The OPS Top-200 is now! Get excited! Are you pumped?!? Take a deep breath and let’s get to it. First though, some strategy. Take it or leave it, it’s your call. I recommend taking it with a nice glass of “you want your fantasy teams to be better, don’t you?”
If you’ve been following along (or if you haven’t, click on that link and get yo’self familiarized), I tier hitters by position. I do the same with pitchers. Then, on draft day, I put all my rankings on one piece of paper, and scratch their names off as the draft goes. That way, I know what positional tier is losing guys quickly and which others I can wait. It’s worked for years, and I highly recommend you try it. I do this in addition to entering in rankings in Yahoo or ESPN or whatever website you use. Always, always, ALWAYS do this. They hide good players in the 300’s for some reason. I think once they rank the top-150, they call it a day and let the monkeys with typewriters finish off the rankings.
Now in football, this works better as multiple position eligibility can make things a bit more difficult. I don’t want to be scratching out Jedd Gyokro’s name at all the positions he’s eligible at (for me, it’s only at second base), so, depending on the league, I’ll use a top-200 to supplement my one page sheet. Two pages? Of actual paper? From actual trees? Why not just use excel? Well I do use excel and formulas for my rankings, but draft day I like to keep it simple. Pen and paper and the draft app.
Last week I did two ESPN drafts at the same time, one on the computer the other on the app, and for ESPN, the app is better (as long as you entered your own rankings). I’ll try Yahoo and let you all know (or let me know which you prefer in the comments). Alright Razzballers and Razzballettes, here’s the list:
Razzball Commenter Leagues are open! Play against our contributors and your fellow readers for prizes. Join here!
| 1 | OF | Mike | Trout |
| 2 | 3B | Nolan | Arenado |
| 3 | 1B/3B/OF | Kris | Bryant |
| 4 | 1B | Paul | Goldschmidt |
| 5 | SS/3B | Manny | Machado |
| 6 | OF | Mookie | Betts |
| 7 | 1B | Anthony | Rizzo |
| 8 | 3B | Josh | Donaldson |
| 9 | OF | Bryce | Harper |
| 10 | SS | Carlos | Correa |
| 11 | 1B | Freddie | Freeman |
| 12 | 2B | Jose | Altuve |
| 13 | OF | Yoenis | Cespedes |
| 14 | SP | Clayton | Kershaw |
| 15 | OF | Charlie | Blackmon |
| 16 | 1B | Miguel | Cabrera |
| 17 | OF | Nelson | Cruz |
| 18 | 2B/OF | Trea | Turner |
| 19 | OF | George | Springer |
| 20 | OF | JD | Martinez |
| 21 | 2B | Rougned | Odor |
| 22 | SS | Trevor | Story |
| 23 | OF | Mark | Trumbo |
| 24 | OF | Ryan | Braun |
| 25 | SS | Xander | Boegarts |
| 26 | SS | Corey | Seager |
| 27 | 1B | Joey | Votto |
| 28 | 1B | Edwin | Encarnacion |
| 29 | OF | Starling | Marte |
| 30 | SS | Francisco | Lindor |
| 31 | 1B/OF | Wil | Myers |
| 32 | 1B | Jose | Abreu |
| 33 | 2B/SS/3B | Jonathan | Villar |
| 34 | OF | Carlos | Gonzalez |
| 35 | 3B | Adrian | Beltre |
| 36 | OF | Jose | Bautista |
| 37 | OF | Khris | Davis |
| 38 | 1B/2B | Daniel | Murphy |
| 39 | 3B | Kyle | Seager |
| 40 | OF | Giancarlo | Stanton |
| 41 | C/OF | Kyle | Schwarber |
| 42 | 2B | Dee | Gordon |
| 43 | SP | Madison | Bumgarner |
| 44 | OF | Andrew | Benintendi |
| 45 | OF | Jackie | Bradley Jr. |
| 46 | OF | Adam | Duvall |
| 47 | OF | Gregory | Polanco |
| 48 | SP | Noah | Syndergaard |
| 49 | OF | Christian | Yelich |
| 50 | SP | Chris | Sale |
| 51 | 2B | Brian | Dozier |
| 52 | 1B | Hanley | Ramirez |
| 53 | SP | Corey | Kluber |
| 54 | 3B | Jake | Lamb |
| 55 | 2B/SS | Addison | Russell |
| 56 | 2B | Robinson | Cano |
| 57 | OF | Billy | Hamilton |
| 58 | SP | Jon | Lester |
| 59 | 2B | DJ | LeMahieu |
| 60 | 1B/OF | Chris | Davis |
| 61 | OF | Andrew | McCutchen |
| 62 | SP | Johnny | Cueto |
| 63 | SP | Yu | Darvish |
| 64 | 1B/3B | Todd | Frazier |
| 65 | 1B/2B/3B | Matt | Carpenter |
| 66 | SP | Max | Scherzer |
| 67 | 3B | Maikel | Franco |
| 68 | 2B | Jonathan | Schoop |
| 69 | OF | Justin | Upton |
| 70 | SP | Justin | Verlander |
| 71 | 1B | Carlos | Santana |
| 72 | 3B | Alex | Bregman |
| 73 | SP | Jake | Arrieta |
| 74 | CL | Kenley | Jansen |
| 75 | SP | Carlos | Carrasco |
| 76 | OF | Yasmany | Tomas |
| 77 | 1B/OF | Ian | Desmond |
| 78 | C | Gary | Sanchez |
| 79 | SP | Jacob | DeGrom |
| 80 | SP | Stephen | Strasburg |
| 81 | 3B | Evan | Longoria |
| 82 | OF | AJ | Pollock |
| 83 | OF | Matt | Kemp |
| 84 | CL | Aroldis | Chapman |
| 85 | SP | Kyle | Hendricks |
| 86 | 2B | Jason | Kipnis |
| 87 | C/1B | Buster | Posey |
| 88 | 1B | Eric | Hosmer |
| 89 | SP | Kenta | Maeda |
| 90 | CL | Zach | Britton |
| 91 | OF | Marcel | Ozuna |
| 92 | OF | Randall | Grichuk |
| 93 | OF | Stephen | Piscotty |
| 94 | 3B | Anthony | Rendon |
| 95 | 3B/OF | Miguel | Sano |
| 96 | OF | David | Dahl |
| 97 | SS | Marcus | Semien |
| 98 | SP | Carlos | Martinez |
| 99 | SP | Danny | Duffy |
| 100 | OF | Adam | Jones |
| 101 | SP | Gerrit | Cole |
| 102 | CL | Edwin | Diaz |
| 103 | 2B | Ian | Kinsler |
| 104 | SP | Chris | Archer |
| 105 | SP | Jose | Quintana |
| 106 | CL | Roberto | Osuna |
| 107 | OF | Nomar | Mazara |
| 108 | 1B | Tommy | Joseph |
| 109 | CL | Kelvin | Herrera |
| 110 | SP | Cole | Hamels |
| 111 | OF | Hunter | Renfroe |
| 112 | SS | Aledmys | Diaz |
| 113 | CL | Craig | Kimbrel |
| 114 | 2B/SS/OF | Brad | Miller |
| 115 | 3B | Ryon | Healy |
| 116 | 2B | Logan | Forsythe |
| 117 | SP | Danny | Salazar |
| 118 | 2B/SS | Jean | Segura |
| 119 | SP | Aaron | Sanchez |
| 120 | 1B | Albert | Pujols |
| 121 | CL | Sweung-Hwan | Oh |
| 122 | SP | Lance | McCullers |
| 123 | CL | David | Robertson |
| 124 | C/OF | Willson | Contreras |
| 125 | OF | Max | Kepler |
| 126 | CL | Wade | Davis |
| 127 | CL | AJ | Ramos |
| 128 | SP | Masahiro | Tanaka |
| 129 | OF | Adam | Eaton |
| 130 | SP | Kevin | Gausman |
| 131 | CL | Mark | Melancon |
| 132 | SP | Rich | Hill |
| 133 | CL | Ken | Giles |
| 134 | OF | Dexter | Fowler |
| 135 | CL | Sam | Dyson |
| 136 | RP | Dellin | Betances |
| 137 | SS | Didi | Gregorious |
| 138 | 2B/OF | Ben | Zobrist |
| 139 | SP | Steven | Matz |
| 140 | OF | Jay | Bruce |
| 141 | SP | Julio | Teharan |
| 142 | CL | Tony | Watson |
| 143 | SP | Zack | Greinke |
| 144 | SS | Elvis | Andrus |
| 145 | SP | Garrett | Richards |
| 146 | OF | Joc | Pederson |
| 147 | SP | Felix | Hernandez |
| 148 | C | Evan | Gattis |
| 149 | SP | Tyler | Glasnow |
| 150 | CL | Jeurys | Familia |
| 151 | 3B | Justin | Turner |
| 152 | SS/3B | Eduardo | Nunez |
| 153 | CL | Adam | Ottavino |
| 154 | SS/3B | Jose | Ramirez |
| 155 | CL | Alex | Colome |
| 156 | OF | Lorenzo | Cain |
| 157 | OF | Hunter | Pence |
| 158 | SS | Brandon | Crawford |
| 159 | RP | Andrew | Miller |
| 160 | SS | Eugenio | Suarez |
| 161 | C | Jonathan | Lucroy |
| 162 | OF | Keon | Broxton |
| 163 | SP | James | Paxton |
| 164 | CL | Cody | Allen |
| 165 | 1B/2B/SS/3B | Jedd | Gyorko |
| 166 | SS | Jhonny | Peralta |
| 167 | SP | Drew | Smyly |
| 168 | SP | Marcus | Stroman |
| 169 | OF | Odubel | Herrera |
| 170 | SP | John | Lackey |
| 171 | C | Yasmani | Grandal |
| 172 | SP | Daniel | Norris |
| 173 | SP | Michael | Pineda |
| 174 | SS | Troy | Tulowitzki |
| 175 | SP | Dallas | Keuchel |
| 176 | 1B | Mitch | Moreland |
| 177 | OF | Eric | Thames |
| 178 | CL | Fransisco | Rodriguez |
| 179 | SP | Jon | Gray |
| 180 | 1B/OF | Kendrys | Morales |
| 181 | SP | Tanner | Roark |
| 182 | SP | Blake | Snell |
| 183 | SS/3B | Jung-Ho | Kang |
| 184 | SS | Tim | Anderson |
| 185 | 1B | Mike | Napoli |
| 186 | 2B | Dustin | Pedroia |
| 187 | 1B | Adrian | Gonzalez |
| 188 | SP | Jharel | Cotton |
| 189 | 2B/SS/OF | Jose | Peraza |
| 190 | 1B/OF | Josh | Bell |
| 191 | 3B | Nick | Castellanos |
| 192 | OF | Michael | Conforto |
| 193 | SS | Orlando | Arcia |
| 194 | OF | Leonys | Martin |
| 195 | 1B/DH | Victor | Martinez |
| 196 | 3B | Yulieski | Gurriel |
| 197 | SP | Junior | Guerra |
| 198 | OF | Tyler | Naquin |
| 199 | SP | Rick | Porcello |
| 200 | 2B/3B/OF | Hernan | Perez |
Well, there it is. Pick your favorite over-hyped or under-ranked guy, and feel free to me crap about it. I can take it while enjoying the weekend right near the beach, boo-yee!
Phil, I love your rankings. Between you and Grey I laugh my ass off all day. This is the website is the shizz…. makes the marx brothers look like mimes…..can you give me the link for your OPS rankings for 1B. I looked everywhere and can’t seem to find it. Thanks again for all your hard work.
@Anthony: thanks man, most appreciated! They are actually coming tomorrow (or saturday)
Why so low on Daniel Murphy? I think with the change in his approach you can feel pretty safe about a floor OPS of .850. That would be a fairly significant regression and he is still solid. I feel like he should be middle of the 2nd round unless you are feeling strongly about regression here.
@Jack: I use Grey’s #s, make a few adjustments and predict OPS, and Grey isn’t high on him this year.
I do like him a bit more than Grey. His Ops in second half was stellar, and I see no reason he wouldn’t continue it. 2nd round seems early, especially with so many good 2B this year. I could see moving him up about 5 spots, but there’s a lot of talent just in front of him in the rankings. Real good deal in 4th round.
Great Article, always enjoy the read. I’m in a 16 team (I know we just can’t say no to anyone), what round do you take your first SP in? Do you subscribe to Grey’s SP pairings? Thanks
@Anthony: 16-team is a bear. In that format, I’d go SP around round 5, and possibly 4. I feel 1 ace is enough, and what I’ll usually do is take the last one that I have ranked in the top two tiers. Then I wouldn’t look at another SP until around round 10, at earliest.
I definitely go w/Grey’s pairings if at all possible, especially in a 16 teamer.
How would this list change if u take out wins and put in quality starts? Anyone? Thnx
@Grif: Unsure. I don’t have any leagues like that, so I don’t have a way to adjust rankings. I never found QS such an improvement over W, though I wouldn’t mind being rid of both.
Thanks for the list! OPS leagues are great. I’d put Miggy in the top ten, personally. His .961 career OPS is just…amazing, and also equal to Votto’s career OPS, who I’d move up as well. I think 1B is pretty thin, so getting one of those guys in the first tier is especially important in an OPS league. On the other hand, everyone from 2-16 is so close I think you can make a good case for most of them.
@Frank Tanko: thanks! I like miggy a lot, and he will most likely finish top 10, on a redo I probably move him to 13.
I also very much agree with going after one of the top 1B. The gap between the top and the rest is startling. That’s why up above I didn’t rank belt, because if you’re starting him, or the guys similar to him, at first, you’re probably screwed.
12 team, 7×7 roto with OPS and K’s as the extra cats for hitters. Can keep players for ever and ever and ever.
Bryant, Betts, Rizzo, Schwarber (at C), Kershaw, Scherzer, and Darvish are all locks…..which leaves three spots for these four options – Braun, Abreu, Bregman, and Dahl. Which of those guys would you choose to let go?
@Bo: Love the team already. Bregman for sure. As you already have Rizzo, I’d send Abreu back. For 2017, Abreu will probably have better stats than Dahl but that’s probably the last year it happens. Braun I feel will get traded to the Dodgers/Angels at some point, and still be pretty good the next few seasons.
I’ve been so split on Arenado and Machado. I wouldn’t be if Machado wasn’t SS eligible. It’s an OPS keeper league and I have the first pick with these two as the beatnik available.
Could you make any sense out of drafting Machado, then go after a third baseman later in the draft since it’s a deep position? (Jose Ramirez, Todd Frazier, Justin Turner)
Or is Arenado a once in a generation slugging third baseman who excels hitting in Colorado?
Thanks ahead of time
Phil – thanks for the perfect timing! I have my 40 man dynasty OPS draft on Sunday. Wondering your thoughts on two of my planned keepers…. I have Todd Frazier ($35) and Marcell Ozuna ($17) and worry that they’re both a little overpriced. I’ve only got $84 left, and have to draft about half of my team (although the pitching staff is pretty locked in, and the nuts and bolts of my offense looks pretty good as well).
Do you think I’m overpaying? If so, is it worth it?
Thanks as always for the response!
@NickfromtheRoc: In a vaccuum those prices seem pretty high. But then it matters what you’d be replacing Frazier with. Do you already have 3B filled? Cause if not, I’d assume you wouldn’t have a ton of choices left, which might mean keeping Frazier. I like Ozuna, and could see keeping him at that salary. Do you have any idea of what’s going back?
@pbmax: A lot of the top (most expensive guys) are back in the pool already. I have Jake Lamb at $7 as well as a keeper. Wasn’t sure if a bounceback from Frazier could be expected/make it worth the keeper price.
@NickfromtheRoc: definitely send Frazier back. And with a lot of top guys back in the pool, bounce Ozuna too. You’ll upgrade pretty well methinks
Chris Davis seems super low here. He had a terrible year and still managed 38 homers last year. Can’t imagine taking Duvall ahead of him. Everyone is way down on him, to the point he’s a pretty nice value.
@Curious George Springer:in a draft, yeah, I world draft Davis first, knowing I could get Duvall later.
But you’re absolutely right, he could present a very good value. I could see moving him up.
Hmmmmmm… I am al in on this list, but Martin at 194 (never had an ops over 700) and Kevin Kiermaier not even ranked? KK is probably 201…… but I might be missing something.
@Jurickson BROfar: Fully
@Jurickson BROfar: how did u know? He is 202. I probably should’ve gone him over Hernan, but at 200 its more a who I will draft. I really wanted to put the last 10 all crappy closers, cause in a real draft I’d take those if I didn’t have any.
Also, Joey Votto at 27th overall seems really low in any league that counts walks.
@Jack: I’m not a huge fan. I’d take every guy on the list above him before him, so at glance 27 seems low, but walks aren’t a huge part of Ops, OBP than yes,hed be higher
@Phil B.:
Votto’s OPS was the 4th highest in baseball last year. 3rd in 2015. Best in baseball when you combine the last 2 years. Has been under 920 just once since 2009.
Cespedes, who you’ve got up at 13, has never been above 900.
Votto definitely seems low to me.
@Phil B.: Yeah, you are way off on Votto. 27th with OPS included? He’s consensus top 20 in a standard 5×5 league, what is your reasoning for not being a fan and having him lower when he’s a top 5 OPS player? Also how are walks and a high avg not a big part of OPS? Don’t see any reasoning that can make sense of this, he’s top 15 at WORST in an OPS league for sure.
@Alex C: Didn’t know Votto had all this love. Said earlier I’d move him up to 19. Rankings always fluid. I see less counting stats with a weak lineup. Ops will still be great, and decent Homers. I don’t love him as much as yall, but top 20 is fine for him.
@Phil B.: 19th i believe. 27 did seem low.
@Mantis Toboggan MD: I’m good with it. I’ve moved him up on my first base ops ranking coming on friday or saturday
Odor is still a top 25 hitter in OPS leagues?
@Jack: I think so. He doesn’t even need an Ops over 820 to justify it with his other stats. Now he didn’t break 800 last year with 30+ Homers, so I’m not predicting a huge jump. But 820 is doable
Brandon Belt?
@Joe: ops league? Yeah, no
Matt Carpenter, Dexter Fowler and Brandon Belt had very similar stats across the board last year.
Carp #65, Fowler #134, Belt N/A.
@Moneyball: Fair enough, but at a certain point you need to look forward, not backward, and you’re comparing different positions. Carp qualifies at 2B(among others) that helps him, same with Fowler.
Most leagues only start 1 1B, so of Belt is your starting 1B, you’re screwed because the other teams are going to be well ahead in homers, RBIs and Runs. 17, 18 homers just doesn’t play in OPS, but I’ll give you Belt had a good OPS last year. Lastly, Fowler and Carp were also hurt parts of last season, and Belt played in 156 games to get his 17 homers.
@Phil B.: You have Josh Bell on here, but not Belt.
Explain yourself.
@Pat G: funny all the belt love. Late in drafts I go upside. Bell has that. Belt doesn’t. Bell isn’t a starting 1B out of the gate for fantasy, and neither is belt,unless you messed up drafting 1B.