Top 100 Hitters, Week 9: JRam’s Last Stand

#100. One hundred. Benjamin Franklin. C-note. One hunnit (RIP Nipsey Hussle.) That’s where you’ll find Jose Ramirez this week. Last week he was sitting at a no-so-nice #69 and he had another awful week: 6 games, 20 ABs, 4 hits, 0 runs, 0 HRs, 0 RBI, 0 SB. Sorry Ramirez fans — his season line: 193 ABs, 17 runs, 4 HRs, 15 RBI, 12 SBs, .197 is not a top-100 player anymore. However, this might be a perfect buy low opportunity since Ramirez is an avid Razzballer and doesn’t want to find himself missing from the most controversial column on the site.

Top 100 Hitters

Not too much shake-up in my top 10. All of you are going to be mad at George Springer staying in the top 10, but it is looking like he won’t miss too much time and I still have him this high going forward. Sorry haters.

The other change at the tippy top was really just semantics E.B. White. Last week I had Bellinger, Yelich and Trout 1a, b and c respectively. I’m officially giving the nod to Bellinger this week. Yes Yelich has the HRs and RBI, but Belly has the runs, RBI and AVG. And look out lil Mikey Trout — Trevor Story has you beat in runs, HRs, RBI and SBs.

There he is — Josh Bell. His numbers this year actually compare favorably to Yelich and Bellinger sans the speed game. Bell might unseat Springer in next week’s rankings if he can keep this up.

Don’t overreact to J.D.’s drop — his numbers aren’t so hot right now, but is there anyone else you are expecting to have an unbelievably explosive 2nd-half than Martinez? There is no better power threat in the game capable of going off at the drop of a hat.

On May 7th, Eddie Rosario’s batting average was sitting at a sad .225. In the 17 games since he’s hit .394 with 14 runs, 4 HR, 17 RBI and even snatched 2 SBs. The 15 games before that, however, he only had 8 hits (.136 AVG) so hopefully he isn’t that extremely streaky.

There’s more than a few Razzball commenters who will be happy at that Rizzo course correction. Look, I was a little worried about his numbers when he wasn’t hitting over .230 at the end of April. Well he’s shut me up in May: 15/8/22/1/.359. Lot of helium possibly here despite the worldwide shortage (how did we run out of helium?!)

I’m still a believer in Machado and Harper, but right now the two biggest free agents from this Winter are two of the biggest disappointments from a fantasy perspective. They’re putting up a respectable counting stats, but their averages: Machado: .263 and Harper: .227 aren’t what their new teams expected. They’re both too good to stay down this low — they could easily come back strong.

I guess I was just in Goldschmidt denial. You expect to see him at the top of any hitter rankings so I became nose blind to him. Boy, I was wrong. Every season we’d all ask “Yea Goldy’s double-digit steals are nice — but when will they run out?” Well, we have our answer: now. He’s only attempted 1 the entire season. “Well that’s okay — he’ll still hit a bunch of HRs.” Okay — now this is where you’re really going to get mad — he has 1 HR in his last 30 games.

Santana’s first 19 games had me salivating: 12/4/24/3/.354. I moved him up as high as the mid-20s based on that performance. In the 33 games since? 14/6/17/1/.231.

Here’s my question to you! Who ends 2019 with the better fantasy season: Sterling Marte or Ketel Marte? Don’t look now — but Ketel has the early lead in every 5×5 category except stolen bases.

I’ve been a little reluctant on Austin Meadows due to his inexperience, but as my good friend Jalen Rose would say, “He’s young, but he’s readddyyyy!” Since my rankings last week he’s hit .360 with another HR and SB. Meadows could end the season with 25 HRs and 20 SBs with solid counting stats hitting for the wild card Rays.

I have been sleeping on Rafael Devers! He’s been killing it in May: 22 games, 22 runs, 7 HRs, 22 RBI, 3 SBs, .368 AVG. On the Sox he’s always a threat for 80+ runs/RBI and now he’s putting it together elsewhere. I apologize to the entire Devers family.

Not much to say here really: Polanco continues to produce, Voit continues to produce, Escobar continues to produce. This is the land of the sub-elite players who do well enough to make the list, but not well enough to break the list.

Here’s the good news about Khris Davis: he’s hitting .248. We’re oh so close to that .247 threshold. However, he’s now on the DL again and has been a bit of a disappointment so far this season.

Kepler was doing just enough to be in the 101-120 range for most of the season, but he’s making this list because of his last 8 games: 14/4/14/1/.471 in 34 ABs to bring his season line to 35/12/33/.276. Really not bad for a 3rd or 4th OF.

Hosmer has rebounded nicely from his career-worst 2018. Hosmer is hitting 2nd, 4th and 5th in the Padres line-up most often which has lead to him having a pretty solid balance of runs and HRs: 29/30 respectively.

Y’all don’t want Dansby on here, but he’s got good numbers so far this year: 27/10/35/5/.262. Dansby has hit 2nd in 15 of the Braves last 16 games so his numbers could get even better going forward.

Dee Gordon and Nelson Cruz are easy candidates to move up as soon as they’re healthy — but right now they’re going to hang around the 90s.

Michael Chavis makes his debut after Dustin Pedroia all but made his retirement announcement this year. That’s not to say Chavis hasn’t been deserving — in 122 ABs so far this year Chavis’s line: 20/10/26/2/.270 is top-100 worthy and more.

A lot of people were calling for Austin Riley to make his debut after hitting 5 HRs in his first 9 games, but I’m a little wary of rookies. Especially rookies who have a 15:2 K/BB ratio in their last 33 ABs. Pitchers are already starting to figure him out.