The best 2025 fantasy baseball team is the friends we made along the way. Also, the title is hyperbole. What was I gonna say, “The Mostly Kinda Good Fantasy Baseball Team?” You’ll get over your scoffing, you freakin’ scoffer! This is the best 2025 fantasy baseball team that I can put together when drafting from my top 100 for 2025 fantasy baseball and top 500 for 2025 fantasy baseball. Honestly, I could draft another 25 teams from those lists, and they’d all be different, but equally terrific…Well, one of the twenty-five would only be sorta terrific, but it would be really hard to tell which one that is. If I took Yordan Alvarez in the 2nd round, everything after would change. If I took Trea Turner in the 2nd round, everything after would change. I’ve previously gone over my 2025 fantasy baseball draft prep for the first few rounds and pitchers pairings. For this exercise, I’m taking Gunnar Henderson in the first, because, well, I want to feel alive, I’ve never drafted him before and this way I’m not just taking Witt and Ohtani and wiping the floor with the haters.
So, for this best fantasy baseball team exercise, until pick 100, I’m taking one guy somewhere in every fifteen picks. It would be nice if I was in a league where someone drafted Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal in the first two rounds and I was able to take Ronald Acuña Jr. in the 2nd round (which is likely in some leagues), but since Gunnar and Tildaddy are in my first 15 picks, according to the arbitrary rules I’ve set up for myself, I can’t take them both. Then, as we all know, once you get into the 100s, there’s wide gaps between ADP and where players are actually taken. People tend to look at team need over value. So for this exercise, once I get to pick #100, I’m going to pick two players every twenty picks. Finally, because there is so much latitude in the latter rounds, I gave myself free rein to fill up my team after pick 200. Throughout the draft, I also gave myself the ability to reach to a lower draft pick, but not reach forward. Or reach around, if you’re feeling frisky. It should still be my ideal team…or not. Let’s see, shall we? Bee tee dubya, this team is a 12-team, 5×5, one catcher, 5 OFs, MI, CI, 1 UT, 9 P, 3 bench, just like the Razzball Commenter Leagues (go sign up, you Big Chungus). Anyway, here’s the best 2025 fantasy baseball team:
C: Shea Langeliers (22)
1B: Josh Naylor (3)
2B: Luis Garcia Jr. (10)
SS: Gunnar Henderson (1)
3B: Maikel Garcia (17)
MI: Xavier Edwards (14)
CI: Connor Norby (20)
OF: Jarren Duran (2)
OF: Lawrence Butler (5)
OF: Jasson Dominguez (8)
OF: Alec Burleson (11)
OF: JJ Bleday (19)
UTIL: Tommy Edman (21)
P: Cole Ragans (4)
P: Bailey Ober (6)
P: Sonny Gray (7)
P: Raisel Iglesias (9)
P: Tanner Scott (12)
P: Seth Lugo (13)
P: Ranger Suarez (15)
P: Spencer Arrighetti (16)
P: Jordan Romano (18)
Bench: Kirby Yates (23), Calvin Faucher (24), Griffin Jax (25)
SO, THIS TEAM WAKES ME UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND SAYS, “YOU JUST WON THE LOTTERY,” BUT IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOU ACTUALLY CAN DRAFT THIS TEAM?
No. Sorry, I don’t mean to be short with you like Jose Altuve. Here, let me explain it to you with a long-form answer: Noooooooooooo. As I said in the opening, this is an exercise to give you an idea of a team I wouldn’t kick out of bed. With this exercise, I don’t look at ADP, so it’s nice that I think I can draft all of these guys where I have them ranked, but invariably some buster enters the draft room, takes, say Jarren Duran before I can and this team immediately becomes impossible. Out of 1,000 drafts, maybe you could draft this team once, and, if you’re drafting 1,000 times, make sure to take some Vitamin D, because you’re severely lacking in exposure to the sun. For every pick that might not be there for me to take, there’s other guys like Alec Burleson, who you could wait on a little longer on. So, Grey’s rankings Gwyneth and they taketh away her acting career after the age of 40. Here’s my team from last year that I called the Best Fantasy Baseball Team in February, before injuries, playing time was figured out, etc.
C: Bo Naylor (18)
1B: Matt Olson (2)
2B: Nolan Gorman (10)
SS: Bobby Witt Jr. (1)
3B: Gunnar Henderson (3)
CI: Rhys Hoskins (17)
MI: Edouard Julien (15)
OF: Mike Trout (5)
OF: Jordan Walker (8)
OF: James Outman (11)
OF: Tyler O’Neill (13)
OF: Wyatt Langford (16)
Util: Sal Frelick (21)
P: George Kirby (4)
P: Alexis Diaz (6)
P: Braxton Garrett (7)
P: Paul Sewald (9)
P: Chris Bassitt (12)
P: Bailey Ober (14)
P: Dean Kremer (19)
P: MacKenzie Gore (20)
P: Hunter Harvey (22)
Bench: Jose Alvarado (23), Matt Brash (24), Ryan Pressly (25)
THAT TEAM STINKS HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA–[WHEEZING, DEAD].
Mr. Al Capps, are you there?
NO, I DIED FROM LOOKING AT YOUR ‘BEST’ TEAM FROM LAST YEAR.
So, this is actually instructive. Does this team look good in retrospect?
NO, GOD NO, ARE YOU DUMB?
Right, but with some managing I have Kirby and Ober, and lose the rest of those starters, then I have Gunnar and Witt. I’d argue that in an RCL you can challenge to win your league just getting that many right.
YOU’RE CHALLENGING SOMETHING ALL RIGHT. YOUR CREDIBILITY.
Okay, putting aside last year’s team, and looking at this year’s again. While doing this exercise, I went through my top 500 first, then went back and entered my team into the War Room, and discovered this is a team I apparently like more than the War Room:
C’MON, LET’S HEAR SOME EXCUSES!
I wrote an Alec Burleson sleeper; I loved my Luis Garcia Jr. sleeper; I got hornt up during my Connor Norby sleeper; I got more hornt up for a Spencer Arrighetti sleeper than anyone currently alive; oh, and a JJ Bleday sleeper. I been loving Bailey Ober; the list goes on and on for guys I like way more than Steamer. I drafted them. I don’t think you should look at War Room totals as you have to achieve them or it’s a failure. You should have a clear idea of what you need and why you’re not taking what you need, if you choose to go that way.
YOU ARE SO CHOCKFULL OF EXCUSES IT IS REMARKABLE.
Okay, so I am low on power and I don’t love that. That’s a category that is hard to dig out of a hole. A hole? Yeah, I am for not fake-drafting enough HRs. That is also because Steamer thinks less of Burleson, Bleday and Norby than me, but still it’s a weakness. It’s good to know your weaknesses. Soup dumplings? That’s a weakness for me. And power, here. I also don’t think WHIP or runs are a weakness with this team, but it’s worth keeping an eye on, in-season.
Also, anyone who’s played in a Razzball Commenter League knows players are fluid. To illustrate, I like Tommy Edman and Kirby Yates fine for deeper leagues, but I was so committed to the bit I drafted them here just for their Tokyo series, and then on this fantasy fantasy team, I will drop them. Though, maybe if they have a good series in Tokyo, I will hold them until May, cursing that I should’ve dropped them after their Tokyo series. Damn, this fictitious fantasy team is already giving me an ulcer!
Last year, Bailey Ober was bringing down my War Room totals, and this year Rudy’s got him near his top 75. Cust kayin’. Also, as mentioned, I drafted, then went back and entered my team into the War Room, which is bassackwards. If I were using the War Room, as it’s intended — while actually drafting — I likely would’ve drafted heavier on power, because I would’ve seen the weakness during the draft. That shows you though, that even someone like me can’t eyeball everything.
So, the War Room totals look janky, but the team, to my eyes, looks like the Best Fantasy Baseball Team–
DO YOU EVER LEAVE YOUR HOUSE WITH SO MUCH SELF HORN TOOTING?
Rarely. For s’s and g’s, go to my top 500 and put your best fantasy baseball team into the comments below, using the rules I set out in the opening — one player every 15 picks until 100, then two every twenty picks, then anyone after 200 overall.
