With the top 40 outfielders for 2018 fantasy baseball, we’ve finished all the hitter recaps. We meaning me, but I’ll include you. No, that’s not a cue to try to hold my hand. Why are you now patting my butt? Don’t muss my hair! The pitching recap will begin next. You can hardly wait. No, you! To recap, the end of the season rankings are based on our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. I felt the easiest way to keep it objective would to go this route. This way when I say someone finished 30th and I ranked them 23rd in the preseason, it carries more weight like Willians Astudillo. Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders for 2018 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
21. Nelson Cruz – He’s so rock solid every year he’s like a plane in the junkyard during Can’t Buy My Love with Ronald Miller lovingly stroking, saying, “They sure don’t make them like this anymore,” fawning over his craftsmanship. However, Cruz actually showed signs in 2018 that age is finally catching up to him. His strikeouts went down and pretty much all his plate discipline stayed similar to past years, which sounds great, but his BABIP tanked. Usually a sign of bad luck, but a BABIP declining with age, due to footspeed slowing, is a thing and Cruz looks like he’s got it, which means a once lock for .280 becomes a .250 hitter. Think Pujols. To bring this full circle, I call my poo-hole a junkyard. Weird, huh? Preseason Rank #22, 2018 Projections: 82/33/98/.282/1 in 509 ABs, Final Numbers: 70/37/97/.256/1 in 519 ABs
22. Lorenzo Cain – Booyakasha! Nailed Cain…Sugar!’s ranking! Almost! So, it’s that time again. Why are you changing your pants? It’s not that time. It’s time for us to look at how many guys came out of nowhere to get in the top 40 outfielders. That list is Hicks, Muncy, Piscotty, Markakis, Mallex, Profar and Soto. Olson was ranked 36th and Gallo I nailed exactly at 29th, if you were wondering on those two. Saying Piscotty and Hicks came out of nowhere is a stretch, but I’ll give you them. So, seven guys. Starters who came out of nowhere from 21-40 are ten guys (I’ll go over starters next, you’ll have to take my word for it for now). Once again, starters are harder to predict. Preseason Rank #21, 2018 Projections: 91/18/79/.292/18 in 535 ABs, Final Numbers: 90/10/38/.308/30 in 539 ABs
23. Justin Upton – Once an unpredictable player from month to month and year to year, I’d suggest Upton is now predictable in his unpredictability. Sure, he went .301 in August to Septumbler to .197 the following month, but, in the end, it was around where we expected. His newest mystery, he’s a righty who hit .195 vs. lefties. Upton, you are a jigsaw puzzle missing a piece. Preseason Rank #14, 2018 Projections: 93/31/108/.252/10 in 561 ABs, Final Numbers: 80/30/85/.257/8 in 533 ABs
24. Aaron Hicks – Tee bee aitch, I’ll likely rank and project Hicks for exactly the same again next year as I did this year. This feels like a career year. An outlier. A stretch. A-okay, but A-A-wrong to predict to repeat. Preseason Rank #66, 2018 Projections: 57/14/63/.255/13 in 427 ABs, Final Numbers: 90/27/79/.248/11 in 480 ABs
25. Ian Desmond – Went over him in the 1st basemen recap.
26. Cody Bellinger – Went over him in the 1st basemen recap.
27. Max Muncy – Went over him in the 1st basemen recap.
28. George Springer – So *contemplative pause* what went wrong? He didn’t perform on average quite as well as the previous year with a slight uptick on Ks and raising his chase rate. Speaking of chase rate, they have an incredible 1.9% interest–Wait, our intern is telling me that sponsorship didn’t come through. Screw Chase! Field, Bank, Utley! All of them! Springer’s power went way down from the previous year and accounts for most of his plunge in fantasy value. His HR/FB rate was at a career worst, but his fly balls went up and he was the 6th best home run distance for guys with 20 homers. This is about 2018, but I want to whisper, “Bounce back.” Preseason Rank #7, 2018 Projections: 116/35/84/.281/8 in 611 ABs, Final Numbers: 102/22/71/.265/6 in 544 ABs
29. Joey Gallo – Went over him in the 1st basemen recap.
30. Stephen Piscotty – Glad he regained his swerve. I will now call him Swerven Piscotty. Though, since I just researched a whole bunch of stats I didn’t use on Springer, can I just say Piscotty’s home runs (27) should be Springer’s and vice versa. Luckily, Piscotty isn’t Judge Reinhold and Springer isn’t Fred Savage, right? Piscotty doesn’t know! Yes, you do, Piscotty, I’m telling you. Piscotty doesn’t know! Forget it. Preseason Rank #86, 2018 Projections: 61/20/75/.268/4 in 541 ABs, Final Numbers: 78/27/88/.267/2 in 546 ABs
31. Ender Inciarte – One of the biggest underrated fantasy guys. I bet you I will rank him in the top 40 again next year and ESPN and Yahoo will have him around 200 overall. C’mon, let’s bet! *turns pocket inside out* I have one $5 voucher from Trump’s Taj Mahal towards a Trump Steaks purchase that says I’m right. Preseason Rank #39, 2018 Projections: 96/14/52/.300/20 in 634 ABs, Final Numbers: 83/10/61/.265/28 in 597 ABs
32. Gregory Polanco – Mentioned this a lot in March/April, then my Polanco comments trailed off into how no one on the Pirates was going to hit 20 homers. Early on, my Polanco narrative was how he did not seem to care much for playing, but since he came to camp ‘in the best shape of his life’ and was ready to have his best season, then maybe we were in for a big year for Polanco. All that seemed to be lacking from him was desire. Well, that all seemed to be nonsense in every sense. So, non-sense was every sense? Yes! Polanco’s months are all over the place, and nothing points to him being better in April and May vs. later on. He ended up ranked 32nd, I preseason ranked him 33rd and he seems to be exactly what we expect. Preseason Rank #33, 2018 Projections: 71/16/79/.254/15 in 509 ABs, Final Numbers: 75/23/81/.254/12 in 461 ABs
33. Nick Markakis – Massive whiff to not even rank Sparkakis, especially when I ranked something like 1,250 outfielders. Castellanos would say I’m prejudiced to Greek players, but since Castellanos isn’t really Greek he can lay an egg. Sparkakis was merely a product of counting stats, much like the next guy who is making me aggravated to even think about. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 78/14/93/297/1 in 623 ABs
34. Marcell Ozuna – This guy built on his previous year like We Built This City built on the legacy that Starship sucks. Most of Ozuna’s value came from runs and RBIs. Lowercase yay! Counting stats, the bottled water of the wine industry. Preseason Rank #11, 2018 Projections: 101/35/106/.278/1 in 607 ABs, Final Numbers: 69/23/88/.280/3 in 582 ABs
35. Matt Olson – Went over him in the 1st basemen recap.
36. Aaron Judge – Little bit cheap to take the W for calling Judge a schmohawk when he only really faltered due to an injury, but I will nom-nom-nom all those cheap W’s! Preseason Rank #10, 2018 Projections: 104/40/94/.244/7 in 511 ABs, Final Numbers: 77/27/67/.278/6 in 413 ABs
37. Juan Soto – He had a .406 OBP in 494 plate appearances as a 19-year-old. Oh, I’m sorry, are you the most gorgeous human outside of Acuña? Yes, yes, yes, you are. In case you were wondering Sexy Dr. Pepper is the last outfielder in the top 100 overall on the Player Rater. Yet, he’s so effervescent. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 77/22/70/.292/5 in 414 ABs
38. Jurickson Profar – Went over him in the shortstops recap.
39. Mallex Smith – On a personal note, I owned Hicks, Mallex and Profar at times this year in my RCL and dropped them. I will now drop the P and T in ‘pert. I am ‘er. A big fat ‘er! Er dumb. Er very stupid. Er…er…er, the worst! Preseason Rank #120, 2018 Projections: 44/3/18/.264/20 in 291 ABs, Final Numbers: 65/2/40/.296/40 in 480 ABs
40. Andrew McCutchen – This is sloppy but his Yankees’ stats prorated over the course of a season: 115/30/60/.255/6. His Giants’ stats prorated: 72/18/65/.255/16. Oh no! It’s Mr. Prorater! “If you were to never remove your pants and just keep putting new ones on, by the time you were 14, you’d be the size of the earth.” Mr. Prorater, your prorating is so stupid! Preseason Rank #32, 2018 Projections: 82/23/90/.273/9 in 563 ABs, Final Numbers: 83/20/65/.255/14 in 569 ABs
