Last week, we jumped right into our our first look at the Top 100 Hitters for the 2022 Fantasy Baseball Season. If you missed that article then please pause the current programming and give us a quick read to catch up. This week we continue to jaunt down the rankings by looking at the next 20 hitters on the list. This week’s edition is smattered with risky bets like Ronald Acuna and Mookie Betts, solid producers like Freddie Freeman and Ozzie Albies, and upside potential with Eloy Jimenez and Tyler O’Neill. So let us kick this off with a #11 who really should be #1, but thanks to a the injury risk he is our headliner at the end of the first round.
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Throughout the 2022 fantasy baseball season, I will be posting your in season Top 100 Hitters. These rankings will be kept up to date and posted every other week with a continuation of deep dives on the movers and shakers in the off weeks. As we roll up to the season, I will be slowly introducing the Top 100 Hitters and adjusting them for all the spring training action. To get us started as we dig into these rankings, we will preview the Top 10 hitters for the 2022 fantasy baseball season. This will be a mix of the usual suspects and up and coming stars.
As we dive into the top 10 there are a few notes we need to call out about the general shifting of the landscape in traditional 5×5 fantasy baseball. The game has continued to changed and therefore how we need to value players shifts as well.
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Hitter Profiles: Once Upon A Top Prospect
March 12, 2022 | 2022 Fantasy Baseball | 7 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
As we near an opening day that felt like it may never come, the prospect watch has started in earnest. We now watch Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodriguez, Riley Greene and many more in their bid to become the next Fernando Tatis Jr. While the excitement of the young upstart slugger is always enticing, more often […]
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Lockout Shuffle!
March 5, 2022 | 2022 Fantasy Baseball | 3 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
I always try to look at things with a glass half-full. Unfortunately that glass has a large hole in it right now where the MLB owners have drained my confidence in their love of the game. However, the savy fantasy baseball manager is always looking for an edge. This week our hitter profiles focus on impacts from the lockout and what it should mean for our expectations. Whether it is recovery from injury or time away due to suspension and off the field struggles, there is always an angle to investigate. Today we try to turn a Manfred into a Lemon and hope we end up with Lemonade. Here are three hitters that stand to see a change in value the longer the lockout progresses.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: The Mezzanine Seats (200 Level ADP)
February 26, 2022 | 2022 Fantasy Baseball | 4 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
You know when you go to a baseball game and you get to look down at the seats you wish you could sit in but we both know you cannot afford. At the same time you look up at the cheap seats and laugh. Who is paying five dollars for a ticket when you can shell out ten dollars for the Mezzanine level? In this week’s article, our hitter profiles focus on that 200 level in the outfield and what guys are landing at 200 above ADP. These guys can be of value for you later in the draft in what is shaping up to be a deep field of veteran hitters. So let us go deep and gone for this week’s dive in our hitter profiles.
Please, blog, may I have some more?While collective bargaining is going about as well as my teenage driving tests, there are a few things we can expect with a level of certainty. We will see increased minimum salaries, the removal of the qualifying offer system, and most notably for our 2022 fantasy baseball season the implementation of the universal DH. While this is not a shock, the lockout has made it a challenge to narrow in on how those positions will be filled. A number of teams will simply rotate through their bench to keep players fresh but a handful already have their tailor-made DH in-house. The increased playing time means increased intrigue for the observant fantasy owner.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Rapid Fire ADP Wars – Outfielder Edition
February 12, 2022 | 2022 Fantasy Baseball | 5 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Each week our Hitter Profiles dig into two to three players and what we can expect for the 2022 Fantasy Baseball Season. This week, we will divert from the previously scheduled program and look to hit some rapid-fire decisions. Think of this as that league where the commissioner has better things to do and sets the draft clock to twenty seconds per pick. Come to think of that, I would not be surprised if that was in the next collective bargaining agreement offer from MLB that is due today. So, in the spirit of all things Rob Manfred, let us jump into the outfield and look at four groups of players starting on the west coast with two outfielders going in opposite directions with Cody Bellinger and Mitch Haniger.
Cody Bellinger (ADP 99) vs. Mitch Haniger (ADP 109)
Which line would you rather take:
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Build-A-Hitter (Do Splits Matter?)
February 5, 2022 | 2022 Fantasy Baseball | 16 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Buckle up for some analysis as we look to answer once and for all the question that all daily league managers contemplate themselves: Do splits matter? The concept has been around for years and hinges on some real-world strategy in the major leagues. Many hitters have strong splits which is seen in major league lineup construction and pinch hitter selection. So, logic would follow, that fantasy managers can look up splits and simply draft two less sexy names and play the lineup game. With the ability to select which games a player starts; we can take two unheralded guys (say Adam Duvall and Austin Hays) to build an all-star hitter (maybe Aaron Judge). It sounds so easy! Time to (dis)prove that notion in this week’s hitter profiles.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Last week our hitter profiles focused on those guys making a sprint to the finish. Sticking with our running theme, this week we will focus on the gentlemen that tried to run the hurdles and clipped the last one to face plant right before the finish line. What can we learn about their 2020 value from their late season 2021 failures? Should we stay away or invest with confidence? Stay with us as we dig into the Late Fade for some early 2022 hitter profiles.
Eloy Jimenez
After tearing a pectoral muscle in spring training during 2021, Jimenez made a miraculously quick recovery by joining the White Sox at the end of July. In the first 30 games back, Eloy hit the ground running with 8 long balls, 30 runs batted in and a solid .277 average. This translates loosely to a 40-homer season which falls right in line with the pace for his first two seasons in the MLB. However, as the calendar turned to September, Jimenez began to scuffle.
Hitter Profiles: Finishing Strong
January 22, 2022 | 2022 Fantasy Baseball | 7 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Welcome back to Razzball Hitter Profiles for the 2022 Fantasy Baseball season. We will be rattling through interesting names every Saturday as we roll up to the regular season. We are not talking the top hitters, because you really do not need me to tell you that Juan Soto can hit, or that Trea Turner can run. You need that like Nelson Cruz needs to play the outfield. Just because it can be done, does not mean it helps!
For this week, we are digging into players that finished out strong last season. These guys were running so hard, it was like they could not wait for 2021 to end and 2022 to begin. If that was our measure, then we could invest in half of the world’s population. However, we here at the higher establishment that is Razzball like to use numbers, trends, awkward graphics and the occasional useless banter to evaluate the next big thing. Without further rambling, let us dig in!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Fantasy MVPs – Part 2
October 2, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball | 5 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
This week we spend time in the infield examining another group of fantasy MVPs from the 2021 baseball season. We will spend our time going up to the middle with the second basemen, shortstops, and the beer-league middle infielder position. Heading into the season, the shortstops dominated the draft board ripe with young talent and guys like Tatis and Bichette. Unfortunately, we saw plenty of duds with the Mondesi and LeMahieu hype trains derailing all too quickly. Down the board, there are always values to bring home the trophies, so let the debates begin with the 2021 Fantasy MVP Middle Infielders!
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Fantasy MVPs
September 25, 2021 | 2021 Fantasy Baseball | 7 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
The fantasy playoffs are winding down and the last-minute roto push is driving fantasy managers crazy. While this is usually our slot for the top 100 rest of the season hitter rankings, I am going to trust that you can make those calls for the last week of the season. In honor of your fantasy championship (we know all our readers are winners) we will spend the next few weeks digging through our Fantasy MVPs by looking back at our spring drafts and who delivered the biggest bang for our fantasy buck. There will not be enough room for all the upstarts of the season, so let the debates begin with the 2021 Fantasy MVP Outfielders!
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