Hitter List 4/25: Ranking the Top 150 Hitters To Own ROS

[hitter_list list_id=”18341″ 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. As we progress further into the season, movements in either direction will get 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!

• Injury roundup: Carlos Gonzalez had actually been fairly healthy over the last few seasons after years of chronic injuries, but he’s now on the DL with a hamstring strain. Byron Buxton was sidelined due to migraines and then fouled a ball off his foot on the first game of his rehab assignment. A lingering toe injury finally forced the Nationals to shelve Anthony Rendon this weekend. All three move down the List as a result. Also hitting the disabled list this week was Avisail Garcia, who isn’t and hasn’t been on the List because he’s trash and 2017 was a stone cold fluke.
• New to the List this week: Tyler Austin, Michael Taylor, Brandon Belt, Miguel Andujar, and Teoscar Hernandez. Belt homered in four consecutive games last week and then set an MLB record with a 21-pitch at-bat. Taylor hasn’t hit well, but he’s already swiped nine bases in nine attempts. Andujar, Austin, and Hernandez have all gotten off to terrific starts in their rookie seasons, but questions remain about their playing time moving forward.
• Happy trails to Maikel Franco, Chris Owings, Matt Davidson, Zack Cozart, and Eduardo Escobar. Franco and Davidson have faded after fast starts. Cozart has scuffled all month long, while Owings and Escobar’s positional versatility hasn’t been enough to prop up their lackluster production.
• Apologies to Stephen Piscotty, Franchy Cordero, Jeimer Candelario, Mallex Smith, and Kurt Suzuki. They’re all on the cusp, just not quite there yet.
• The major risers this week: Javier Baez, Kyle Schwarber, Trevor Story, and Mitch Haniger. Story and Schwarber have thus far rebounded from their respective sophomore slumps.  Baez may have rediscovered the prodigious pop he showed as a prospect. As for Haniger, his movement up the List is a testament to how susceptible I am to being badgered in the comments. No, seriously, he’s killing it right now and even with injuries and slumps last year, he did slash .282/.352/.491 as a rookie.