Fantasy Baseball 2017: Top 250 Rest of Season Rankings

Welcome back. Another week, another top 250 update. A big update this week! We are now nearly 6 full weeks into the season and it’s time to start believing hot starts and panic over cold ones.

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

• Minimal changes to the top 40 but we do have 3 new members! Wil Myers, Jean Segura, and Jose Ramirez all make the leap into my top 40. They are actually similar in a way. All 3 were huge break outs last season that were downgraded coming into 2017 based on little track record and expected regress. Well, looks like they’re all legit!
• A theme I noticed in updating my rankings this week was: “Do I believe this player? If I do, shouldn’t I rank them as such?” (Okay, you can get out of my mind now). It may sound obvious, but I ranked players based on would I rather have Player X or Player Y on my fantasy team. This is why players like Andrew Benintendi, Michael Brantley, Marcell Ozuna, and Adam Duvall are all raising while players like Todd Frazier, Alex Bregman, and DJ LeMahieu are falling. I’d much rather own the first group than the second. Makes sense, huh?
• Holy closers shakeup! In 1 week we had 2 top 10 closers land on the DL and another top 20 option lose his job. Others, like Craig Kimbrel and Greg Holland, are turning the clock back and looking like the best of the bunch. Then you have the lower tier, such as Neftali Feliz, who are getting saves but are not pitching very well otherwise. Zach Britton highlights the closer news for the week because of his (re)injury. The Orioles are expecting him to miss 45-60 days. This puts an optimistic return at the end of June and a more likely scenario of him being out past the All-Star break. Brach Brach now takes over the closer job. He’s pitched quite well, with the expection of Wednesday, and he was one of the best relievers in baseball in 2016. One could certainly make the case for Brach in the top 10. The imminent Britton return mixed with the alternative top 10 current closers (who won’t lose their job in 2 months) make his top 10 case come up just short. That being said, I am very high on Brach and believe he is the best widely available option for saves out there, by far. He shouldn’t be available for long though, so hopefully you already picked him up. I’m holding on to Britton if I have an available DL spot. The other big closer news comes out of Detroit. Francisco Rodriguez was relieved (HA! I didn’t even mean to do that!) of his closer role in favor of Justin Wilson. Wilson has solid stats so far this year (14.2 IP 1.23ERA 0.55WHIP 14.1K/9). He’s a career 3.17 ERA guy though and I think that’s probably what to expect. The K rate has increased over his career but I’d expect a 10 K/9 at the best. His walk rate is fine and so far he has only allowed 4 hits and 2 runs. The big concern I have with ranking him higher is that I think K-Rod is getting his job back once he figures it out. I’m dropping Rodriguez for Wilson right now, but don’t be surprised if the Tigers give Rodriguez a 2nd chance in a few weeks. Jeurys Familia has a blood clot in his right shoulder and is most likely headed to the DL. We will know more later once he’s had the clot examined but surgery could be required. Addison Reed takes over the closer’s role for the Mets in Familia absence. Reed was 4 for 4 in save chances early in the year while Familia was serving a suspension. Reed has a 3.00 ERA with 22 Ks and 0 BB in 18 innings so far in 2017. He’s a top 20 RP option now with a chance to be higher if Familia is missing significant time. Phew, I wrote a lot about closers.
• As I said in the intro, this is a big rankings update. With that, the top 100 sees 7 new names. You know players like Zack Greinke, Ryan Zimmerman, and Aaron Judge. They have continued their great starts to 2017 and I’m buying! Gary Sanchez is back and healthy and the catcher eligibility helps a lot here. Cody Allen moves up just a bit into the top 100. He’s been great and is now a top 5 closer for me. The other 2 new guys are Michael Conforto and Cody Bellinger. Conforto has been a breakout waiting to happen. For whatever reason, (seriously Mets, why did it take this long?) Conforto was never given enough playing time to matter. He’s getting it now and has been phenomenal. He’s batting leadoff on most nights as well which is great for his value. Bellinger had slowly risen in my ranks over the past few weeks. At first, I was super excited but skeptical that he’d stick around. Then, he started crushing the ball and Adrian Gonzalez got hurt, but his long term staying power was still in question. Now (sorry Andrew Toles) there’s no way the Dodgers can send him back down. He’s an easy top 100 player for me now. He is still out there in some leagues too! Go pick him up!
• As a fan of the Texas Rangers, and just a fan of baseball in general, I find it easy to wish ill on Jose Bautista. I don’t think I need to spell out my reasons, but I’ve been low on him since Spring Training. I know he just hit a homer the other day, but I’m calling it quits on his bounce back. He falls over 100 spots in my rankings and is outside my top 250 going forward. I know he used to go through slumps, but he was still a guy who walked more than he stuck out. This season, not so much. His walks are down and his strikeouts are up. This is what a power hitter looks like when he’s finished. Sorry, not sorry. Bye, Bautista.

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:

• Matt Harvey (So much surrounding this)
• Mike Napoli (.172 AVG with a K rate of 30%)
• Adrian Gonzalez (Not bad, just not very good. Plus he’s hurt)

Hello, Goodbye

The following players are new additions to the top 250:

• Brad Brach (See above)
• Addison Reed (See above)
• Mark Reynolds (What is going on?!?)
• Justin Wilson (See above)
• Julio Urias
• Matt Holliday

The following players are no longer in my top 250:

• Cole Hamels
• Jameson Taillon (Get well soon!)
• Jose Baustista (See above)
• Dansby Swanson (I’m sorry if you believed)
• Cam Bedrosian
• Franicisco Rodriguez (No value without saves)

See you next week!