It’s the first post-deadline Hitter List! While most players didn’t move a whole lot, I’ll be sure to touch on players who saw any kind of change in their rest-of-season outlook.
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:
- Very few changes to Tier 3, as I’m feeling pretty good about how to assess these players when healthy.
TIER 4
- Bo Bichette’s contact problems are a bit frustrating, but at least he’s hitting for some power.
- Eloy Jiménez keeps hitting in the second half, and what I’m looking for now in his rolling chart is how quickly he rebounds from the downturn. Injuries crushed him throughout 2021 and early 2022, but a healthy Eloy, like the 2019 and 2020 versions, bounced back fast and furious from those dips.
- Josh Bell just cannot seem to find his groove in San Diego, despite that town being such a groovy place. To be fair, though, his problems predate the trade, as he’s struggled for the entire second half (.159/.290/.244 in exactly 100 plate appearances). The plate discipline is as strong as ever, which helped me identify the main issue here: ground balls. It’s really difficult for a player to put up any kind of power numbers with a 54.7% ground ball rate, especially when you’re pulling the ball 42.2% of the time. He’s corrected this issue before, though, so I’m thinking he can do it again.
- Luis Arraez and Jeff McNeil are supreme points league players and have performed particularly well this month. They have insanely high floors as long as you don’t need home runs or stolen bases (which some folks at this point really don’t).
- I know J.D. Martinez can turn it around, as he’s reinvented himself dozens of times before, but it’s always scary during these dark periods.
- A big boost for Christian Walker because he’s locked in right now and has been using more than just the pull field, but it’s worth noting that the Diamondbacks have had a fairly soft schedule the last few series and will face a stiffer challenge for the rest of the season. If he keeps it up, specifically using more of the field and hitting fewer grounders as he has done lately, his ceiling is higher than this. If he goes back to what he’s been for most of the season, he’s still a fine player—just more of a one-trick pony.
- Just as I got excited about Jonathan India, he started putting more balls on the ground again and killed his power. Hopefully, he can turn it back around quickly and salvage the month of August.
- Tyler O’Neill is the big dropper, mostly because of how bad he’s been. I don’t think he was a fraud in 2021—but I’m not sure if he’ll get anywhere close to that kind of player during the rest of this season. I’m fine with dropping him in 10-teamers based on what’s on the wire.
- Steven Kwan is Luis Arraez and Jeff McNeil but by a different name and with a shorter track record.
TIER 14
- Trey Mancini might never get the opportunity in Houston we hoped for and that’s a bummer.
- I can’t believe Dylan Carlson is still the leadoff man in St. Louis. It’s the only reason he stayed on the list.
- Riley Greene, who I really like, is striking out at a very alarming rate. He’s going to figure that out eventually, but redraft players don’t need to wait up.
- Paul DeJong has one hot month every year. Seriously, you can look it up. It’s a single month that carries his whole season. August looks to be that month in 2022.
- I removed a LOT of names here as we prep for the stretch run and updated ALL comments.
Wilmer Flores has been both on the list itself and on the Taxi Squad for a few weeks now, but this week it’s gotten even weirder given that on the List he is up 26 spots to #117 and yet on the Taxi Squad there is a new comment saying he’d be a good streamer this week. Who is the real Wilmer Flores?
An oversight – the List is the real one, though both comments are true. He is indeed a great stream this week, as I pointed out in the Hitters to Start and Avoid article on Monday morning.
You are missing Vaughn Grissom and Joey Meneses! It’s not too late to edit them in.
Whoops! Both are on the Taxi Squad but not yet on the list. That said, they are both fine adds over guys in Tier 14 if you want to make that move.
Then there’s the sudden disappearance of Luis Rengifo following a week where he hit .333 with two HR and a .714 SLG (good for a 196 wRC+) to raise his season slash to .273/.309/.438.
He’s having a great August and was inadvertently missed on the Taxi Squad. I don’t believe in the power much.
Tim Anderson moved up nine spots despite the news that he might miss the rest of the regular season. Worth holding?
wait till they finally realize rengifo should hit right handed not switch hitting. cedric mullins 2.0?
Oscar Gonzales – “Hitting for power, but the strikeouts are scary.” His strikeout rate is just below league avg but he does swing at everything. The tools are there – 90th percentile in both max exit velo and speed. He makes a good amount of contact for how much he swings (75% contact despite a 61% swing rate). He was hitting too many ground balls to take advantage of the power but his laugh angle is trending up lately . He was hitting HR’s in the minors (40 HR in 162 games in AA/AAA during 2021-22) so this is not a guy with a permanent GB swing like Yandy Diaz. I’m cautiously optimistic only due to the swing at everything approach but he should be in the top 150.