Friday night, we got one of those wonderful novelty games. In Baltimore, it was Cedric Mullins T-shirt night, so of course, he was 3 for 4 with 2 bombs and 4 RBI. I really thought you were only supposed to go crazy on bobblehead night, but I was wrong! Speaking of being wrong, Mullins has been knocking on the top 100 for a few weeks now and as much as we have resisted, the door has been opened and run right through. So, what is driving this change? Mullins is never going to be the biggest power hitter or the fastest runner, but he does everything well across the board. In addition, in 2021 he is improving his discipline at the plate by swinging less and swinging at better pitches when he does attack. In this week’s edition of the Top 100 Hitters for the 2021 Fantasy Baseball season, Cedric jumps in at number 72. Maybe he should be even higher, but we will leave that discussion for the comment section.
Time to jump into our rankings!
| Ranking | Player | Movement |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ronald Acuna Jr. | |
| 2 | Fernando Tatis Jr. | |
| 3 | Trea Turner | |
| 4 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | |
| 5 | Jose Ramirez | |
| 6 | Freddie Freeman | 1 |
| 7 | Bo Bichette | 6 |
| 8 | Juan Soto | -2 |
| 9 | Bryce Harper | -1 |
| 10 | J.D. Martinez | -1 |
| 11 | Jesse Winker | 4 |
| 12 | Nelson Cruz | -2 |
| 13 | Xander Bogaerts | -2 |
| 14 | Cody Bellinger | -2 |
| 15 | Kyle Tucker | 1 |
| 16 | Shohei Ohtani | 2 |
| 17 | Nick Castellanos | 2 |
| 18 | Rafael Devers | 2 |
| 19 | Mookie Betts | -5 |
| 20 | Aaron Judge | 4 |
| 21 | Jose Abreu | -4 |
| 22 | Trevor Story | 7 |
| 23 | Yordan Alvarez | -2 |
| 24 | Nolan Arenado | -2 |
| 25 | Whit Merrifield | -2 |
| 26 | Marcus Semien | 1 |
| 27 | Javier Baez | 1 |
| 28 | Matt Olson | 3 |
| 29 | Kris Bryant | 1 |
| 30 | Jose Altuve | 17 |
| 31 | Ketel Marte | 1 |
| 32 | Tim Anderson | 16 |
| 33 | Austin Meadows | |
| 34 | Manny Machado | 3 |
| 35 | Starling Marte | 6 |
| 36 | Byron Buxton | -11 |
| 37 | Christian Yelich | -11 |
| 38 | J.T. Realmuto | -4 |
| 39 | Alex Bregman | -3 |
| 40 | Giancarlo Stanton | -1 |
| 41 | Mike Trout | -1 |
| 42 | Randy Arozarena | |
| 43 | Adolis Garcia | -8 |
| 44 | Anthony Rendon | -6 |
| 45 | Corey Seager | -2 |
| 46 | George Springer | -2 |
| 47 | Trent Grisham | -2 |
| 48 | Francisco Lindor | -2 |
| 49 | Adalberto Mondesi | 3 |
| 50 | Anthony Rizzo | |
| 51 | Ozzie Albies | 2 |
| 52 | Carlos Correa | 17 |
| 53 | Trey Mancini | 1 |
| 54 | Charlie Blackmon | -3 |
| 55 | Jazz Chisholm | 6 |
| 56 | Tyler O’Neill | |
| 57 | Michael Brantley | 6 |
| 58 | Max Muncy | -1 |
| 59 | Jared Walsh | -1 |
| 60 | DJ LeMahieu | -5 |
| 61 | Ramon Laureano | -2 |
| 62 | Mitch Haniger | -2 |
| 63 | Pete Alonso | -1 |
| 64 | Paul Goldschmidt | |
| 65 | Justin Turner | 1 |
| 66 | Teoscar Hernandez | 1 |
| 67 | Yuli Gurriel | 1 |
| 68 | Mark Canha | 2 |
| 69 | Yoan Moncada | -4 |
| 70 | Wil Myers | -21 |
| 71 | Gavin Lux | 1 |
| 72 | Cedric Mullins II | NR |
| 73 | Franmil Reyes | 1 |
| 74 | Salvador Perez | 1 |
| 75 | Robbie Grossman | 1 |
| 76 | Tommy Pham | 10 |
| 77 | Ryan McMahon | -6 |
| 78 | Alex Verdugo | |
| 79 | Bryan Reynolds | |
| 80 | Eduardo Escobar | |
| 81 | Isiah Kiner-Falefa | 11 |
| 82 | Josh Donaldson | 1 |
| 83 | Randal Grichuk | -2 |
| 84 | Andrew Benintendi | NR |
| 85 | Eddie Rosario | NR |
| 86 | Eric Hosmer | -1 |
| 87 | Dansby Swanson | 1 |
| 88 | Bobby Bradley | NR |
| 89 | Rhys Hoskins | |
| 90 | Ryan Mountcastle | NR |
| 91 | Alex Kirilloff | NR |
| 92 | Jonathan Schoop | NR |
| 93 | Nate Lowe | 1 |
| 94 | Mike Yastrzemski | 1 |
| 95 | Evan Longoria | -13 |
| 96 | Austin Riley | -6 |
| 97 | Tommy Edman | NR |
| 98 | Buster Posey | -1 |
| 99 | Dylan Carlson | -8 |
| 100 | Justin Upton | NR |
The Top 100 Hitter cliff notes are as follows:
- Bobby Bradley was called up two weeks ago after Cleveland jettisoned Jake Bauers. The early returns are promising especially considering the strikeouts have been kept under control. If he can keep this up, there is certainly playing time available for the Indians.
- Jose Altuve has been on fire as of late and there have been no trash cans hurt in the process (will this ever get old…I do not think so). Over the past 10 games, he has gone deep 8 times and has a combined 24 runs and RBI! At the same time, he only has a BABIP of .143? As much as it hurts me, he is jumping up the ranks until the opposing defenses start shifting him like a slow-pitch softball game.
- Andrew Benintendi is starting to produce in Kansas City and the change of scenery is bringing him much closer to his least productive season in 2018. The big spotlight may have ultimately been unfair for his well-rounded profile in Boston, but he appears to been carving out a spot near the back end of our top 100 hitters for the rest of the season.
- Wil Myers and DJ LeMahieu have both been quite disappointing this season. Myers really broke out last year with improvements to his approach at the plate. Unfortunately, most or all of those gains have disappeared, and the bottom 10 exit velocity is downright scary (not scary good). DJ on the other hand has had regression in his luck metrics with his BABIP and HR/FB both down over the prior years. If I had to pick one of these guys, it would clearly be DJ. However, I am keeping expectations in check.
- A rough start to the season soured many folks on Ryan Mountcastle. Nevertheless, he stuck with it and since the beginning of June has hit .346 with 4 homers and 16 RBI. Is this a turnaround or a short streak of luck? Stay tuned…
- Tommy Pham has been jumping up and down in the rankings over the past few weeks. Pham appears to be getting back to full health and has a green light on the basepaths making him sneakily valuable in our Roto rankings. At 33, he is not that young, but many owners had moved on early this season. Expect solid value the rest of this year.
