Went over the catchers, 1st basemen, 2nd basemen and shortstops and top 20 3rd basemen for 2018 fantasy baseball. Guess what’s next! No, not pitchers. Read the title, man. In 2010, there were only 5 outfielders that hit 30 homers, in 2011 there were 9, 14 in 2012, in 2013, there were 3, a small bounce back with 6 in 2014, eight in 2015, 11 outfielders in 2016, and last year there were 15. This year…DRUM ROLL!….10 outfielders hit 30 homers. Womp, womp. Obvious trend…denied! As for steals, there were 14 outfielders who stole 30 bases in 2012, 10 in 2013, 11 in 2014, five in 2015, seven in 2016 and last year there were…2! This year: five outfielders stole 30 and eleven players overall, up from six. Steals are on the come up! As before, these rankings are from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. Anyway, here’s the top 20 outfielders for 2018 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
1A. Christian Yelich – If you don’t know how well Yelich hit this year, you’d have to have your head so far up your ass, much like Yelich in a certain ‘accidentally’ released video. If I were Yelich, I’d just say it was Pete Davidson. Yelich came within two home runs of winning the Triple Crown. Oh…*climbs a ladder that goes from the earth to the moon*…kay. He was always a floor player, now his floor is made of Doritos and we’re all gobble-gobble. His HR/FB rate (35) was a bit goofy and his fly balls actually came down from 2017, but his average home run distance (407) was top ten for guys with 25+ homers. Not a ton of difference between that and Trout or Arenado, to grab two names that are supposed to impress you. Then again, his launch angle on home runs was 41st out of 48 for guys with 25+ homers. He was also top 10 overall for exit velocity on outs. Can you tell I’m at Statcast? Okay, moving on before I start talking about his horizontal release point on his ‘accidentally’ released video. Preseason Rank #20, 2018 Projections: 105/19/67/.291/17 in 581 ABs, Final Numbers: 118/36/110/.326/22 in 574 ABs
1B. Mookie Betts – For the first time in as long as I can remember, though I’m only remembering back about fifteen days, the top two guys on the Player Rater tied at #1 — Yelich and Betts, and if you had them both on one fantasy team and lost, what the hell did you do? By the way, I had a revelation the other day. We’re in the middle of one of the best groups of young players I can remember. Peaks are so crazy sexy right now. Sure, our slightly older cousins are likely thinking about the salad days of Pujols and Hanley, and their slightly older cousins are still talking about Bonds, McGwire and Sosa, but some of the young guys in the game have me hot and bothered. Mookie Ballgame is at the top of that list for me. 30/30/.340 is ridunk and he missed at least twenty games. That’s deliciously gorgeous — engorgedelicous? Hmm, maybe not. Preseason Rank #3, 2018 Projections: 104/25/109/.305/25 in 605 ABs, Final Numbers: 129/32/80/.346/30 in 520 ABs
3. J.D. Martinez – This post will be 5,000 words long if I don’t start adding in some pith, and it is my wish to keep it short like Altuve would say to a genie. Just Dong will hit 40+ homers every year if he plays 150 games, so not a ton surprising here, except the 150 games played. Maybe like guys before him who could never stay healthy, then suddenly started playing 150 games every year (thinking Nelson Cruz, Kinsler), this is the new Just Dong. Different than the old Just Dong. Preseason Rank #6, 2018 Projections: 91/36/109/.284/4 in 505 ABs, Final Numbers: 111/43/130/.330/6 in 569 ABs
4. Mike Trout – A great class of outfielders this year and Trout was still top five in only 471 ABs with a mediocre offense around him. And, in 2019, he will still only be entering his age 27 season! Preseason Rank #1, 2018 Projections: 116/40/105/.312/18 in 541 ABs, Final Numbers: 101/39/79/.312/24 in 471 ABs
5. Khris Davis – You can set your watch to Khris Davis’s stats. Only thing is, you’ll always think it’s .247 o’clock. Preseason Rank #19, 2018 Projections: 86/41/106/.245/3 in 551 ABs, Final Numbers: 98/48/123/.247 in 576 ABs
6. Whit Merrifield – Went over him in my 2nd basemen recap.
7. Charlie Blackmon – If you owned Chazz Noir this year, you got the last vestige of him as a top outfielder season. Just by the hair on his chinny chin chin. Preseason Rank #9, 2018 Projections: 107/24/71/.289/15 in 597 ABs, Final Numbers: 119/29/70/.291/12 in 626 ABs
8. Giancarlo Stanton – As someone who has spent many nights on Giancarlo’s floor, hidden beneath his bed, I can accurately say this year was his floor. There’s some promising stuff under the hood, which is something no gyno should ever say. Giancarlo’s exit velocity on outs was top 7 in the league and his hard contact was up from his 2017 season. Less promising, Ks were up, walks were down, fly balls down, ground balls up and his chase rate was way up. That all means to me is he was struggling like we hadn’t seen in a few years. Maybe it was New York, maybe it was he was longing for my embrace. I like to think it was the latter. The good news goes back to the floor — 38 HRs, .265 and all the runs and RBIs that comes with that really isn’t that bad. I love him, and I hope you respect our privacy. Preseason Rank #4, 2018 Projections: 107/53/121/.273/3 in 547 ABs, Final Numbers: 102/38/100/.266/5 in 617 ABs
9. Bryce Harper – Out of curiosity, I went to look at our OBP Player Rater, and Harper moves up to top 5. By the by, if you find more comprehensive Player Raters somewhere, let me know, because I don’t think they exist. Not to mention, most of the Player Raters I’ve seen have random numbers for each category, whereas ours have dollar amounts, because, ya know, when you’re in auctions, you use dollar amounts. Yes, it is as simple that if you paid $40 for Harper, then you lost $7 in value because he earned $33 worth of value. Speaking of dollars and Harper, some team’s about to lose $750 million! Preseason Rank #2, 2018 Projections: 96/35/109/.308/12 in 533 ABs, Final Numbers: 103/34/100/.249/13 in 550 ABs
10. Andrew Benintendi – Lots of talk about floors this post, and I didn’t even mention Harper’s season was yet another floor, but Benintendi is the ultimate floor champion which I will abbreviate as UFC! That’s not used in any other arena, is it? Like an octagonal arena? Preseason Rank #13, 2018 Projections: 90/22/81/.282/14 in 566 ABs, Final Numbers: 103/16/87/.290/21 in 579 ABs
11. Starling Marte – He seemed to alter his approach a tad this year. Went for more fly balls. However (aw shucks, this isn’t going to be good), he only hit eight homers over 400 feet, had six homers under 385 feet (and one at 386 feet) and averaged a 87 MPH exit velocity, which was about 230th overall in the league (when sorting by 100 or more PAs). Not a ton of 20-homer hitters behind, as you can imagine, which is me asking you to make your fantasy reality about fantasy. Not to me confusing, said Yoda. Preseason Rank #12, 2018 Projections: 88/15/61/.272/32 in 551 ABs, Final Numbers: 81/20/72/.277/33 in 559 ABs
12. Mitch Haniger – This year was exactly what you can hope for from Haniger if he stays healthy, i.e., an active Haniger is better than resting Mitch face. Preseason Rank #47, 2018 Projections: 71/25/80/.259/7 in 543 ABs, Final Numbers: 90/26/93/.285/8 in 596 ABs
13. Scooter Gennett – Went over him in my 2nd basemen recap.
14. Michael Brantley – Decent enough time as any to point out how reliable hitters are vs. pitchers. I haven’t gone over pitchers yet (so maybe not a decent enough time to mention this), but you’ll have to take my word for it while seeing hitters, outfielders specifically. There were three real surprises in the top 20 outfielders — Brantley, Haniger and Peralta. I liked Haniger and Peralta, so they weren’t that big of surprises, but they were ranked, and drafted after the top 40 outfielders. Brantley was the only absolute out of nowhere surprise. He had done it before, but it hadn’t been a while because he was injured, often. And Brantley’s final stats that propelled him here were, in no small part, due to being sandwiched between Lindor and Jo-Ram. The literally-a-hero sandwich. Starters, which I’ll go over next, had eight guys in the top 20 who were surprises. Preseason Rank #91, 2018 Projections: 64/14/68/.287/7 in 442 ABs, Final Numbers: 89/17/76/.309/12 in 570 ABs
15. Rhys Hoskins – Went over him in my 1st basemen recap.
16. Nicholas Castellanos – Went over him in my 3rd basemen recap.
17. David Peralta – The only thing that bums me out about Peralta is how old he is (31). I’m pretty much convinced he would’ve had five to seven years like this year if he stayed healthy earlier in his career, and wasn’t platooned. C’est la vie as they say in Jeff Francoeur’s house. By the way, how about that terrible, awful, adjective humidor that saw Peralta hit 16 homers at home. You bad, bad humidor! (Okay, to be fair, Chase Field was slightly below average for homers last year.) Preseason Rank #65, 2018 Projections: 74/16/67/.273/7 in 509 ABs, Final Numbers: 75/30/87/.293/4 in 560 ABs
18. Tommy Pham – My preseason schmohawk post on Pham seemed all but confirmed, prior to his trade to the Rays, then he quickly fractured his foot and I was high fiving myself in the mirror while making googly eyes. Then my googly eyes went moogly-boogly and Pham had an insane final six weeks. I’ll take the bogey on Pham’s overrated post, but don’t forget I also told you to avoid Carlos Correa (when little to no one was avoiding him), Josh Donaldson, Elvis Andrus and Aaron Judge. 4-for-5 gets me into the Hall of Fame on the 1st ballot. Preseason Rank #31, 2018 Projections: 83/16/63/.275/19 in 484 ABs, Final Numbers: 102/21/63/.275/15 in 494 ABs
19. Ronald Acuna Jr. – Guys and five girl readers, I had a pretty good year with my rankings. Maybe it’s selective memory, but Tildaddy is just another in a long line of exceptional picks. You can try to find someone who ranked Tildaddy as high as me, but I don’t think you’re going to find it. Ya’ll thought I was crumby with crackers putting him in my top 25 outfielders when he had no set ETA. ETA-schmETA! You only have to watch one home run fly off his bat and one quick jaunt into 2nd base on a steal and know, Tildaddy is completely all right. Though, only when Tilmommy says he’s right. Preseason Rank #25, 2018 Projections: 74/17/77/.304/21 in 514 ABs, Final Numbers: 78/26/64/.293/16 in 433 ABs
20. Eddie Rosario – Was yet another preseason sleeper of mine that I ranked incredibly high and everyone was like, “Yo, Grey, you are handsome AF, but Rosario is about sixty picks earlier in your rankings than everyone else.” He trailed off a bit in the 2nd half, and he dealt with some injuries towards the tail end of the season, but he still ranked 50th overall on the Player Rater, after I ranked him 77th overall in the preseason. You’re welcome. Preseason Rank #28, 2018 Projections: 88/30/96/.286/4 in 551 ABs, Final Numbers: 87/24/77/.288/8 in 559 ABs
