Top 100 Hitters For 2020 Fantasy Baseball: Week 6 Continuing Evolution

As the 2020 season turns there’s plenty of ongoing changes in the Top 100. Things are very very good for some players, and bad and getting worse for others. Six players have left the list which means six have jumped on: #80 Jonathan Schoop, #85 Pedro Severino, #89 Austin Nola, #90 Renato Nunez, welcome back #92 Eugenio Suarez and #99 Kyle Tucker. These guys are obviously killing it in various degrees of goodness. In particular perhaps it’s time to take Baltimore seriously. With all those Yankee injuries, and all the great performances by various Orioles, it’s no wonder the Rays are looking to be active in the trade market. Those dropping off include Mike Moustakas, Ramon Laureano, Eduardo Escobar, Gleyber Torres, Michael Brantley and Josh Bell. I have defended several of these players recently but their struggles, and the good play by so many others, have made these moves inevitable. As Suarez shows, a week or two of good play can make all the difference. You can find last week’s list here. Now on to the details for some of the movers this week.

#2 Cody Bellinger – His not so bad season just shifted into incredible. His OPS is up well over 1.000 over the last few weeks and he’s hitting homers in bunches. His highs are enough to boost him up the list.

#3 Mike Trout – Cracks, tiny tiny cracks, in the facade of this legend in 2020. Turns out he’s not infallible. Still, a bad week or two isn’t enough to move him off the Top 3, seeing as he could turn it around in a moment’s notice.

#5 Manny Machado – Seems like the San Diego fairy tale even includes bringing back vintage Manny. Heck, Machado is producing a Ben Affleck Batman to Tatis Jr.’s Robert Pattinson kick ass 2020 The Batman.

#12 Ronald Acuna Jr. – He’s back and better than ever. The only thing keeping him from moving higher is hedging against a quick recurrence of his wrist inflammation.

#13 Jose Abreu – Dingers, dingers galore, more dingers, all the dingers. Combine his hot streak with his history and he’s close to the Top 10.

#15 Teoscar Hernandez – He’s in the Top 3 of homers in the league, he’s hitting in the .290’s, he’s stealing bags. Sure, he hardly walks. Who cares?

#21 Francisco Lindor & #25 Jose Ramirez – They’re starting to pick it up and build momentum. Lindor’s overall AVG/OPS, Ramirez’s rare skill of HR/SB.

#30 Eloy Jimenez – Just when you thought a celebration gone bad would ruin his season he jumps up up and away.

#32 Xander Bogaerts, #33 Keston Hiura, #34 Ketel Marte, #35 Rafael Devers, #36 Starling Marte, #37 Anthony Rizzo – These guys are all in stages of under-performance with some underlying reason for optimism. The average is up here, the power or underlying power there, the prime age and any good game means a breakout over there. This is a very questionable group that hasn’t quite earned a free-fall down the list, but one or two more weeks for these guys with no consistency will give the performers even more of an edge up.

#45 Trent Grisham – Batting Average, OPS, throw in some steals and you have a Top 50 hitter. He just keeps pouring it on.

#55 Cavan Biggio, #58 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – The baby Jays finally waking up and doing what I thought they would in their old Buffalo stomping grounds. It’s a shame #94 Bo Bichette got injured, because he would’ve been the highest of the three.

#60 Adalberto Mondesi – It’s time to face the facts that you can’t steal first base. Could he steal eight bags in a week? Yes. Will he? He’s far from that right now.

#62 Max Muncy – Eight homers overall, 11 RBI in his last two weeks, OPS climbing from .729 overall, to .898 the last two weeks, to 1.069 the last seven.

#68 David Fletcher – #2 in the MLB in hits

#69 Wil Myers – .325/1.050 last 15, .409/1.298 the last 7.

#70 Austin Meadows – .247 with only three homers this year.

#79 Yoan Moncada – He left a game with a persistent leg issue and is day to day, may be looking at an IL stint.

#96 Aaron Judge – Didn’t we say it was just a matter of time before he was injured again? Well, a recurrence of his calf injury from earlier in August has come back to bite him again. With this much power it’s hard to take him off the list completely. All the rest of the injury guys are in varying stages of coming back soon. One that didn’t make it is Gleyber Torres. His news just went from bad to worse.