Fantasy Baseball 2017: Top 250 rest of season rankings

Welcome back. Another week, another top 250 update. Let’s jump right in!

Quick reminder, these rankings are for standard 5x5 rotisserie. 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

• The big news in the fantasy baseball world over the past 7 days was the Madison Bumgarner dirt bike accident. Bumgarner suffered bruised ribs and a strained left shoulder. The initial timetable was 6-8 weeks but some reports indicate the recovery could be longer. Bumgarner will thankfully not require surgery and should begin rehab on his shoulder in the coming days. The timetable has the Giants ace out until June. I had Bumgarner as the #3 SP and #14 overall. He drops to SP27 and #118 overall. Fantasy owners will have to stash him on the DL and try their best to compete until he returns. For those whose teams, pitching staff in particular, are looking good so far, I would recommend trying to trade for Bumgarner. The nature of the injury leads me to believe Bumgarner will return to form immediately upon his return. He offers top 5 SP production and that is something impossible to get from the waiver wire.
• Last week’s update saw a big rise for Jose Ramirez. This week I move him up even further. As I mentioned last week, Ramirez finished last season as a top 50 player in fantasy. This also made him a top 30 hitter. I am now all in on Ramirez and have him ranked inside the top 50. He is top 10 at both 3B and 2B and is also a top 15 OF. Jason Kipnis sees a rise in this week’s update as well. I was a big believer in Kipnis before the season. My current ranking reflects this as he is now back from the DL.
• Eric Thames continues to rise. He comes in as #131 overall for me. In all honesty, I could have him ranked inside my top 70. He’s been that amazing. His production has been outstanding and we don’t really have any data to support or argue against whether this will continue. The knock against him is the quality of pitchers he has faced so far is not great. He plays in a division where he will face plenty of the Cubs, Cardinals, and Pirates later in the year. One could also assume pitchers will eventually figure him out once they accumulate enough data on him. I have him ranked conservatively but am certainly not selling him high. He’s the hottest hitter in fantasy right now and I’m keeping him on my team to see where it goes.
• Struggling starters Kenta Maeda, Jeff Samardzija, and Felix Hernandez all take major steps back in this update. Maeda has yet to surpass 5 innings pitched and has allowed 17 runs in 19 innings this season, including 7 home runs. The positives are his walk and strikeout per 9 are right in line with last season. His 4 starts have been the Padres, at the Rockies, home to the Diamondbacks, and then at Arizona. Not the best 4 game slate a pitcher could hope for. He drops for me, but I’m optimistic he can figure it out. Samardzija is having an interesting season to say the least. He’s 0-4 and has allowed at least 3 runs in every start, most recently 7 runs at Colorado. Oddly, he’s getting 11.1K/9 which is a career high and nearly 4 more K/9 compare to last year. He has an extensive track record of ending up a 4.00ish ERA guy but it typically has many bad outings sprinkled in. The strikeout rate has me keeping an eye on him though. Hernandez has me worried the most out of this trio. In addition to giving up 6 hits and 4 runs in just 2 innings against the Tigers, King Felix was place on the DL with shoulder inflammation. He’s giving up 13.2 hits per 9 so far. I feel the ERA could be even worse than the 4.72 that is currently is. He may be only 31 years old, but his arm has over 2400 big leagues innings on it. This might be the beginning of the end for the Mariners ace.
• Cody Bellinger was called up by the Dodgers and he makes his top 250 debut. Pick him up wherever you can. I’m most likely not dropping a top 200 player, but he should be owned in all formats. He’s young, just 21, but he has superstar potential. Between high A and AA over 2015 and 2016, Bellinger totaled 56 HR 174 RBI 18 SB with a .267 AVG. So far in AAA he is hitting .343 with 5 HR and 7 SB. We are talking about a potential 30HR 10SB player. The strikeouts might be there, but Bellinger has shown improved plate discipline recently. He is the real deal. Add Bellinger!

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:

• Felix Hernandez (see above)
• Dansby Swanson (over hyped, myself included, hitting just .143 with 1 HR)
• Keon Broxton (hitting just .169 but has 5 SB)
• Devon Travis (at least he finally homered)

Hello, Goodbye

The following players are new additions to the top 250:

• Ervin Santana (couldn’t keep the #1 SP in fantasy out of the top 250)
• Steven Souza Jr.
• Ryan Zimmerman (he’s back! maybe? do I trust this?)
• Ivan Nova
• Chase Headley
• Cody Bellinger (see above)
• Joey Gallo (quickly becoming 1 of my favorites)
• Jason Heyward

The following players are no longer in my top 250:

• Carlos Rodon
• Ryan Schimpf
• Rajai Davis (slow start and now he’s hurt)
• Carlos Beltran
• Domingo Santana
• J.A. Happ
• Byron Buxton (still impressively bad)
• Marcus Semien (wrist surgery and 60 day DL)

See you next week!