At the age of 21, he didn't take many walks and struggled with strikeouts, but these numbers should improve based on his profile in the minors. Chris Sale seemed like the most snake-bitten player in baseball last season. He does allow more hard contact than we'd like from an SP1, but he slots in nicely as an SP2/SP3 as long as fantasy managers account for some regression while drafting. The 13 wins were nice, and his underlying metrics remain stellar, but he comes with a little more risk than previously. Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez might be the safest player available. While waiting for him to possibly return, he fell off a bike and fractured his wrist, which had to be surgically repaired in the offseason. A healthy Gallen is a steal at his ADP of 74. However, if he stays healthy, he has all the makings of an SP1. $28 George Springer. If someone could guarantee that 2021 Tatis is who we're getting, he'd be a Top 5 pick, but the variables are numerous, and the impact is unknown. The regression happened across the board everywhere but stolen bases, where he actually increased from 15 to 25 in 2022. There is nothing wrong with boring, as long as you don't reach for it. 2 starter in Minnesota in 2022, striking out 151 batters in 147 innings, going 13-8 with a 3.55 ERA and 1.10 WHIP. If spin rate is your jam, you'll love what Ryan Pressly has to offer. Expect more of the same in 2023. He has elite curveball and fastball spin rates, but he was a bit wild with the breaking pitches, which is pretty typical for pitchers coming back. Unless you're in a quirky league where defense counts, Melendez fills a scarce position with decent skills. The Beavers on Monday moved into the rankings in five of the six national . Heading into the season, Juan Soto is the leading candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, which feels ridiculous to say about a guy who still ended with a WAR of 5.2. His .237 BABIP is due for some regression, and his xFIP was 3.77. Top 300 Rankings for 2023 "Elig. He is in the top 10 percent in maxEV and xBA, and the new SB rules could benefit someone with his speed. Tatis's raw skills are phenomenal; he hits the ball as hard as anyone in the game, runs extremely well, and gets on base. Wheeler will take the ball every fifth day and deliver a strikeout per inning, solid ratios, and should be a good source of wins for the defending National League Champions and your fantasy squad. He should rack up the RBIs batting in the middle of that order, and he may creep back toward the 30-HR mark as well. Ole Miss After winning the College World Series last season, Mississippi State comes. Batters did hit him a little harder when they did make contact, and he had a career-high 1.26 HR/9, but the rest of his Statcast profile still shines bright red. His homers fell from 31 to 27 as a result, but he increased his runs and RBI by 11 each, and he stole 25 bases to boot. 1 starter. The only statistical knock on the 30-year-old has been two straight years of decreasing wOBA, but that's splitting hairs with it sitting in the .360 range even after the "decline." Yes, the Reds are going to be absolutely terrible, so there probably won't be many wins. The Red Sox have steadily climbed in BA's organizational rankings under chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom; the club bottomed out in last place (30th) in 2019 before back-to-back 20th-place . Assuming Ty France no longer qualifies at 2B, the complexion of his fantasy value changes. Make sure your ratios are protected before drafting him for saves. He did cut down on his strikeout rate, but he can be something of a free swinger. In his rookie season, he hit 15 HR and 66 RBI with a .751 OPS and had above-average slugging numbers and K%. The 25-year-old set a new career high in 2022 in games played and still didn't crack 100, finishing at 98 with a variety of ailments and injuries derailing any sort of rhythm he could get. He hit .270, though his xBA was only .254. Take charge of your health and empower yourself with the knowledge of your own health status. He has power to all fields, bats in the middle of a World Champion lineup, and will protect your ratios in traditional 5x5 leagues and those with advanced categories. Nola is in the last year of his contract with the Phillies, so he will have plenty of motivation to demonstrate his ability to serve as the ace of any staff. Nothing in his underlying metrics looks like a giant red flag. He is an injury risk after playing in 136 last year and only 96 the year before. The 28-year-old ended with a 5.22 ERA and 1.28 WHIP, both of which are career highs by a longshot. If your league is deep enough to stream a 1B based on home/away location, then Cron is a perfectly fine option. Kevin Askeland Feb 16, 2023 Active baseball coaches with most wins The rest of his numbers remained stellar. With a K% in the 96th percentile, the 25-year-old will be one of the Top 3 RP without a clear path to saves taken off the board. Yu Darvish is an often-overlooked starter in fantasy drafts, be it his age or his past inflated ERA that drive people away. Torres played a much better second base than shortstop, and he should have a lock on the position. Once you have good fireballers on your roster, Montgomery can fill in and hopefully garner a couple of wins with a great Cardinals offense and top-5 defense supporting him. Reports also surfaced that he had turned down a 15-year, $440 million offer from Washington, and soon, the HR Derby winner headed to San Diego with expectations as big as the contract he turned down. Anderson hits for a high average and doesn't strike out much, which puts him on base and with great baserunning instinct (81% career success rate). Gausman throws his split-finger fastball almost 35% of the time, which is his best pitch but also the one that can lead to this type of BABIP jump. Other Top 25 teams include No. Tatis missed the entire 2022 season with injuries and a PED suspension in August. Out of 14 Statcast pitching categories, the 28-year-old ranks in the 99th or 100th percentile in nine of them. He started 32 games, throwing 189 innings and striking out 212 batters. He threw 184 innings, going 14-8 while striking out 227 batters with an ERA of 2.20 and a WHIP of 1.11. He started 24 games and threw 153 1/3 innings while maintaining a 3.23 ERA (3.30 xFIP) and 1.14 WHIP. 2. If he indeed gets to bat in front of the likes of Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado, he will be worth a higher pick and should benefit from the new SB rules. The talent is enormous but now, at age 33, the injury concerns continue to grow as well. All in all, Javier will make a great SP3 with SP2 upside. Recruit's Nat Rank. The Home Field Sports fantasy baseball rankings series continues with second basemen and shortstops, which are normally tough positions to navigate with not many reliable hitting threats. The surface stats are much uglier than fantasy managers have been used to seeing. Julio Urias ended the 2022 season with a shiny 2.16 ERA, but this belies some concerning underlying numbers that pushed his xFIP to 3.81. Christian Yelich played in 154 games in 2022, his highest total since his last year in Miami in 2017. Collegiate Baseball's 2023 College Baseball Preview Edition (Jan. 6, 2023) has just been published and features all the top teams and players on all levels of college baseball plus a look at the top 963 college baseball players for the 2023 MLB Draft, All-American teams and much more. He pitched 185 2/3 innings, striking out 174 batters with a 3.20 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. Globe Life Park is a better hitter's park than City Field, but when it comes to deGrom, the only factor that impacts his fantasy value is availability. Even with the walks, Doval is a Tier 2 closer you can get in the seventh or eighth round. The 27-year-old struck out 156 times in 586 at-bats while drawing only 46 free passes; if you believe it, these were improved numbers from 2021. His HR tally dropped from 34 to 14 and games played went from 132 to 96. A full season from Cruz has sky-high potential, but he still plays in Pittsburgh with little in the way of talent around him, especially if Bryan Reynolds leaves by trade. He hit 31 HR in 451 plate appearances with 78 RBI. Draft him with confidence. Dylan Cease finished second to Justin Verlander for 2022 AL Cy Young and had an outstanding year for a wildly disappointing White Sox team. While Varsho has catcher eligibility, he will most likely play outfield or DH rather than take at-bats away from Kirk. The 27-year-old demonstrated an easy delivery, and the Marlins demonstrated comfort in letting him go deep into ballgames. $30 Randy Arozarena. If you miss the first half dozen third basemen, Chapman can provide some value at his current ADP. Even with that, the 33-year-old hit 23 home runs with 76 RBI and 48 runs scored. The question was only how far the fall would be. Eight of the top nine prospects in ZiPS are basically the top pitching prospects on Eric and Tess' list. Be prepared to grab him on the turn at the end of Round 1. His BABIP was slightly lower than his career average, meaning fantasy managers could see a small bump in batting average. Fantasy baseball draft season is here now that MLB Opening Day is only a few weeks away, and bet.NOLA.com has positional rankings beginning with first base and third base . The lack of walks is his calling card, even if he gives up hard contact on his four other pitches. Alexis Diaz is already named the official closer for the Reds, which isn't a testament to his RP prowess, considering Cinci is going nowhere fast. The Orioles seem dedicated to giving their prospects every opportunity to succeed, which boosts Mullins's value in the runs category. Kershaw has always pitched as though allowing walks offends him to his core, and he is still in the 93rd percentile in walk rate. He ended with an ERA of 3.19 and WHIP of 1.16, and 174 strikeouts in 180 1/3 innings. For you, that means reading and listening to as much content as possible. Fantasy managers shouldn't worry any more than they typically do about his injury risk. He stole six bases in nine attempts, but his numbers declined from his best year in 2021. His EV and HardHit% certainly showed no signs of slowing down, and he remains an on-base machine batting at the top of a fearsome lineup. He continued to smash the ball, sitting in the 90th percentile in avgEV, MaxEV, and HardHit%. He struck out 88 batters in 65 2/3 innings while maintaining a 2.19 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. Jose Ramirez remains criminally underrated, considering his productivity remains fantasy relevant across categories. Fantasy managers are scared because of injury risk or age, but Stanton is going to mash. His Statcast page reads like a warning when comparing his expected numbers with his actual ones. Jhoan Duran falls into the category of "too good to be a closer." Fantasy managers need only remember that his days of 30 starts are long gone, and he will have one or two IL stints during the season. But at the end of the day, fantasy managers are drafting him for his elite speed and ability to steal bases, a skill that may get even better depending on how the new baserunning rules play out. Behind all of this is the hope that he can return to his 2019 form, which is the last time he made more than 10 starts in a season. While it's a terrible idea to chase wins on draft day, it is still worth noting that Kyle Wright had 21 of them in 2022. The USAToday/ESPN Coaches Poll is voted on by a panel of 31 Division I baseball coaches. These should correct to be nearer to his baseline, in which case fantasy managers are drafting a 30/20 guy with high on-base skills who bats smack in the middle of what is, essentially, an All-Star team. M.J. Melendez debuted and appeared in 129 games in 2022, showing off his patience and power to the tune of 18 HR and a 12.4% BB rate. The first Top 25 of the regular season will be posted February 28, 2023. Yet every year on draft day, there he sits in the ninth or tenth round, and every year we all imagine what an absolute steal that would be if he were to play 140+ games. The case for Turner is an easy one; he hasn't hit under .290 since 2018 and his OPS has been over .800 for five straight seasons. Washington Nationals. Byron Buxton staying healthy is the carrot dangling in front of fantasy managers every offseason. Ke'Bryan Hayes might have some good power hiding inside his offensive toolbox, but if you draft him for steals and batting average help, you'll feel much better about him in your lineup. At his current ADP of 129, he is an absolute steal, even taking into account that he won't play 150 games. Which starting pitchers deserve a first-round grade? Here's to hoping he plays 150+ in 2023! Gunnar Henderson's Double-A and Triple-A numbers were cheat-code level, so the Orioles brought him up for 34 games in 2022. The power decreased (45 HR to 26) but in exchange, his K% dropped, and he landed in the 95th percentile in outs above average. Fantasy players need to note two important things: (1) The change from pitcher-friendly Oracle Park to hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium will have some elevated effect to his ERA; and (2) Beware of drafting an oft-injured pitcher coming off a career year. He slashed .307/.377/.456, but his expected numbers suggest his stat line should have been closer to .259/.363/.383. Strider has the makings of a bona fide ace and is only 24 years old. Making a case for him to go 1.1 in 2023 drafts isn't difficult. The 29-year-old scored 101 runs and tallied 100 RBI, often batting behind Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in L.A. Fantasy managers shouldn't expect a repeat RBI performance, given that he is almost assuredly going to bat leadoff in Philly, but repeating a 20 HR/100 R season is likely as Citizens Bank plays well to right-handed power. Semien is a great, reliable 2B option, which at this point, looks like a very shallow position heading into 2023. The 28-year-old shortstop did the tango with the Giants (12-year, $315 million) and waltzed with the Mets (12-year, $315 million) before they rejected him, and he decided to take his ex back, signing a 6-year, $200 million contract with the Twins. Jorge Polanco had an injury-plagued 2022 which undermined the fact that his stats when healthy were on par with his 2021 season. That second-half stat line was much closer to his career average, and he still bats in a high-octane lineup that should drive his counting stats back to the 25/15 range without harming your ratios.
