If you have been reading or listening to my content, you have likely heard me reference fScores (named fScores for “fantasy scores”) or use them to compare players. This is a custom fantasy stat I created that aggregates other stats into core skills, weighted against the average player where 100 is average, similar to wRC+ or OPS+. Drafting based on core skills, rather than attempting a “one size fits all” ranking allows for more customization in team build and team design to target the weak points of your team and allow for more balance.
Most sets of player rankings are built toward a traditional roto 5×5 setting and most people play in H2H categories or points leagues with custom settings. Additionally, drafting based on projections is a faulty strategy, rather it makes more sense to draft based on underlying skills and factors that may enhance or hold back those skills. Projections are often too high, too low or too safe. Drafting based on proven skills for what you need is the way to go.
HITTING
There are six main skills that go into an effective fantasy baseball hitter.
- fContact
- fPlate Discipline
- fPower
- fSpeed
- fDurability
- fEF (external factors)
Please read the article “What the f*** is an fScore” for a betting understanding before going through the below rankings.
Other Positions: Catcher fScores, 1B fScores, 2B fScores, SS fScores, 3B fScores, OF fScores, SP fScores, RP fScores
Ranking Notes:
TIER 1 (Witt Jr.)
King of the Castle, after sharing a tier with Betts at SS, Witt gets a tier of his own at 3B. Fantasy players love Witt, non-fantasy players barely know who he is, because he’s buried in Kansas City. Power, speed, hit tool, all he’s missing is the plate skills and we would be putting him up amongst some of the early Mike Trout years.
TIER 2 (de la Cruz, Ramirez, Riley, Henderson)
I mentioned this in the SS section (where de la Cruz and Gunnar are tier 3, rather than tier 2 – showing the dominance of SS), but Elly is a far superior player in roto or categories leagues in general versus points leagues, where he would rate a good deal lower.
A couple years ago J Ram was my top player overall, but now he’s relegated to third in 3B for category purposes. I would place him above even Witt in points leagues.
Riley should hit 10-15 more homers than J Ram, but the speed and plate skills being below average will leave him off with a worse batting average and OBP with significantly lower steals totals.
Gunnar is almost the reverse J Ram. Solid hit tool, great plate skills, but he’s power over speed while J Ram is speed over power.
TIER 3 (Devers, Machado, Lewis, Bregman)
Last year, I was all Riley > Devers and now I have Riley in a completely different tier than Devers; who is pretty comparable to Henderson with quite a bit worse speed.
Machado is coming off injury and if we knew he was 100% going into the season, he would be a pretty solid value in most leagues, because the fScores compare pretty nicely to Devers going into the year.
Lewis looks like a 30 / 15 guy and could easily outperform Devers and Machado in fantasy, but that all depends on if he can stay healthy.
In points leagues, Bregman probably rates as the best player in this tier. He’s an OBP stud and should continue to put up 90/20/90 into this next year, if not better.
TIER 4 (Muncy, Kim, Steer, Arenado)
In roto or batting average leagues, I don’t even want to touch Muncy. Even with the 30 plus homers and good counting stats pretty much banked with health, the batting average decline isn’t worth it. However in points or OBP leagues, this is a good spot for him in the third base rankings.
Kim played above his level in 2023, so he’s going a little too high for my liking, but he has nice position eligibility and should go .260/.345 with 15 homers and 25-30 steals.
Steer is a classic .260/.340 with 20 homers and 8 steals type, but the counting stats he will get hitting third in Cincy boost his overall fantasy value over his hitting profile.
Nado was playing hurt at the end of 2023 with back issues and this led to decreased power. I expect a rebound back to .270 with 30 homers in 2024 with the patented zero speed.
TIER 5 (Polanco – Turner)
This tier is fun… all these guys are staters in 15 team leagues and most of these guys have at least three solid skills with one weakness – but only one of these guys has even above average speed (Gelof)
High contact 25 homer types (w/ injury / PT concerns): Polanco, Jung, Caminero, Candelario, Correa
High power w/ below average contact or discipline: Morel, Suarez, Chapman, Burger, Paredes,
High contact, below average power: Diaz, Hayes, Donovan, Bohm, Turner
This leaves Zac Gelof as the outlier, but his chase rate and overly aggressive plate approach scares me a little, even though I think he will likely go 20/20 – I see inconsistency in the future.
TIER 6 (Marte – Flores)
This tier is huge and is full of guys that will likely start or be a primary backup in 15 team leagues or guys that will be on rosters in 12 team leagues.
Marte tops the list and looks like a solid 20/20 type player for the Reds as long as he gets full playing time.
Black seems like a guy that will go .240/.360 with 10 homers and 30+ steals as long as he plays everyday, which is basically what Willi Castro did last year minus the OBP in 2023. Castro had some luck on his side last year, but has the skill-set to repeat close to what he did in 2023 if he gets PT.
Colt Keith has a rookie profile that looks like 18 homers and 5 steals, which might be disappointing for those who expect him to repeat the power from the minors as a rookie, but remember Detroit isn’t the best park and most rookies take a couple years to meld into the league.
I have a ton of shares of Chris Taylor every year. Consistent 15/15 with multiple position eligibility in deep leagues has value.
Maikel Garcia is basically the speed over power version of Zach Neto… .270/.340 w/ 5 homers and 25 steals.
I don’t like CES and think he’s only a 25 homer guy, because his hit tool is sub par and his plate skills are worse than bad.
Miguel Vargas should be on the As. He’s a great OBP guy, but hasn’t shown enough power or speed to match what we thought he was going to be last year at this time.
McMahon is a solid .260 hitter with Coors who should hit 25 homers.
LeMahieu is the better Ty France, even at this point in his career and will have a chance to leadoff in 2024. Still looks like a .280+ hitter with 15 homers.
Rengifo is an interesting deep guy with some nice position eligibility who could hit .260 with 20-25 homers and 6-8 steals.
Drury and CES are pretty similar, but CES is younger in in a better park, while Drury will have better PT.
Wilmer Flores is basically your classic GUY. He plays 1B / 3B and is a solid replacement value in case of injury type.
TIER 7 (Westburg – Triolo)
This tier is full of younger 2nd year players who didn’t really meet their potential last year (Westburg, Baty, Mead) and some crusty one skill vets (Berti, Rojas, Wisdom). The young guys will go in some standard leagues, but the vets are probably destined to be DC types only for drafts.
TIER 8 (Saggese – Rosario)
There are a few interesting guys in the tier who could come up later in the season, as long as they get regular PAs. Keep an eye on Saggese, Mayo, Thompson and Shaw.
McKinstry and Duran have some nice super utility value in NFBC due to their position flexibility.
TIER 9 (Donaldson – Schmitt)
I don’t want any of these guys in any league…
Please follow me on Twitter @fantasyaceball and subscribe to the Fantasy Aceball podcast for more great content throughout the season. More of my written work, including in-season daily articles can be found on FWFB and Fantasy Pros.
Name | fContact | fDiscipline | fPower | fSpeed | fDurability | TOTAL | FUTURE |
Bobby Witt Jr. | 103 | 86 | 120 | 171 | 120 | 127 | 135 |
Elly de la Cruz | 100 | 91 | 127 | 200 | 102 | 120 | 127 |
Jose Ramirez | 102 | 140 | 101 | 140 | 122 | 122 | 117 |
Austin Riley | 107 | 93 | 158 | 70 | 125 | 116 | 123 |
Gunnar Henderson | 102 | 106 | 130 | 105 | 111 | 113 | 120 |
Rafael Devers | 100 | 105 | 134 | 79 | 115 | 111 | 116 |
Manny Machado | 97 | 111 | 131 | 73 | 113 | 108 | 109 |
Royce Lewis | 100 | 95 | 129 | 107 | 70 | 98 | 109 |
Alex Bregman | 104 | 169 | 97 | 66 | 116 | 112 | 117 |
Max Muncy | 94 | 142 | 156 | 69 | 104 | 115 | 112 |
Ha-Seong Kim | 100 | 134 | 72 | 151 | 108 | 114 | 120 |
Spencer Steer | 96 | 113 | 99 | 89 | 112 | 104 | 109 |
Nolan Arenado | 101 | 106 | 104 | 65 | 111 | 100 | 96 |
Jorge Polanco | 105 | 120 | 129 | 86 | 78 | 99 | 105 |
Christopher Morel | 95 | 91 | 147 | 95 | 100 | 104 | 108 |
Josh Jung | 107 | 74 | 125 | 58 | 70 | 92 | 100 |
Zac Gelof | 101 | 98 | 105 | 138 | 85 | 101 | 107 |
Junior Caminero | 103 | 74 | 113 | 97 | 55 | 90 | 104 |
Yandy Diaz | 111 | 146 | 100 | 63 | 103 | 106 | 109 |
Eugenio Suarez | 102 | 108 | 126 | 67 | 120 | 106 | 106 |
Matt Chapman | 91 | 121 | 136 | 77 | 102 | 102 | 102 |
Jake Burger | 96 | 76 | 143 | 66 | 97 | 99 | 105 |
Ke’Bryan Hayes | 105 | 96 | 86 | 96 | 90 | 95 | 105 |
Isaac Paredes | 92 | 126 | 108 | 66 | 98 | 101 | 106 |
Brandon Donovan | 125 | 141 | 75 | 80 | 91 | 98 | 105 |
Jeimer Candelario | 100 | 104 | 120 | 86 | 99 | 102 | 103 |
Carlos Correa | 101 | 119 | 107 | 67 | 103 | 98 | 98 |
Alec Bohm | 107 | 100 | 90 | 75 | 113 | 98 | 108 |
Justin Turner | 109 | 115 | 97 | 68 | 106 | 101 | 96 |
Noelvi Marte | 96 | 95 | 94 | 125 | 76 | 92 | 99 |
Tyler Black | 90 | 132 | 73 | 143 | 69 | 96 | 108 |
Colt Keith | 98 | 96 | 96 | 77 | 76 | 88 | 100 |
Chris Taylor | 104 | 111 | 110 | 126 | 85 | 104 | 100 |
Maikel Garcia | 101 | 104 | 59 | 126 | 108 | 97 | 102 |
Cristian Encarnacion Strand | 92 | 77 | 128 | 79 | 80 | 91 | 96 |
Miguel Vargas | 93 | 131 | 97 | 83 | 92 | 92 | 90 |
Ryan McMahon | 100 | 106 | 116 | 67 | 111 | 100 | 100 |
D.J. LeMahieu | 109 | 146 | 83 | 73 | 104 | 99 | 100 |
Luis Rengifo | 108 | 95 | 109 | 80 | 81 | 94 | 109 |
Willi Castro | 100 | 90 | 83 | 178 | 84 | 103 | 114 |
Brandon Drury | 99 | 73 | 125 | 62 | 83 | 91 | 97 |
Wilmer Flores | 103 | 125 | 103 | 62 | 100 | 98 | 100 |
Jordan Westburg | 92 | 90 | 99 | 98 | 91 | 90 | 95 |
Justyn Henry-Malloy | 93 | 142 | 85 | 96 | 84 | 94 | 100 |
Jon Berti | 110 | 115 | 70 | 159 | 79 | 99 | 101 |
Josh Rojas | 109 | 107 | 70 | 145 | 77 | 93 | 91 |
Matt Vierling | 101 | 104 | 68 | 82 | 101 | 88 | 93 |
Brett Baty | 98 | 88 | 95 | 78 | 81 | 83 | 90 |
Curtis Mead | 93 | 102 | 89 | 77 | 65 | 84 | 88 |
Patrick Wisdom | 88 | 97 | 165 | 87 | 66 | 96 | 90 |
Anthony Rendon | 102 | 150 | 82 | 87 | 34 | 80 | 97 |
Yoan Moncada | 108 | 89 | 115 | 74 | 82 | 89 | 91 |
JD Davis | 97 | 99 | 108 | 68 | 89 | 91 | 89 |
Jared Triolo | 91 | 120 | 67 | 119 | 77 | 91 | 96 |
Thomas Saggesse | 96 | 82 | 100 | 98 | 69 | 85 | 96 |
Coby Mayo | 89 | 101 | 108 | 77 | 66 | 84 | 94 |
Taylor Walls | 92 | 129 | 60 | 155 | 59 | 92 | 95 |
Zach McKinstry | 106 | 97 | 78 | 111 | 83 | 91 | 94 |
Cavan Biggio | 106 | 143 | 76 | 92 | 71 | 91 | 93 |
Enmanuel Valdez | 89 | 98 | 104 | 93 | 72 | 85 | 89 |
Oswald Peraza | 84 | 83 | 81 | 139 | 80 | 85 | 87 |
Ezequiel Duran | 91 | 71 | 85 | 99 | 89 | 85 | 84 |
Sterlin Thompson | 100 | 90 | 92 | 119 | 51 | 85 | 98 |
Matt Shaw | 101 | 67 | 102 | 170 | 19 | 85 | 87 |
Elehuris Montero | 100 | 64 | 111 | 64 | 85 | 82 | 87 |
Eguy Rosario | 90 | 86 | 90 | 97 | 73 | 81 | 85 |
Josh Donaldson | 83 | 126 | 135 | 63 | 58 | 85 | 79 |
Gio Urshela | 116 | 90 | 76 | 83 | 59 | 78 | 79 |
Mark Vientos | 88 | 69 | 113 | 73 | 80 | 78 | 79 |
Luis Urias | 91 | 122 | 88 | 66 | 62 | 79 | 78 |
Ramon Urias | 98 | 91 | 79 | 69 | 80 | 79 | 76 |
Brian Anderson | 97 | 95 | 91 | 72 | 50 | 76 | 71 |
Jose Miranda | 91 | 89 | 73 | 67 | 76 | 73 | 75 |
Mike Moustakas | 93 | 76 | 85 | 65 | 74 | 76 | 72 |
Evan Longoria | 99 | 109 | 103 | 65 | 50 | 79 | 66 |
Casey Schmitt | 93 | 62 | 77 | 81 | 93 | 74 | 71 |
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