Javier Baez, Top 100 Hitters, 2018 Fantasy Baseball

Introducing the interrobang list! (You’ll find it at the bottom of the top 100.) What’s an interrobang you may be asking yourself? An interrobang essentially is a hybrid of a question mark and an exclamation point. When someone says something like “What in the world?!” You can save yourself some space and use the interrobang. “Okay cool, weirdo — how does this apply to fantasy baseball?” The interrobang list at the bottom are a few guys who didn’t make the Top 100 list proper, but are still people that are making me go “?!”

Risers:

Javier Baez: An interrobanger himself, Baez has been one of the best hitters over the last 15 days. He has 13 runs, 6 HR, 17 RBI, 1 SB and a .349 AVG. Joe Maddon has even moved Baez into the 2nd spot and Baez responded with 6 hits in 11 at bats. He won’t keep this up — but he’s still a solid contributor hitting in the top third of one of the best lineups in baseball.

Jed Lowrie: Ladies and gentlemen your AL MVP! He’s hitting a saucy .372 and is leading the planet in RBI with 22. But he’s going to turn into Bruce Banner again soon. His contact rate is 81% which is almost identically on pace to his career 82%. So what is explaining this career break-out season so far? His .406 BABIP is over 100 points higher than his career numbers. A 34-year old break-out is almost an oxymoron so even though it’s past 4/20 — sell as high as you possibly can.

Fallers:

Matt Carpenter: One of the biggest fallers this week, Carpenter can’t buy a hit in these first few weeks. If he was sacrificing for power like he has in the past few years this wouldn’t be a problem, but he’s only got 2 HR and 10 RBI. I’m pretty certain Carpenter is still nursing his back and shoulder injuries that he suffered through in spring training. I think the best thing the Cardinals could do is give him a 10 day DL stint to rest and recover.

Marwin Gonzalez: How much is positional eligibility worth to you? A sub-.200 average? 5 runs? 7 RBI? I’m predicting Gonzalez will bounce back. His walk rate is up from last year though his strikeout rate is up slightly as well though. His contact rate may be down but his BABIP is down over 100 points as well. He’s hitting a slightly higher percentage of line drives than ground balls with a significantly lower hard hit percentage. If he can start getting harder contact those line drive outs will start turning into line drive hits.

Interrobangers:

Yangervis Solarte: Who the heck is this guy? Solarte certainly has .280 AVG potential, he hit .286 as recently as 2016, but this 19.2% HR/FB is 8 percentage points higher than any other number in his career. Maybe another change of scenery was just what Solarte needed to break out. If he keeps this up he’ll be on the Top 100 soon enough. However, if he returns to what he has been in the past (like I expect him to) he won’t even be a banger anymore.

Christian Villanueva: I told you in February that Villanueva was going to be the front-runner for NL Rookie of the Year, but none of you believed me! Obviously no one predicted this. Villanueva is crushing lefties to a .524 clip with 5 HRs, but has only hit .212 with 1 HR against righties. Here’s what I said about Villanueva in my injury article article earlier this week: “His last year in triple-A (2017) he had a .923 OPS vs righties. If Villanueva can start hitting righties just as hard as he’s been killing lefties — we might have a league winner on our hands!”

GREEN: Rising | BLUE: New Additions | RED: Falling

Top 100 Hitters:

RANK	NAME	TEAM	POSITION	LAST WEEK
1	Mike Trout	LAA	OF	1
2	Jose Altuve	HOU	2B	2
3	Bryce Harper	WAS	OF	3
4	Mookie Betts	BOS	OF	4
5	Trea Turner	WAS	SS	5
6	Nolan Arenado	COL	3B	6
7	Charlie Blackmon	COL	OF	7
8	Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1B	8
9	Carlos Correa	HOU	SS	9
10	Kris Bryant	CHC	3B	11
11	Manny Machado	BAL	3B	12
12	Aaron Judge	NYY	OF	13
13	Giancarlo Stanton	NYY	OF	10
14	Francisco Lindor	CLE	SS	15
15	Freddie Freeman	ATL	1B	16
16	Joey Votto	CIN	1B	14
17	Anthony Rizzo	CHC	1B	NR
18	J.D. Martinez	BOS	OF	17
19	Jose Ramirez	CLE	2B/3B	18
20	George Springer	HOU	OF	19
21	Cody Bellinger	LAD	1B/OF	20
22	Brian Dozier	MIN	2B	21
23	Jose Abreu	CHW	1B	22
24	Dee Gordon	SEA	2B	23
25	Gary Sanchez	NYY	C	24
26	Corey Seager	LAD	SS	25
27	Christian Yelich	MIL	OF	NR
28	Justin Upton	ARI	OF	26
29	Alex Bregman	HOU	SS/3B	27
30	Anthony Rendon	WAS	3B	28
31	Andrew Benintendi	BOS	OF	30
32	Rhys Hoskins	PHI	1B/OF	31
33	Marcell Ozuna	STL	OF	29
34	Buster Posey	SF	C/1B	32
35	Starling Marte	PIT	OF	33
36	Robinson Cano	SEA	2B	34
37	Wil Myers	SD	1B/OF	NR
38	Edwin Encarnacion	CLE	1B	35
39	Khris Davis	OAK	OF	36
40	Yoenis Cespedes	NYM	OF	37
41	Eric Hosmer	SD	1B	38
42	Nelson Cruz	SEA	DH	39
43	Tommy Pham	STL	OF	40
44	A.J. Pollock	ARI	OF	41
45	Gregory Polanco	PIT	OF	42
46	Willson Contreras	CHC	C	45
47	D.J. LeMahieu	COL	2B	46
48	Jean Segura	SEA	SS	47
49	Didi Gregorious	NYY	SS	52
50	Lorenzo Cain	MIL	OF	48
51	Nicholas Castellanos	DET	3B/OF	49
52	Miguel Sano	MIN	3B	43
53	Whit Merrifield	KC	2B	50
54	Ozzie Albies	ATL	2B	60
55	Andrew McCutchen	SF	OF	51
56	Ender Inciarte	ATL	OF	54
57	Mike Moustakas	KC	3B	55
58	Trevor Story	COL	SS	56
59	Travis Shaw	MIL	3B	58
60	Kyle Seager	SEA	3B	59
61	Domingo Santana	MIL	OF	53
62	Carlos Santana	CLE	1B	57
63	Rafael Devers	BOS	3B	64
64	Yasiel Puig	LAD	OF	62
65	Adam Jones	BAL	OF	63
66	Javier Baez	CHC	SS/2B	73
67	Ian Desmond	COL	1B/OF	61
68	Matt Olson	OAK	1B	68
69	Brett Gardner	NYY	OF	69
70	Billy Hamilton	CIN	OF	65
71	Jose Martinez	STL	1B	70
72	Joey Gallo	TEX	3B/1B	71
73	Miguel Cabrera	DET	1B	72
74	Justin Smoak	TOR	1B	67
75	Ryan Braun	MIL	OF	74
76	Eduardo Nunez	BOS	2B/3B/OF	75
77	Adrian Beltre	TEX	3B	77
78	Matt Carpenter	STL	1B	66
79	Hanley Ramirez	BOS	DH	81
80	Nomar Mazara	TEX	OF	79
81	Eddie Rosario	MIN	OF	76
82	Chris Taylor	LAD	2B/OF	83
83	Matt Chapman	OAK	3B	84
84	Josh Bell	PIT	2B	85
85	Jay Bruce	NYM	OF	80
86	Yadier Molina	STL	C	86
87	JT Realmuto	MIA	C	NR
88	Kyle Schwarber	CHC	OF	87
89	Marwin Gonzalez	HOU	SS/1B/2B/OF	78
90	Yoan Moncada	CHW	2B	88
91	Jed Lowrie	OAK	2B	98
92	Mitch Haniger	SEA	OF	89
93	Tim Anderson	CWS	SS	90
94	Dansby Swanson	ATL	SS	91
95	Manuel Margot	SD	OF	NR
96	Josh Reddick	HOU	OF	92
97	Cesar Hernandez	PHI	2B	94
98	Eric Thames	MIL	1B/OF	96
99	Ian Kinsler	LAA	2B	97
100	Corey Dickerson	PIT	OF	99

Interrobang List:

?	Andrelton Simmons	LAA	SS
?	Yangervis Solarte	TOR	2B/SS/3B
?	Teoscar Hernandez	TOR	OF
?	Todd Frazier	NYM	3B
?	Scott Kingery	PHI	2B
?	Jackie Bradley Jr.	BOS	OF
?	Ryan Flaherty	ATL	2B/3B
?	Christian Villanueva	SD	3B
?	Asdrubal Cabrera	NYM	2B/SS/3B
?	Kevin Pillar	TOR	OF
?	Yasmani Grandal	LAD	C
?	Shin-Soo Choo	TEX	OF
?	David Peralta	ARI	OF
?	Preston Tucker	ATL	OF

There you have it — let me know what you think in the comments below!