Fantasy Baseball 2017: Top 250 rest of season rankings

Welcome back. We are now roughly two weeks into the 2017 MLB season. Certain players are off to great starts and others are having a tough time getting anything going. How will this affect my top 250?

Quick reminder, this will be updated weekly. I’ll do my best to explain any large rankings changes and feel free to ask player specific questions in the comments. This is your weekly forum to sound off with any fantasy questions you have. I’m here to help you!

Quick Hits

• Small changes in my top 100. Guys like Bryce Harper and Francisco Lindor are looking like MVP candidates in their respective leagues. They each move up a few spots to reflect, nothing drastic.
• Adrian Beltre has yet to take the field for the Texas Rangers this season. The third baseman has been dealing with a calf injury which was recently diagnosed as a Grade 1 strain. He has no clear timetable to return. Rangers assistant GM was quoted in saying it would be ‘weeks, not days’ on Beltre’s return. Texas has been extremely conservative in his rehab. In addition to this, Beltre’s replacement, Joey Gallo, has been playing well, thus providing the Rangers with more reasons to hold the 37 year old out until fully healthy. Beltre was a top 50 player in my rankings in the past but now falls outside the top 70. He certainly has top 50 upside when healthy. The question remains, when will that be?
• Matt Harvey cracks my top 40 SP in this week’s update. The Mets star pitcher went 5.2 innings with 6 strikeouts on Tuesday against the Phillies. He owns a 2-0 record with a 2.92ERA 0.73WHIP and 10 Ks over 12.1 innings. The big takeaway from these outings is Harvey has remained healthy. His next 3 opponents are division rivals as well, Marlins, Nationals, and Braves. All 3 matchups are favorable for him. As long as he is healthy, I think his performance will back up the ranking.
• Nick Nicholas Castellanos makes a big jump in this week’s top 250 update. The Tigers third baseman is off to a solid start with 2 HR 6 R and 4 RBI. He was a top 250 player last year hitting .285 with 18 HR in just 110 games. A 30 HR 80 RBI year with a .280 AVG is certainly in the realm of possibility for a player who is still just 25 years old. Maybe he was overlooked in my pre-season rankings?
• Eugenio Suarez makes his top 250 debut and I’m disappointed in myself for not having him higher to start the year. The Reds third baseman is hitting .375/.474/.656 with 2 HR 7 R and 8 RBI. Last season, he was a top 200 player in fantasy baseball with 21HR and 11SB. The downside was a .248 batting average with a 24.7% K rate and only a 8.1% walk rate. Small sample, but he has 5 walks and 5 strikeouts early on. If he gets better at the plate, the average will rise. This is a perfect start for the 25 year old.

Losing Faith

Here’s a few of players who dropped in the rankings and, if their poor performances continue, could soon be outside my top 250:

• Rich Hill (another injury)
• Byron Buxton (3 for 34 with 19 strikeouts) I’m not alone in this
• Sam Dyson (will he get another save chance? does he deserve it?)

Hello, Goodbye

The following players are new additions to the top 250:

• Eugenio Suarez (pick him up!)
• Mitch Haniger (him too)
• Michael Pineda
• James Paxton
• Neftali Feliz
• Matt Wieters
• Hunter Renfroe (the Padres actually have good baseball players!).

The following players are no longer in my top 250:

• Hisashi Iwakuma
• Collin McHugh
• Cameron Maybin
• Kevin Pillar
• Josh Reddick
• Garrett Richards
• Jedd Gyorko

See you next week!