The calendar has turned into June, and we are about one third of the way through the 2022 fantasy baseball season. At this point, we know where we need to cut bait and hopefully have found some waiver fodder that will carry us over the warmer months. As the analogy goes, summer can be as hot as a volcano. In our world, the heat of the volcano (yes this is a weird analogy) is a combination of Mookie Betts and Paul Goldschmidt. Owning just one of these two could move you up the standings, while the combination drove in 60 runs with 20 dingers and nearly a .400 average over the past month. That my fair reader is being as hot as a volcano. Now that we have drained a pointless analogy, we jump into this week’s edition of the Top 100 hitters for the rest of the 2022 fantasy baseball season.
Rising
- Trevor Story – The last two weeks have made up nearly half of the season production for Trevor. In that timeframe, he has seven homers and nearly 40 R + RBI. It does not appear to be a simple short term luck streak, but he is simply mashing. The hot streak shows us what he can be and helps allay some early season concerns even though he will remain out of the top tier of shortstops over the long haul. The truth of this Story is likely in between this hot streak and those early season struggles.
- Julio Rodriguez – The fantasy industry ranking gurus seem to be sleeping on Julio. He leads the major leagues in steals, and he been a solid contributor across the board despite an early learning curve. Cutting down his strikeout rate from March/April at over 35% to about 25% in May has been a welcome sight. I expect this production to continue rolling for the young Mariner with only growth on the horizon.
- Randy Arozarena – Fantasy and playoff darling, Randy Arozarena has been up and down since he broke onto the scene with Tampa Bay. After a dreadful first month of the season, Randy has been much more helpful with his across the category production putting up numbers that indicate the 20/20 season many of us hoped for. We should be comfortable with a plug-and-play OF #3 the rest of the way.
Falling
- Javier Baez – A combination of bad luck and poor contact have Baez drifting down the rankings. He has a career low xBA and appears to be putting the ball on the ground more than ever. Baez will find a hot few weeks or even a month over the rest of the season, but there are some concerning signs. We have to hope his bat heats up with the summer swing in Detroit or fantasy owners will be left wondering where their season went.
- Kris Bryant – Continuing the trend of former Cubs players struggling in new places, we have Kris Bryant who is less of a concern with the bat and more a concern with staying on the field. He has been battling back issues for much of this season. The concern with back injuries is that they tend to zap power until fully recovered. As much as I would like to see Bryant powdering the skies in Coors, the flags are certainly waving red.
- Yoan Moncada – At what point do we realize that Moncada is not the budding star his prospect status wanted us to believe? He drops out of the rankings this week as he continues to struggle at the plate. The White Sox recently gave him a few days off to hopefully reset, but those might become more and more frequent if he cannot justify his spot at the top of that lineup.
Watching
- Bryan Reynolds – Reynolds always seems to be an afterthought in Pittsburgh, but he is quietly building up a sold line after a rough start to the season. If he continues to progress, we will see a value play for the rest of the season.
- Marcus Semien – Is there a hint of life in the bat of Marcus Semien? He has now hit safely in 12 of his last 15 games with the power finally showing up over the last week. It is much too early to say that the Semien of 2021 has returned, but it is nice to see some life in that bat.
Dropping out this week: Mike Moustakas, Manny Margot, Josh Donaldson, Avisail Garcia, Jean Segura, Justin Turner, Yoan Moncada, Jeremy Pena
