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We have reached the end of the 2026 fantasy baseball season, and with it, my final full-time article for Razzball. After this season, I will be stepping away from full-time writing, although I will still be around with the Cards & Categories podcast. Six years is a long time to do anything. Six years of researching players, arguing over rankings, watching games, chasing down stats, and trying to make sense of a game that refuses to make sense most of the time. I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have had this opportunity, especially alongside the people who made this more than just a writing gig. I may drop in from time to time, but this will be my 215th and final article here at Razzball. That’s a number I never imagined when I started, and one that carries a lot more meaning now that I know it’s the last. So, for our final Hitter Profiles, we’re going deep into the archives. Over the years, I’ve written about plenty of players, strategies, successes, and spectacularly bad takes. But when I look back, what are the lessons that actually stuck? This week, we’re revisiting my top ten lessons learned over six years of writing at Razzball.

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There is something uniquely fun about digging through the minor leagues at this time of year. Anybody can pull up a prospect list and find the guys everyone already knows. That’s not really the challenge. The fun is trying to figure out which player will be a hidden gem for next season and should be added to all of our watchlists. The minor leagues are full of players at different levels of development, different ballpark environments and even different baseballs. That’s where prospect evaluation gets messy, and honestly, that’s why I love doing it. A .300 hitter in one league is not necessarily the same as a .300 hitter somewhere else. Age matters. Level matters. Ballparks matter. A 23-year-old beating up on High-A pitching is a much different story than a 21-year-old doing damage in Double-A or Triple-A. The goal here is to get ahead of hitters who have a legitimate chance to matter during the 2027 season. That doesn’t mean predicting Opening Day starters. It means players whose values could look a whole lot different at this time next year. If you’re looking for a few names to stash away for dynasty trades or simply want a head start before everyone starts pretending they discovered these guys in February, here you go.

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Yes, here we are talking about 2027 again. It is the perfect time of the season to watch for the tweaks and adjustments. This week, we are taking the hitter profiles down a rabbit hole searching for potential value and players with an exciting outlook for 2027. I wanted to find players who made a meaningful change during the season, especially when that change has not completely shown up in the fantasy numbers yet. That can be a mechanical adjustment, a change in approach, a new role or simply an opportunity that did not exist when the season started. Sometimes the most interesting players are not the ones already sitting near the top of the fantasy rankings. They are the ones whose 2026 season gives us a reason to believe the 2027 version could look considerably better. With that in mind, here are five hitters I am watching for 2027, with each one tied to each of our favorite 5×5 categories.

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When I talk about a breakout, I’m not looking for a player who goes from pick 200 to pick 150. That’s useful, but it’s not what I’m after sitting at the 2026 trade deadline in a keeper league. I want to find the hitters who could make a much bigger jump, the players who have a legitimate chance to be top 25 fantasy hitters in 2027 while still carrying a considerably lower price right now. That’s a difficult group to find. A player needs to have enough power, speed, and plate discipline to actually reach that level. Plus, there also needs to be something the market hasn’t fully accounted for. Maybe it’s a skill that is just beginning to emerge. Maybe it’s a young hitter whose power hasn’t caught up with the rest of his game. Or maybe it’s a player who has quietly improved enough that the hitter we’re watching now is considerably better than the one fantasy managers remember. Time to dig in.

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At this point in the season, the waiver wire is mostly a wasteland. The obvious breakouts are long gone, the trade deadline has passed and convincing yourself that the next guy to run into a .340 BABIP is finally breaking out probably isn’t going to save your fantasy season. That doesn’t mean there aren’t hitters who can help over the final month. It just means we have to dig a little deeper to figure out which players are actually giving us something useful. For this week’s Hitter Profiles, I am digging into a full lineup to review current skills, recent performance and playing time. Some of these players are legitimate recent risers. Some are simply good hitters who aren’t owned enough. A few are bets on the underlying numbers finally catching up to the box score. Most are available in more than half of leagues or at least close enough to be late season targets. With that out of the way, let’s get into the nine.

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There are certain stretches of baseball that make you want to hold a player forever. The ball is finding the grass, the fantasy stats are piling up and suddenly the guy who looked like a perfectly useful roster piece. That’s usually when I start getting nervous. I’m not looking for players who are simply lucky. Everyone gets lucky. What I’m looking for is a hitter whose current production has moved well beyond what the underlying skills suggest, particularly when the recent numbers are getting better while the quality of contact underneath them isn’t. If the market is going to pay me for what happened over the last month rather than what is most likely to happen over the next six weeks, I’m going to take the money. For this week’s Hitter Profiles, I went back through the full-season numbers and compared them directly with the last 30 days, looking at the actual production, expected statistics, batted-ball quality and the underlying contact profile. I also wanted players who actually matter in fantasy leagues. These aren’t guys I’m telling you to dump because they are bad. Quite the opposite. They’re three hitters who have enough value right now that I think somebody else should be the one taking on the risk. And because I don’t particularly enjoy telling people to trade somebody without having an idea of what to do with the roster spot, I’ve included a cheaper alternative for each one.

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Sometimes baseball is stupid. You can hit a ball 110 mph directly at an outfielder and walk back to the dugout with an 0-for-1. Then you can roll over a 74 mph grounder that somehow finds a hole and suddenly your batting average is moving in the right direction. Over a long enough period of time, talent generally wins out, but fantasy baseball doesn’t give us the luxury of waiting. That’s where Statcast can help. I dug through the last 30 days of performance and Statcast data, then compared it with the last 14 days to see which hitters have been genuinely bad and which ones have simply been poorly rewarded for the quality of their contact. Expected statistics aren’t a crystal ball, and I’m not going to tell you that a .300 xBA guarantees a .300 batting average. What they can do is help us identify players whose recent results are worse than the underlying process suggests. And with the fantasy season entering its final stretch, those are exactly the players I want to find.

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Trade deadline week creates a dangerous game for fantasy managers. Everyone is glued to social media waiting for the next blockbuster, hoping a change of scenery unlocks the next fantasy star. Meanwhile, some of the biggest second-half values never change organizations at all. They simply earn more playing time, make an adjustment at the plate, or finally see the underlying metrics translate into production. That’s what I wanted to investigate. Rather than chasing the hottest box scores or recycling the latest waiver wire list, I dug into Statcast trends, recent performance, lineup usage, organizational decisions and industry buzz to identify hitters whose fantasy value may be changing faster than public perception. Some already have the skills but need the opportunity. Others have the opportunity and are beginning to show the skills. All four have a legitimate chance to provide meaningful value over the final two months, but not all deserve the same level of attention.

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Three weeks isn’t supposed to change everything. Then again, fantasy baseball has never been interested in following the script. Since our last trip through the Top 100, we’ve seen MVP candidates land on the injured list, waiver-wire darlings turn into every-week studs, and a handful of former “nice stories” become legitimate building blocks for the rest of the season. Of course, not every arrow points up. Injuries have forced difficult decisions, prolonged slumps have become harder to excuse, and with the trade deadline around the corner, a few players are about to see their fantasy value change overnight. Time for another shuffle as we look at our Top 100 Hitters for the rest of the season.

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Last week, we started the conversation by looking at 20 hitters who could realistically enter the 2027 fantasy baseball season as candidates to be the No. 1 overall hitter. Now comes the harder part. Turning 20 names into 10. The goal is simple. Find the best combination of ceiling, floor, category coverage, and confidence that the production will actually show up. Fantasy baseball is a game of maximizing probabilities. The player with the most exciting outcome is not always the best pick. A hitter who can produce in five categories, stay on the field, and avoid catastrophic downside often provides more value than a player with a higher theoretical ceiling but more paths to disappointment.

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The All-Star break always feels like the perfect time to look ahead. Not to the second half of 2026 as that story is still being written. Instead, let’s jump ahead to next spring’s fantasy drafts. If the 2027 fantasy baseball season started tomorrow, who would you want with the first overall pick? That’s the question we’ll answer next week when I unveil my Top 10 hitters for 2027. Before we get there, though, we need to establish the player pool. This isn’t a dynasty ranking. Prospect pedigree doesn’t matter. Age only matters if it changes next year’s outlook.

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Fantasy baseball managers love chasing breakouts. The problem is that by the time a player has already broken out, you’re paying full price. League-winning pickups happen before the rest of your league notices. That’s where underlying metrics become invaluable. Exit velocity stabilizes before batting average. Plate discipline improves before home runs arrive. Hard-hit rate often tells a story that the traditional stat line simply can’t. As we approach the midpoint in the season, it is time to dig for some second-half breakouts. This week’s Hitter Profiles focus on a group of hitters that all have one thing in common. The surface numbers leave room for skepticism, but the underlying data paints a much different picture. Whether it’s bad luck, a delayed breakout, an injury discount or a young hitter beginning to figure things out, these are four bats I’m targeting for the second half in redraft leagues.

Please, blog, may I have some more?