This offseason reports were aplenty of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. getting into the best shape of his life and the monster season he would unleash on the league. This is such a common story, that we often dismiss the notion that results could follow. For Vladdy Jr. himself, we also had concerns with his notably high groundball rate driving down the opportunities to put the ball over the fence and ultimately driving in runs. Well, early this season we are seeing the ball hit harder than last year with more flyballs and a bit of luck. That is the perfect recipe for success and a jump into the top 10 of the rest of season top 100 hitters. It is scary to think that Vlad is only 22 and may be only touching the surface of his potential.
There is a lot of movement this week as some hitters have not turned it around after early-season struggles such as Cavan Biggio or Francisco Lindor. Alternatively, there are guys like Mitch Haniger that bring joy to the rankings watching the comeback stories early in the 2021 season. Time to get into the most recent rendition of the Top 100 hitter rankings for 2021 fantasy baseball:
| Ranking | Player | Movement |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronald Acuna Jr. | |
| 2 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | 2 |
| 3 | Trea Turner | 2 |
| 4 | Jose Ramirez | 4 |
| 5 | Mookie Betts | -2 |
| 6 | Juan Soto | |
| 7 | Bryce Harper | |
| 8 | Bo Bichette | 2 |
| 9 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | 11 |
| 10 | Freddie Freeman | 4 |
| 11 | Xander Bogaerts | 2 |
| 12 | Nelson Cruz | -1 |
| 13 | J.D. Martinez | 5 |
| 14 | Nolan Arenado | 1 |
| 15 | Trevor Story | -6 |
| 16 | Corey Seager | -4 |
| 17 | Yordan Alvarez | 4 |
| 18 | Rafael Devers | 5 |
| 19 | Whit Merrifield | 3 |
| 20 | Anthony Rendon | -4 |
| 21 | Cody Bellinger | 13 |
| 22 | Jose Abreu | 6 |
| 23 | Aaron Judge | 9 |
| 24 | Alex Bregman | |
| 25 | Christian Yelich | 14 |
| 26 | Shohei Ohtani | 23 |
| 27 | Kyle Tucker | 8 |
| 28 | Francisco Lindor | -11 |
| 29 | Marcell Ozuna | -4 |
| 30 | Tim Anderson | -4 |
| 31 | Manny Machado | -2 |
| 32 | Ketel Marte | 5 |
| 33 | J.T. Realmuto | -3 |
| 34 | Randy Arozarena | -3 |
| 35 | Byron Buxton | -16 |
| 36 | George Springer | -3 |
| 37 | DJ LeMahieu | -10 |
| 38 | Matt Olson | |
| 39 | Mike Trout | -37 |
| 40 | Nick Castellanos | 4 |
| 41 | Trent Grisham | -1 |
| 42 | Austin Meadows | 3 |
| 43 | Javier Baez | 3 |
| 44 | Marcus Semien | 16 |
| 45 | Charlie Blackmon | -3 |
| 46 | Wil Myers | -3 |
| 47 | Anthony Rizzo | -6 |
| 48 | Giancarlo Stanton | 2 |
| 49 | Jose Altuve | 8 |
| 50 | Michael Brantley | -2 |
| 51 | Starling Marte | -15 |
| 52 | Nick Solak | -1 |
| 53 | Kris Bryant | -1 |
| 54 | Jesse Winker | 17 |
| 55 | Paul Goldschmidt | -2 |
| 56 | Jared Walsh | |
| 57 | Adalberto Mondesi | 13 |
| 58 | Ozzie Albies | -11 |
| 59 | Yoan Moncada | -4 |
| 60 | Ramon Laureano | -1 |
| 61 | Pete Alonso | -7 |
| 62 | Luke Voit | -4 |
| 63 | Mitch Haniger | 21 |
| 64 | Jazz Chisholm | 1 |
| 65 | Max Muncy | 2 |
| 66 | Justin Turner | -2 |
| 67 | Teoscar Hernandez | 6 |
| 68 | Adolis Garcia | NR |
| 69 | Yuli Gurriel | 10 |
| 70 | Jarred Kelenic | 22 |
| 71 | Trey Mancini | 24 |
| 72 | Cavan Biggio | -11 |
| 73 | Jeff McNeil | -11 |
| 74 | Carlos Correa | -2 |
| 75 | Brandon Lowe | -6 |
| 76 | Franmil Reyes | -1 |
| 77 | Salvador Perez | -1 |
| 78 | Ryan McMahon | 5 |
| 79 | Mike Moustakas | -16 |
| 80 | Alex Verdugo | -2 |
| 81 | Mike Yastrzemski | -13 |
| 82 | Eric Hosmer | -2 |
| 83 | Robbie Grossman | NR |
| 84 | Brandon Belt | NR |
| 85 | Josh Donaldson | 13 |
| 86 | Tyler O’Neill | NR |
| 87 | Garrett Hampson | -5 |
| 88 | Gavin Lux | 1 |
| 89 | Dansby Swanson | -12 |
| 90 | Rhys Hoskins | -5 |
| 91 | Mark Canha | 2 |
| 92 | Eugenio Suarez | -6 |
| 93 | Dylan Carlson | -6 |
| 94 | Matt Chapman | -28 |
| 95 | Isiah Kiner-Falefa | -5 |
| 96 | J.D. Davis | -5 |
| 97 | Nate Lowe | NR |
| 98 | Gio Urshela | -4 |
| 99 | Buster Posey | 1 |
| 100 | Jed Lowrie | -4 |
- Welcome back from the disabled list to Ketel Marte and Christian Yelich. Hopefully Cody Bellinger and Adalberto Mondesi will grace our presence with their ball skills as well. Each of these gentlemen jump back up the top 100 hitters list for what they can provide during the rest of the season. If they can prove they are healthy, then expect those climbs to continue.
- Over the past few weeks, Kyle Tucker has awoken. Hitting .327 with 5 dingers and 27 R+RBI for the past 14 days certainly is what many expected entering the season. The good news is that the underlying profile indicates there is much more of this to come.
- There may not be a hotter hitter in the game right now than Marcus Semien hitting leadoff for the Blue Jays. While there is a bit of luck involved, he is well on his way to a 20/20 or more type season. Enjoy the continued production from the unheralded Toronto star.
- Big fallers this week include Matt Chapman and his dreadful 34% strikeout rate, Gleyber Torres and his bottom 2% average exit velocity, and Tommy Pham and his slumping bat in beautiful Slam Diego. If I had to invest in one of these it would be Pham as he is still making solid contact, but I would be shopping Chapman and Torres hard to see if you can get anything worthwhile.
- It is exciting to see Trey Mancini picking right up where he left off in 2019 and continuing to grow as a hitter. Of any player, he deserves what all his hard work has given him. Despite what he has done, he still appears to be undervalued in the fantasy game. Writing this now, I might even have him a bit too low in these rankings.
