip. Management sounds hopeful he’ll be back before too long, at least.
• New to or back on the List this week: Eric Thames, Kendrys Morales, and Jesse Winker. I admit to having spaced on returning Thames to the List after he came back from injury last month. He’s had no trouble finding at-bats despite the emergence of Jesus Aguilar on what was already a crowded Brewers roster, and he’s acquitted himself quite well in those at-bats, particularly lately. Morales’ awful April masks the fact that he’s provided his usual steady (if unexciting) level of production in the interim. Still have some doubts about Winker’s true talent in terms of power, but the plate discipline and contact ability (plus a favorable home park) are attractive enough to justify a dice roll on that count.
• Honorable Mentions: Niko Goodrum’s versatility and pop/speed combo hold value, but he’s not much help in the batting average or run production departments. Wilmer Flores is doing his usual thing where he flashes starter upside, only for the Mets to inexplicably bench him…the latter part just hasn’t happened yet. It will, though. In fact, I’m prepared to bet all the money in my wallet that they’ll sit him in favor of Tim Tebow before the season is out (my wallet currently contains three dollars). There are a lot of rumors flying around about the Phillies acquiring a number of third basemen, but Maikel Franco is certainly playing like he wants to keep his job; he’s hitting .338/.411/.569 with as many walks as strikeouts over the past month. Stephen Piscotty has homered in four straight games. Finally, Gorkys Hernandez almost certainly won’t continue to run a 20.4 HR/FB% which makes him unlikely to keep up his current level of production. Stranger things have happened, though.