With the top 40 outfielders for 2019 fantasy baseball, we’ve finished all the hitter recaps. We meaning me, but I’ll include you. No, that’s not a cue to try to hold my hand. Why are you now patting my butt? Don’t muss my hair! The pitching recap will begin next. You can hardly wait. No, you! To recap, the end of the season rankings are based on our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater. I felt the easiest way to keep it objective would to go this route. This way when I say someone finished 30th and I ranked them 23rd in the preseason, it carries more weight like Willians Astudillo. Anyway, here’s the top 40 outfielders for 2019 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
21. Tommy Pham – I saw Pham’s runs and RBIs and I thought to myself that I must’ve forgotten about a long IL stint, then I saw 567 ABs and I started singing New Edition, “Mr. Telephone Man, there’s something wrong with Pham’s line.” Preseason Rank #37, 2019 Projections: 92/19/68/.281/18 in 512 ABs, Final Numbers: 77/21/68/.273/25 in 567 ABs
22. Michael Conforto – Gotta love when a plan comes together, which is what happened with Conforto. His projections and final line are about as close as you can get. Oddly enough, from month to month, it didn’t feel like Conforto was doing anywhere near this well. Those oh-for-week stretches are miserable when you’re living through them. Preseason Rank #21, 2019 Projections: 87/33/98/.268/4 in 569 ABs, Final Numbers: 90/33/92/.257/7 in 549 ABs
23. Yasiel Puig – I feel like there’s some kind of payola scheme going on between Puig and the Player Rater for him to end up this high. I owned him and can tell you from personal experience that it did not feel like Puig was the 23rd best outfielder. In a 15-team weekly league, I was benching him at times for entire weeks when he would get so cold. On a side note that no one wants you to talk about especially not the Lamestream Media, but Puig has two years in a row of a .267 average, after having two straight years of a .263 average. Get ready for two straight years of a .271 average. Grey teaching Kaplan SAT prep! Preseason Rank #33, 2019 Projections: 73/27/83/.273/11 in 502 ABs, Final Numbers: 76/24/84/.267/19 in 555 ABs
24. Victor Robles – Is anyone talking about how good a rookie year Robles had? I feel like he could be a sleeper again in 2020 since there’s so little buzz around him. He once again proves the old adage that only I say, “Power and speed produces way more fantasy value than anyone talks about.” It’s a catchy adage! I’d trademark it too, but no one else is saying that catchy AF adage! Preseason Rank #29, 2019 Projections: 78/12/47/.281/29 in 524 ABs, Final Numbers: 86/17/65/.255/28 in 546 ABs
25. Max Kepler – A few of these guys seemed to come out of nowhere, according to my rankings, but this is like I was saying in the top 20 outfielders, they didn’t really come out of nowhere. Yes, I ranked Kepler much later, but I wrote a sleeper post for him in 2018, and loved him last year. So this wasn’t out of nowhere, it was just not on the schedule I had in mind for him. By the way, I was one year off from owning Mancini and Kepler everywhere. *lifts bowling ball, drops bowling ball on foot* Thank you, Painmeister, I deserve it! Preseason Rank #98, 2019 Projections: 62/22/71/.232/5 in 502 ABs, Final Numbers: 98/36/90/.251/1 in 524 ABs
26. Jeff McNeil – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2019 fantasy baseball.
27. Nicholas Castellanos – For the most part, I only look at a guy’s homers and steals and how close I came to projecting those, because the rest is so fickle. The Greek God of Hard Contact was near-perfect to preseason projections even if he took an extremely circuitous route, detouring through Chicago. On a side note, check out homeboy’s doubles. Dizzamn, he racked up 58. Imagine if he spent one year elevating the ball. He’d challenge 45 homers, easy. Preseason Rank #25, 2019 Projections: 93/28/98/.302/3 in 597 ABs, Final Numbers: 100/27/73/.289/2 in 615 ABs
28. Marcell Ozuna – Luckily, OZUNA chucked in a random 12 steals this year, otherwise he wouldn’t have made the top 40 at all. OZUNA average bottomed out. OZUNA disappoint you with power. OZUNA bad idea to go green, and legally sanctioned as a windmill farm. Preseason Rank #19, 2019 Projections: 84/29/96/.286/2 in 591 ABs, Final Numbers: 80/29/89/.243/12 in 485 ABs
29. Kevin Pillar – Every year I’m crazy for Pillar, like I’m a prepubescent Michelangelo admiring stonework but not sure how to craft something out of it, but even I would’ve never guessed he’d end up this high at the end of the season, and find his stats a bit yawnstipating. To repeat the common refrain that I don’t refrain from refraining, give power and speed and the player’s value is a lot better than you’d think. Preseason Rank #62, 2019 Projections: 64/15/70/.253/15 in 546 ABs, Final Numbers: 83/21/88/.259/14 in 611 ABs
30. Kyle Schwarber – Seeing Schwarber this high is like looking at him through the eyes of Joe Buck. I will now scream at my mom for walking in on me taking a 45-minute shower. MA! Schwarbs is actually illustrative of how much lifting speed is doing to a player’s value. Schwarber hit 17 more homers than Pillar; more RBIs, same runs and average, more or less, and only ten fewer steals, but is below him. I.e., 17 more homers does not make up for ten fewer steals. Preseason Rank #63, 2019 Projections: 63/29/74/.244/4 in 471 ABs, Final Numbers: 82/38/92/.250/2 in 529 ABs
31. Ramon Laureano – I loved, loved, lurved Laureano — Lurveano — in the preseason, and predicted a breakout for him, and he materialized, but I couldn’t be any more about how he was going to break out. Way more power, way fewer steals, runs and RBIs near what I thought, but I predicted they’d come from the leadoff spot, and they came from mostly the bottom of the order. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re the broken clock that’s right twice a day and sometimes you’re both. Preseason Rank #45, 2019 Projections: 81/16/51/.264/28 in 542 ABs, Final Numbers: 79/24/67/.288/13 in 434 ABs
32. Shin-Soo Choo – Where a Latin (age) means a player is actually a lot older. Like Yuli Gurriel is a Latin 35, which means he’s actually 40 years old. Asians are the reverse. An Asian 37 means The Seoul Train is actually 32 years old. The reason for this is prolly racist, so let’s not focus on that. Preseason Rank #74, 2019 Projections: 72/17/43/.259/5 in 523 ABs, Final Numbers: 93/24/61/.265/15 in 563 ABs
33. Brett Gardner – As I was saying with Kepler and in the top 20 outfielders, Gardner didn’t come out of nowhere (or Eaton, Choo or Kole Calhoun; the only one really in this post out of nowhere is Bryan Reynolds, more on him in a few), Gardner simply did what he was capable of with a little help from the juiced ball. Preseason Rank #100, 2019 Projections: 81/10/39/.238/14 in 476 ABs, Final Numbers: 86/28/74/.251/10 in 491 ABs
34. Adam Eaton – Not sure how many of you are watching the postseason. I’d guess 100% of you because you’re reading about baseball in October, so you’re the demographic, but watching Eaton in the postseason makes me think I’m so right to never like him. He gets into one occasionally, and he can get a single here and there, but you watch Eaton and you’re like, “If Eaton was on the Yanks or Mets or Dodgers or Phils any big market team and people would be screaming for Davey Martinez’s resignation for starting Eaton between Turner and Soto.” He is such an utter bore, which is not to say he’s related to Puig. Preseason Rank #94, 2019 Projections: 69/6/31/.293/8 in 437 ABs, Final Numbers: 103/15/49/.279/15 in 566 ABs
35. Ryan Braun – He could have another 35-homer season or a 10-homer season and either way I’d project him for around 21 homers and 10 steals every year unless, of course, I get some inside info that braun’s investing heavily in FedEx stock. Preseason Rank #41, 2019 Projections: 55/21/69/.261/9 in 412 ABs, Final Numbers: 70/22/75/.285/11 in 459 ABs
36. Hunter Dozier – Went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2019 fantasy baseball.
37. Joc Pederson – Went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2019 fantasy baseball.
38. Mallex Smith – How valuable are steals in today’s fantasy baseball? Thank you for asking, Clunky Intro Question! Mallex wasn’t really ownable for about three months, but, due to accumulated steals, he ranked in the top 40. Mallex P. Stealin’ making those Fantasy Ties that bind. Preseason Rank #48, 2019 Projections: 82/3/37/.286/42 in 546 ABs, Final Numbers: 70/6/37/.227/46 in 510 ABs
39. Bryan Reynolds – So, didn’t rank or project one guy in the top 40. That’s pretty impressive, or is sad for how few outfielders came out of nowhere, or a little from A and B. Prolly C, but there’s no C, so I’m painted into a logic corner, help! Not only did I not project Bryan Reynolds but, if I’m being 100 with red underlines, I didn’t even know who he was six months ago. He wasn’t in our Pirates prospect breakdown, and I kinda get it. He’s a .290 hitter without any big power or speed. Hard to get excited about that profile for fantasy. It’s like an old Derek Jeter profile. I will call him Married Jeter. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 83/16/68/.314/3 in 491 ABs
40. Kole Calhoun – Bet you didn’t realize that Kole Calhoun had roughly the same season as Marcell Ozuna, minus some steals. Makes you rethink your interest in where Ozuna’s signing this offseason. Unless he goes to Colorado. OZUNA in the purple mountain majesties makes my pants water. Preseason Rank #99, 2019 Projections: 56/19/64/.221/5 in 519 ABs, Final Numbers: 92/33/74/.232/4 in 552 ABs
