/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/57147661/860338782.0.jpg)
With the MLB playoffs in the LCS now, fantasy baseball’s 2017 season is fading away. However, here at Fake Teams, we use this time to look back on the season that happened and see what we can learn as we prepare for 2018.
Today, I want to look at the hitters and pitchers that most improved their value (using ESPN’s Player Rater, as always) from 2016 to 2017. You’ll see all the popular breakouts like Luis Severino and Tommy Pham, along with rookies that stormed the league like Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger. The point of this very large table is two-fold. First, it serves as a visual reminder that so many of the best players each year were not expected to be great, at least based on their 2016 performance. The late rounds of your draft are important, as is the waiver wire. It is vital to pay close attention, especially in April, to players that have improved and snag them while you can.
Second, it gives us a list of players to take a closer look at this offseason to see if their breakout was legit or simply a product of BABIP (looking at you, Chris Taylor). I won’t spend time in today’s post diving into who might have gotten by on smoke-and-mirrors (*cough* Gio Gonzalez *cough*) and who legitimately improved. I’ll save that for another post.
Here’s how I put this together. I pulled the top 300 players from ESPN’s player rater from both 2016 and 2017. Then, I subtracted their 2017 rank from their 2016 rank to figure out how much they climbed this year. If they were outside the top 300 in 2016, I simply used 300 for their 2016 rank. Yes, that does undersell the improvements of guys like Severino, Merrifield, and Pham, but they still finished near the top, so I’m not too worried. I used the same method for everyone, so it is fair.
Also, if they didn’t crack the top 300, they were either in the minors or barely usable in fantasy. Either way, there isn’t much differentiation outside the top 300. For reference, here are some names that finished around #300 in 2016: Travis Shaw, Koji Uehara, Mike Fiers, and Andrelton Simmons. Keep in mind that this is for their 2016 performance, not 2017. None of them were very useful in 2016 as far as I remember.
Without further delay, here’s the list. I cut it off after I got to guys that improved 100 spots. Below that, it’s really just normal season-to-season variation and not drastic improvement. I hope you enjoy the list! Tschus!
Name | 2017 Rank | 2016 Rank | Increase |
---|---|---|---|
Aaron Judge | 12 | outside top 300 | 288 |
Luis Severino | 16 | outside top 300 | 284 |
Whit Merrifield | 23 | outside top 300 | 277 |
Tommy Pham | 24 | outside top 300 | 276 |
Corey Knebel | 25 | outside top 300 | 275 |
Robbie Ray | 30 | outside top 300 | 270 |
Giancarlo Stanton | 11 | 280 | 269 |
Alex Wood | 31 | outside top 300 | 269 |
Ryan Zimmerman | 42 | outside top 300 | 258 |
Felipe Rivero | 45 | outside top 300 | 255 |
Dee Gordon | 6 | 252 | 246 |
Domingo Santana | 54 | outside top 300 | 246 |
Cody Bellinger | 56 | outside top 300 | 244 |
Greg Holland | 62 | outside top 300 | 238 |
Andrew Benintendi | 65 | outside top 300 | 235 |
Avisail Garcia | 67 | outside top 300 | 233 |
Travis Shaw | 63 | 295 | 232 |
Chris Taylor | 69 | outside top 300 | 231 |
Chase Anderson | 71 | outside top 300 | 229 |
James Paxton | 74 | outside top 300 | 226 |
Gio Gonzalez | 36 | 261 | 225 |
Alex Bregman | 76 | outside top 300 | 224 |
Eddie Rosario | 81 | outside top 300 | 219 |
Ken Giles | 59 | 274 | 215 |
Brad Peacock | 86 | outside top 300 | 214 |
Dallas Keuchel | 73 | 283 | 210 |
Jimmy Nelson | 92 | outside top 300 | 208 |
Aaron Nola | 94 | outside top 300 | 206 |
Zack Greinke | 19 | 224 | 205 |
Charlie Morton | 97 | outside top 300 | 203 |
Andrelton Simmons | 99 | 300 | 201 |
Justin Smoak | 101 | outside top 300 | 199 |
Gary Sanchez | 102 | outside top 300 | 198 |
Brandon Kintzler | 104 | outside top 300 | 196 |
Yasiel Puig | 105 | outside top 300 | 195 |
Marwin Gonzalez | 85 | 277 | 192 |
Shin-Soo Choo | 109 | outside top 300 | 191 |
Sean Doolittle | 110 | outside top 300 | 190 |
Josh Reddick | 98 | 287 | 189 |
Zack Godley | 111 | outside top 300 | 189 |
Lance Lynn | 112 | outside top 300 | 188 |
Mike Moustakas | 113 | outside top 300 | 187 |
Nicholas Castellanos | 115 | outside top 300 | 185 |
Byron Buxton | 121 | outside top 300 | 179 |
Chad Green | 125 | outside top 300 | 175 |
Steven Souza Jr. | 126 | outside top 300 | 174 |
Marcell Ozuna | 21 | 193 | 172 |
Scooter Gennett | 87 | 259 | 172 |
Brad Hand | 57 | 228 | 171 |
Sonny Gray | 132 | outside top 300 | 168 |
Corey Dickerson | 127 | 294 | 167 |
Mike Clevinger | 133 | outside top 300 | 167 |
Gerrit Cole | 134 | outside top 300 | 166 |
Zack Cozart | 135 | outside top 300 | 165 |
Raisel Iglesias | 68 | 232 | 164 |
Alex Cobb | 136 | outside top 300 | 164 |
Yusmeiro Petit | 137 | outside top 300 | 163 |
Jose Berrios | 138 | outside top 300 | 162 |
Edwin Diaz | 66 | 225 | 159 |
Dylan Bundy | 141 | outside top 300 | 159 |
Jhoulys Chacin | 142 | outside top 300 | 158 |
Brett Gardner | 75 | 231 | 156 |
Mark Reynolds | 120 | 276 | 156 |
Yuli Gurriel | 144 | outside top 300 | 156 |
Trey Mancini | 145 | outside top 300 | 155 |
David Peralta | 147 | outside top 300 | 153 |
Blake Parker | 149 | outside top 300 | 151 |
Mike Minor | 150 | outside top 300 | 150 |
Jason Vargas | 151 | outside top 300 | 149 |
Marcus Stroman | 96 | 244 | 148 |
Matt Albers | 157 | outside top 300 | 143 |
Lorenzo Cain | 48 | 190 | 142 |
Jose Reyes | 158 | outside top 300 | 142 |
Fernando Rodney | 78 | 219 | 141 |
Alex Claudio | 159 | outside top 300 | 141 |
Ender Inciarte | 47 | 181 | 134 |
A.J. Pollock | 166 | outside top 300 | 134 |
Logan Morrison | 167 | outside top 300 | 133 |
Jose Urena | 168 | outside top 300 | 132 |
Ervin Santana | 37 | 166 | 129 |
Delino DeShields | 171 | outside top 300 | 129 |
Michael Taylor | 172 | outside top 300 | 128 |
Anthony Swarzak | 173 | outside top 300 | 127 |
Michael Conforto | 176 | outside top 300 | 124 |
Arodys Vizcaino | 177 | outside top 300 | 123 |
Tim Beckham | 178 | outside top 300 | 122 |
Pat Neshek | 179 | outside top 300 | 121 |
Joey Gallo | 181 | outside top 300 | 119 |
Justin Bour | 182 | outside top 300 | 118 |
Jacob deGrom | 40 | 157 | 117 |
Jordan Montgomery | 183 | outside top 300 | 117 |
Craig Kimbrel | 10 | 125 | 115 |
Hector Neris | 108 | 223 | 115 |
Patrick Corbin | 186 | outside top 300 | 114 |
Josh Bell | 188 | outside top 300 | 112 |
Orlando Arcia | 189 | outside top 300 | 111 |
Joe Mauer | 192 | outside top 300 | 108 |
J.D. Martinez | 27 | 134 | 107 |
Miguel Sano | 193 | outside top 300 | 107 |
Yonder Alonso | 196 | outside top 300 | 104 |
Eric Thames | 197 | outside top 300 | 103 |
Yu Darvish | 90 | 192 | 102 |
Juan Nicasio | 198 | outside top 300 | 102 |
Ryon Healy | 199 | outside top 300 | 101 |
Carlos Carrasco | 18 | 118 | 100 |
Andrew McCutchen | 60 | 160 | 100 |
AJ Ramos | 200 | outside top 300 | 100 |