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We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. We’re gathered here today to look at part one of our outfield rankings, tiers, and auction values, which have certainly seen some movement. Part one of this OF look will check in with three risers and three fallers within the top five tiers.
As before, this round of rankings features picks from myself, Kyle Bishop, Bill Dubiel, Brad Johnson, Harris Yudin and Jeff Kahntroff.
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2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Outfielders - Part One (March Updates)
| Ranking | Tier | Player | Position | Brad | Kyle | Nick | Bill | Harris | Jeff | Auction $ |
| 1 | 1 | Mike Trout | OF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 48 |
| 2 | 1 | Mookie Betts | OF | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 46 |
| 3 | 1 | Kris Bryant | 3B/OF | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 46 |
| 4 | 2 | Bryce Harper | OF | 19 | 13 | 9 | 21 | 9 | 8 | 36 |
| 5 | 2 | Charlie Blackmon | OF | 11 | 17 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 12 | 35 |
| 6 | 2 | Trea Turner | 2B/OF | 13 | 24 | 15 | 22 | 17 | 7 | 34 |
| 7 | 2 | Nelson Cruz | OF | 24 | 28 | 18 | 26 | 28 | 18 | 31 |
| 8 | 2 | Starling Marte | OF | 28 | 20 | 24 | 19 | 31 | 24 | 31 |
| 9 | 2 | Ryan Braun | OF | 33 | 31 | 21 | 16 | 30 | 28 | 30 |
| 10 | 2 | J.D. Martinez | OF | 38 | 18 | 29 | 30 | 36 | 30 | 28 |
| 11 | 2 | Giancarlo Stanton | OF | 25 | 36 | 41 | 29 | 29 | 39 | 26 |
| 12 | 3 | A.J. Pollock | OF | 29 | 39 | 20 | 35 | 39 | 42 | 25 |
| 13 | 3 | George Springer | OF | 35 | 34 | 36 | 44 | 21 | 35 | 25 |
| 14 | 3 | Christian Yelich | OF | 40 | 45 | 50 | 47 | 40 | 58 | 25 |
| 15 | 3 | Carlos Gonzalez | OF | 63 | 40 | 48 | 17 | 49 | 67 | 25 |
| 16 | 3 | Kyle Schwarber | C/OF | 61 | 44 | 65 | 45 | 72 | 48 | 21 |
| 17 | 3 | Justin Upton | OF | 67 | 67 | 42 | 52 | 50 | 57 | 21 |
| 18 | 3 | Yoenis Cespedes | OF | 37 | 42 | 35 | 143 | 35 | 49 | 21 |
| 19 | 3 | Gregory Polanco | OF | 55 | 59 | 54 | 50 | 88 | 56 | 20 |
| 20 | 3 | Khris Davis | OF | 90 | 77 | 55 | 62 | 98 | 80 | 19 |
| 21 | 3 | Andrew McCutchen | OF | 94 | 72 | 73 | 64 | 61 | 113 | 17 |
| 22 | 4 | Jose Bautista | OF | 49 | 71 | 90 | 170 | 80 | 50 | 17 |
| 23 | 4 | Jose Ramirez | 3B/OF | 106 | 99 | 86 | 96 | 100 | 45 | 17 |
| 24 | 4 | Matt Kemp | OF | 80 | 87 | 75 | 86 | 97 | 114 | 15 |
| 25 | 4 | Adam Jones | OF | 122 | 86 | 79 | 83 | 81 | 118 | 15 |
| 26 | 4 | Jackie Bradley | OF | 99 | 76 | 107 | 88 | 89 | 115 | 15 |
| 27 | 4 | Mark Trumbo | OF | 136 | 134 | 85 | 107 | 74 | 60 | 15 |
| 28 | 4 | Billy Hamilton | OF | 120 | 111 | 127 | 87 | 77 | 92 | 15 |
| 29 | 4 | Lorenzo Cain | OF | 123 | 121 | 102 | 89 | 92 | 101 | 14 |
| 30 | 5 | Odubel Herrera | OF | 84 | 84 | 104 | 145 | 153 | 87 | 14 |
| 31 | 5 | Andrew Benintendi | OF | 116 | 147 | 115 | 82 | 107 | 112 | 13 |
| 32 | 5 | Stephen Piscotty | OF | 126 | 93 | 130 | 101 | 125 | 127 | 13 |
| 33 | 5 | Ian Desmond | OF | 100 | 118 | 144 | 190 | 51 | 107 | 10 |
| 34 | 5 | Adam Eaton | OF | 133 | 116 | 113 | 153 | 91 | 117 | 10 |
| 35 | 5 | David Dahl | OF | 104 | 107 | 119 | 117 | 90 | 189 | 10 |
| 36 | 5 | Kole Calhoun | OF | 109 | 133 | 125 | 140 | 126 | 142 | 10 |
| 37 | 5 | Hunter Pence | OF | 111 | 122 | 138 | 124 | 158 | 141 | 10 |
| 38 | 5 | Dexter Fowler | OF | 110 | 136 | 120 | 189 | 152 | 116 | 10 |
| 39 | 5 | Ben Zobrist | 2B/OF | 132 | 117 | 157 | 183 | 150 | 109 | 9 |
| 40 | 5 | Jose Peraza | SS/OF | 91 | 143 | 141 | 284 | 161 | 95 | 8 |
| 41 | 5 | Joc Pederson | OF | 124 | 108 | 162 | 231 | 127 | 171 | 8 |
| 42 | 5 | Adam Duvall | OF | 196 | 153 | 163 | 91 | 189 | 144 | 8 |
Outfield (Part One) Rankings Analysis: March Risers and Fallers
Rankings Risers:
Giancarlo Stanton
Oh, how the mighty have…risen? Giancarlo Stanton, who is literally mighty, has leapfrogged his way into this tier after residing behind A.J. Pollock inside of Tier Three in the February rankings. Perhaps this is because he’s still healthy as the season draws near? Or perhaps it’s because of that outrageous moonshot that he launched a few days ago. Despite my own moving him down three slots, Bill and Harris combined to give him a 19-point jump that put the true 50-homer threat into the second tier.
Davis also stepped up a tier, going from early in the fourth tier to late in the third as we appear to be warming up to these big boppers. With the fears that Oakland Coliseum would zap the power that he flashed at Miller Park well in the rearview mirror, as well as now having a 150-game season under his belt, the 29-year-old should be able to repeat his 2016 with close to 40 homers and 100 RBIs for fantasy owners. This is one of the few bats in the league that can sustain a 25% HR/FB rate and that needs to be respected.
Cain also got a bump from five to four in the tier department, as he shoots up six slots – from No. 35 overall in the OF to No. 29. It looks as though myself, Bill and Harris all jumped him at least 20 spots in our rankings. If their thinking was anything like mine, it was simply that I was undervaluing the potential five-category contributions that Cain has shown to be capable of. While he’s never been able to play in more than 140 games at any point in his big-league career, Cain still has that 85/15/70/25/.300 kind of stat line well within reach. We do need to bake in some durability risk into the ranking, but now four of the six rankers are well ahead of his average ADP of 121.5.
Rankings Fallers:
Kris Bryant
Well, would you look at that? It would appear that Mookie Betts has overtaken Kris Bryant for the No. 2 thanks to a shift by Bill. While four of the six rankers had these three within their top three overall, Bill had Bryant at No. 3 in the February round of rankings and now he has slotted him back at No. 5 (but still ahead of Betts at No. 6). It doesn’t sound like much, but within the top-10 that’s a pretty big step. No one is going to sit here and tell you that Bryant is a bad selection, but Bill now has Jose Altuve, Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt ranked ahead of him. With Altuve and Goldschmidt able to provide serious five-category juice and Arenado's Coors-infused power, perhaps one should think twice about automatically putting Bryant into their top three.
Cespedes slid behind Christian Yelich, Carlos Gonzalez and Justin Upton here. This may be partly due to an error in how far Bill wanted to push him down, as No. 143 is leagues beyond the next lowest ranking (No. 49), but that doesn’t change that many of us – myself included – checked in lower on Yo in March than we did in February. Bill’s rankings aside, Kyle and I both knocked him down roughly 10 spots each. While Cespedes’ power is undeniable, I myself just didn’t feel as confident in his durability to make him an early third-rounder in 12-team leagues.
Herrera slides into the fifth tier after checking in from Tier Four in February, as I know that I felt like I was giving his red-hot start in 2016 too much weight. It was lovely, don’t get me wrong, but I’m rather confident that who he was over the final four months of the season is the type of baseline to expect moving forward. That is, a guy who should flirt with a 15/25 season, but with a .270 average rather than a mark challenging the .290s. His limited RBI opportunities from the two-hole in that Philadelphia lineup also cast quite the shadow.
Tune in tomorrow for part two!
