Freddie Freeman, Top-100 Hitters, 2017 Fantasy Baseball

As a Braves fan, my heart sank this week. Did the Braves fan collective actually believe that we’d catch the Nats in the NL East, or really even compete for one of the wild card spots? Probably not. Well, realistic fans didn’t. Oh, you gonna win with R.A. Dickey, Jaime Garcia and Bartolo Colon as the front of your rotation? Haha, #gtfo. The Braves are just in a waiting game for their pitches (sounds a lot like my #Razz30 team) and trying to develop their hitters fast enough to match them up together in the new SunTrust Park.

And yet…an MVP was emerging. Freddie Freeman was creeping up my rankings fast, and it had nothing to do with my hometown allegiance. He was a bonafide star, as The Ringer recently penned, and entering the highlight of his career just at the perfect time to bring the Braves into their next chapter of dominance (hey…a persistently melancholy Atlanta fan can hope…). And then Aaron Loup happened.
The Braves lost their MVP for 8-10 weeks (but bring out the red carpet for Matt Adams!!!!), but let’s pump the breaks on his drastic downfall in value from a fantasy perspective. His next two months may have been fingered (Tom Green, anyone?), but moving past my homerism tears I see a great opportunity to buy. Right now.

Freddie Freeman, 1B (95.9% owned) – As of Monday morning his ownership dropped +3%. I can’t stress enough how silly that is. Stash him. Over every other DL option, stash him. We’re talking about, arguably, the NL MVP to this point who will be coming back for the final two months of the season (worst case). In looking at the Top 100 for this week I really tried to gauge the rankings through the lens of Freddie. Given the positional depth of the positions, the ceiling of the production, and the impact down the stretch, Freddie became the benchmark for everything else. Anyone below Freeman I’d trade for him. Anyone above him I’d hold off. Does that mean a straight up swap is what it will take to get him? Probably not, but I’d be targeting the flip if you own one of those below him (with obvious smarts about not crippling your team, or punting an entire cat, because Billy Hamilton is all that you have for SB). Point is, with Freddie Freeman you have a massive playoff asset that’s going to be available at a massive discount. .341/25/14/25/4 through seven weeks was bananas. Give me even 80% of that for the final two months, plus his replacement at 1B, over Ryan Zimmerman, CarGo or Trevor Story.

Note: These rankings are considered ROS Trade Value

M@’s Top Hitters

(Rankings based on 12-team Roto. GREEN = player rising. RED = player dropping. BLUE = new to the 100.)

Rank	Name	Pos	Team
1	Mike Trout	LAA	OF
2	Bryce Harper	WSH	OF
3	Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1B
4	Mookie Betts	BOS	OF
5	Nolan Arenado	COL	3B
6	Jose Altuve	HOU	2B
7	Kris Bryant	CHC	3B/OF
8	Charlie Blackmon	COL	OF
9	Joey Votto	CIN	1B
10	Manny Machado	BAL	3B/SS
11	Daniel Murphy	WSH	1B/2B
12	Corey Seager	LAD	SS
13	Nelson Cruz	SEA	OF
14	Anthony Rizzo	CHC	1B
15	Wil Myers	SD	1B/OF
16	Miguel Cabrera	DET	1B
17	Francisco Lindor	CLE	SS
18	Trea Turner	WSH	SS/2B/OF
19	Eric Thames	MIL	1B/OF
20	Josh Donaldson	TOR	3B
21	Brian Dozier	MIN	2B
22	Robinson Cano	SEA	2B
23	Giancarlo Stanton	MIA	OF
24	Carlos Correa	HOU	SS
25	J.D. Martinez	DET	OF
26	Ryan Braun	MIL	OF
27	Jonathan Villar	MIL	3B/SS
28	Matt Kemp	ATL	OF
29	Yoenis Cespedes	NYM	OF
30	George Springer	HOU	OF
31	Edwin Encarnacion	CLE	1B
32	Andrew Benintendi	BOS	OF
33	Jose Ramirez	CLE	3B/OF
34	Miguel Sano	MIN	3B/OF
35	Christian Yelich	MIA	OF
36	Aaron Judge	NYY	OF
37	Michael Conforto	NYM	OF
38	Jake Lamb	ARI	3B
39	Mark Trumbo	BAL	OF
40	Khris Davis	OAK	OF
41	Ian Desmond	COL	OF
42	Xander Bogaerts	BOS	SS
43	Buster Posey	SF	C/1B
44	Kyle Seager	SEA	3B
45	Justin Upton	DET	OF
46	Jay Bruce	NYM	OF
47	Michael Brantley	CLE	OF
48	Jose Abreu	CWS	1B
49	A.J. Pollock	ARI	OF
50	Adam Jones	BAL	OF
51	Marcell Ozuna	MIA	OF
52	Cesar Hernandez	PHI	2B
53	Jean Segura	SEA	2B/SS
54	Gary Sanchez	NYY	C
55	Freddie Freeman	ATL	1B
56	Matt Carpenter	STL	1B/2B/3B
57	Corey Dickerson	TB	OF
58	Rougned Odor	TEX	2B
59	Cody Bellinger	LAD	1B
60	Ian Kinsler	DET	2B
61	Anthony Rendon	WSH	3B
62	Aledmys Diaz	STL	SS
63	Adam Duvall	CIN	OF
64	Chris Davis	BAL	1B
65	Odubel Herrera	PHI	OF
66	Hanley Ramirez	BOS	1B
67	Evan Longoria	TB	3B
68	Lorenzo Cain	KC	OF
69	Albert Pujols	LAA	1B
70	Ryan Zimmerman	WAS	1B
71	Carlos Gonzalez	COL	OF
72	Eugenio Suarez	CIN	3B
73	DJ LeMahieu	COL	2B
74	Jedd Gyorko	STL	2B/3B/SS
75	Mitch Haniger	SEA	OF
76	David Peralta	ARI	OF
77	Billy Hamilton	CIN	OF
78	Ian Happ	CHC	OF
79	Eric Hosmer	KC	1B
80	Chris Owings	ARI	2B/SS
81	Keon Broxton	MIL	OF
82	Justin Turner	LAD	3B
83	Elvis Andrus	TEX	SS
84	Salvador Perez	KC	C
85	Scott Schebler	CIN	OF
86	Trevor Story	COL	SS
87	Yonder Alonso	OAK	1B
88	Gregory Polanco	PIT	OF
89	Brett Gardner	NYY	OF
90	Andrew McCutchen	PIT	OF
91	Dee Gordon	MIA	2B
92	Starlin Castro	NYY	2B
93	Jose Bautista	TOR	OF
94	Jonathan Schoop	BAL	2B
95	Alex Bregman	HOU	3B
96	Ender Inciarte	ATL	OF
97	Avisail Garcia	CHW	OF
98	Aaron Hicks	NYY	OF
99	Mark Reynolds	COL	1B
100	Aaron Altherr	PHI	OF

The Honorable Mentions (Next Five In…)

Rank	Name	Pos	Team
101	Carlos Santana	CLE	1B
102	Devon Travis	TOR	2B
103	Travis Shaw	MIL	1B/3B
104	Stephen Piscotty	STL	OF
105	Yasmany Tomas	ARI	OF

Dropped from the Rankings: Carlos Santana (76), David Dahl (85), Jonathan Lucroy (94)

As always…don’t agree with something?

DROP THOSE COMMENTS!

I’ll miss you all! This is my final Razzball post. For how long? Indefinitely. Loved getting to be a part of this community. Life beckons into a new season. I’ll still be a part of Razzball, though, as a part of the #Razz30 Crab Army, a mediocre competitor in the Perty ‘Perts League, and frequent reader of all articles. Thank you, Grey, for letting me join the fam the last 18 months!

Y’all. Are. The Best.

Follow M@ on Twitter at @matthayes for far more than just fantasy advice.