The comedian Lewis Black has a fantastic bit about the dumbest thing he’s ever heard in his life. After relaying the thing in question, he cautions the audience, “Don’t think about that sentence for more than three minutes, or blood will shoot out your nose.” This is more or less how it felt trying to make heads or tails of 2017’s weird and wild first month and produce updated rankings. It’s why, unlike my esteemed colleague Nick Mariano, I went only 300 players deep as opposed to 500. Had I pressed on, it might have broken my brain.

All of which is to say, if you disagree strongly with any particular ranking, know that there’s a decent chance you could talk me into adjusting mine. The sheer number of injuries and surprise performances (in both directions) made putting this update together a stiff challenge. Nick finished up the infield with a look at shortstop yesterday, so today we'll be talking outfielders.

You can find our full, updated rankings here. Note that they’re based on a standard 12-teamer, so you should make adjustment based on your specific league settings. Tiers, auction values, prospects, news and more. It's all free.

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2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Outfield (May Updates)

Outfield Rankings Analysis: May

There's been some minor reshuffling in the top three tiers, but for the most part, it's the same players involved. The notable exception, of course, is Aaron Judge. The rookie has slowed down a bit recently with just one home run in his last eight games, but he still leads MLB with 14 bombs. It's worth noting that even with that (relative) drought, his HR/FB% remains close to 50 percent. Given that only one player has ever finished a season with a HR/FB% above 35 percent, it's fair to expect a comedown. Additionally, Judge's elevated strikeout rate will make it tough for him to continue hitting for a high average. Still, he's been much more impressive than any of us expected in 2017.

Moving into the middle tiers, there are some notable risers. Marcell Ozuna has looked more like the elite hitter from the first half of last season than the middling bat of the second half, lending credence to the idea that injury derailed his breakout campaign. Speaking of injury rebounds, Michael Brantley appears to be fully recovered from the shoulder problems that ruined his 2016. Chris Owings is finally cashing in on the promise he showed before his own shoulder issues a couple of years ago, offering opportunistic fantasy owners a blend of power and speed with the added bonus of shortstop eligibility. Jay Bruce is proving he still has something left in the tank, though he'll need to avoid a third straight second-half collapse. Teammate Michael Conforto has taken advantage of the Mets' ever-lengthening list of players on the disabled list and made himself impossible to bench.

The most pronounced drop - outside of the suspended Starling Marte -  belongs to Jose Bautista, who fell from 20th to outside the top 40 outfielders thanks to Nick's pessimistic ranking. The veteran has smacked four homers in May, including three in the past week. Reports of his demise may have been greatly exaggerated. Jackie Bradley Jr. has always been a streaky hitter, and he's been ice-cold to start 2017. In hindsight, my preseason valuation was overly optimistic...though it doesn't look nearly as awful as my bold prediction that Byron Buxton would put up a 20/40 season. There's three-quarters of the season left to play, but that one's already DOA. Can't win 'em all.

A few quick hits to close things out:

• Matt Holliday validated my faith in a rebound, and I failed to give him as much of a bump in this update as I should have. Go ahead and swap him with Bradley in my rankings.
• Mark Trumbo has been even worse than I expected, but he's due for some positive regression. There's no way he ends the season with single-digit HR/FB%.
• Aaron Altherr deserves a lot more love than he got here, and I regret not pushing him harder as a sleeper this offseason.
• Kevin Pillar was my most glaring omission.

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