[hitter_list list_id=”17729″ include_stats=”1″ season=”2018″]
Welcome back to Hitter List. Every Wednesday during the regular season, I’ll rank the current value of the top 150 hitters for the remainder of the year. Use these rankings to help get a sense of both a player’s expected performance and his trade value in your fantasy leagues moving forward. They’re constructed with 12-teamer, H2H, 5×5 leagues in mind; adjust as needed for your specific setup.
As a reminder: It’s only April. There’s a ton of baseball left to be played, and these are rest of season rankings. We’re interested in the long view ’round these parts. This week’s movements are a bit more aggressive; that said, if you believe I’m under-reacting on any particular player, feel free to make your case in the comments.
On to the highlights!
- Yet more injury casualties. Elvis Andrus is the big one, as he’ll miss 6-8 weeks with a broken wrist. That’s A) a significant chunk of time and B) a particularly tough injury for a hitter to come back from. Andrus could see his bat speed and power sapped even when he’s healthy enough to return. Kevin Kiermaier continues to disappoint fantasy owners with his inability to stay healthy – this time it’s a torn thumb ligament that will likely cost him the rest of the season’s first half. He falls off the List entirely as a result. At least Jonathan Schoop’s oblique strain is thought to be mild.
- New to the List this week: Eric Thames (an oversight last time around), Jed Lowrie, Andrelton Simmons, Christian Villanueva, Matt Davidson, and Shohei Ohtani. The latter is, unfortunately, suffering from what looks like a pretty nasty blister that necessitated him being removed from Tuesday’s game. Still, he’s been such a revelation at the plate in these first few weeks that recognition seemed overdue, even if questions remain about how many at-bats he’ll ultimately get and/or how he’ll handle it when pitchers adjust.
- Really had no choice but to drop Matt Carpenter way down the List when I saw this. That’s terrifying, particularly when you consider that he’s been dealing with the same shoulder injury since 1924. That’s what it feels like at this point, anyway.
- I expressed moderate concern about Starling Marte’s post-suspension 2017 performance before the season began. He’s done his best to make me look silly so far, batting .308/.400/.569 with three home runs and five stolen bases.
- It’s important to remember not to read too much into a few great weeks just because they happened to come right at the start of the season. After all, at this time last year, some folks were ready to anoint Thames as the greatest player who ever lived. Having said that, I am extremely salty that I didn’t get more shares of Jose Martinez this spring. Dude can hit.
- On the bright side, “reaching” (please note the extremely sarcastic scare quotes) for Ozzie Albies in a bunch of drafts this year is already paying dividends. He already has five home runs! Maybe he’ll turn into Jose Altuve quicker than even I expected.
