Munetaka Murakami has been on fire lately for the Chicago White Sox. The accolades are already piling up for the 26-year-old from Kumamoto, Japan. Through 26 games, he has swatted 11 homers, with 20 RBI and 20 runs, plus an outstanding 19.5% walk rate. The strikeout concerns that limited him to a two-year deal in his initial free agency have shown up to a degree, with a 32% strikeout rate. However, when you have more homers in your first 24 career games than Shohei Ohtani did, it is certainly worth taking notice. This week in Hitter Profiles, we’re going deep, both figuratively and geographically, to scout the next superstars who could make the jump as future Major League contributors. These are deep dynasty plays as we explore Nippon Professional Baseball for options in open-universe leagues or targets over the next few offseasons. Join us for a unique Hitter Profiles as we explore the Murakami effect.
Please, blog, may I have some more?
Fantasy Baseball Hitters
Learn more about our 2026 Fantasy Baseball Subscriptions!
The best daily/weekly player rankings/projections (hitters, starters, and relievers) for each of the next 7-10 days + next calendar week starting Friday. Kick-ass DFS lineup optimizer and projections for DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo!.
I don’t have enough spam, give me the Razzball email newsletter!
Weekly Razzball news delivered straight to your inbox.
Top 100 Hitters: Early Adjustments
April 5, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 11 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
The first week of the season is baseball’s favorite overreaction laboratory. A handful of games, a few loud swings, one well-timed call-up and suddenly the future feels like it is arriving all at once. This is where the Top 100 Hitter list starts to breathe. Because while veterans are still shaking off April timing and pitchers search for command, the kids do not want to wait. They have announced themselves with big-league at-bats that look like they have been doing this for years instead of days. JJ Wetherholt looks like a hitter who belongs in the middle of a lineup right now. The approach is calm, the barrel is on time, and the game slows down in a way you cannot fake. Kevin McGonigle has done what advanced hitters do with controlled at-bats, line drives to all fields, and the quiet confidence of someone who understands exactly who he is at the plate. Then there’s Chase DeLauter, whose early-season thunder feels less like a hot start and more like confirmation. The physicality, the leverage, the damage that can change a game. And just when the early season momentum was building, Konor Griffin arrived. This is what the first week is supposed to feel like. Not conclusions. Not final answers. Just flashes that hint at where the Top 100 is headed next. Because rankings in April aren’t about who’s finished climbing. They are about who just started running.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Instant Overreactions
March 29, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 2 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Every baseball season begins the same way, with a handful of three game series and the complete collapse of rational thought. It takes approximately 48 hours for someone to become a .400 hitter future MVP, another player to start 1-for-15 and become “mechanically broken,” and at least one player to get a “rest day” and immediately lose his job in the court of public opinion. By Sunday afternoon, half the league is on pace for 162 home runs, five teams are “frauds,” and someone is already declaring a rookie the steal of the decade. We do this every year. And every year, it’s glorious. Baseball’s long season was built for patience, but the first few days were built for chaos. Small samples become loud samples. A couple of bloop hits turn into breakout narratives. A cold weekend in Detroit suddenly means a veteran has “lost bat speed.” Meanwhile, someone who ran into two fastballs in Seattle is suddenly the best value in fantasy baseball history. It’s irrational. It’s premature. It’s completely ridiculous. And it’s one of the most fun parts of the season. So this week, we lean into it. The overreactions. The hot takes. The three-game sample sizes that somehow feel meaningful. Not because they’re right but because early-season baseball is at its best when everyone is just a little bit unreasonable. Here is a fast and furious version of Hitter Profiles to kick off the 2026 fantasy baseball season.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: The Kids Are Coming
March 22, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 8 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Spring training lies to you. It always has. Batting averages spike, ERAs balloon, and every backfield breakout starts to feel like a prophecy. But every March also leaves breadcrumbs, real ones if you know where to look. Approach, bat speed, physicality, how a player carries himself against arms a level above where he’s lived. That stuff travels. This year, three rookie shortstops are on everybody’s minds and just how much they will be able to force the conversation. Konnor Griffin, Kevin McGonigle, and JJ Wetherholt didn’t treat camp like a tryout. They treated it like a preview, so let’s see what we can expect from this trio in 2026.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Top 100 Hitters: The Full Story
March 15, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters, Top 100 Hitters | 16 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Over the last three weeks, we’ve taken this list apart piece by piece. The foundation came first with the elite bats who carry fantasy lineups and soak up first-round draft capital. Then we moved through the roster builders, the category specialists, and the volatile upside plays that can tilt a standings column when things break right. Now it’s time to put the whole thing together. Today we release the full Top 100 Hitters for the 2026 fantasy baseball season. One list. One board. The entire player pool stacked from top to bottom. Seeing the rankings in full always tells a slightly different story than reading them in weekly tiers. You start to notice where positions thin out, where the power pockets live, and which players sit right on the edge between “target” and “someone else can take that risk.” So with that said, here it is. The complete Top 100 Hitters for 2026, giving us our final board before draft season fully takes over.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Week one gave us the cornerstones. Week two moved into the roster-shaping middle where profit and risk begin to share the same zip code. Now we arrive at week three of the Top 100 Hitters for 2026, and this is where drafts quietly start to get won. This tier lives in the tension between upside and imperfection. The tools are obvious. The production often shows up in bursts. But something in the profile has kept these hitters just outside the top 50 to this point. Maybe it’s batting average volatility. Maybe it’s playing time questions, platoon exposure, or skills that still need refinement. In many cases the ceiling is high, but the floor just isn’t as comfortable. These are the hitters who can change the shape of a roster. The stars are mostly gone. The boring stability is mostly gone too. What’s left are players who provide a wider range of expected outcomes and can outperform their draft slot by a wide margin if the right skills click at the right time. Let’s get into the next 25.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Rankings: The Top Fifty
March 1, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters, Top 100 Hitters | 6 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
The first week of our rankings was about laying the foundation. The blue-chip anchors. The names that cost you real draft capital but give you category stability in return. Now we turn the page to week two of the Top 100 Hitters for 2026. This is where roster construction gets real. Power sources with batting average risk. Higher variability speed plays that can swing a standings column. Bankable veterans being drafted next to post-hype breakouts. The projections may look similar on the surface, but the paths to getting there couldn’t be more different. As always, this isn’t just a ranking of talent. It’s an evaluation of underlying skill and most importantly draft cost relative to production. We’re not chasing name value. We’re chasing leverage. The middle tiers win leagues. Miss here, and you spend all season patching holes. Nail this pocket of hitters, and you give yourself flexibility when the draft room starts reaching. Let’s keep building the board.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Rankings: The First Quarter
February 22, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters, Top 100 Hitters | 14 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
We’ve officially reached the part of the preseason where optimism runs wild, spreadsheets get obsessive, and every batting practice video looks like a breakout waiting to happen. It’s time to roll out my Top 100 Hitters for the 2026 fantasy baseball season. Over the next four weeks, we’ll move through the list in tiers of 25 at a time. But this isn’t just a name dump or a recycled ranking sheet. This is an assessment of skill trends, underlying indicators, lineup context, park factors, and category scarcity all merged into one beautiful set of rankings. The goal will be to focus on a solid base of hitters while highlighting some of my favorite deviations from draft cost. This Top 100 is built with that lens. Not just who is good. Not just who projects well. But who helps you win based on where they’re being drafted. Let’s build the board — 25 hitters at a time.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Busts
February 15, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 15 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
Sleepers get the headlines in draft season, but under-performers are the landmines that decide leagues. If a sleeper misses, you move on. When an early or mid-round pick underperforms, the damage lingers all summer. Busts are a less glamorous but equally important part of draft prep. For every breakout managers chase in March, there’s a […]
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Breakouts
February 8, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 8 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
In fantasy baseball, breakouts are where leagues are won. These are not the names buried at the end of draft boards or the mid-round discounts that still require patience. Breakout hitters are players already on the radar whose skill growth, role security, or statistical foundation points toward a real leap into early-round relevance. They’re the ones who turn strong rosters into dominant ones. After working through deep sleepers and sleepers over the past two weeks, this is the next rung on the ladder. These hitters are being drafted with clear expectations, but their current prices still assume stability rather than acceleration. With another step forward, they can push into All-Star-level production and anchor fantasy lineups for the season ahead. Using early ADP trends alongside recent performance and underlying indicators, we’re focusing on hitters positioned to make that jump from solid contributor to potential cornerstone. This is where projection meets conviction and where the payoff can direct the shape of a season.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Sleepers
February 1, 2026 | 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 7 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
“Sleepers” is one of fantasy sports’ oldest and best terms, with roots in early-20th-century boxing and horse racing. It’s always been used to describe competitors with hidden upside who surface when it matters most. Last week, our hitter profiles focused on a group of deep sleepers going after pick 325 in early drafts representing the types of players you can stash late while filling out the back end of your roster. This week, we move up the food chain. These hitters will be discussed in draft rooms as we head toward Opening Day, but their prices still lag behind their potential outcomes. The goal here is simple: identify the best mid-round values among players who may be on the verge of a meaningful jump. We’re digging into early ADP data to find hitters whose underlying profiles suggest there’s more coming in 2026 than the market is currently pricing in.
Please, blog, may I have some more? Hitter Profiles: Deep Sleepers
January 25, 2026 | 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, 2026 Fantasy Baseball, Fantasy Baseball Hitters | 6 Commentsby: Jeremy Brewer
In fantasy baseball, identifying deep sleepers with late ADPs and uncertain roles can be the difference between building a contender and missing out on future stars. These under-the-radar players, often overlooked in early drafts or found on the waiver wire, have the potential to reshape rosters, not only for redraft leagues but for years to come in deeper formats. Just look at the 2025 season, where hidden gems like Geraldo Perdomo, Drake Baldwin, and Ben Rice emerged to become foundational pieces for winning teams. For managers looking to stay ahead, this year’s deep sleeper pool could hold the next wave of impact contributors. We are going to dig into a four-pack of players going after pick 325 in early Draft Champion results that need to be on your radar as we move into the spring.
Please, blog, may I have some more?