As a life long New York Yankees fan it pains me to say it, but I’d rather own Red Sox players on my fantasy team. I have some friends that subscribe to the “fan before fantasy” philosophy, but I’m not drinking the cool-aid. I’m perfectly fine with rooting against the Yankees when doing so is in the best interest of my fantasy team. Carlos Beltran leads all hitters on the Yankees with 127 points. There are six Red Sox players ahead of Beltran. Those six players are David Ortiz (200), Mookie Betts (200), Xander Bogaerts (171), Dustin Pedroia (155), Jackie Bradley Jr. (148) and Travis Shaw (129). That’s two thirds of their starting lineup. The only player with more points than Ortiz and Betts is Jose Altuve with 216.
Total points is important, but by now you all know that I really like to use points per plate appearance to compare players. I’ve only mentioned it about 78 times this season. If I had to include last season I’d actually have to go back and count. Moving to PPPA , David Ortiz (0.966) actually moves ahead of Altuve (0.87). Betts, JBJ and Bogaerts are all in the top 25.
Here are the top ten.
David Ortiz (0.966)
Jose Altuve (0.87)
Nolan Arenado (0.855)
Daniel Murphy (0.854)
Robinson Cano (0.844)
Ryan Braun (0.814)
Ben Zobrist (0.809)
Bryce Harper (0.797)
Mookie Betts (0.796)
Mike Trout (0.776)
It’s not often you find Trout at the bottom of a list, unless it’s a list of the top one. Even Harper has quieted down in the past several weeks. But do you know who has not? David Ortiz. Big Papi has been on a mission. Derek Jeter’s farewell tour be damned. Ortiz is going out with a blast. He currently has 15 homers, 48 ribbies and is sporting a .339 batting average. The big guy even managed to steal a base. He is on pace for over 40 round trippers. I can’t even calculate how many RBIs that translates into. I hate to say “I told you so”, but in my preseason ranks post here is what I said about Ortiz. “Ortiz is one of the most underrated players in points leagues. His ADP is about 109. I’ve got him at 70. I’m drafting him around 85. You’re welcome.”
In that same post I mentioned Gregory Polanco as a player you could draft at a discount based on my expectations vs his average draft position. As of today Polanco has 165 points which is sixth best amongst outfielders. He has a 0.763 PPPA, placing him one spot outside the top ten, breathing down Trout’s neck. So once again, I told you so. Hope you listened.
Nolan Arenado and Manny Machado (176 points, 0.758 PPPA) are going to be perennial top ten players for years to come. Machado is just outside the top ten, but I feel rather certain that he will crack the list before the season ends. If you can trade for him, do it. I wanted to say just do it, but I didn’t want to be sued. Wait, I just said it. Oh well, sue me.
Any guesses who has more points out of the following three studs. Aledmys Diaz, Yoenis Cespedes and Ryan Braun. It’s Diaz. How about this one. Which player has a higher PPPA? Aledmys Diaz, Anthony Rizzo or Todd Frazier? Once again it’s Diaz.
Ian Kinsler (168 points, 0.746 PPPA)
Prince Fielder (84 points, 0.385 PPPA)
Justin Upton (34 points, 0.169 PPPA)
Do you know what the following five players all have in common? Matt Carpenter, Victor Martinez, Eric Hosmer, Kris Bryant and George Springer? Besides the fact that none of them are on my team, the answer is that they all have more points than Paul Goldschmidt. I think part of that is because Paul leads the league in walks and with every walk only netting him one point, he is missing out on the opportunity to score more.
The title to this post would have been much better had this been around Halloween time, but since fantasy baseball is over by then, I felt justified running with it. By the end of October we are full on fantasy football. Speaking of which, don’t forget to check out the football posts that Zach and Jay have been slowly putting out there. I read somewhere online that this year for Halloween David Ortiz is putting on an A’s jersey, going white face and calling himself Billy Butler. Butler was going to do the reverse, but was told it would be frowned upon. Personally I think Ortiz should go as Florida Evans from Good Times.
Here is the spreadsheet for all hitters. You can customize it to your league’s scoring system.
