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Who would’ve thought little D.J. LeMahieu would be the best free agent signing of the past decade? Yeah, I said it! Mainly because I have an awful memory and suffer from extreme recency bias! He’s definitely the best signing of this preseason though. He’s 3 HRs away from setting a new career-high, already has a new career-high in RBI and is again leading his league in batting average as he did with the Rockies in 2016. His disappointing, injury-plagued 2018 caused his stock to dip a bit, but Brian Cashman is looking like a genius again for this signing. And oh yea, not that it matters to us, but he’s playing Gold Glove defense again at both 2B and 3B. Does defense matter to you? Do you use any defensive stats in any of your leagues?

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
1 Christian Yelich OF MIL 1 0
2 Cody Bellinger 1B/OF LAD 2 0
3 Mike Trout OF LAA 3 0
4 Ronald Acuna Jr. OF ATL 8 4
5 Trevor Story SS COL 5 0
6 Nolan Arenado 3B COL 4 -2
7 Freddie Freeman 1B ATL 7 0
8 Javier Baez 2B/SS/3B CHC 9 1
9 Anthony Rendon 3B WAS 10 1
10 Mookie Betts OF BOS 14 4

Acuna already has a 20/20 season with 30/30 looking easily attainable at this point. He could potentially go 100/30/85/100/30/.290 and still not win the NL MVP. What is this? The mid 1990’s?!

Betts isn’t in MVP contention this year (it’s Trout’s award to lose again,) but he has turned it on in July: 61 ABs, 22 runs, 2 HRs, 10 RBI, 2 SB, .426 AVG. He’ll fall short of last year’s 30/30 season, but 25/20 ain’t bad.

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
11 Josh Bell 1B PIT 6 -5
12 Charlie Blackmon OF COL 11 -1
13 Alex Bregman 3B/SS HOU 12 -1
14 Rafael Devers 3B BOS 15 1
15 Anthony Rizzo 1B CHC 16 1
16 Pete Alonso 1B NYM 19 3
17 J.D. Martinez OF BOS 17 0
18 Eddie Rosario OF MIN 18 0
19 Adalberto Mondesi SS KC 13 -6
20 Xander Bogaerts SS BOS 20 0

Moving down to make room for Mookie Betts in the top-10 again is Josh Bell. In Bell’s last 61 ABs, he still has 5 HRs and 15 RBI, but hopefully that .197 AVG isn’t a sign of things to come for the rest of this season.

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
21 Francisco Lindor SS CLE 22 1
22 Manny Machado SS SD 56 34
23 Whit Merrifield 2B KC 21 -2
24 Kris Bryant 3B/OF CHC 23 -1
25 George Springer OF HOU 25 0
26 Joey Gallo 1B/OF TEX 24 -2
27 Eduardo Escobar SS/3B ARI 28 1
28 Max Muncy 1B/3B LAD 38 10
29 Mike Moustakas 3B MIL 27 -2
30 Fernando Tatis Jr. SS SD 37 7

Here’s the deal folks — Machado was hitting .238 with 10 HRs at the end of June 11th. He fell accordingly in my rankings. Was he maybe pushing too hard to impress the Padre faithful? Who knows? What we do know is in the 30 games since he’s dropped 15 HRs and 33 RBI with a .331 AVG. Safe to say he’s back — unfortunately he’s more Arenado now than 2015 Machado when it comes to speed.

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
31 Starling Marte OF PIT 29 -2
32 Ramon Laureano OF OAK NA
33 Ketel Marte 2B/SS/OF ARI 30 -3
34 Trea Turner SS WAS 36 2
35 Elvis Andrus SS TEX 31 -4
36 Bryce Harper OF PHI 32 -4
37 Marcell Ozuna OF StL 26 -11
38 Yoan Moncada 2B CHW 33 -5
39 Michael Brantley OF HOU 34 -5
40 Austin Meadows OF TBR 35 -5

Laureano was a sleeper darling heading into 2019 after hitting 19 HRs and stealing 18 bases between 112 AAA and MLB games in 2018. I’ll admit that Laureano slipped off my top-100 radar when he had only a .243 AVG/.666 OPS through his first 51 games. It’s hard to track 100 hitters every week! Well in the 48 games since he has a .333 AVG and a 1.060 OPS with 15 HRs and 9 SBs. If these gains stay, he could be top 25 by season’s end.

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
41 Aaron Judge OF NYY 44 3
42 Jose Abreu 1B CHW 39 -3
43 Carlos Santana 1B CLE NA
44 Juan Soto OF WAS 40 -4
45 Gleyber Torres 2B NYY 41 -4
46 DJ LeMahieu 1B/2B/3B NYY 65 19
47 Jorge Polanco SS MIN 42 -5
48 Eugenio Suarez 3B CIN 43 -5
49 Edwin Encarnacion 1B NYY 45 -4
50 Jose Altuve 2B HOU 54 4

While Ramon Laureano has been off my radar for a few weeks — Santana has been off my radar for a few years, so excuse me for forgetting him in my rankings. All it took for Santana to reemerge was a new/old re-change of scenery — huh? Back in Cleveland, he’s hitting for the best average and OPS of his career and has reignited his career.

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
51 Yasiel Puig OF CIN 61 10
52 Matt Chapman 3B OAK 47 -5
53 Luke Voit 1B NYY 50 -3
54 Trey Mancini OF/1B BAL 51 -3
55 Ozzie Albies 2B ATL 53 -2
56 Paul DeJong SS STL 55 -1
57 Jonathan Villar 2B BAL 57 0
58 Max Kepler OF MIN 59 1
59 Rhys Hoskins OF PHI 49 -10
60 Dansby Swanson SS ATL 52 -8
61 Willson Contreras C CHC 58 -3
62 J.T. Realmuto C PHI 60 -2
63 Gary Sanchez C NYY 73 10
64 David Dahl OF COL 62 -2
65 Shin-Soo Choo OF OAK 71 6
66 Jorge Soler OF KC 81 15
67 Domingo Santana OF SEA 48 -19
68 Tommy Pham OF TBR 63 -5
69 Andrew Benintendi OF BOS 64 -5
70 Tim Anderson SS CHW 46 -24

I don’t know what to do with Santana. After his first month, I launched him up the rankings. Then, his next month he plummeted. Since May 19th he’s been a solid performer — but not as good as he was to start the season. The SBs, unfortunately, seem like they’ll be coming few and far between — but I’m still liking his overall profile. Just not as sky-high as I projected him to begin the season.

  • Mar 20 – Apr 15: 79 ABs, 12 runs, 4 HRs, 24 RBI, 3 SBs, .977 OPS.
  • Apr 16 – May 17: 103 ABs, 10 runs, 4 HRs, 13 RBI, 1 SB, .686 OPS.
  • May 19 – June 15: 99 ABs, 15 runs 5 HRs, 12 RBI, 1 SB,  .817 OPS.
  • Jun 16 – Jul 20: 102 ABs, 19 runs, 6 HRs, 15 RBI, 1 SB,  .838 OPS.

 

Rank Name Position Team Last Change
71 Michael Conforto OF NYM 68 -3
72 Jean Segura SS PHI 69 -3
73 Yasmani Grandal C MIL 70 -3
74 Joc Pederson OF LAD 67 -7
75 Eric Hosmer 1B SD 75 0
76 Hunter Renfroe OF SD 76 0
77 Lorenzo Cain OF MIL 77 0
78 Hunter Dozier 1B/3B KC 78 0
79 Hunter Pence OF TEX 66 -13
80 Byron Buxton OF MIN 72 -8
81 Alex Gordon OF KC 80 -1
82 Victor Robles OF WAS NA
83 Shohei Ohtani DH LAA 98 15
84 Paul Goldschmidt 1B StL 82 -2
85 Justin Turner 3B LAD 85 0
86 Vlad Guerrero Jr. 3B TOR 86 0
87 Franmil Reyes OF SD 87 0
88 Yordan Alvarez OF HOU 99 11
89 Nelson Cruz DH MIN 88 -1
90 Dan Vogelbach 1B SEA 89 -1
91 Ryan Braun OF MIL 90 -1
92 Keston Hiura 2B MIL
93 Michael Chavis 2B/3B BOS 91 -2
94 Avisail Garcia OF TBR 92 -2
95 Lourdes Gurriel Jr. 2B/SS/OF TOR 95 0
96 Austin Riley 3B/OF ATL 96 0
97 Eloy Jimenez OF CHW 97 0
98 Yuli Gurriel 1B/3B HOU
99 Carlos Correa SS HOU 83 -16
100 Jose Ramirez 3B CLE

The biggest surprise to me in Ohtani’s profile are the SBs. In Japan he hit for a solid average and decent power, but never stole more than 7 bases. Over a full, healthy season could Ohtani be a 20/20 threat? 20 HRs, 20 SBs, and a 20 game winner next season? Man this guy is fun to watch. How could anyone else win MVP if he pulls that off?

I was originally reluctant to rank Hiura due to the Brewers front office — but I think my fears have officially been put to bed. Since his second call-up he’s started in 19 consecutive games and hit: 12/4/14/5 /.370 while taking over the Brewers second-base gig. His .434 BABIP is inflating that average a little bit — but the kid was a .317 hitter in 222 minor league games. The interesting numbers to watch will be his speed and power numbers. Yes, he had 19 HRs in 57 AAA games this season, but that was in the PCL. I think he could settle in at a 20/20 threat — never really 30/30.

Wait a minute — who the hell is that at the bottom of these rankings?! How did he get there?! Here’s the deal — in February when I made my preseason rankings I had Jose Ramirez at #3 overall. By June 10th he had fallen completely off my rankings. Due to his 2018, I’m giving him a lot of slack and big second-chance here. In his last month, Ramirez has actually been playing pretty well: 81 ABs, 18 runs, 4 HRs, 17 RBI, 3 SB, .321 AVG, .944 OPS. Ramirez owners must be anointed as saints for their patience and should be rewarded in the second-half.