Eric Thames, 2017 Fantasy Baseball

A lot’s happening in Korea these days. Not sure if you watch the news, but let’s just say they’re not happy with us in the North. You know, the whole communist vs. freedom thing. [Jay’s Note: Or is it simply two man-child idiots battling over who’s more emotionally unstable?] But in the South, where our friends live, we may be getting on their bad side, as well. No, not in a manner that causes global political strain, but with one of their most beloved past-times… our national past-time.

The KBO had a monster in it the last few years. Sure, Japan claims Godzilla, but Korea can say they produced a baseball godzilla. Steamer loved him in the preseason projections, ESPN hated him enough to put his pre-draft ranking at 200+, and other Razzball pundits warned of not overspending for someone that couldn’t make it in the MLB just a few years ago.

And now? Well, Milwaukee not only paid him, but they’ve been seeing a lot of the gif above recently. Platoon? GTFO. You don’t platoon this…

(Note: Last year, and even last week, I said I’d try to focus on one player that’s owned in less than 30% of leagues, but that doesn’t fit with the Top 100. Why I didn’t think of this earlier? Who knows. But moving forward the upcoming highlight will revolve around the article’s title player, whether it’s someone dropping fast, rising up the ranks, or new to the scene.)

Eric Thames, OF, MIL (77.6% owned) – Alright, for all the hype I just wrote we do need to breathe for a second. As much as it would be incredible to see Thames continue his 42.6% HR/FB ratio, his .553 ISO or his .921 SLG%, there will be some regression. NO ONE does that across a whole season. Not in the MLB. But there are so many promising stats hidden underneath Thames already impressive line of .368/11/6/12/0. He strikes out 1/4 of the time, but walks 11%+. He sports a .381 BABIP, but that’s actually consistent with his numbers in the minors, and, of course, with what he did in Korea. Steamer may have been the only ones right on his projections, and now they say his end of season line will look something like: .280/78/32/81/11. And I’d say many of those numbers could very well be a floor. And beyond all that, the stat that truly makes me believe we’ll see even more from Thames is the ridiculous 55.6% hard hit rate. Dude’s locked in and destroying the ball. Hopefully he’ll adjust well as pitchers shift in their approach to him, but if he can we’re looking at a monster. A KBO-blossomed godzilla. Haha, in just 11 games he’s already produced 1.0 WAR. I mean, come on!

You won’t see too many changes. Again, the upside of the players ranked highly still carries more ROS value than the upstart two-week hot hands. Some of them make their way into the Top 100, but it’s those that I think could really stick around. Thames? He’s gonna be higher than Avisail Garcia. I believe in him more. And much of the below rankings are my subjective thoughts, so don’t agree? THAT’S WHAT THE COMMENTS ARE FOR!

Note: These rankings are considered ROS Trade Value

M@’s Top Hitters

(Rankings based on 12-team Roto. GREEN = player rising. RED = player dropping. BLUE = new to the 100.)

Rank	Name	Pos	Team
1	Mike Trout	LAA	OF
2	Mookie Betts	BOS	OF
3	Bryce Harper	WSH	OF
4	Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1B
5	Nolan Arenado	COL	3B
6	Jose Altuve	HOU	2B
7	Kris Bryant	CHC	3B/OF
8	Charlie Blackmon	COL	OF
9	Manny Machado	BAL	3B/SS
10	Anthony Rizzo	CHC	1B
11	Freddie Freeman	ATL	1B
12	Trea Turner	WSH	2B/OF
13	Corey Seager	LAD	SS
14	Starling Marte	PIT	OF
15	Daniel Murphy	WSH	1B/2B
16	Brian Dozier	MIN	2B
17	Josh Donaldson	TOR	3B
18	Joey Votto	CIN	1B
19	Miguel Cabrera	DET	1B
20	Francisco Lindor	CLE	SS
21	Carlos Correa	HOU	SS
22	Ryan Braun	MIL	OF
23	Nelson Cruz	SEA	OF
24	Wil Myers	SD	1B/OF
25	George Springer	HOU	OF
26	Edwin Encarnacion	CLE	1B
27	Rougned Odor	TEX	2B
28	Robinson Cano	SEA	2B
29	Xander Bogaerts	BOS	SS
30	Jonathan Villar	MIL	3B/SS
31	Yoenis Cespedes	NYM	OF
32	Giancarlo Stanton	MIA	OF
33	Carlos Gonzalez	COL	OF
34	Kyle Seager	SEA	3B
35	Christian Yelich	MIA	OF
36	Khris Davis	OAK	OF
37	Jose Abreu	CWS	1B
38	Trevor Story	COL	SS
39	Andrew McCutchen	PIT	OF
40	Matt Kemp	ATL	OF
41	Gregory Polanco	PIT	OF
42	Ian Kinsler	DET	2B
43	Chris Davis	BAL	1B
44	Mark Trumbo	BAL	OF
45	Adam Jones	BAL	OF
46	Kyle Schwarber	CHC	C/OF
47	J.D. Martinez	DET	OF
48	Hanley Ramirez	BOS	1B
49	Adam Eaton	WSH	OF
50	Matt Carpenter	STL	1B/2B/3B
51	Aledmys Diaz	STL	SS
52	Buster Posey	SF	C/1B
53	Alex Bregman	HOU	3B
54	Todd Frazier	CWS	1B/3B
55	DJ LeMahieu	COL	2B
56	Eric Hosmer	KC	1B
57	Carlos Santana	CLE	1B
58	Justin Upton	DET	OF
59	Joc Pederson	LAD	OF
60	Jackie Bradley	BOS	OF
61	Jonathan Lucroy	TEX	C
62	Miguel Sano	MIN	3B/OF
63	Ian Desmond	COL	OF
64	Stephen Piscotty	STL	OF
65	Evan Longoria	TB	3B
66	Marcell Ozuna	MIA	OF
67	Eric Thames	MIL	OF
68	Jake Lamb	ARI	3B
69	Jose Ramirez	CLE	3B/OF
70	Nomar Mazara	TEX	OF
71	Michael Brantley	CLE	OF
72	Brad Miller	TB	1B/SS/2B
73	Albert Pujols	LAA	1B
74	Andrew Benintendi	BOS	OF
75	Lorenzo Cain	KC	OF
76	Jay Bruce	NYM	OF
77	Adam Duvall	CIN	OF
78	Gary Sanchez	NYY	C
79	Mitch Haniger	SEA	OF
80	Ender Inciarte	ATL	OF
81	Odubel Herrera	PHI	OF
82	Justin Turner	LAD	3B
83	Billy Hamilton	CIN	OF
84	Troy Tulowitzki	TOR	SS
85	Manuel Margot	SD	OF
86	David Dahl	COL	OF
87	Yasiel Puig	LAD	OF
88	Elvis Andrus	TEX	SS
89	Dee Gordon	MIA	2B
90	Jean Segura	SEA	2B/SS
91	Jason Kipnis	CLE	2B
92	Eduardo Nunez	SF	3B/SS
93	Adrian Beltre	TEX	3B
94	Salvador Perez	KC	C
95	Willson Contreras	CHC	C/OF
96	Jonathan Schoop	BAL	2B
97	Anthony Rendon	WSH	3B
98	Kevin Kiermaier	TB	OF
99	Avisail Garcia	CHW	OF
100	Keon Broxton	MIL	OF

And the honorable mentions. The next five in.

101	Mike Moustakas	KC	3B
102	Eugenio Suarez	CIN	3B
103	Yasmany Tomas	ARI	OF
104	Cesar Hernandez	PHI	2B
105	Hunter Pence	SF	OF

Dropped from the Rankings: Dustin Pedroia (71), Jose Bautista (76), Byron Buxton (88), Mike Napoli (93), Victor Martinez (94), Javier Baez (97), Dexter Fowler (99), Maikel Franco (HM)

A few notes on the 100:

Yep, all I needed was two good weeks from Bryce Harper to move him back ahead of the others in the Top 5. Sure, it doesn’t hurt that guys like Altuve struggled a little out of the gate, but Harper was the arguable #1 pick last year, and has shown that all of his talent is on display again for 2017. I’m on board.
It will be interesting to see how some big names fare through the year. Can they hold off the newcomers? There seems to be a slight shift in the landscape happening. Name value for Carlos Gonzalez (I know Grey was all over that one), Adam Jones and Justin Upton will soon give way to the kids like Mazara, Mitch and Margot.
Khris Davis still may prove me right from last week and lead the AL in HR.
And I don’t care what anyone said about him in the preseason, there is zero reason that Daniel Murphy couldn’t be considered a first round talent. He’s continued to mash in the exact same way he did from 2016. Why is he all of a sudden going to slow down? Why can’t he hit .350 this year? In that lineup, why can’t he produce a line of .340/90/20/100/10?

As always…don’t agree with something?

DROP THOSE COMMENTS!

Follow M@ on Twitter at @matthayes for far more than just fantasy advice.