Fantasy Baseball 2017: Rest of Season Rankings

Welcome back! Another week, another Top 250 update. Let’s jump right into it.

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

• Slow news week, huh? Before we get into trades, let’s cover the Carlos Correa injury. Correa suffered a torn ligament in his left thumb and will miss 6-8 weeks. The expectation is that it will be closer to 8 weeks. This will put him out of action until mid to late September. The Astros are fine, fantasy owners, not so much. Correa was a top 25 fantasy player this season and the far and away best SS. The most owners will get from Correa going forward is around 2 weeks of production. Stash him on your DL for now, but he drops outside the top 200 with this timetable.
• Okay, time for some trade talk! Jose Quintana, who was traded a week ago to the Cubs sees a value increase. He is going to a competitive team with a better lineup. And he is moving to the NL. Quintana has been mostly bad this season. Recently, he has looked much better. His debut with the Cubs (7IP 0ER 12K) was perhaps his best start of the year. Quintana moves up but let’s not forget, he’s a career 3.49 ERA guy. This is good, just not elite. He’s also just an average source of Ks. He has been better this season but I don’t expect double digit strikeout games to become a new normal for him.
• J.D. Martinez has a big value boost going from the Tigers to the Diamondbacks. Martinez gets a much better lineup and a better home ballpark for what he does best, hit for power. He has 16 HR and a .302 average in just 58 games. He has 30+ HR upside easily. Martinez moves into the top 20 at OF with this trade.
• The Yankees and White Sox made a trade that greatly impacted RP rankings and RP projections. Todd Frazier is fine, his value is pretty much the same. David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle lose all their fantasy value outside of AL only league or deeper leagues where holds/good ratios matter. Robertson is likely to be a setup man with Dellin Betances. Robertson drops outside my top 250 without the chance for saves. Kahnle loses potential value he had because most figured he would be the closer in Chicago when Robertson was traded. Instead, he is the 4th man in line for saves at best. Even Betances loses value simply because his role is cut because of the wealth of arms in the Yankees super bullpen. Great real life trade, bad trade for fantasy. Oh, and you can ignore Tyler Clippard.
• Lost in all this news of injuries and trades is the fact that Tommy Pham is the #1 outfielder in fantasy over the past 30 days! Pham jumps inside my top 200 and should continue to climb if he keeps producing. Add him! He is still available in far too many leagues. Pham has a .325/.389/.570 slash line with 7 HR and 7 SB over his past 30 games. Playing time was always the concern, but injuries to other Cardinals outfielders, coupled with how well Pham has played, have made him an everyday player. Prior to this season, Pham had a strikeout rate of 32%. This year that is down to 25%. Buy in!

Losing Faith

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

• Steven Matz (12 runs in 5.1 IP in his past 2 starts)
• Stephen Piscotty (I’m sorry. I was wrong)
• Mike Leake (5.04 ERA over past 10 starts)

Hello, Goodbye

The following players are new additions to the top 250:

• Tommy Pham (see above)
• Yoan Moncada (#1 prospect. Add and see what happens)
• Clint Frazier
• Trevor Rosenthal (new Cardinals closer... for now)
• Whit Merrifield
• Maikel Franco (.300 AVG with 4 HR and just 4 strikeouts in July)
• Addison Russell

The following players are no longer in my top 250:

• Michael Pineda (hate to see this with any player)
• David Robertson (see above)
• Seung-Hwan Oh (see Rosenthal)
• Aaron Altherr
• Chris Devenski
• Hunter Pence
• Aaron Sanchez (another blister)

See you next week!