Ryon Healy, Top-100 Hitters, 2017 Fantasy Baseball

I use a number of different tools, sites, and metrics every week to adjust my rankings and to determine exactly who I should focus on each week. I usually try to focus on players owned in less than 60% leagues, players who are rising or falling and who you should probably buy low or sell high on, or players who are new to the Top 100 or on the cusp of joining the ranks. It has only been a few weeks since I took over these rankings for the legendary M@, so I am still working on creating the most efficient system (I spend wayyyyyy too much time agonizing over these rankings every Sunday).

I start by going over my notes and spreadsheets from the previous week, then take a peek at Razzball’s Player Rater and look at the current rankings and the Rest of Season Projections. Once I jot down some notes from those, I take a look at ESPN’s PR15 Player Ratings for the last 15 days. Lastly, I check FanGraphs with a focus on the best wOBA for the last 14 days and the last 30 days. Usually, once I am finished with that process, I have an idea of who I am going to write about and a starting point for adjusting the rankings.

Still awake? I know it’s a riveting process, and you were probably on the edge of your seat. Anyway, the point I am trying to make here is that I usually have an idea for a focus point. This week, the focus points pretty much slapped me in the face and forced me to talk about them.

Enter Ryon Healy and Domingo Santana. Both players are still somehow owned in less than 50% of ESPN leagues and ranked in the Top 5 of ESPN’s PR15 list and Top 15 for wOBA over the last week in all of baseball. That’s pretty absurd production for anyone, but these two are available in a ton of leagues right now.

Son focused on Healy in his One Man’s Trash post this week, so you can head over there for his take and a breakdown of the numbers (spoiler alert: treasure). The Cliffs Notes (does anyone still know what those are?) are: he is hitting for power, he is driving in runs, he is chasing too many pitches, and he plays in Oakland. I actually picked up Healy in my H2H league just before writing this post last week, and I reaped the benefits.

Santana is a guy who I almost included in the rankings last week but decided I wanted to wait a bit longer. I took some heat for that in the comments (I see you, westcoastpete!), which seems to be a trend for my when it comes to guys just outside my Top 100. After a .456 wOBA and five home runs over the last two weeks, I’m ready to add him.

Now, Santana is still just 24 years old, but he has been in the minors since he was signed by the Phillies out of the Dominican Republic when he was just 16. He is already in his ninth year of professional baseball. Between team changes, fall leagues, promotions to different levels, and Dominican winter leagues, his Baseball Reference page has 30 different rows to look at. Throughout those years, he has displayed a few things, such as plus-power, decent speed (though he doesn’t seem to run all that often), an ability to hit the ball to all fields, and strikeouts. The hardest thing about evaluating Santana is that he has been moved around so often, making you wonder about the effects those have had on his development. For all we know, his ceiling is even higher than what we might think just because he has never been able to really get comfortable anywhere.

Anyway, that is just speculation. My main concern so far for Santana is his ability to consistently hit major league pitching. He has been up and down between MLB and AAA and has struggled at times at the MLB level, and his .349 BABIP might suggest his .281 batting average is due to come down a bit. Another concern is the amount of talent around him in that Brewers outfield. In addition to Ryan Braun on the disabled list, they also have Hernan Perez, Keon Broxton, and prospects Brett Phillips and Lewis Brinson. If he struggles for any kind of extended period of time at all, he could lose playing time. That being said, there is still a lot to like.

Let’s look at his spray chart from last season, when he appeared in 77 games for the Brewers:

Source: FanGraphs

Here, you can see the home runs to left, center and right and line drives all over the field. The abundance of ground balls to the pull side are often due to rolling over the ball.

Now, let’s look at 2017:

Source: FanGraphs

2017 looks even better. Four home runs to right-center/right, five to left-center/center, and one to left. Line drives are still all over. I still have some concern about his value ROS in redraft leagues, but I do like his high ceiling.

Note: These rankings are considered ROS Trade Value

Mike Maher’s Top ¹⁰⁰ Hitters

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

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

The Honorable Mentions (Next Five In…)

Rank	Name	Pos	Team
101	Aaron Hicks	NYY	OF
102	Travis Shaw	MIL	1B/3B
103	Nomar Mazara	TEX	OF
104	Joey Gallo	TEX	3B
105	Avisail Garcia	CHW	OF

Dropped from the rankings: Kevin Kiermaier, Ian Happ, Yasmani Grandal, Keon Broxton

As always, disagree with anything here? Have any questions or comments? Want to tell Mike how great he is or how much you agree with him? Want relationship or investment advice?

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If you want to talk fantasy baseball or football or have players you want Mike to feature, hit him up on Twitter at @mikeMaher or post a comment below!

Mike Maher’s Top 100 Hitters

The Honorable Mentions (Next Five In…)

Mike Maher’s Top ¹⁰⁰ Hitters