Roman Anthony, 2026 Fantasy Schmohawk

Outfield is a funny position this year. It’s deep if, and this “if” is the size of the entire galaxy plus other galaxies that you don’t even know about, let’s call a galaxy you don’t know about the Nilky Way. It’s not the Milky Way galaxy, it’s another galaxy called the Nilky Way where planet Nearth is. On planet Nearth, everything is exactly like Earth, but there’s an N in front of every word, unless it’s a word that starts with M, then the N just replaces the M. So, I’m Ngrey, you’re Nyou, and your mom is Nom. For unstints, on Nearth, I’m talking about how Nroman Nanthony is noverrated. Now, back on planet Earth, where outfield is a deep position with an if that’s the size of the Milky and Nilky Way, that if is so big because it’s only deep if you need three outfielders. On planet Earth and Nearth, if you need five outfielders or five noutfielders, the position is not deep at all, which makes it especially troublesome that I keep going back to outfielders and noutfielders as being the most overrated. First, Wyatt Langford overrated and Pete Crow-Armstrong overrated or Nwyatt Nlangford and Npete Ncrow-Narmstrong. That brings me to today’s overrated outfielder, Roman Anthony aka Nroman Nanthony. He’s currently going at 55 overall and just in front of Jackson Merrill, Jarren Duran, Riley Greene, Cody Bellinger and are you picking up what I’m putting down here? How is Roman Anthony not overrated? Or, I guess: So, what should we expect from Roman Anthony for 2026 fantasy baseball and what makes him overrated?

PSYCHE! Before the recap, just wanted to say my top 500 and all my 2026 fantasy baseball rankings are updated as soon as possible (in the last few days Josh Hader, Blake Snell and Merrill Kelly were updated). Also, Rudy’s War Room is updated multiple times per day, and in-season subscriptions are open for business. Buy a subscription and save a cowboy. Anyway II, the Roman Anthony overrated post:

In his first taste of the majors, Roman Anthony went 8/4/.292 last year with a 27.7 K% and 13.2 BB% in 71 games, 257 ABs, 303 plate appearances. His projections (with me taken out of the equation):

So, 17/10/.258 in 514 ABs. (By the by, you can find all hitter projections, that are not mine, over there on that page. Go crazy.) Taking me out of the equation for his rankings, here’s where he is on the Auction Values page:

A roughly $13 player and ranked 110. He’s going around 50 overall in drafts (or roughly a $20 player). So, without me even talking about myself and my projections, he’s overrated. Plain and simple like what your friends say about your sense of style.

[waving my hand, waiting to be called on, teacher finally does] Thank you! So, what do I think of Roman Anthony? Sexy upside is hard to refuse. I hate turning it away. Dude’s dripping in appeal. The park is awesome, and he’s built for it. As a 21-year-old, he might hit leadoff all year and he had a pretty ridiculous HardHit% as a rookie. He hit 43.7% Hard Hit and that’s nuts. The tops in the majors last year: Judge (45.6%), Schwarber (45.3%), Ohtani (45.3%), Soto (44.5%), Goodman (43.8%), then Anthony. After is everyone, basically, but a few names: Pete Alonso (41%), James Wood (40.8%) and Bobby Witt Jr. (40.4%). All of those guys had larger sample sizes — that’s what she said, derisively — but you get the picture. Anthony makes insanely good contact. The problem is his GB rate was 51.1%. The hardest contact that couples a ground ball rate over 50%? Yandy Diaz (53.6 GB%, 38.5 HardHit%). Woof. James Wood was close at 49.7%. Roman Anthony’s Launch Angle was 6.9. He could hit 30 homers but it’s gonna need either some luck or adjustments.

Roman Anthony’s .292 average was coupled with a .404 BABIP and a 27.7 K%. Fenway is going to alleviate a lot of issues. Fenway is a mitigation factory for high BABIPs. How’sever, a .404 BABIP is quite high. If that comes down to .340, he’s going to hit .270-ish. It’s why most projections have him hitting for a lower average. So, realistic ceiling projections — the best of the best he’s going to do is 25/15/.280. If he did 25/15/.280 already once, I could see going for him easily in the top 50. I love James Wood and he’s not that different. Wood has done it before though. That is a huge hurdle. Do it once before going crazy. But even a 25/15/.280 (best case scenario) is basically Brandon Nimmo last year. To put some upside on it, it was Tyler Soderstrom. Nimmo’s ADP is 145; Soderstrom is 90. Roman Anthony is going in drafts like he’s done it before and “it” was something no one is even sure he can do. Get the pie-in-the-sky projections back in the sky with the pies and out of yo’ eyes! (I’m an effin’ poet.) I will not be drafting him. Stamp him schmohawk and avoid!