Top 100 Outfielders For 2024 Fantasy Baseball: Preseason Edition

Intro

Greetings Razzers, I’m back at it for another season of Top 100 Outfielders. As before, I will calculate the rest-of-season outfield ranks into TIERS. Everybody loves tiers. Tiers are like onions, and onions have layers. Tiers and layers, onions and parfaits. However, these aren’t just your everyday run-of-the-mill tiers, No sir (/ma’am/et al). These, my latest labor of love and lament, are here to help you navigate the wild and wooly field of outfielders. Throughout the season I’ll be updating a ROS board based on production and my tea leaves along with some thoughts and highlights… but first, let’s recap what the board means…

CWT – What the hell is that?

These are patent-pending Coolwhip Tiers (CWT). And what CWT does for you is it allows you see where I have the wide breadth of the outfield landscape valued among their peers. These tell you whether I view said outfielder as an OF1 to OF5. And each tier corresponds to a particular Coolwhip$ value.

CW$ – What’s with the money?

That’s Coolwhip Dollars, my dude! Does it mean you can buy something? Not really. The “$” is really a stand-in for value, as is the Razzball way. The CW$ is me assigning a single simplified numerical value to the player’s contribution, paired with risk, injury, playing time, production etc. The idea behind these values is that your goal (minimum) should have collected a 5-person outfield of around $15 total or more. Though, the dollars aren’t hardline values, but general guidelines. I may be smart, but nobody knows everything.

Acuna broke my maths

So let’s address the first obvious thing staring you in the face: Acuna’s value. I can hear you saying “Coolwhip, you said I need at least $15 and Acuna is worth 17, does that mean he equals 5 people?” No! So this is the first year a player coming into the season breaks the formula, yay me. And I chose to leave it as is because I find it hilarious. With Acuna, congrats, you won the lottery, but consider your target to be $21 and go home smiling that you started off with pocket Aces (poker, not pitchers).

The Acuna value underscores the greater outfield value gap, and why I so often advocate for taking at least 2 bats in the first 3 rounds with 1 being your OF1. Look at the drop-off in value from the first-round studs to the second/third. After Yordan, there’s a $2 gap to Robert, and then after Bellinger there’s a rapid decline into Steer at #20, less than half the weighted value Yordan.

I feel like on nearly every team I’m drafting, Castellanos is my last pitstop for OF2. If you don’t have an OF2 by the time he’s up, get with it. I know my tier goes past that, but for practical purposes I want that locked up sooner than later so I can address the rest of the team in a balanced approach.

Spring Training Notes

Perhaps the hitter drawing the most attention in camp is Wyatt Langford. And I find myself wanting him on every team. FOMO much? The dude is oozing with “it.” No! Not that, this is a family show. The Riz as the kids say. And what’s that word? Oh yes, talent. He’s got it in folds. There’s a non-zero chance next year he’s a top 3-round pick.

Juan Soto is putting the league on notice. I didn’t realize how much I wanted Soto’s contract year until we got it. This should be fun to watch. Not only is he playing for his big free-agent contract, he’s doing it while wearing a Yankee jersey and he’s only 25. Get ready for fireworks.

Aaron Judge is already “injured” to add to the Yankees’ plight. He hurt his core on a swing yesterday and will likely take the rest of the week off from hitting to recover. I’m sure it’s nothing… totally nothing. [nervously blinks at camera]. If this turns into something, we may see Tommy Pham or Adam Duvall signed to a 1-year deal in New York, which would be solid for either (except Judge). Stay alert.

With Noelvi Marte suspended for half the season, Spencer Steer just got a bump in value pretty much guaranteeing him everyday ABs between 3B/DH/OF. I want a piece of that action wherever I can for some nice rounded production with multi-position eligibility.

Luis Rengifo still does not get the attention he deserves. He’s now had 2 straight seasons with 16 HR and 6 SB in roughly 3/4 of a season, and raising his walk rate to 9.2% in 2023. Ron Washington has already established that he wants the team to run more, so I don’t see much of a leap for him to get 10 steals. Also a multi-positional player and likely leadoff hitter vs LHP. Did I mention he’s currently the only 3B on the active roster behind Anthony Rendon? Smash.

You know I like Tyler O’Neill this year, here is the link if you want to read about it again.

Jose Siri says he wants to steal more bags this year. I don’t think a 20/20 season is out of reach for him, and who am I to argue with his success rate on the base paths? You should take him seriously too, the Rays like to run.

Henry Davis is lighting camp on fire after going to Driveline. “He went to Driveline” is the new “He went to Jared.” With Grandal already hobbled by plantar fasciitis, Davis should regain C and cement himself some playing time. If he can handle the workload of catching duty, he might be primed for a top-10 catcher season.

Ezequiel Duran has been yo-yo’ing in value all offseason. With both Seager and Lowe possibly missing Opening Day, Duran has got me hungry like a wolf (sorry) to roster him for cheap where I can as he can fill in all around the diamond.

Lars Nootbaar is already injured and Tommy Edman is not healing as fast as the Cards would hope. That means that Dylan Carlson and Alec Burleson are likely to get some early run in the field. Gross. But, there is an outside possibility that the Cards realize how gross that is and give Victor Scott a chance with his blazing speed. HE STOLE 94 BASES IN 123 GAMES LAST YEAR IN THE MINORS. Bookmark him.

What have you all noticed in camp this spring? Drop me a line in the comments below.

The Board

As always, the individual ranks (and to a degree the dollars) don’t really matter, what’s important are the tiers, and more important than that—your roster construction. If your team is starving for steals, it doesn’t matter if Soler is worth more than Ruiz, your roster needs Ruiz more. Simple as that. Any outfielder not listed, consider them tier 5.

If you want more Coolwhip to top off your baseball experience, fantasy or otherwise, you can follow me on Twitter: @CoolwhipRB.