However, in 102 innings, he struck out 112 batters and carried a 3.18 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. Stanford 4. Top 300 Rankings for 2023 "Elig. While Father Time will claim all athletes at some point, the 39-year-old Morton seems to have an agreement in place to avoid being claimed yet. While Varsho has catcher eligibility, he will most likely play outfield or DH rather than take at-bats away from Kirk. When the Yankees traded Jordan Montgomery to St. Louis for an injured Harrison Bader at the deadline, it seemed like somewhat of a baffling move, especially as he tore up the NL Central upon arrival. The annual Fantasy Extra issue of USA TODAY. Ole Miss After winning the College World Series last season, Mississippi State comes. He will be surrounded by superstar talent in the San Diego lineup, and he will have SS and OF eligibility in 2023, but he probably won't be playing the demanding infield position. The 29-year-old's Steamer projections show a 2.96 xFIP and a K/9 north of 11, and his current ADP is 92. Chisholm should enter his age-25 season healthy, though he will probably lose SS eligibility in most formats. 2023 D1Baseball Preseason Top 25 Rankings: LSU Leads The Way 2023 . One striking reason for this was a .368 BABIP, while another was facing a lot of atrocious pitching in the NL Central. Tim Anderson played in only 79 games in 2022, just another lost piece in an overall lost White Sox season. Reigning AL MVP, Aaron Judge, also has a claim to the No. 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. Mar 1, 2023 - 7:00 am. But if you play on a platform where he is counted as both at all times, he is the fantasy 1.1, no matter who they give the real-life MVP to. Ozzie Albies played in only 64 games in 2022, losing time to a broken foot and then a broken pinkie finger. His Statcast page could be the official symbol of Valentine's Day, with the only non-red stat being his fastball spin rate. With the addition of Xander Bogaerts, the return of Fernando Tatis, Jr., and the presence of Manny Machado, this is a real-life team you want multiple pieces of in fantasy. Last year the Seattle Mariners ranked No. But Lodolo is a strikeout machine (131 in 103 innings) and has the stuff to improve on his rookie numbers with a full season. Alejandro Kirk played in 139 games, getting 541 plate appearances and showing improvement in almost every area. Zack Wheeler returned from his 2021 Cy Young runner-up campaign and defended his position as a top starting pitcher in fantasy baseball. The 31-year-old hits the ball hard, in the 90th percentile in HardHit% and maxEV, and his BB% is a stellar 13.1%. He played in 142 games in 2022, batting first in the lineup in all of them. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity . Legitimate building blocks. Ramirez did have UCL repair in November, but there is no doubt he will be ready to go for Spring Training. Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acua Jr. has made quite the name for himself in his short career. Tatis missed the entire 2022 season with injuries and a PED suspension in August. DI Baseball Rankings - D1Baseball.com Top 25 | NCAA.com The 26-year-old definitely has a place on fantasy rosters and can probably be picked up somewhere in the 13th round. Giolito is only 28 years old, and his ADP puts him somewhere around the 13th round. 2023 Pre-Season College Baseball Rankings - Collegiate Baseball Newspaper The list of third basemen capable of that feat stands at one unless Bobby Witt has 3B eligibility in your league. 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. Health is the big issue with him though, as he hasn't played over 120 games since 2019. 2023 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - FantasyRundown.com C.J. Trea Turner, now with the Phillies after signing an 11-year, $300 million deal in free agency. 15. One area that did prove disappointing was his .245 batting average, but this is misleading due to his extremely low .242 BABIP. All in all, Javier will make a great SP3 with SP2 upside. Byron Buxton staying healthy is the carrot dangling in front of fantasy managers every offseason. The Polar Bear was dethroned at the 2022 HR Derby but otherwise had a phenomenal campaign, hitting 40 HR with 131 RBI, 95 runs, and lowering his K% to a career-low 18.7. Before last season, the fantasy community almost unanimously labeled him a second-year bust, but the 29-year-old responded by improving his slash line across the board. Atlanta has a number of closer options, though Iglesias is the most experienced of the bunch and should get the first crack at it. He still has elite breaking balls that limit hard contact and strikes out more than a batter per inning. Liam Hendriks quietly had a very solid year for a disappointing White Sox team. Oregon State Beavers' hot start surges them up college baseball He struck out 194 batters in 148 2/3 innings and held a 2.54 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Brandon Woodruff had a strange 2022 season. Witt struggled to get on base, walking away with an OBP of .294 and xwOBA of .313. Gerrit Cole demonstrated some decline in 2022, allowing 1.48 HR/9 on his way to a 3.50 ERA and a career-high total in homers allowed with 33. 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. The country is. Fried Zack Wheeler JAcob DeGrom Julio Urias Fantasy baseball mock draft Pittsburgh has a good long history of trading great players once they reach arbitration, so chances are that he will don a different uniform come Opening Day. 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. Be prepared to grab him on the turn at the end of Round 1. While his slugging percentage was down significantly, a lot of that can be attributed to working back from the injury. The concerns with Alcantara are related to over-drafting him coming off his career year and an xFIP that was an entire run above his ERA. Lindor is the definition of a "safe" pick in a good lineup with some upside, but he won't be returning to 2017-2019 numbers anytime soon. He contributed across all batting categories, slugging 28 HR with 75 RBI, 84 runs, and 25 stolen bases. If you feel the need for pitching speed, Hunter Greene offers you all that and then some. He will come with a senior citizen discount in drafts, but that could be a heck of a steal if he somehow comes close to a repeat performance. $26 Teoscar Hernandez. In a SV+HD league, Munoz would be considered a stud, and he still has plenty of value in 5x5s. Sounds great for a 27-year-old who could be a fantasy anchor for your pitching staff, right? He deserves a high draft pick - just recognize some slight regression may be on the horizon. The 30-year-old pitched 150 innings after beginning the season on the shelf, and his numbers were markedly improved from his 2021 campaign. $29 Cedric Mullins II. 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. Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez might be the safest player available. Fantasy baseball player rankings for 2023 drafts - mlb.com 2023 fantasy baseball 2B, SS rankings: Target Jazz Chisholm, avoid When he is healthy, Franco offers all the potential in the world, and if he can get 600 plate appearances in 2023, he could be a league winner with his current ADP of 92. Both San Francisco and New York balked at Correa following a physical that reportedly raised concerns about his ankle injury and how it would hold up in such long contracts. Still, his elite on-base skills continue to increase his value in fantasy leagues, especially considering that he bats leadoff in one of the most explosive lineups in baseball. Clayton Kershaw will be 35 on Opening Day, a game he has a high chance to start. Jhoan Duran falls into the category of "too good to be a closer." The bad news for Nick Castellanos was a 46-point drop in his batting average in 2022. That's why you'll find that the rankings are in a different order than the replacement. Willson Contreras signed a 5-year, $87.5 million deal with the Cardinals and will presumably bat in an advantageous position in their lineup. The positives are his solid floor, and a good surrounding lineup will keep the numbers afloat. 2023 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 100 outfielders All of that is to say that the 31-year-old cannot be counted on for exceptional, ace-like numbers. Wright will be a helpful SP3 who can be had in the tenth round of most drafts. He should also get to move back to the infield and play 1B now that Jose Abreu is in Houston. $31 Michael Harris II. Manny Machado took a look at his 2021 numbers and thought they were a little low, so he decided to have one of the best years of his career in 2022, finishing second to Paul Goldschmidt for NL MVP. While he does not have any outward signs of decline, some fantasy managers might be wary of investing a high-round pick in a guy who turns 39 in July. Logan Webb flashed his strikeout upside in 2021, leading to fantasy managers overvaluing him in 2022. MLB Power Rankings 2023: Are Astros, Yankees or Mets on top? His Statcast page is filled with red in every area except barrel% and sprint speed. The 30-year-old has always had good on-base skills and 20-HR power, and his RBI total should hover in the 60-70 range. In 2022, Max Fried demonstrated that pristine control and location can still be effective in today's Triple-Digit SP Society. If Chicago can become what everyone thought it might be last year, Tim Anderson will be a huge reason why. Class of 2023 HS Baseball Player National Rankings - Perfect Game The surface stats are much uglier than fantasy managers have been used to seeing. Reynolds hit 27 HR and slashed .262/.345/.461 and yet scored 74 runs and knocked in only 62. However, his BB% also stands out for being in the 2nd percentile. He struck out 88 batters in 65 2/3 innings while maintaining a 2.19 ERA and 0.93 WHIP. He played in 84 games last season, slashing .295/.358/.500 with 16 HR, 54 RBI, and 40 runs. The switch hitter did everything better when St. Louis put him in the leadoff slot, which led to an overall .265/.324/.400 slash line. The Phillies will score in bunches, and Schwarber may have multi-position eligibility, depending on your league, which is not a bad fantasy asset to have at all as long as you can absorb the batting average. Instead, his K/9 reverted back to his earlier 7.63 range versus the 9.59 K/9 outlier. 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." Drew Rom. However, his .336 BABIP is unsustainable and will take a bite out of his batting average when it corrects. Just make sure you have enough IL slots. David Bednar holds the illustrious title of Best Closer on Worst Team heading into 2023. The Baseball America poll is voted on by staff members of the Baseball America magazine. 2023 fantasy baseball rankings: Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis and more There is a real chance that Patrick Corbinthe same guy who went 6-19 with a 6.31 ERA in 152.2 innings last seasonis going to be the Opening Day starter for the . Montgomery is never going to strike out a ton of batters, but he maintains good ratios and has started 30+ games in the last two years. He is not as highly sought after as the overpowering, high-strikeout guys above him, but he will provide everything fantasy managers need in a closer and then some. Framber Valdez became Mr. Quality Start in 2022, tossing 201 1/3 innings in 31 starts for the World Champions. Daulton Vasho has catcher eligibility, which is one of the primary draws to him being drafted in the 40-50 range. He might be the best SP2 on the board and available in the sixth round in most drafts. All the same, Romano struck out 73 batters in 64 innings while maintaining a 2.11 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. 1 overall pick. He missed time in the middle of the season with a finger injury he incurred while stealing a base, or he would have probably joined the 30/30 Club. He would make for a good SP2 on regular 5x5 fantasy teams. He countered that by being in the 100th percentile in maxEV when he made contact. Andres Gimenez became the Guardians' everyday shortstop in 2022, and the 24-year-old is locked into that role for the foreseeable future thanks to his defense and ability to get on base. His weakness - BB% - is the thing that keeps him in Tier 2 of closers for most fantasy analysts, but his talent and abilities cannot be ignored during drafts. He gave up more home runs in 2022, but his underlying metrics suggest a straightforward, above-average SP4 for fantasy rotations. Fantasy managers can draft him with confidence. Triston McKenzie reduced his BB/9 from 4.35 to 2.07 in 2022, skyrocketing up fantasy rankings and boosting the pitching staff for any manager who rolled the dice on him. Harris should be a 20/20 guy for the foreseeable future, and he is surrounded in the lineup by guys who will boost his counting stats. Eight of the top nine prospects in ZiPS are basically the top pitching prospects on Eric and Tess' list. Yes, he clogs your Utility spot, and it can be frustrating to manage him in weekly leagues where he can only start as one or the other. 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. The best part is that none of these numbers are outliers with expected regression. Nestor Cortes was a gift to fantasy managers who drafted him late in 2022. Rafael Devers is one of the best players in baseball who seems consistently overlooked in fantasy circles. However, if he stays healthy, he has all the makings of an SP1. Luis Castillo got traded to the Mariners at the deadline last season, moving from the band box that is Great American Ballpark to T-Mobile Park and helping Seattle make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. The 22 home runs came out of nowhere, as he had only 18 in his three-year minor league career. His Statcast suggests a propensity to strike out but every other metric is promising for Ward to be a solid roster add, especially in leagues with five outfielders. He crushed a career-high 33 home runs while scoring 91 runs and driving in 83. He is in the 90th percentile and above in nine of 12 categories on Statcast, and even some slight regression in his overall numbers still leaves him in "elite" territory. The Diamondbacks traded Varsho to the Blue Jays in the offseason; Rogers Centre should support another 25-HR, 15-SB season and he could see a bump in runs and RBI with the better lineup around him. There is hope that the White Sox have realized that Eloy Jimenez is a designated hitter and will deploy him as such in an effort to keep the 26-year-old healthy. It's possible they leave him in the 2-slot, especially until Bryce Harper returns, in which case he will continue to score runs and increase his RBI total. The 25-year-old ranks in the 100th percentile in average EV, HardHit%, xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, and Barrel% while coming in the 99th percentile in MaxEV. 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. Still, in leagues with an SS and MI slot, fantasy managers can do a lot worse than a 30/10 guy in the ninth round. Writing that article even helped me think about how to approach drafts. Including the postseason run, Verlander threw 195 innings last season, and even though he has been a workhorse for his entire career, it is fair to question how many more years he can continue to flirt with 200 innings. Bautista is a Tier 2 closer worth targeting in drafts. He started 24 games and threw 153 1/3 innings while maintaining a 3.23 ERA (3.30 xFIP) and 1.14 WHIP. Perhaps that will change in 2023, though he will be playing in one of the least fearsome Boston lineups of his career. 2023 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - Fantasy Six Pack This is important to remember coming off a disappointing 2022 campaign in which he only played 83 games due to hamstring and hamate bone injuries. In 145 1/3 innings, Scherzer struck out 173 batters and maintained a 2.29 ERA and 0.91 WHIP. LSU 5. He is an injury risk after playing in 136 last year and only 96 the year before. For those in shallower leagues, 81 games of production aren't quite as enticing. The good news is that his expected numbers were all higher than the actuals, and he still hit 34 homers with 86 runs and 103 RBI. The good . After signing an 8-year, $168 million contract with the Atlanta Braves, Matt Olson did his best to replace franchise icon Freddie Freeman in one of the weirder series of transactions in recent memory. His Statcast page looks concerning at first, finishing above the 50th percentile in only three categories - extension, fastball velocity, and BB%.