Josh Bell, Top 100 Hitters, 2019 Fantasy Baseball

There were many big movers and shakers in the Top 100 this week perhaps none bigger this year (and maybe the past few years) than Josh Bell. Bell has slapped a hit in all but 9 of his 42 games so far this season. In 15 May games alone he’s hitting .383 with 12 runs, 6 HRs, and 18 RBI. (Writer update: since I started writing this, Bell has crushed another 2 HRs and 4 RBI tonight!) Bell keeps this up and he could be in top 20-25 territory.

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
1a	Cody Bellinger	1B/OF	LAD	3	2
1b	Christian Yelich	OF	MIL	2	1
1c	Mike Trout	OF	LAA	1	0
4	Trevor Story	SS	COL	4	0
5	Javier Baez	2B/SS/3B	CHC	5	0
6	Nolan Arenado	3B	COL	6	0
7	Adalberto Mondesi	SS	KC	8	1
8	George Springer	OF	HOU	15	7
9	Mookie Betts	OF	BOS	7	-2
10	Ronald Acuna Jr.	OF	ATL	9	-1

Cop out? You bet — but we’ve got the front runner for this year’s MVP Cody Bellinger, last year’s NL MVP and competitor for this year Christian Yelich, and the best baseball player on the planet, Mike Trout, all playing at an extremely high level. Of these three I’m still most worried about Bellinger — but it’s May 19th — maybe I’m the problem here.

New guy in the top 10 alert: George Springer! In his last 13 games, Springer has better stats than some players have all season: 19/8/18/1/.431. Yowie wowie! Springer could be top-5 if this pace keeps up!

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
11	J.D. Martinez	OF	BOS	10	-1
12	Anthony Rendon	3B	WAS	11	-1
13	Freddie Freeman	1B	ATL	12	-1
14	Alex Bregman	3B/SS	HOU	22	8
15	Joey Gallo	1B/OF	TEX	30	15
16	Rhys Hoskins	OF	PHI	13	-3
17	Tim Anderson	SS	CHW	14	-3
18	Whit Merrifield	2B	KC	17	-1
19	Manny Machado	SS	SD	21	2
20	Mitch Haniger	OF	SEA	25	5

Not letting Springer have all the fun in Houston — Bregman is killing it over his last 14 games: 12/9/20/.286.

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
21	Eddie Rosario	OF	MIN	26	5
22	Michael Brantley	OF	HOU	37	15
23	Marcell Ozuna	OF	StL	16	-7
24	Charlie Blackmon	OF	COL	34	10
25	Paul Goldschmidt	1B	StL	18	-7
26	Bryce Harper	OF	PHI	20	-6
27	Pete Alonso	1B	NYM	35	8
28	Domingo Santana	OF	SEA	24	-4
29	Lorenzo Cain	OF	MIL	29	0
30	Jose Altuve	2B	HOU	19	-11

Michael Brantley — another Astro having an out of this world past two weeks: 13 games, 10/5/13/.313.

Charlie Blackmon’s average was hovering around .220 on April 18th. Since then: 26/9/21/1/.350.

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
31	Xander Bogaerts	SS	BOS	31	0
32	Carlos Correa	SS	HOU	32	0
33	Ozzie Albies	2B	ATL	33	0
34	Francisco Lindor	SS	CLE	39	5
35	Trea Turner	SS	WAS	40	5
36	Yoan Moncada	2B	CHW	45	9
37	David Peralta	OF	ARI	44	7
38	Kris Bryant	3B/OF	CHC	61	23
39	Andrew Benintendi	OF	BOS	28	-11
40	Josh Bell	1B	PIT	69	29

I really just wanted to bunch those middle infielders together in the low-30s and now that all of them are healthy and we’ll see who reigns supreme!

Kris Bryant is acting like he plays for the Astros too in his last 14 games: 18/8/17/0/.377.

Benintendi isn’t playing badly per se, but 5 HRs and 3 SBs are just boring. He’ll always have respectable runs/RBI because he’s a Red Socks.

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
41	Juan Soto	OF	WAS	23	-18
42	Elvis Andrus	SS	TEX	36	-6
43	Eugenio Suarez	3B	CIN	42	-1
44	Tommy Pham	OF	TBR	27	-17
45	Khris Davis	DH	OAK	38	-7
46	Willson Contreras	C	CHC	49	3
47	Matt Chapman	3B	OAK	41	-6
48	Jose Abreu	1B	CHW	46	-2
49	Edwin Encarnacion	1B	SEA	47	-2
50	Anthony Rizzo	1B	CHC	48	-2

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
51	Paul DeJong	SS	STL	50	-1
52	Mike Moustakas	3B	MIL	51	-1
53	Gleyber Torres	2B	NYY	52	-1
54	Aaron Judge	OF	NYY	53	-1
55	Starling Marte	OF	PIT	54	-1
56	Giancarlo Stanton	OF	NYY	55	-1
57	Michael Conforto	OF	NYM	56	-1
58	Jean Segura	SS	PHI	57	-1
59	Victor Robles	OF	WAS	58	-1
60	J.T. Realmuto	C	PHI	59	-1

That’s honestly a little freaky… None of these guys really took huge steps forward or backward I guess. Conforto and Segura are most likely to move up a bit, but they’re both streaky and could hit .200 next week for all I know or go down with another injury!

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
61	Yasmani Grandal	C	MIL	60	-1
62	Fernando Tatis Jr.	SS	SD	62	0
63	Vlad Guerrero Jr.	3B	TOR	72	9
64	Hunter Dozier	1B/3B	KC	70	6
65	Max Muncy	1B/3B	LAD	71	6
66	Ketel Marte	2B/SS/OF	ARI	64	-2
67	Alex Gordon	OF	KC	87	20
68	Jonathan Villar	2B	BAL	66	-2
69	Jose Ramirez	3B	CLE	43	-26
70	Luke Voit	1B	NYY	77	7

Jose Ramirez watch: I’VE HAD IT! 5 more games this week — only 2 hits. He’s on the fast track off this list. Another 2 hit week — another 26 ranking drop — he’ll be at 95. Which means it’s probably a good time to buy low because he’s about to break out. I’m a reverse jinx.

I’m happy for Alex Gordon. He seems like a good dude and has been through a lot of ups and downs in his career. Someone in the comments please point out how Gordon isn’t a good guy. Here he is having a great post-hype, post-breakdown resurgence.

Little Vladito had a rough opening 11 games (6 hits in 41 ABs.) Last 6 games? 7 hits, 21 ABs, 3 HRs. I’m a true believer and expect him to pop off for the rest of the season.

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
71	Brandon Lowe	2B	TBR	63	-8
72	Ryan Braun	OF	LAD	97	25
73	Austin Meadows	OF	TBR	78	5
74	Jorge Polanco	SS	MIN	88	14
75	Trey Mancini	OF/1B	BAL	80	5
76	Eduardo Escobar	SS/3B	ARI	85	9
77	Joc Pederson	OF	LAD	86	9
78	Josh Donaldson	3B	ATL	67	-11
79	Justin Turner	3B	LAD	68	-11
80	Nick Castellanos	OF	DET	74	-6

The opposite of Alex Gordon — Ryan Braun doesn’t really deserve good things, but he’s killing it in his last 14 games: 12/4/14/3/.438.

Donaldson’s 23/7/21/.259 is so boringly league average that I think he could continue to fall of this list. As is Justin Turner’s 21/6/21/.285. As is Nick Castellanos’s 23/5/12/.256. They’re all still here because I know the solid offensive potential these veterans can contribute — but I just need to see it. Of the 3 I’m most high on Castellanos as the only one under the age of 33 — but don’t expect more than 60 RBI (until he is traded to the Yankees that is.)

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
81	Nelson Cruz	DH	MIN	65	-16
82	Yasiel Puig	OF	CIN	89	7
83	Shin Soo Choo	OF	OAK	90	7
84	Shohei Ohtani	DH	LAA	94	10
85	Andrew McCutchen	OF	PHI	75	-10
86	Dee Gordon	2B/OF	SEA	76	-10
87	Jarrod Dyson	OF	ARI	NA
88	Stephen Piscotty	OF	OAK	79	-9
89	Daniel Murphy	1B/2B	COL	73	-16
90	Maikel Franco	3B	PHI	82	-8

Dyson will probably be off this list next week — but let’s enjoy him here for now! Dyson is at the top of the NL SB race with 12, but is actually consistently making it happen with the stick for what feels like the first time in his career. 23/3/10/.284. He’s always been the 4th fill-in outfielder on whatever team he’s on — but when given starters ABs — he’s disappointed. Like I said — I really don’t think this sticks — but he deserves this spot for now.

Daniel Murphy is the latest veteran who is going to find himself off this list following Joey Votto to listless obscurity.

Rank	Name	Position	Team	Last	Change
91	Andrelton Simmons	SS	LAA	96	5
92	Gary Sanchez	C	NYY	83	-9
93	Dwight Smith Jr.	OF	BAL	91	-2
94	Hunter Pence	OF	TEX	92	-2
95	Rafael Devers	3B	BOS	NA
96	Wil Myers	3B/OF	SD	93	-3
97	Christian Walker	1B	ARI	95	-2
98	Dan Vogelbach	1B	SEA	98	0
99	David Dahl	OF	COL	84	-15
100	Byron Buxton	OF	MIN	NA

Dahl’s .298 batting average is nice — but 3 HRs and 1 SB are not list-worthy.

With little Cron (Kevin Cron) crushing it in AAA for the D-Backs right now (18 HRs in 39 games) Walker better watch his back. They’re only 4 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West and are currently one of the wild card teams in the NL. Cron is someone to stash since this team is surprisingly competitive this year.

Byron Buxton’s post-post-post-post-post hype breakout is here! The 40/40 prince who was promised is not here YET — but his 22/3/18/8/.274 line is more than good enough to make the top 100 with a LOT of room to move up. Buxton is top in the bigs in doubles with 18 and as the season goes on I’m thinking a few more of those doubles will turn into HRs. Buxton has cut his K/rate to a respectable (for his standards) 23.3%, is hitting 51.5% of his balls in the air after averaging 41.4% for his career and while his .347 BABIP is a little high — his speed and skill set are more than capable of sustaining such a number. Enjoy Buxton true believers — he’s finally putting everything together.