It was time. Scott Pianowski did his corners rankings 11 days ago. Our fine site has multiple rankings per week. Peer pressure is a powerful drug. Here’s my attempt at ranks, and tiered for your pleasure and ease of comparing.
This is the order in which I value them. Feel free to disagree in the comments, and I’ll gladly prove you wrong!
Tier 1:
He’s on his own level. He’s a good bet to hit over .300 with 100 R and RBI. Home runs? Fine, I’ll give you that. He could, though, make like 2024 and have two consecutive months with eight dingers in each, and then we’re at 18, and nobody complains. The skills are still there. The power might not be, but even if not, he’s an incredible player and should always have been drafted in the first round.
Tier 2:
Harper just keeps producing. At the time of this writing, he’d hit four home runs in his past seven games. The total slash is a solid .276/.381/.562. When his fire burns hot, there’s few better, and he’s a supernova right now………..Olson is in possibly his last high batting average season. He’s been the past two years a slow starter and fast finisher, so this is obviously encouraging………A .414 OBP for Kurtz shows great plate skills, and although he’s striking out too much, it is improved from last year………………I didn’t draft Ramirez anywhere (age), but if you did, don’t move off of him. He is 33 and whiffing a little bit more, but should be fine……………Same with Caminero, minus the age thing. He’s not going to be an average boon, but not a bum either, and enjoy the HR (over 40 pace)
Tier 3:
McGonigle is near a .300 average with five steals. A doubles machine, his OPS is over .900! Only the track record and fear of an adjustment period have him lower than Ramirez and Caminero. He’ll be tier 2 next run……………..Remember a couple years ago, Alonso hit only .217? The power will be fine, but this looks like a repeat of that season…………I looked at Freeman’s Statcast. It’s a sea of red. It looks like the hallway from The Shining. If Statcast is real, Freeman is due for a hot streak. Always bet on good plate approaches, even if he’s a couple steps from velcro shoes and hip replacement pamphlets………I’m actually worried about Machado, but every time that happens, he goes on a hot streak and ends up at .275 with 30 HR.
Tier 4:
Stewart is now hitting .245 on the season with 10 home runs, and that seems like what to expect. He’s a rookie with a good plate approach, but it’s been a month now of that level of production……….Bo Bichette didn’t forget how to hit. He’s the classic first year on a big contract in a new league dip player whose season numbers will be lower than normal, but expect a huge second half…………Okamoto last 28 days: .274/.355/.558 with eight home runs. Yeah, he’s probably settled in………….Bregman’s .333 slugging doesn’t track with his 96th percentile squared up rate. He had slow starts in 2022, 2023, and 2024, too, so don’t worry. Good times are coming soon……………Murikami and his 34% K rate are a wild roller coaster ride. It’s like the Tower of Terror in Disney World, which I’ll take your word for because I refuse because heck naw. But the guy is on pace for 60 HR, 113 runs, 117 RBI if you scale the stats to 162 games. That seems good. Another riser if he keeps this up……………………Yandy is criminally underrated. It’s not his fault, he’s built like a power bat. But he can carry your batting average with a solid MVP. I guess it’s not criminal, that’s too far. He’s great though, with a league batting average so low, it’s important to get that stat where you can……………..Vinnie P in May: .286 with two home runs in 10 games. Don’t worry, he does it every year…………………….Busch last 28 days: .295/.408/.474. Season numbers are lower cuz he was absolutely awful to start, but he’ll be fine going forward.
Tier 5:
These are guys I don’t like, and here are the reasons.
Naylor: home park, suppressed numbers
Jazz: whiff rate, streaky
Garcia: Royals offense is down bad. Garcia is good, though. I should probably move him up a tier.
Tier 6:
Leftovers:
Thanks for reading, and may the odds and IL report be ever in your favor!
Interesting to see who is not on the list…Devers. Which is good, because I just dealt him for Naylor a couple days ago.
Also this list is full veggie with no Burger.
Would you trade away M Vargas and Eugenio for Freeman and a so-so SP? Geno’s health ??
I don’t think I would. With Vargas’ lower batting average, the power can evaporate and you’re stuck with Eugenio who is out for a bit. I’d stick Freeman. Also, that’s your namesake here, whaddya doing?
Exactly. I am thinking of trading away Vargas and Geno to secure Freddie and a piece.
I would
Too funny. Guy didn’t want Geno so he took Vargas straight up for Freddie. So now I have my namesake.
He also sent me Bux for Ashcraft. So my team looks better for the long haul now I think