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Taking over for J-FOH is never easy. Actually, taking over for anything full of anything is never easy. Full of food? Ya don’t care about eating anymore. Full of information? You’d tune out Dave Ramsey giving financial advice. Full of love? Wait, we don’t talk about love on here. This is Razzball. Ever hear the intro to our Podcast? Freakin’ hard, son! Full of crap? Well, that would be me after my previous comment. Point is, J-FOH set the precedent for the Top 100 Hitters column…and it’s one of my favorites. So, while the author is changing, not much else of the series will, albeit less hatred. Calm down, Jack. Geez-ul-peet!

You know what else needs to calm down? Trevor Story’s bat! Goodness me, man alive! 7 HR in the first week of the season? What is this, Matt Holliday circa 2007 fantasy baseball playoffs of late-September? I’m not still bitter about that or anything. Grant! Now… while I’d love to continue talking about Story’s meteoric rise up the rankings, it’s Week 2. And you’ll see my comments on that following the rankings. But before we get there, let me start by highlighting a player owned in less than 20% of ESPN leagues! Tyler White!

  • Tyler White, 3B (38.4%)- Well, dad blam it… maybe the hate will return. As of Friday afternoon White was owned in <19.1% of leagues. Now that waivers ran late Sunday night prior to this article on Monday, his percentage jumps to 38.4%. He’s not the most-added player (that would be Brock Hol…wait, what?!? Brock Holt? Yep. +53.2% as of Sunday evening), he easily could be. While Trevor Story was drafted in most leagues wth a late draft date, Tyler White slid under the radar except the deepest of leagues. What does his first week look like? A cool 21 total bases with 9 RBI and 3 HR. Nothin’ big. Listen, White raked through the minors, including a .362/.467/.559 slash line in 259 AAA ABs in 2015. With the 3B job in Houston essentially on lock down, White’s the most available big addition into the Top 100 Hitters. And they. Are. As. Follows.

The Top 100 Hitters

Rank Name Pos Team
1 Mike Trout OF LAA
2 Bryce Harper OF WAS
3 Paul Goldschmidt 1B ARI
4 Carlos Correa SS HOU
5 Anthony Rizzo 1B CHC
6 Josh Donaldson 3B TOR
7 Nolan Arenado 3B COL
8 Manny Machado 3B BAL
9 Andrew McCutchen OF PIT
10 Giancarlo Stanton OF MIA
11 Edwin Encarnacion 1B TOR
12 Kris Bryant 3B CHC
13 Jose Bautista OF TOR
14 Jose Altuve 2B HOU
15 Mookie Betts OF BOS
16 Miguel Cabrera 1B DET
17 Jose Abreu 1B CWS
18 Charlie Blackmon OF COL
19 George Springer OF HOU
20 Chris Davis 1B BAL
21 Nelson Cruz OF SEA
22 J.D. Martinez OF DET
23 Starling Marte OF PIT
24 Robinson Cano 2B SEA
25 Justin Upton OF DET
26 Buster Posey C SF
27 Jason Heyward OF CHC
28 David Ortiz DH BOS
29 Joey Votto 1B CIN
30 Todd Frazier 3B CWS
31 Ryan Braun OF MIL
32 Dee Gordon 2B MIA
33 Yasiel Puig OF LAD
34 Gregory Polanco OF PIT
35 Lorenzo Cain OF KC
36 Adam Jones OF BAL
37 Matt Kemp OF SD
38 Albert Pujols 1B LAA
39 Adrian Gonzalez 1B LAD
40 Xander Bogaerts SS BOS
41 Carlos Gomez OF HOU
42 Troy Tulowitzki SS TOR
43 Miguel Sano DH MIN
44 Yoenis Cespedes OF NYM
45 Carlos Gonzalez OF COL
46 Brian Dozier 2B MIN
47 Matt Carpenter 3B STL
48 Freddie Freeman 1B ATL
49 Prince Fielder DH TEX
50 Ian Kinsler 2B DET
51 Eric Hosmer 1B KC
52 Adrian Beltre 3B TEX
53 Brandon Belt 1B SF
54 Francisco Lindor SS CLE
55 Maikel Franco 3B PHI
56 Jason Kipnis 2B CLE
57 Anthony Rendon 2B WAS
58 Kyle Seager 3B SEA
59 Corey Seager SS LAD
60 David Peralta OF ARI
61 Adam Eaton OF CWS
62 Hanley Ramirez OF BOS
63 Christian Yelich OF MIA
64 Stephen Piscotty OF STL
65 Evan Longoria 3B TB
66 Trevor Story SS COL
67 Joc Pederson OF LAD
68 Hunter Pence OF SF
69 Brian McCann C NYY
70 Brett Gardner OF NYY
71 Gerardo Parra OF COL
72 Lucas Duda 1B NYM
73 Kendrys Morales DH KC
74 Corey Dickerson OF TB
75 DJ LeMahieu 2B COL
76 Steven Souza, Jr. OF TB
77 Carlos Santana 1B CLE
78 Tyler White 3B HOU
79 Dexter Fowler OF CHC
80 Delino Deshields, Jr. OF TEX
81 Starlin Castro SS NYY
82 Colby Rasmus OF HOU
83 Mark Teixeira 1B NYY
84 Jonathan Lucroy C MIL
85 Kole Calhoun OF LAA
86 Shin-Soo Choo OF TEX
87 Jacoby Ellsbury OF NYY
88 Ian Desmond SS TEX
89 Travis Shaw 3B BOS
90 Alex Rodriguez DH NYY
91 Brandon Crawford SS SF
92 Ben Zobrist OF CHC
93 Mark Trumbo OF BAL
94 Curtis Granderson OF NYM
95 Jay Bruce OF CIN
96 Eugenio Suarez SS CIN
97 Brock Holt 2B/3B/OF BOS
98 Jonathan Villar SS MIL
99 Jean Segura SS ARI
100 Eduardo Escobar SS MIN
  • It’s obviously still early in the year. Week 2?!? Who makes gigantic, sweeping changes from their big names by Week 2? Exactly. Well, I guess I shouldn’t assume that everyone’s smart enough for this. And certainly mistakes are made sometimes. Is this my chance to confess that in my RCL I somehow dropped Marcus Stroman for Keone Kela? Summamabitch. Stupid fat thumbs and managing fantasy baseball while driving. Maybe that’s what I get. But since we’re not talking pitchers, and this is all about the hitters, don’t let my story (wait for it…) become yours by dropping Carlos Correa, Xander Bogaerts, Corey Seager or Troy Tulowitzki for Trevor Story. Same with the top OF for Dexter Fowler or Steven Souza? Need another? Don’t freakin’ drop Evan Longoria for the above-mentioned Tyler White. 7 days of hot hitting doesn’t alter the entire preseason or previous season’s rankings, but it does into you into the rankings. Overall nugget of wisdom: let it ride. Just like Nick Cage told you. It’s too early for drastic changes that seemed asinine just a week ago. Some of the bis names from this week will just be gone in 60 seconds. (Gasp! See what I did there?)
  • Some bigger names are omitted because they’re currently on the DL. When they’re off, they’ll be considered. Or, if they’re names are Michael Brantley and Jung-ho Kang, they’re definitely in.
  • Near the end of the Top 100 you’ll find a lot of MI options, particularly SS. The position was so weak heading into the season that you can definitely take the risk of picking up any of these guys for the sake of whatever not-top-5-SS you may have drafted. In other words, see ya later Brad Miller in six of my leagues. Ugh.

Drop those comments, and check back next Week for the tres edition!