Opening day has come and what a sweet thing it was. So what have we learned so far? First thing first, the Dodgers are leaving little doubt that they are going to try to bash their way to a championship. We also have confirmed that our first-round hitters are going to give us a thrilling chase for the top spot with our number two hitter Mookie Betts hitting all over the world. Finally, we have confirmed that Colorado and Oakland will continue to be barren for fantasy owners this year. In this week’s edition of the Top 100 Hitters for the 2024 fantasy baseball season, we attack the last 20 spots in our rankings to finish off opening weekend. If we could fit 40 players into these spots, there would be a longer list as this part of the rankings is tight. If you are expecting to see Tyler O’Neill, Mitch Haniger, or even Jackson Merrill there is good argument for each to crack these rankings and time will tell if they can. For now, let us finish up our pre-season top 100 hitters.
81. Josh Naylor
82. Trevor Story
83. Yandy Díaz
84. Cedric Mullins
Josh Naylor has 70-grade power and sneaky speed delivering ten steals last season and three this spring. It is not hard to see a 25/10 season for Naylor assuming he has a spot in the lineup locked in. The rest of this group are guys who certainly can be higher in the rankings but get held back for recent performance. Both Story and Mullins have been first round picks in the past with Story even sniffing the top of the board with his combination of speed and power. Unfortunately, Story has struggled to stay on the field in his first two seasons with Boston. However, he still trends at a 20/20 pace. Mullins on the other hand continues to drop down the Orioles lineup batting in the bottom third in the early going this season. His power will not be what owners have wanted the past few years and the counting states are strained with his lineup placement. Not to be forgotten, Yandy Diaz remains a Statcast darling, but the results will continue to lag unless he maintains the slight improvements in fly ball rate which will then see him move up these rankings.
85. Justin Turner
86. Sean Murphy
87. Cal Raleigh
88. Marcell Ozuna
89. Kerry Carpenter
90. Jorge Polanco
91. Anthony Santander
92. Eloy Jimenez
We will take a big group on at once which is full of veterans that continue to provide starting value in our fantasy lineups. While Justin Turner might be 75 years old, he will still hit for decent power, a decent average, and have decent counting stats as shown by his time in Boston last year. That is decent for a player that cost nothing this spring. Marcell Ozuna, Jorge Polanco, and Anthony Santander all sit in attractive lineups and will be able to deliver power with counting stats. If it wasn’t for the DH-only tag, Ozuna himself would be much higher in our rankings. Finally, we have Kerry Carpenter in this group who should be the clean-up hitter for the Detroit Tigers. With the potential for 20-25 homers he has been a sneaky value all spring. Whether it is driven by age, team situation or positional lack of flexibility, this group will provide value to the fantasy lineup but will not do so in the sexiest of ways.
93. Chas McCormick
94. Christian Encarnacion-Strand
95. Jarren Duran
96. Jorge Solar
97. Salvador Perez
98. Jackson Holliday
99. Daulton Varsho
100. Ezequiel Tovar
We see youth and veterans as we round out our Top 100 hitters entering the 2024 fantasy baseball season. Staring with youth, Jackson Holliday will not be down on the farm for long and will be slowly moving up our rankings until his debut. At the same time, we have breakout potential with Ezequiel Tovar and his sneaky speed and power combination with a respectable batting average filling out many manager’s middle infield position. Two players who have been slowly making a name for themselves are Jarren Duran and Chas McCormick, who both have shown flashes of being solid fantasy contributors over the last few seasons but still need everything to come together. Of this group, I might be most excited by the spring of Daulton Varsho who has adjusted his approach at the plate to focus less on power and more on line drives. If Varsho is able to get on base and leverage his speed more in Toronto, he will be a big find for fantasy owners at the end of the draft.
#97 Salvy had a big day for the Royals! 3-5, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R, 0.600 OBP
He almost didn’t make the cut and that big day shows that there is still that power hitter in there!
Are we fading Kris Bryant?
As much as I want Coors to revive him, the performance has dropped and the health just hasn’t been there. Those appear to be directly correlated and I just don’t think we will see him back to his old self again….