Welcome Back Folks! Hope everybody had a great 3 day weekend and was able to hang out with family and friends and watch a little baseball. Some interesting games lately right? The Pirates taking the first two games of the series against the Dodgers and going for the sweep today is pretty surprising but hey it’s baseball anything can happen. Then late last week we had the whole Pham/Pederson fiasco oh man was that hilarious or what? The most perplexing thing to me was that Pederson said Pham quit the league in the middle of the season? So did he not pay the entry fee or something because if you’re pissed about money why would you quit and just give up your entry fee? Didn’t make sense but not surprising I guess to anyone that knows Pham he’s a pretty intense dude. All right well we got some updated First Baseman Rankings this week so let’s get to it.
TOP DOGS
1. Paul Goldschmidt Cardinals Goldy vaults from the bottom of the top 10 to #1 in my rankings this week. Goldy hit .404 in May with 10 HR’s and 33 RBI’s with a 1.288 OPS. What a month from him and it’s not like we have never seen this from him. He’s been Mr. Steady his entire career and goes about his business with little flair but is locked in right now at the plate and I don’t expect a major downturn anytime soon. I think his numbers will similar to the later years of his Arizona days when all said and done.
2. C.J. Cron Rockies Very consistent month of May and giving you everything you need from a power position.
3. Pete Alonso Mets Pete just below the production of Goldy in May just a slight ding from the eventual drop in average but he’s right there with the top 2.
4. Freddie Freeman Dodgers Only 1 bomb in May but everything else looks great. Spraying the ball everywhere and hitting it hard you got to figure the ball will start flying out of the park very soon. More walks than K’s in May is a great sign good things are coming.
5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Blue Jays Dropped out of the top spot but still a TOP DOG in my opinion. It is a little perplexing Vlad isn’t producing as well as we thought he would because Vlad is still making great contact. It seems the whole Blue Jays team is struggling to score runs lately. Pitchers are keen to the fact Vlad will swing at balls out of the zone so they rarely give him a pitch in the middle of the plate which could be contributing to his low output lately. I think he will turn it around sooner than later he’s too good of a hitter to go into a major downturn.
SOLID PROS
6. Ty France Mariners 12 game hitting streak for France and he has looked outstanding so far this year. I think his batting average at .347 currently will take a drop eventually and he doesn’t quite have the power that the top 5 do to hit 30+ but he’s not far off from those guys and I don’t think he’s the type of player to go into a prolonged slump as well.
8. Matt Olson Braves Slumped a little in May but has hits in his last 3 games including a HR yesterday in a 4 hit performance with 4 RBI’s.
9. Jared Walsh Angels 6 out of 7 last games with a hit. Solid .260’ish hitter but can he break through to that next level? I think the skills are there hard hit rate % and barrel % look good but I wish the K% was a little better to get that average up.
10. Anthony Rizzo Yankees A little stumble in May for Rizzo but still has that good plate discipline and BB rate.
STUCK IN MIDDLE
11. Rowdy Tellez Brewers xSLG % is elite which leads me to believe more extra base hits are on their way.
12. Jose Abreu White Sox 9 game hitting streak for Abreu so looks like the hard contact is finally finding some holes.
13. Christian Walker Diamondbacks Lots of power potential here and looks like he is going to be able to keep it up. 9 HR’s in May after a dismal April. Just got to deal with the subpar batting average but might be worth it as the barrel % looks elite and has above-average plate discipline in getting on base.
14. Andrew Vaughn White Sox I’m liking what I’m seeing from Vaughn lately. Now if he can just get some consistent playing time and shake off the nagging injuries. Hopefully, he doesn’t become a frustrating player to have on your team because he’s definitely got the tools to be an elite hitter.
15. Tyler Stephenson Reds
16. Rhys Hoskins Phillies Power numbers will always be consistent but living with that darn K % is troubling.
17. DJ LeMahieu Yankees Fell in rankings due to a subpar May. Just isn’t doing a whole lot for you lately and I think we have already seen the best of him.
18. Hunter Dozier Royals Upside is limited but won’t hurt you anywhere and plays every day.
HAZY FUTURE
20. Eric Hosmer Padres I think Hosmer has shown us in April he’s still got something to give but May brought him down to what we expected from him over the long term. Still will come through in spots but you can do better.
21. Jake Cronenworth Padres Still a useful player but you got to wonder if he will ever come close to last year’s numbers.
22. Trey Mancini Orioles
23. Josh Naylor Guardians If he played every day would get a pretty significant bump in the rankings.
24. Juan Yepez Cardinals Productive player but will probably not start 1-2 times a week so numbers will be tempered somewhat.
25. Wilmer Flores Giants Quietly produces for you. Doesn’t say a word ssshhhh…
Honorable Mention: Owen Miller Guardians Ji-Man Choi Rays
That’s it for today. Hope you have a great week and see you back next time for a look at some Third Baseman.
