2016 Fantasy Baseball Top 250 Rankings: Rest of Season, Week 10

Credit: Steve Shupe

Ten Weeks. Two and a half months. Forty percent of the season. Say it any way you want, but it’s time. It’s time to stop being so patient and start to drop some of those sleepers that never broke out for some players who are actually doing something.

It’s also time to rethink your strategy. If you see you’ve got no chance in wins or K’s, but could pick up three points in HR if you add a hot power bat, then it’s time to drop that inconsistent fringe pitcher who occasionally blows up your ratios for an Adam Duvall out-of-nowhere type.

Speaking of Adam Duvall, let’s go ahead and get to this week’s Fantasy Baseball Top 250 Rankings.

Stock Rising

Jonathan Villar, SS/3B, Milwaukee Brewers

Psych! I’m not starting with Duvall. I’ve got to start with a guy who has been a top-10 overall contributor thus far on both ESPN and Yahoo thanks mostly to his 21 stolen bases, which leads all of baseball.

I’ve got to confess I didn’t want to believe his hot May (18 R, 16 RBI, 14 SB, .355 AVG) at first. But take a look at his batted ball stats: he has a career high walk rate, an almost 3 to 1 GB/FB (meaning his speed might be able to sustain a lot of that .407 BABIP).

He also has career high line drive and hard hit percentages so he is making better contact. Don’t expect him to hit for the same AVG and RBI as he did in May, but those run and steal numbers are legit.

Adam Duvall, OF, Cincinnati Reds

Alright, here he is, as promised. Don’t let the fact he’s finally getting his first full-time job at age 27 fool you. Duvall’s 16 HR is currently tied for fourth in MLB with the likes of David Ortiz and Robinson Cano.

And the power isn’t really out-of-nowhere: He hit 35 HR between AAA and the bigs last season. He might still be out there in your league since he plays on the lowly Reds.

Wilson Ramos, C, Washington Nationals

Let’s play word association: dumpster fire, wasteland, the catcher position in fantasy baseball 2016. Other than Buster Posey and Jonathan Lucroy, Ramos is the only catcher ranked in the top 300 so far this season.

He’s actually been better than Posey so far. I’m not saying that will stay the same, and his .364 BABIP will likely regress bringing down his average with it, but his HR/FB and hard hit rates look a lot like his injury-shortened 2013, when he hit 16 HR and drove in 59 runs in just 78 games.

Evan Gattis, C/OF, Houston Astros

Gattis is currently ranked 415th in the Yahoo game. So why do you care? Because of that aforementioned dumpster-fire catcher position, where that is actually good enough for fifth best among all catchers!

And guess what? Gattis just started his 5th game there last week, earning him eligibility in Yahoo. He’s already up to eight games started this season, so those of you in ten or twenty game eligibility leagues should go ahead and stash now.

He’s been on fire at the plate since he made the switch, too. Eight of his nine homers have come since he came back from working on his catching in the minors on May 17.

Stock Falling

Luke Gregerson, RP, Houston Astros

Gregerson has been relieved of his closing duties for the time being after blowing his fifth save of the season on June 4. While he may well get the job back, there are a lot of interesting arms in the Houston bullpen.

Ken Giles is the big name (and 5.76 ERA), but Will Harris has the shiny ratios (0.34 ERA, 0.71 WHIP).

Francisco Liriano, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates

What in the name of Ray Searage is going on? After not posting an ERA north of 3.38 in his three years with the Pirates, this year’s Liriano looks a lot like the post-Tommy John American League version, except with a career high 1.64 WHIP to boot.

He’s more than halfway to his 2015 walk total in less than a third of the innings. There are whispers he could be moved to the bullpen to make room for top prospects Tyler Glasnow and Jameson Taillon. As my confidence in him has dropped, so has his ranking.

Hunter Pence, OF, San Francisco Giants

Mike Moustakas, 3B, Kansas City Royals

As usual, injuries knock a couple big names from the ranks. Pence will miss at least eight weeks and maybe more after undergoing surgery to repair a torn hamstring.

Moustakas will miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL in a collision with teammate Alex Gordon.

Fantasy Baseball Top 250 Rankings