It was a wild offseason for the National League, one highlighted by Trea Turner’s lucrative ($300 million) transition from the Dodgers to Phillies, along with fellow shortstop Xander Bogaerts’ introduction to the NL, via the San Diego Padres and $280 mil of his own. Two of the absolute best shortstops in the game are anchored […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Francisco Lindor
Please see our player page for Francisco Lindor to see projections for today, the next 7 days and rest of season as well as stats and gamelogs designed with the fantasy baseball player in mind.
If you are starting a team in a new dynasty league, take a look at the position breakdown of the top 200 players, using the main position for utility players except for one, who plays basically any position in the field.
What quickly jumps out is the lack of depth at second base and third base. The second and third base positions alone add up to only one more Top 100 player than the shortstop position. There are some great players at those two positions, but the overall quality lacks compared to shortstop or first base.
When it comes to catchers and relief pitchers, I can tell you right now that there are few of them ranked. There are a lot of good catchers, but many of them will get only 110 or so starts or they are getting up in age, making them less than desired dynasty options.
As for the relivers, I never chase saves (or holds if your league has them). How many players dread chasing Aroldis Chapman last year or a host of other top closers? Meanwhile, five new closer will come out the woodwork this year that you can get in the middle of the season.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome to the initial unveiling of our top 100 hitters for the 2023 fantasy baseball season. As spring training kicks off, we will learn more about the young prospects that might make an impact like Jordan Walker or an injury to an everyday regular like Gavin Lux that toss our rankings out the door. However, that is the reality of our fantasy baseball drafts as values will inevitably change. As with any rankings, I always recommend balancing the rankings you like with your own league settings to make adjustments. At the end of the day, I hope these give you some insight and stoke a great conversation. With that preamble complete, welcome to the first edition of 2023’s Top 100 Hitter rankings starting with the top 25!
Please, blog, may I have some more?Welcome back to another week of the 2023 Dynasty Rankings. We have turned the corner and we are now racing down the home stretch as the focus this week is on players 50-26 – my Tier 2 group.
This tier is pretty diverse when it comes to the ages of the players and the percentage of pitchers appearing in this tier may surprise you. As you probably know by now, I like hitters more than pitchers.
However, in this tier, I have 10 pitchers. Why are 40 percent of the players in this tier pitchers?
Well, the answer is pretty simple. I don’t trust young pitchers nearly as much as I trust veteran pitchers or even young hitters. When starting a team in a new dynasty league or trying to fill holes in my current dynasty leagues, while I won’t chase pitching, I will look to take a top veteran pitcher over the stud rookie hurler.
Pitching Experience over Youth
As a whole, the pitcher in his mid- to late-20s, or even early 30s, has established his track record compared to a 23-year-old. That young pitcher could be great, but he can also take three to four years to get to that level of greatness, especially with so many major league teams now limiting the number of innings a young pitcher will throw in a season.
I don’t want to reach the playoffs only to have a host of pitchers shut down because they reached an arbitrary innings limit. Thus, of the 10 pitchers you will find in this tier, seven of them are between the ages of 25 and 30. Two are over 30 and one is 24.
Please, blog, may I have some more?It’s finally time for Grey and B_Don to explore a position that’s actually good for fantasy baseball in 2022! We run 50 deep at SS and we’re actually excited about some of those names at the bottom. We start the show with Francisco Lindor, and one of us is not looking to have many shares. […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Hello, all you brave, courageous, adventure-seekers, you’ve found the wrong website. This is fantasy baseball, not fantasy role playing, unless it’s fantasy roll-playing and this is Stratomatic, but that’s still not right. Still, fantasy baseball. Good, now that we got rid of all those people wearing fedoras and shopping from the Indiana Jones collection at Eddie Bauer, we can get down to the bidness. The Auction value bidness? Not quite, but you can find all auction values in Rudy’s rankings — one example, 12-team mixed league auction values. This is a top 100 for 2023 fantasy baseball. Let’s do this!
One word about this top 100 for 2023 fantasy baseball, before I give you another 5,000 words. I’m going to avoid repeating myself from the position rankings in the 2023 fantasy baseball rankings. If you want to know my in-depth feelings about a player, then you need to go to his positional page, i.e., the top 20 1st basemen for 2023 fantasy baseball, the top 20 outfielders for 2023 fantasy baseball, the top 20 Patterns In Queso That Look Like Messages From Another Planet for 2023– Okay, but I almost got you. This post is meant to give you an idea where guys from different positions are in relation to each other. Since this post is only the top 100, there’s more players where this came from. 448 more, to be very exact. Next up, there will be a top 500 that will go past 500, then, after that, there will be a top 7,500 that will go to 8,602, then a top 25,000 that will go to 28,765, then a top 600,000 that will go to 892,121, until we end up with a top kajillion in April that will go to a kajillion and one. Or maybe I’ll stop at the top 500. Yeah, that makes sense. Not to get all biblical on you, but this is the gospel. Print it out and take it to Mt. Sinai and it will say, “Win your 2023 fantasy baseball league, young prematurely balding man.” Projections were done by me and a crack team of 100 monkeys fighting amongst themselves because there were only 99 typewriters. Somebody please buy Ling-Ling his own typewriter!
Razzball Subscriptions are also now open, which include the Fantasy Baseball War Room. I don’t draft without it, neither should you. Anyway, here’s the top 100 for 2023 fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?The top 20 shortstops for 2023 fantasy baseball are so stacked we may as well be at an IHOP, standing on a booth, screaming, “Rooty tooty fresh and fruity is woke culture gone wrong!” As I say in the video up on our Youtube channel, that does not mean you should think you can wait on shortstops. *puts on a big smile* Like and subscribe. Okay, let’s get to it! Here’s Steamer’s 2023 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2023 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2023 fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?One week ago, I was lamenting the state of the second base position in Major League Baseball and thus fantasy baseball. Outside of a few top players, it is now overrun with utility players and doesn’t have much depth.
This week, however, we talk about one of the deeper positions in baseball. Today we unveil the 2023 Top Keepers – Shortstops edition.
Unlike second base, the shortstop position is populated with highly skilled athletes who can do it all – hit, hit for power, run and field.
The numbers shortstops are putting up support that statement, but so too does this simple fact: last season, 20 players (out of 30 MLB teams) played 100 or more games at short. Another two (Kyle Farmer and Bobby Witt Jr.) appeared in 98 games at the position while a third, Tim Anderson, missed half the season due to injuries. Then there is Fernando Tatis Jr., who we all know missed the entire year.
Unless a team is rebuilding or just doesn’t have a good player at short, it is a spot on the field where managers want to have the same player every day. And more often than not, those players are not glove-first players. Today’s shortstops are expected to hit.
What is Your Preference?
The goal, both in real life and in fantasy, is to get the great all-around shortstop. But if you want to use a utility slot or middle infield slot to boost a specific stat, this is a great position to pick a player from.
Want speed? Ten shortstops stole 20 or more bags this past season. Need power? There were 15 shortstops who walloped 15 or more homers. What about help with your average or on-base percentage? Eight shortstops in these rankings hit .290 or better and another 11 had an OBP over .330.
If your team has a specific need, a number of shortstops would be great keepers. Now, let’s dive in and take a look at the 2023 Top Keepers – Shortstops rankings.
Please, blog, may I have some more?Now that we’ve recapped the top 20 catchers, top 20 1st basemen and top 20 2nd basemen, we’re starting to see clarity on depth of positions, and shortstops have bounced back in a major way since last year. Shortstops were not as deep as 2nd basemen last year. Shortstops are much deeper again. That’s not shocking, but good to see. So, here’s the final ranking from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. The Player Rater allows me to be impartial while looking at how I ranked them in the preseason. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2022 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
Please, blog, may I have some more?Good day, We are at the goal line of the 2022 regular season (to borrow a football reference). This season’s been nothing short of historic: between Aaron Judge’s pursuit of the AL home run record, Albert Pujols’ 700th homer, and the seemingly endless amount of rookie callups that have hit the ground running. Before I […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?There are a couple of teams still vying for Wild Card and also some jockeying for division crowns. I think this is the time to load up on players from those teams are there is simply no days off for those teams. Couple that with teams that are currently locked into the playoffs that need […]
Please, blog, may I have some more?Jerry Tomato Realmuto (5-for-5, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 20th homer, hitting .278) is leading the pack for catchers once again on the Player Rater. Jerry Tomato, just sitting on the top of the heap, telling everyone to ketchup. The cream of the crap hasn’t smelled this bad in a while. Salvador Perez flew so close to the sun last year, that Sal Icarus made us forgot what good catchers are actually capable of when they’re being nice, good little catchers. J.T. Realmuto reminding us that 20-something homers and a .275 average is all you can hope for. Ha, that sounds so nihilistic. German accent, “Das nein else to hope for. Das boot catchers. Excuse me, not boot, how do you say in English das punt. Yes, dat one.” Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:
Please, blog, may I have some more?