Hitter List 5/30: Ranking the Top 150 Hitters To Own ROS

[hitter_list list_id=”20869″ 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. Position eligibility does factor in to a degree.

As a reminder: 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. That said, adjustments to the List are becoming more aggressive as we move deeper into the year. With that should come the acknowledgment that small shifts in a specific player’s ranking are often as much a consequence of other players’ more drastic movements as anything else. This is especially true when injuries occur. Put another way, please do not @ me if a guy moved up like two spots even if he’s failed to get a hit in the last couple games. I do, however, welcome more substantive grievances in the comments.

On to the highlights!

• First, a mea culpa – I had seen initial reports that Dee Gordon could miss up to a couple months with his broken toe, but those were estimates based on if he needed surgery, which he did not. The lesson, as always: I am a dummy. He’s on track to be activated when first eligible on Thursday and has been mostly restored to his former glory here; I feel like some concern is warranted on a foot injury for a guy who gets pretty much all his value from speed.
• Injury roundup: The big story, of course, was Ronald Acuna stopping fantasy owners’ hearts after his leg buckled awkwardly/horrifyingly on an infield single on Sunday. Thankfully, it looked a lot worse than it actually ended up being – Acuna suffered a mild ACL sprain and should be back within two weeks. Elsewhere, Khris Davis was officially placed on the disabled list not long after last week’s List published. His groin strain is the lowest grade, but he’s still likely to be out for longer than the minimum 10 days. Franchy Cordero’s recent struggles owed their roots to a forearm injury; he’ll return to a crowded outfield as Wil Myers should be back this week.
• New to or back on the List this week:  Juan Soto, Austin Meadows, Brandon Nimmo, Matt Carpenter, and Addison Russell. Turns out I couldn’t have added Soto to the List last week, as he was not included in our database. Eat it, haters! (While you eat it, please also ignore the fact that I only need to ask for a player who is missing to be added, as I did this week for both Soto and Meadows.) Both rookies have been impressive in the early going, but questions about their playing time and long-term outlook keep them toward the bottom for the time being. As with any other player, if they continue to perform, they’ll move up accordingly. Nimmo isn’t a rookie anymore, but he’s in a similar situation as at-bats could be tough to come by once Yoenis Cespedes is back in action. Carpenter is back from the dead after a truly horrendous start to the year; he’s hitting .408/.453/.776 with three homers in his last 12 games. Lastly, while his counting stats still aren’t impressive, Russell has quietly slashed .318/.408/.485 since May 5.