[hitter_list list_id=”24595″ 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 home stretch of the 2018 season, so expect to see plenty of aggressive adjustments to the List each week. In particular, injuries will take on added importance as even a minimum DL stint will cost a player a decent chunk of their remaining games. 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!
- Injury roundup: Rafael Devers (hamstring) is back on the disabled list for the third time in five weeks. Combined with his underwhelming numbers, that’s enough to drop him near the end of the List. Only his pedigree and the lineup context keep him from falling off entirely. Brandon Nimmo (finger) comes up lame with unfortunate timing, as he looked to be embarking on another hot streak right before that HBP. Didi Gregorius (heel) doesn’t have a firm timetable, but at this point anything beyond the minimum stint is a serious blow to any player’s ROS value. Joey Votto (leg) could be back when first eligible on Sunday, but given his underwhelming performance thus far, it’s tough to expect big numbers from here on out. Finally, late-breaking news that Buster Posey (hip) will likely need season-ending surgery is the cherry on top of the worst year of his career.
- New to or back on the List this week: Shohei Ohtani makes his way back on to the List. If he played more often, he would have been a fixture – his production has never been the issue there. Even with Scott Schebler finally nearing a return, Phil Ervin’s performance in his absence deserves recognition, and he figures to remain in the lineup more often than not as the Reds play out the string. Hunter Renfroe’s numbers have improved across the board over his rookie season, but lack of playing time early in the year has kept him largely overlooked. Willy Adames might just be on a hot streak, but his pedigree and blend of power and speed make him worth betting on. Johan Camargo isn’t flashy, but he’s hitting over .300 with solid run production and a bit of pop since the break and qualifies for three infield positions. Finally, Lourdes Gurriel is almost healed and ready to try extending his multi-hit game streak, which stood at a ridiculous 11 games before his injury.
Why the massive drop for Pollock? He had a .927 OPS over the last week.
Not a reaction to the last week’s performance, just felt I’d had him too high previously (and to be fair even that stretch has his August OPS lagging under .700).
Probably because Pollock hasn’t attempted a SB since the LBJ administration
Jose Abreu needs a big down arrow.. hes out for a while. Have to wonder if he plays at all this year after the abdominal surgery – I know he is slated to, but the Sox don’t have a lot to play for. He was on fire… its a shame.
One thing you learn in this gig is that all injury news breaks late on Tuesday night immediately after you’ve finished writing. I heard about Posey but not Abreu.
I think Gattis is heating up again – he hit several HR last week.
Matt Kemp has been swinging the bat well over the past week – he has gotten quite unlucky but he is hitting a bunch of LD, which is what he does when he is good. Not sure how often he will play though… the Dodgers kind of screwed up their lineup with their sexy trade-deadline acquisitions. Notice how many of the over-achievers completely fell apart after their regular jobs got threatened. Kind of a nice case study in why adding big bats isn’t just as simple as adding players to the lineup… unless they actually fill a void.
I say it every week, but there are so many options past Bellinger… like Justin Turner who is hitting better and has a better lineup spot on the same team. I would bet that once we can get past the 2017 bias he could be right around 50 in 2019, but at this point it is just such a tough pill to swallow. If he started at 50, then he could sink way down when he goes ice cold, which would be accurate. Who knows, maybe he can streak into some HR and create some buzz, but I doubt it. I think it is more likely that he goes full AVG mode and hits a few HR, in which case we may realize that he isn’t what we thought he was. I have a sneaking suspicion that he is one of those players that we will ignore the flaws and point to the positives on, in which case we will be talking about improved BA in the offseason, and we may or may not acknowledge the huge power dropoff – we will talk about it, but point to his age and say he will bounce back lol. A year ago, I said I think he is Hosmer or Myers and that looks even more likely right now. I think he is Hosmer 2.0 actually, but with some speed like Myers. Those guys are not top 50… unless we are talking red-hot Myers, but Myers has a lot more pop than Belly, so that really isn’t a great comp. I am thinking the potential .300 AVG of Hosmer and lack of 1B power with the steals of Myers along with the lack of consistency that Hosmer provides. In other words, not a player I would draft at the deepest of positions. I guess I just don’t see what he brings to the table that a lot of other players don’t. Bellinger is top 50 in HR but there are a whole lot of players right behind him and he has more ABs than most of his peers. I guess he is one of 13 players with 20 HR and double digit steals, but there are a lot of guys that are in the neighborhood of 10 steals and 20 HR. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up leading off as I think he could be good in that role. If he ever ditches the grotesque uppercut and goes full spray mode he could be pretty good, but that guy doesn’t hit 20 HR in the juiced ball era… maybe that guy steals 20 bags? Upper cut guy struggles to hit .220 and might run into 30+ HR, but that guy is very much an AAAA slugger. I am not sure that his two swings/approaches have anything in common – I think it is one or the other. Perhaps he completely rebuilds his swing but there isn’t much precedent for that. He has elite pitch recognition and that is a good foundation, but he needs to figure out what he is best at.
RE: Bellinger, just because he isn’t providing value in the way he was expected to doesn’t negate the fact that he *is* providing value. He’s hitting over .300 in the second half, with solid run production and five stolen bases in 30 games. It’s not hard to find power on the waiver wire even at this point in the season. Both Yahoo and ESPN have him 37th overall in 5×5 over L30.
Seems like Albies deserves a much bigger drop. He had a huge April and a decent July. Other than that, he’s been pretty blah.
Might be hitting a wall in his first full MLB season, might just be a slump. I’m leaning toward the latter, but no signs of life between now and next week will lead to a larger drop.
Your thoughts on Greg Allen ROS would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks