Hitter List 6/2: Top 180 Hitters For 2022 – Week 8

First, let’s get some basics out of the way in terms of how to interpret these rankings. None of this stuff should come as any major surprise, but it never hurts to provide background:

 

• As a reminder, these rankings are geared toward a standard, daily, 12-team H2H redraft league, as that is typically the most popular fantasy baseball format. They will only factor in the five standard categories: Runs, RBI, Home Runs, Batting Average, and Stolen Bases.

 

• I would recommend not paying super close attention to the specific ranks of each player, and honing in more on the respective tiers that they’re in. Each tier represents a grouping of players that I think could arguably perform at a similar level, and/or carry similar levels of risk in terms of injury concerns or playing time obstacles. If Player X is ranked at #55 and Player Y is ranked at #65, but they’re in the same tier, it means that I personally like Player X a lot better, but think there’s a valid argument to be made for Player Y performing just as well.

 

• I take rankings like this as more of an art than a science. Every person’s rankings are influenced by their own biases, strategic philosophies, determinations of risk, and projections. It’s why no two rankings are ever exactly alike. Jon’s way of evaluating and ranking players has worked out well for Jon (and me) over the years, but it might not be a great fit for you. I can’t possibly predict your team’s specific needs, your league mate’s player evaluations, or your current waiver wire, and if I could it’d be weird. In a bad way.

 

• Yes, these ranks vary from the official PL positional rankings that I also developed in the offseason. That’s because these are only mine – no input from others. This is a safe space for me where I answer to no one but myself…and you if you leave a comment.

 

• I’m using 20 games as the threshold for the positional eligibility in the List. I have not included presumed eligibilities based on likely new positions. This is just a maintenance thing and we will update eligibility throughout the season. Feel free to let me know if I’m missing any!

 

And now a couple of notes on how I generally evaluate hitters before we dive in:

 

• I’ve gotten more level-headed over the years regarding weighing stolen bases, but I still think they’re precious given how rare they’re becoming. Every steal is important, so don’t take those “chip-in” steals for granted. Finding steals at the end of the season can be a dogfight.

 

• If I did want to get some insight on whether what I’m seeing is new or if it’s just normal fluctuation, I’d use my favorite tool—the rolling chart. While we don’t have much for rolling data in 2022, you can see where they currently are on a rolling chart and see how it compares to their career trajectory.

 

• No stat is an island and they should all be taken in proper context. For ranking purposes, the primary starting points I use are plate discipline, wRC+, quality of contact metrics (also known as Statcast batted ball data), and lineup context. I also use various projections (some free, some I buy) and dollar value generators. Unlike Nick, I’ll also look at other rankings as I prepare my own to feel how my colleagues value certain players, positions, or stats. I recommend trying as many of these things as you can until you find what you like.

 

• Positional eligibility, and specifically multi-eligibility, is really neat but also isn’t a huge factor in many 10- and 12-team leagues anymore due to the prevalence of multi-eligible players. It’s of more value in deeper contests like the NFBC, or in leagues with limited roster moves (draft and hold leagues, transaction limits/costs, extremely short benches, etc.), but even then the value is fairly situational and context-dependent.

 

• On a similar note, I don’t really penalize players for only qualifying in the utility slot. At most, it is a mild inconvenience if a DH-only player is available at a great value and you already have filled your utility spots.

 

• If you’d like input on a player or have any feedback, your best bet is to reach out to me on Twitter (@ifthechufits) or in the comments!

 

Ranking Notes

 

Want more on how these rankings came together? Check out the podcast Hacks & Jacks featuring myself and Joe Gallina, which also happened to be a finalist for Best Baseball Podcast of 2021 by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA)!

 

• The top tier is largely unchanged, though Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s recent prolonged slump and José Ramírez’s non-slump have finally convinced me to flip them.

 

• Aaron Judge is a monster and while health will always be an issue, I don’t mind.

 

• As a general note, guys who move down in this range aren’t being “moved down” as much as it is someone else moving up.

 

• Pete Alonso and Paul Goldschmidt have really separated themselves in my mind at first base and look to be close to a tier of their own unless Matt Olson can close the gap.

 

• Jazz Chisholm Jr. is showing skills that suggest a higher floor than I originally anticipated, and that’s a big deal for a young player like him. The drop in strikeout rate, the elevated walk rate, and the consistent power and speed have me feeling like this could be one of those peak years for him where he makes a run at a 30-30 season. Even if he’s not THAT good, 25-25 seems well within reach.

 

• If you’re in a shallow-ish 10- or 12-team league, you can generally feel free to cut anyone in the last tier or two for something better, especially if you are using Yahoo’s default roster format (three outfielders, two utility spots, no corner or middle infield). They’re just guys who have been interesting for one reason or another but may have dealt with slumps, have lower upsides, are injured, or some other random problem that befuddled me.

 

• Dropping Wander Franco wasn’t easy, but I just worry about the cap to his counting stats. He’s still an incredible player, but his 2022 fantasy impact may be slightly limited compared to expectations.

 

• I love rolling charts, and I love this rolling chart especially. Taylor Ward is showing that he can make adjustments and that when he does, he can sustain the success AND improve. That’s rare. That’s special. That’s why he keeps moving up.

 

• I featured Bobby Wiit Jr. today because he’s exciting and because I’m not worried about this four-game hitless streak. He still looks like a kid who could hit more than 20 home runs and tally more than 20 stolen bases this season, and this rolling chart shows me that the power (which can take a bit of time to show up even when a guy starts making contact) is starting to lock itself in.

• Ty France and Daulton Varsho have been good lately, but I was already kind of accounting for that with my aggressive ranks for them in shallow formats.

 

• I consider holding Semien steady in the ranks this week to be a step in the right direction. I don’t have much more to say on him than that right now, though.

 

• I probably could have dropped Kris Bryant here but I can’t help but think that if he does get healthy, he could be a monster in the second half. If he struggles to even get healthy, though, it could be a long tumble.

 

• Other than Jeremy Peña, who continues to solidify his place in our hearts, Tier 10’s upward mobility is mostly just the product of a few hard falls (Max Muncy, Joey Gallo, Seiya Suzuki, Alec Bohm, etc.).

 

• Eugenio Suárez is probably going to hit 30 home runs and have close to 150 combined runs and RBI when the season is done. Sure, his batting average will barely be above .210, but there are a lot of folks out there who probably don’t care about that last bit and want the counting stats. He’s available in about a quarter of Yahoo leagues and nearly half of ESPN leagues, and in ESPN especially that should be corrected.

 

• Randal Grichuk is very disappointing and if he gets hot on his next homestand I’d be looking to move him for an upgrade at nearly any other position.

 

• Joey Gallo is either a hold or a buy-low. Accept the reality that no one likely wants to trade for him, and if they do, they do not want to trade anything valuable. In 10-team leagues, there are weirder plays than dropping him.

 

• I firmly believe that Javier Báez will get hot and do some fun things again, but I don’t know when that will be. What I do know is that his glove is too good for the Tigers to put on the bench, and their lineup isn’t deep enough to bury him, so opportunities will keep coming.

 

• Alec Bohm needs to make a lot of contact to be relevant and he isn’t doing that right now. He’s droppable in a lot of shallow formats if he’s merely a utility player or bench guy. He’s a floor play and doesn’t help those looking for a lottery ticket.

 

• Nolan Gorman looks great, sure, but that 34% strikeout rate in 147 triple-A plate appearances scares me. You can obviously feel free to add him for power upside, but he won’t fly up these ranks until he shows he can hit all types of pitches for more than a few games.

 

• In a single-catcher league, I don’t care what you do with Yasmani Grandal unless it’s an OBP league.

 

• Speaking of, Christian Walker remains buried despite results because it’s ALL against fastballs. In fact, it’s been just fastballs his entire career, and I’m not the only one who knows that. He’s hot right now, but teams will stop feeding him four-seamers and he’ll turn back into a streaky and fringey power hitter.

 

• I love Luis Arraez but I also recognize that his lack of power and speed means that his production requires a lot of support. He got a lot of it last week due to a ton of favorable matchups (hope you heard me call him out at the start of last week on the First Pitch Podcast!) and he’ll have plenty of good matchups going forward. He might be one of the best high-floor bench bats out there, even if the long-term ceiling is very capped.

 

• I ADDED AN EXTRA 30 GUYS AFTER THE LIST! Don’t think too hard about the order – it’s just 30 names I also looked into while putting this together. 

 

And now, once again, it’s time for the Hitter List:

 

Rank	Hitter	Position	Change
1	Ronald Acuña Jr.T1	OF	-
2	José Ramírez	3B	+1
3	Vladimir Guerrero Jr.	1B	-1
4	Trea Turner	2B, SS	-
5	Juan Soto	OF	-
6	Shohei Ohtani	DH	-
7	Mike Trout T2	OF	-
8	Bryce Harper	OF	-
9	Manny Machado	3B	+1
10	Mookie Betts	OF	+1
11	Aaron Judge	OF	+5
12	Yordan Alvarez	OF	-3
13	Kyle Tucker	OF	-1
14	Rafael Devers	3B	+4
15	Bo Bichette	SS	-2
16	Freddie Freeman	1B	-1
17	Byron Buxton T3	OF	-3
18	Luis Robert Jr.	OF	-1
19	Paul Goldschmidt	1B	+6
20	Pete Alonso	1B	+4
21	Xander Bogaerts	SS	-2
22	Ozzie Albies	2B	-1
23	Tim Anderson	SS	-1
24	Matt Olson	1B	-1
25	Jazz Chisholm Jr.	2B, SS	+4
26	Austin Riley	3B	-
27	George Springer T4	OF	-
28	C.J. Cron	1B	+4
29	Cedric Mullins	OF	+2
30	Starling Marte	OF	-
31	Nolan Arenado	3B	+2
32	J.D. Martinez	OF	+2
33	Wander Franco	SS	-13
34	Jose Altuve T5	2B	+1
35	Trevor Story	2B, SS	+1
36	Julio Rodríguez	OF	+4
37	Giancarlo Stanton	OF	-
38	Teoscar Hernández	OF	-10
39	Nick Castellanos	OF	-
40	Whit Merrifield	2B, OF	-2
41	Taylor Ward	OF	+9
42	José Abreu	1B	+2
43	Jorge Polanco T6	2B, SS	-2
44	Corey Seager	SS	-2
45	Josh Bell	1B	-2
46	Fernando Tatis Jr.	SS, OF	-1
47	Bobby Witt Jr.	SS	+10
48	Carlos Correa	SS	-2
49	Christian Yelich	OF	-2
50	J.T. Realmuto	C	-2
51	Will Smith	C	-2
52	Tommy Edman	2B, OF	-1
53	Francisco Lindor	SS	+10
54	Alex Bregman T7	3B	-2
55	Anthony Rizzo	1B	-2
56	Ty France	1B, 2B	-2
57	Daulton Varsho	C, OF	+1
58	Salvador Perez	C	-3
59	Willy Adames	SS	-3
60	Randy Arozarena	OF	-1
61	Ketel Marte T8	2B, OF	-1
62	Jared Walsh	1B	-1
63	Willson Contreras	C	-1
64	Ryan Mountcastle	1B, OF	-
65	Cody Bellinger	OF	+1
66	Andrew Benintendi	OF	+1
67	Rhys Hoskins	1B	-2
68	Kyle Schwarber T9	OF	-
69	Nelson Cruz	DH	+4
70	Bryan Reynolds	OF	-
71	Adolis García	OF	-
72	Kris Bryant	3B, OF	-
73	Tommy Pham	OF	+1
74	Marcus Semien	2B, SS	+2
75		1B, OF	+3
76	DJ LeMahieu T10	1B, 2B, 3B	+3
77	Jeremy Peña	SS	+9
78	Anthony Rendon	3B	+2
79	Ian Happ	OF	+5
80	Hunter Renfroe	OF	+5
81	Max Muncy	1B, 2B	-12
82	Eugenio Suárez	3B, SS	+5
83	Alex Verdugo	OF	-1
84	Harrison Bader	OF	+4
85	Michael Brantley	OF	+4
86	Ke’Bryan Hayes	3B	+4
87	Dansby Swanson	SS	+5
88	Seiya Suzuki	OF	-11
89	Jake Cronenworth	1B, 2B, SS	+2
90	Andrés Giménez T11	2B, SS	+3
91	Tyler O’Neill	OF	-8
92	Kolten Wong	2B	-11
93	Eloy Jiménez	OF	+1
94	Lourdes Gurriel Jr.	OF	+5
95	Brandon Lowe	2B, OF	+1
96	Jesse Winker	OF	+1
97	Myles Straw	OF	+1
98	Chris Taylor	2B, SS, OF	+3
99	Max Kepler	OF	+3
100	Justin Turner	3B	+3
101	Randal Grichuk	OF	-6
102	Marcell Ozuna	OF	+3
103	Jeff McNeil	2B, OF	+7
104	Joey Gallo	OF	-29
105	J.P. Crawford	3B, SS	-1
106	Gleyber Torres T12	2B, SS	-
107	Javier Báez	2B, SS	-7
108	Ramón Laureano	OF	-
109	Austin Hays	OF	+2
110	Jorge Soler	OF	+13
111	Josh Donaldson	3B	+4
112	Yoán Moncada	3B	-5
113	Anthony Santander	OF	+3
114	Alek Thomas	1B, 2B	+3
115	Rowdy Tellez	1B	+4
116	Ryan McMahon	2B, 3B	-2
117	Luis Urías	2B, 3B, SS	+3
118	Brandon Marsh	OF	-
119	Adley Rutschman T13	C	+2
120	Tyler Stephenson	C	+2
121	Keibert Ruiz	C	+3
122	Juan Yepez	OF	+7
123	Franmil Reyes	DH	-10
124	Charlie Blackmon	OF	+3
125	Eric Hosmer	1B	+3
126	Matt Chapman	3B	+4
127	Nolan Gorman	2B	+12
128	Alec Bohm	3B	-16
129	Brendan Rodgers	2B, SS	+15
130	Joc Pederson	1B, OF	+UR
131	Yasmani Grandal	C, 1B	-6
132	Luis González T14	OF	-1
133	Christian Walker	1B	-1
134	Andrew Vaughn	1B, OF	-1
135	Trey Mancini	1B, OF	-1
136	Mike Yastrzemski	OF	+UR
137	Wilmer Flores	1B, 2B, 3B	-1
138	Brandon Nimmo	2B, 3B, SS	-1
139	Manuel Margot	OF	-1
140	Joey Votto	1B	+5
141	Gavin Lux	2B, SS, OF	-
142		SS, OF	+1
143	Jonathan India	2B	-8
144	Christopher Morel	OF	+UR
145	Kole Calhoun	OF	+5
146	Spencer Torkelson	1B	+UR
147	Kiké Hernández	2B, OF	+UR
148	Tyrone Taylor	OF	+UR
149	Luis Arraez	1B, 2B, 3B, OF	-2
150	Patrick Wisdom	1B, 3B, OF	+UR

 

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