Top 100 Hitters, Week 12: Get Muncy-ed In The Middle Of Nowhere

Slight format change going forward with this column — I’m going to be leaving short term DL candidates near where they were ranked previously. It was become too hard to remember who and when players were coming back. (Yes, I do write the injury column — but I don’t write the healthy column.) This is what happened with Starling Marte — I don’t own any shares of Marte so I didn’t notice his return from DL so he was an unfortunate oversight the past few weeks in these rankings. If someone is looking like they’ll be out for a longer period of time — they might drop a bit more in the rankings or be removed entirely (as is the case with Jorge Soler and his broken foot.) Due to these new additions we’ve got a Top 110 hitters this week with guys like Josh Donaldson, Mookie Betts, Wil Myers, Yoenis Cespedes, Ronald Acuna and others making their surprise reemergence. Next week 10 of these hitters will probably work themselves off this list. Also, as a side effect to these new additions a lot of players will look like they’ve fallen really far in the rankings — again, this should normalize by next week.

Rising:

Jose Ramirez: Holy crow. Right now, Ramirez is on pace for an 11.7 WAR season. That’s the highest WAR for a third basemen ever. Full stop. Period. End of paragraph (not really.) Ramirez is third in the MLB in HRs and 4th on ESPN’s player rater. Looking at his stats I was shocked at how well he was performing and thought to myself “Wow! This guy’s having an MVP season!” Then the reality of the greatness of Michael Nelson Trout. Despite all of Ramirez’s production this year — Trout is beating him in every category, except RBI, where he is tied. If I could somehow move Trout up in my rankings from #1 — I would. What would it be? 0.5? 0? The Greek letter for alpha?
J.D. Martinez: Yes, I hear you loyal readers. You will find that I am kind. I am a generous God of the Top 100 Hitters column. (I apologize — I rewatched 300 this week just for kicks.) Many of you have been clamoring for Martinez to climb into the top 10 and you’ve officially wore me down! Well, actually his performance has worn me down. Since last week all he’s done is rap out another 9 hits, crush another 2 HRs and drawn another 7 walks. Again though — still pales in comparison to Trout. We need to appreciate this guy for what he’s doing. Trout is the LeBron of the MLB. Although without any of the hate — and Trout has only played in three playoff games and only logged 1 hit in those games. Hmmm….

Falling:

Brian Dozier: I’ve kept Dozier fairly high in the rankings long enough. Sure, the 40 runs are nice, but everything else is severely dragging behind his career numbers. All of Dozier’s peripheral numbers are on par with previous seasons except his BABIP is the lowest of his career (2018: .249 || Career: .274.) Call me crazy, but I still consider Dozier a buy low candidate. Last year in the first half he was hitting only .242 with a .745 OPS only to close out the second half with a .304 AVG with a .985 OPS. He’ll be fine long term.
Jed Lowrie: Lowrie exploded on to the scene after hitting 9 HR, 36 RBI, .340 AVG in his first 39 games. In the 28 games since he’s returned to the Lowrie we all know and loathe, 0 HR, 6 RBI, .200 AVG. He’s staying on this list for nostalgia sake — but I really think he’ll be gone by next week. Try to sell while you still can.

New Additions:

Max Muncy: On June 9th, right after I finished writing my Top 100 article last week I tweeted, “Max Muncy didn’t make my Top 100 Hitters column coming out tomorrow…But maybe he should have?” He then hit HRs in three straight games for a total of four in a row. Muncy does have power history in his bat. He hit 25 HRs in the low minors in the Oakland Athletics system, but until this year hasn’t really been able to put it together in the bigs. Now, with a decent chunk of ABs and a few extra years of development, Muncy is breaking out in a big way. I first listed Muncy as a fill in option for Adrian Beltre in my injury column way back on May 23rd, and said this: “By the way — that walk rate is for real if you’re in an OBP league. He consistently put up double-digit walk rates throughout his entire career.” That still rings true and that plate discipline has allowed him to be very selective with his pitches and drive the ones he likes.
Brian Anderson: Anderson is the highest scoring Marlin on the ESPN Player Rater and has quietly been a solid fantasy contributor. He’s actually second in hits among all third basemen. The HRs (4) and SBs (2) aren’t quite there but the 39 runs, 34 RBI and 27 walks are not bad for someone who probably went completely undrafted in most leagues. Anderson is a former 3rd round pick who did hit 22 HRs in 120 AA and AAA games with a .275 AVG last season so moderate power should come along while not sacrificing too much average especially if he turns that 50% ground ball rate into a bit more line drives and fly balls.

Top 100 Hittesr

GREEN: Rising | BLUE: New Additions | RED: Falling

RANK	NAME	TEAM	POSITION	LAST WEEK
1	Mike Trout	LAA	OF	1
2	Mookie Betts	BOS	OF	DL
3	Jose Ramirez	CLE	2B/3B	8
4	Bryce Harper	WAS	OF	2
5	Nolan Arenado	COL	3B	3
6	Francisco Lindor	CLE	SS	5
7	Jose Altuve	HOU	2B	7
8	Manny Machado	BAL	3B	9
9	J.D. Martinez	BOS	OF	15
10	Charlie Blackmon	COL	OF	4
11	Aaron Judge	NYY	OF	10
12	Freddie Freeman	ATL	1B	11
13	Anthony Rizzo	CHC	1B	14
14	Trea Turner	WAS	SS	6
15	George Springer	HOU	OF	17
16	Andrew Benintendi	BOS	OF	18
17	Jean Segura	SEA	SS	21
18	Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1B	23
19	Giancarlo Stanton	NYY	OF	19
20	Christian Yelich	MIL	OF	20
21	Kris Bryant	CHC	3B	12
22	Joey Votto	CIN	1B	13
23	Carlos Correa	HOU	SS	22
24	Lorenzo Cain	MIL	OF	28
25	Jose Abreu	CHW	1B	24
26	Alex Bregman	HOU	SS/3B	25
27	Dee Gordon	SEA	2B/OF	26
28	Ozzie Albies	ATL	2B	16
29	Cody Bellinger	LAD	1B/OF	27
30	Javier Baez	CHC	SS/2B	29
31	Khris Davis	OAK	OF	30
32	Eddie Rosario	MIN	OF	31
33	Starling Marte	PIT	OF	NR
34	Justin Upton	ARI	OF	32
35	Mitch Haniger	SEA	OF	33
36	Daniel Murphy	WAS	2B	DL
37	Xander Bogaerts	BOS	SS	38
38	Tommy Pham	STL	OF	39
39	Adam Eaton	WAS	OF	DL
40	Trevor Story	COL	SS	49
41	Brandon Belt	SF	OF	DL
42	Edwin Encarnacion	CLE	1B	40
43	Nomar Mazara	TEX	OF	41
44	Eric Hosmer	SD	1B	37
45	Scooter Gennett	CIN	2B	51
46	Brian Dozier	MIN	2B	34
47	Eugenio Suarez	CIN	3B	42
48	Didi Gregorius	NYY	SS	44
49	Whit Merrifield	KC	2B	45
50	Gary Sanchez	NYY	C	36
51	Ender Inciarte	ATL	OF	46
52	Travis Shaw	MIL	3B	48
53	Mike Moustakas	KC	3B	35
54	Michael Brantley	CLE	OF	50
55	Nelson Cruz	SEA	DH	56
56	Anthony Rendon	WAS	3B	43
57	Cesar Hernandez	PHI	2B	52
58	Rhys Hoskins	PHI	1B/OF	53
59	Yoenis Cespedes	NYM	OF	DL
60	Andrew McCutchen	SF	OF	54
61	Nicholas Castellanos	DET	3B/OF	47
62	Joey Gallo	TEX	3B/1B	55
63	Josh Donaldson	TOR	3B	DL
64	D.J. LeMahieu	COL	2B	60
65	Jose Martinez	STL	1B	61
66	Chris Taylor	LAD	2B/OF/SS	63
67	Gleyber Torres	NYY	2B/SS	64
68	Wil Myers	SD	1B/OF	DL
69	Buster Posey	SF	C/1B	67
70	JT Realmuto	MIA	C	68
71	Shin-Soo Choo	TEX	OF	74
72	Matt Olson	OAK	1B	69
73	Carlos Santana	PHI	1B	58
74	Max Muncy	LAD	1B/3B	NR
75	Justin Smoak	TOR	1B	57
76	Adrian Beltre	TEX	3B	72
77	Nick Markakis	ATL	OF	73
78	Marcell Ozuna	STL	OF	80
79	Matt Kemp	LAD	OF	75
80	Juan Soto	WAS	OF	83
81	Brett Gardner	NYY	OF	59
82	Ronald Acuna	ATL	OF	DL
83	Yoan Moncada	CWS	2B	65
84	Kyle Schwarber	CHC	OF	76
85	Yangervis Solarte	TOR	2B/SS/3B	77
86	CJ Cron	TB	1B	78
87	Andrelton Simmons	LAA	SS	DL
88	AJ Pollock	ARI	OF	DL
89	Ryan Braun	MIL	OF	71
90	Jesus Aguilar	MIL	1B	79
91	Jed Lowrie	OAK	2B	66
92	Jonathan Schoop	BAL	2B	70
93	Odubel Herrera	PHI	OF	85
94	Yasmani Grandal	LAD	C	86
95	Ian Desmond	COL	1B/OF	98
96	Yasiel Puig	LAD	OF	88
97	Evan Gattis	HOU	C	NR
98	Brandon Crawford	SF	SS	96
99	Kyle Seager	SEA	3B	91
100	David Peralta	ARI	OF	NR
101	Austin Meadows	PIT	OF	82
102	Leonys Martin	DET	OF	100
103	Adam Jones	BAL	OF	81
104	Justin Turner	LAD	3B	84
105	Asdrubal Cabrera	NYM	2B/SS/3B	90
106	Marcus Semien	OAK	SS	89
107	Brandon Nimmo	NYM	OF	95
108	Brian Anderson	MIA	3B/OF	NR
109	Eduardo Escobar	MIN	3B/SS	97
110	Jeimer Candelario	DET	3B	99

As always, if you’ve got a specific question — please leave it in the comments!