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

• Miguel Cabrera has been one of the most reliable hitters in fantasy baseball since 2004! That’s right, since his age 21 season, Cabrera has averaged 33 HR 115 RBI and a .323 average coming into this year. This year, he is hitting a career low .255 with a career low .411 slugging percentage. The underlying numbers suggest he should get it going again but they have been saying that since June... it’s now mid-August by the way. It hurts me to drop him outside the top 50, but it’s time to start realizing this might not change, at least not for the remainder of this season.
• Whit Merrifield makes a huge leap in this week’s top 250 update by jumping inside my top 100 overall players. Merrifield is hitting .333/.365/.556 with 6 HR 17 RBI and 5 SB since the All-Star break. He is the #2 second baseman over the past 30 days! Behind some guy from Houston. It is time to start taking Merrifield serious. This is not stopping.
• Just as I was putting Willson Contreras ahead of Gary Sanchez as the #2 catcher, Contreras suffered a hamstring injury. This injury does not currently have a time table but a DL stint seems imminent at this point. I am hoping this is not a lengthy absence because Contreras was one of the hottest hitters since the break. 10 HR 29 RBI and a .311 average since the break and now he is headed to the DL. *Sad face*
• Sean Doolittle couldn’t even close for his former team and he is now a top 20 RP for one of the best teams in baseball. Since joining the Nationals, Doolittle has been a perfect 7 for 7 in save opportunity over his 10 total appearances. He has allowed 4 runs but 3 of those came in 1 outing. I expect Doolittle to remain the 9th inning man for Washington for the rest of the season and that easily makes him top 20 RP material.
• Zach Davies was a sleeper for me in Spring Training. He was extremely consistent last season and ended the year a top 200 player. He got off to a dreadful start giving up 18 runs in his first 4 starts. He went into the All-Star break with a 4.90 ERA. Since then, he has a 3.18 ERA. Even better, he has a 2.36 ERA in his last 5 starts which includes last night’s bad outing. He has also gone at least 7 innings in 4 of those 5 games, something he had done just once pre All-Star break. Davies is now ranked as SP 52 for me and should be one of the hottest waiver wire adds out there.

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:

• Yonder Alonso (.208 with 5 HR in past 45 games)
• Victor Martinez (3 home runs since June 2)
• Scooter Gennett (fun while it lasted)

Hello, Goodbye

The following players are new additions to the top 250:

• Rhys Hoskins (29 HR 91 RBI .966 OPS in the minors this year)
• Zach Davies (see above)
• Shane Greene (safe bet to remain Tigers closer)
• Tim Beckham
• Jarrod Dyson (4th in the majors in SB)
• Dexter Fowler
• German Marquez (4-0 3.18 ERA in past 7 starts)
• Josh Bell
• Welington Castillo
• Hunter Pence
• Arodys Vizcaino (1.72 ERA since May 1. New Braves closer)

The following players are no longer in my top 250:

• Clint Frazier (DL stint plus Aaron Hicks is healthy)
• Evan Gattis
• Jonathan Villar (just 1 start in August)
• Aaron Altherr (hurt again)
• Julio Teheran (5.25 ERA this year. 7.00 ERA since the break)
• Justin Bour
• Johnny Cueto
• Bud Norris
• Addison Russell
• Wilson Ramos
• Mitch Haniger (time to let go)

See you next week!