Pitchers and catchers think they’re so cool just because they report first and get everyone all hot and bothered. Well we haven’t forsaken the other positions, and I’m here to take you on a nice leisurely tour through our outfield ranks.

Our highly esteemed rankings panel includes fine gentlemen such as Brad Johnson, Max Petrie, Kyle Bishop, Harris Yudin, Jeff Kahntroff, Bill Dubiel, and myself (okay, so six-sevenths of esteem). We've all provided our individual rankings below, created tiers, and came out with a staff consensus rank.

Editor's note: Since this column obviously won't be enough for you, be sure to also check out our 2016 fantasy baseball rankings dashboard. Everything you need, in one easy place - tiered staff rankings for all positions, top MLB prospects, dynasty/keeper rankings, and lots more.

 

2016 Fantasy Baseball Rankings Analysis: Outfield (Part One)

Tier One

There’s no other way to cut it, you’re going to be thrilled to land either Mike Trout or Bryce Harper heading into 2016. Trout is still #1 for five of us, but Harris and Bill have Harper first on their boards. I can respect that, though I personally want Trout’s floor as tied to his durability.

I know, the August wrist injury last year really crippled his year-end statline, stupid Trout only hitting 41 dingers. Bryce muscled out 42 while hitting .330 and just looking supremely dominant, walking almost as much as he struck out! That’s 124 walks to 131 strikeouts for you number-lovers. You won’t go wrong here.

Tier Two

This houses the best outfield bats for the rest of us mere mortals who don’t score top three overall picks or pony up $$$ in auctions. Giancarlo Stanton could be a top tier player if his body could keep up with his strength, though I won’t hold the whole getting hit in the face with a pitch against him. When he’s on the field he swings the strongest bat in all of baseball, hitting laser shots like he’s playing tee ball. Andrew McCutchen got off to a very slow start, and the steals dipped, but he should still be considered a safe pick in the first round. He won’t vault you to glory, but he should give you an amazing foundation to work with.

You’ll also find three young guns here in George Springer, Mookie Betts, and A.J. Pollock. All three are in healthy offensive environments, with Springer and Betts in two of the strongest lineups in baseball. None of these guys are going to be regular first rounders in most drafts, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you told me they ended 2016 with top-12 numbers.

Tier Three

There's plenty of upside, but you can see the fleas with most of the players here. I believe J.D. Martinez and Justin Upton are both a notch above the rest in here (as reflected in the numbers), but Tier 2.5 doesn’t really gel. Martinez and Upton join forces in a Detroit Tigers lineup that also has some guy named Miguel Cabrera and the 1-6 of this squad is quite formidable. Both should have great years, as Martinez's swing is clearly legitimate and Upton, while streaky, will put together enough heat waves to be a force. Nelson Cruz won’t be a .300 hitter again, that .350 BABIP was way off the usual .295 BABIP we’re used to seeing from him. The power is real though, he should contribute at least 35 home runs if health permits.

Carlos Gomez is another intriguing name, as you can see some of us really believe in him and others are cooler on him. I think he’s a solid dice-roll, but I’m usually not keen on rolling dice that early. I don’t see the average going back up to the .280 range, but the power and speed has a good shot at coming back. If he returns to 20-30 form with the counting stats that come with playing in a very strong Astros lineup, then you’re going to be raking in Scrooge McDuckian profits.

Tier Four

It's a big one, housing 17 players with the polarizing Yasiel Puig as the headliner. There’s no doubting that Puig struggled last year, it’s just a matter of how far you see him bouncing back in 2016. He walked less, struck out more, and made worse contact in his third major league season. Injuries to both of his hamstrings didn’t help his cause for any consistency during the season, but at the same time he was clearly off at the dish. Can he rekindle that plate discipline? Maybe he just needs Don Mattingly out of his life (sorry, Donnie).

There are some buzzy younger players here in Christian Yelich, Joc Pederson, Jorge Soler, Adam Eaton, and Billy Hamilton. Yelich really turned it on after his back injury subsided, just don’t count on that power stroke coming around. Meanwhile first half Joc had DirecTV, while second half Joc may not have even had a television. Sustaining that wild first half production would have required Monstars-level voodoo, but he isn’t nearly as bad as that second half was either.

He has power and should be good for 25 homers, and while his average won’t help anyone, if you play in OBP leagues he is a much sturdier option. Soler might get buried while the hype surrounds his teammates, but let that be your gain. The power is very real and he’s just turning 24, if he simply approaches being average at hitting pitches that aren’t fastballs then he could skyrocket.

Adam Eaton had a horrible April, and while he got on track afterwards, the White Sox offense in general sputtered for much of the year. He still managed 98 runs and grew into a power stroke (14 bombs) to complement his modest speed (18 swipes) alongside the healthy average (.287). Perhaps the power isn't totally sustainable, but seems to be a solid five-cat player who could still have some growth in him. Billy Hamilton...what can I say about B-Ham? I don’t hide that I hate him (Kyle just had to one-up me with his 53^rd ranking to my 52^nd) [Looooove youuuuuu...hate the Hamburglar. -Ed.] I see the appeal, I really do, as he’s electric on the basepaths. In just 450 plate appearances he stole 57 bases and was only caught eight times! I just can’t get with how much of a suck he is on the other categories, but if he commits to a level approach at the plate and tries to put the ball on the ground more, playing to his elite speed strength, then I could be eating crow all year.

 

Outfield Tiered Fantasy Baseball Rankings (February)

Ranking	Tier	Name	Brad	Max	Kyle	Nick	Harris	Jeff	Bill
1	1	Mike Trout	1	1	1	1	2	1	2
2	1	Bryce Harper	2	2	2	2	1	2	1
3	2	Giancarlo Stanton	4	3	3	3	3	3	3
4	2	Andrew McCutchen	3	4	4	4	4	6	4
5	2	Jose Bautista	8	5	6	5	5	7	5
6	2	George Springer	6	9	5	6	6	9	7
7	2	Mookie Betts	5	6	9	7	7	5	10
8	2	A.J. Pollock	7	7	8	8	15	4	6
9	2	Starling Marte	9	8	7	12	13	8	8
10	2	Ryan Braun	11	10	10	9	8	10	9
11	3	J.D. Martinez	10	12	11	10	11	12	11
12	3	Justin Upton	13	11	12	11	9	13	14
13	3	Charlie Blackmon	12	14	13	13	19	15	15
14	3	Nelson Cruz	15	16	15	15	10	16	16
15	3	Lorenzo Cain	18	19	14	16	14	11	12
16	3	Carlos Gomez	14	13	23	19	22	14	19
17	3	Kyle Schwarber	16	15	16	21	17	24	17
18	3	Carlos Gonzalez	19	17	19	18	16	21	18
19	3	Adam Jones	20	20	21	14	25	19	13
20	3	Yoenis Cespedes	23	21	20	17	12	20	20
21	3	Jason Heyward	17	18	17	20	18	25	21
22	4	Yasiel Puig	21	23	18	23	26	17	24
23	4	Hunter Pence	26	22	22	22	33	22	23
24	4	Jacoby Ellsbury	22	24	41	30	20	18	25
25	4	Brett Gardner	25	26	27	31	31	23	31
26	4	Curtis Granderson	30	33	28	28	24	32	26
27	4	Alex Gordon	24	31	29	33	28	37	29
28	4	Kole Calhoun	28	27	31	36	32	35	28
29	4	David Peralta	38	28	24	27	38	31	32
30	4	Christian Yelich	29	37	35	29	21	34	36
31	4	Matt Holliday	40	30	32	26	42	30	30
32	4	Joc Pederson	33	41	25	38	23	36	35
33	4	Jorge Soler	42	32	30	34	35	29	33
34	4	Corey Dickerson	36	29	33	24	37	54	22
35	4	Adam Eaton	35	40	26	25	47	28	39
36	4	Billy Hamilton	27	25	53	52	29	27	34
37	4	Michael Brantley	49	38	37	41	27	33	27
38	4	Shin-Soo Choo	37	35	38	32	30	41	40
39	5	Michael Conforto	31	34	40	48	36	39	42
40	5	Gregory Polanco	44	36	42	43	43	26	36
41	5	Josh Reddick	32	43	36	40	53	40	38
42	5	Stephen Piscotty	39	39	39	37	39	52	44
43	5	Hanley Ramirez	34	48	44	35	44	47	46
44	5	Randal Grichuk	43	44	34	39	54	45	45
45	5	Dexter Fowler	48	42	43	45	46	48	43
46	5	Matt Kemp	41	45	45	42	52	49	41
47	6	Ben Revere	55	51	56	55	41	44	48
48	6	Kevin Pillar	52	55	51	49	49	46	51
49	6	Delino Deshields	65	49	48	47	40	59	53
50	6	Steven Souza	56	56	46	46	45	53	61
51	6	Billy Burns	45	54	47	59	50	55	55
52	6	Evan Gattis	47	47	55	44	57	73	49
53	6	Ender Inciarte	59	46	54	56	61	51	47
54	6	Wil Myers	68	60	65	58	34	42	58
55	6	Ben Zobrist	54	52	58	57	55	63	50
56	6	Jayson Werth	50	61	49	68	67	43	52
57	6	Gerardo Parra	46	50	57	54	56	71	60
58	6	Khris Davis	63	62	52	53	58	50	62
59	6	Marcell Ozuna	67	57	50	61	65	57	57
60	6	Melky Cabrera	57	53	59	62	69	62	54
61	7	Cameron Maybin	70	59	62	60	72	60	59
62	7	Mark Trumbo	78	78	69	50	59	38	74
63	7	Jay Bruce	64	70	68	51	64	65	69
64	7	Carlos Beltran	62	67	63	64	76	58	66
65	7	Eddie Rosario	60	64	67	72	68	67	67
66	7	Odubel Herrera	58	66	60	74	86	66	56
67	7	Aaron Altherr	61	63	61	63	88	68	65
68	7	Colby Rasmus	71	75	66	65	51	70	72
69	7	Rusney Castillo	69	58	64	69	89	56	68
70	7	Brandon Moss	51	71	74	67	74	74	64
71	7	Byron Buxton	75	76	72	79	48	61	70
72	7	Aaron Hicks	77	68	70	66	78	69	63
73	8	Brad Miller	66	69	71	78	71	72	76
74	8	Denard Span	74	73	86	77	60	64	71
75	8	Danny Valencia	53	65	79	75	80	81	73
76	8	Nori Aoki	73	72	80	80	62	75	88
77	8	Domingo Santana	81	77	77	70	66	76	87
78	8	Marlon Byrd	80	79	73	76	84	80	75
79	8	Kevin Kiermaier	83	84	75	85	73	73	80
80	8	Chris Colabello	93	82	84	73	75	90	86
81	8	Brock Holt	79	83	81	83	94	91	79
82	9	Hyun-soo Kim	76	92	98	71	-	85
83	9	Derek Dietrich	82	96	76	84	-	88	81
84	9	Yasmany Tomas	97	74	96	86	81	78	82
85	9	Austin Jackson	72	95	88	82	91	87	-
86	9	Jackie Bradley Jr.	96	97	83	87	77	77	90
87	9	Eduardo Escobar	-	88	89	88	-	84	89
88	9	Dalton Pompey	86	80	78	98	87	97	-
89	9	Nick Markakis	87	91	93	92	79		-
90	9	Leonys Martin	94	93	95	93	63	93	-
91	9	Andre Ethier	85	87	87	90	99	83	-
92	9	Avisail Garcia	-	85	-	99	82	-	-
93	9	Mark Canha	98	89	82	109	83	86	78
94	9	Franklin Gutierrez	95	100	90	81	-	79	91
95	9	Anthony Gose	-	102	85	100	93	82	77
96	9	Jarrod Dyson	106	81	94	97	70	94	-
97	9	Alex Rios	88	90	99	94	96	-	84
98	9	Desmond Jennings	99	86	-	96	90	92	-
99	9	Josh Hamilton	91	94	97	95	92	89	-
100	9	Preston Tucker	107	99	91	89	-		83
101	9	Chris Coghlan	84	103	100	91	-		-
102	9	Adam Duvall	90	104	-	103	85	99	-
103	9	Michael Taylor	89	102	92	102	95	98	-
104	9	Oswaldo Arcia	-	105	-	104	100	96	85
105	9	Coco Crisp	92	106	-	101	98	95	-
106	9	Angel Pagan	102	99	-	107	-	-	-
107	9	Rymer Liriano	105	101	-	105	-	100	-
108	9	Seth Smith	101	107	-	-	-	-	-
109	9	Rajai Davis	100	-	-	108	-	-	-
110	9	Abraham Almonte	104	-	-	-	-	-	-
111	9	Nomar Mazara	103	-	-	106	-	-	-
112	9	Will Venable	-	108	-	110	97	-	-

 

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