2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings – Outfield
2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings – Outfield Overview
While the outfield position in fantasy will frequently be highlighted by the “studs” at the position, after all, 4 of the top 6 ranked players in ESPN’s current preseason top 250 overall list are outfielders, I think the thing that wins leagues in the outfield isn’t who in your league ends up with Harper or Trout. In 2015, in fact, it was often who ended up with Marte, Peralta, or Pillar that won leagues. Confused? Let me explain.
I apologize for not having a link to this as it’s behind a pay wall (and my own subscription ran out after reading this article in early October, so I don’t have access to the information), so most here would not be able to access it, but Baseball HQ did a survey of the NFBC leagues and found an interesting thing. They found no correlation to ownership of Harper or Trout to league championships. What they found among outfielders was that league champions had at least two members of three outfields – Pittsburgh, Arizona, and Toronto. Now, that seems to make sense as Pollock was the top ranked outfielder on the season and McCutchen and Bautista were both highly-ranked players, but what they found was that in a majority of the cases, the two outfielders were none of those three players. The Pittsburgh outfield of McCutchen, Marte, and Polanco provided two top 15 outfielders and a top 35 outfielder. The Diamondbacks outfield of Pollock, Peralta, and Inciarte provided the #1, #23, and #26 outfielders. The outfield that the Blue Jays ended with of Bautista, Pillar, and Revere contained the #11, #19, and #22 outfielders. The thing is that most likely you didn’t have to draft at least 3 of those 9 guys to begin the season. ESPN’s own preseason rankings had McCutchen #2 overall among all players and Bautista #8, but after that, Marte came in at #36, Polanco at #124, Pollock at #146, and Revere came in at #175. Pillar, Peralta, and Inciarte were all unranked.
What does that mean for 2016? In all seriousness, I just don’t know. There isn’t a particular pattern to those specific guys other than being from those specific teams. However, don’t be afraid to jump on the guys who are making a splash in the stats. Pollock was a guy who really started well but didn’t explode until after midseason. Marte, on the other hand, hit a ton of home runs in April and never duplicated that month in home runs, though he gave great value the rest of the season overall. Peralta was almost exclusively second-half production. Guys can help your teams in all kinds of ways, so it’s always valuable to keep an eye on how players are doing around the league over the last 10-14 days to get an idea of how they’re trending.
In drafting this year, you’ll have to pay early and often for outfielders, but that’s just it – they’re worth it. We’ll explore it tomorrow, but starting pitching is the only other position that once I pick my first one, I’ll intentionally be trying to squeeze in one every 2-3 picks as I move through a draft. Outfielders are the same way.
2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings – Outfield Rankings
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- Atlanta Braves Mailbag: New Year’s Edition
- Braves News: Atlanta makes a pair of trades, prospect debuts, more
- Atlanta Braves History: How the Red Stockings became the Braves
- Braves News: Atlanta Braves acquire Eli White from the Texas Rangers
In my rankings this year, I’ll post first my rank, then the player’s name and team, followed by the PR rank for the position in 2015, and lastly, any other positions the player will be eligible at in 2016, based on 20-game eligibility.
1. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels, 3
2. Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals, 2
3. Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates, 14
4. Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins, 45
5. A.J. Pollock, Arizona Diamondbacks, 1
6. Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays, 11
7. Starling Marte, Pittsburgh Pirates, 8
8. Mookie Betts, Boston Red Sox, 12
9. George Springer, Houston Astros, 39
10. Justin Upton, Detroit Tigers, 20
11. Nelson Cruz, Seattle Mariners, 6
12. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers, 9
13. Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies, 4
14. Lorenzo Cain, Kansas City Royals, 5
15. Yoenis Cespedes, New York Mets, 7
16. Adam Jones, Baltimore Orioles, 31
17. J.D. Martinez, Detroit Tigers, 13
18. Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado Rockies, 17
19. Carlos Gomez, Houston Astros, 46
20. Jason Heyward, Chicago Cubs, 18
21. Matt Kemp, San Diego Padres, 21
22. Yasiel Puig, Los Angeles Dodgers, 95
23. Hunter Pence, San Francisco Giants, 89
24. Corey Dickerson, Colorado Rockies, 90
25. Jacoby Ellsbury, New York Yankees, 54
26. Hanley Ramirez, Boston Red Sox, 64
27. Christian Yelich, Miami Marlins, 37
28. Gregory Polanco, Pittsburgh Pirates, 32
29. Billy Hamilton, Cincinnati Reds, 27
30. Michael Brantley, Cleveland Indians, 16
2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings – Braves Outfield Highlight
No Braves cracked the top 30 list, but frankly, that’s no knock on Nick Markakis, Ender Inciarte, or Hector Olivera (who will start the season ranked as a third baseman for fantasy purposes). That top 30 left out some pretty impressive players, including 9 guys who finished in the top 30 outfielders last season, so there is plenty of value to be found in Braves outfielders. In fact, Inciarte in 2015 was the #26 ranked outfielder in ESPN’s player rater. I think Braves fans would be best served looking at Inciarte as a fourth outfielder for their fantasy teams and Markakis as a 5th guy. The intriguing outfielder for the Braves to me will be Mallex Smith when the team decides he’s ready. His blazing speed should allow him to tally quite a few stolen bases to help fantasy owners.
Tomahawk Take Fantasy League Announcement
Last season, the Tomahawk Take staff put together two leagues each on Yahoo and ESPN. We had a lot of fun in those leagues, and there was great participation from writers and readers alike. We’ve decided to do the same thing this year. However, we’re going to have things set up a little more ahead of time.
This season, we will have two leagues on each site again, the size of each depending on the interest in each, however, the maximum for each league will be 14, so first come, first serve until the league fills up. We will have one rotisserie league and one head-to-head league on each site. I made a mistake in setting up one league last season, and that won’t happen this year – each league will have daily add/drop moves available. If you are interested in any of the leagues, please email me at gopherben@gmail.com and indicate in your email whether you would prefer ESPN or Yahoo and whether you would prefer roto or H2H. Thanks!
Next: Braves Top 100 Prospects Updated With Offseason Additions
That’s your break down of the outfielders for 2016. Like it, love it, hate it? Comment below, and let’s talk about what you think for 2016!