HRs dropped by 729 to 5215, a 12% decline from 2021.

The league SLG fell to .395, the first time below .400 since 2014.

Aaron Judge led the league with 62 HRs, easily outpacing the NL leader, Kyle Schwarber, and his 46.

Two other players hit 40+ with Mike Trout and Pete Alonso (40 each) joining Judge and Schwarber, giving us four hitters with 40+ HRs, down from the five in 2021.

Six players hit 35-39: Austin Riley (38), Yordan Alvarez (37), Christian Walker (36), Paul Goldschmidt (35), Mookie Betts (35), Rowdy Tellez (35). Down from 14 in 2021.

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10/14/22

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EARLY DC DRAFT REVIEW

• Julio Rodríguez #1 overall
• Aaron Judge #3 overall
• No 1st rd SPs (outside of Ohtani)
• Gerrit Cole 1st SP at #16
• 6 2nd rd SPs: Cole, Burnes, Woodruff, Alcantara, McClanahan, Cease

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Catcher is always an interesting fantasy position. In 1-catcher formats, you will have a large portion of the league that simply takes what the drafts gives them, even if they are the last one to select their backstop. While they know the teams with the stud Cs will have an advantage, it is one they are willing to relent as they are fine getting “stuck” with the lower end and streaming. In 2-catcher formats, there is an array of strategies ranging from double studs at the high end to double punt at the low end and everything in between.

The position seems to be undergoing a youth movement recently that could result in uncharacteristic depth. It is normal to see catchers breakout later as hitters because their #1 priority upon arrival is managing the pitching staff and to a lesser extent, the running game. This year saw a spike in young catchers both playing and playing well. The 10 catchers age-25 and under who logged 200+ PA doubled last year’s total and was the first double-digit total since 2012. Half of those catchers managed a 100 or better OPS+ as well. There were 4 such catchers in 2021, too. The 9 catchers to reach that 100 or better OPS+ mark in 2021-22 are more than the 8 we saw in 2015-19 (including 0 in 2018).

Are catchers a booming market? How’d we get here and who stands out for 2023?

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10/11/22

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SMALL SAMPLE SUPERSTARS

• Matt Carpenter (7:45)
• Vaughn Grissom (12:30)
  • Thairo Estrada shoutout
• Mark Mathias (20:00)
• Eli White (22:04)
  • Christopher Morel shoutout
• Josh Jung (26:02)
• Dylan Moore (30:30)

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It’s time for the first rankings of 2023, but given how fresh we are off the regular season, I decided to go list only. I need a bit more time to put some commentary together and I know that this first run will change so much (even from now to the 2nd run) that spending 6-8 hours writing comments on everyone might be in vain at this juncture — and I’m not just talking about team changes, because those are inevitable part of offseason rankings. I look forward to the discussions in the comments and please feel free to make your case if you think someone absolutely deserves Top 150 consideration so they can be considered in the 2nd run that will come with commentary (due out in a month or so).

I did some loose tier breaks indicated by the red bars.

Edit 1 (Oct. 11th, 3:40 PM CT) — Cubs fans, I’m so sorry your guys all got knocked off the list somehow. Marcus Stroman, Justin Steele, Keegan Thompson, Hayden Wesneski, Drew Smyly, Kyle Hendricks, Adrian Sampson 샘슨 were all listed. Truly dumbfounded by one team getting merked somehow between yesterday & today. See, this is why I waited for commentary! Kenta Maeda was also a great inclusion who will be on the next list.

Edit 2 (Oct. 11th, 10:40 AM CT) — MacKenzie Gore and David Peterson were misses. They will be on the November list!

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10/7/22

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SEPTEMBER STANDOUT SPs

• Cristian Javier
• Hunter Brown
• Hunter Greene
• José Quintana
• Drey Jameson

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Thanks for coming out this season! There will be playoff chats on the front page so look out for those throughout the month.

I (Paul) will also have offseason chats pretty consistently, but not necessarily every week. I will mention on Twitter when I know I’m going to miss one.

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10/4/22

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SEPTEMBER STANDOUTS

• C.J. Cron
• Rafael Devers
• Josh Bell
• Ketel Marte
• Alejandro Kirk

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I started this in early-September last year and it seemed to be useful. The chart will include their performance over the last five starts, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness, and then my start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more value focusing on roto.

Let’s go secure some titles!

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I started this in early-September last year and it seemed to be useful. The chart will include their performance over the last five starts, their opponent’s wOBA versus the pitcher’s handedness, and then my start/sit recommendation for 10-team, 12-team, and 15-team (or more) leagues.

These are general recommendations, and your league situation will carry more weight whether you are protecting ratios or chasing counting numbers. This is for standard 5×5 roto leagues. The thresholds for H2H starts are generally lower, especially in points leagues so I thought there would be more value focusing on roto.

Let’s go secure some titles!

Note: Pitchers recommended in 12/15 but not 10 doesn’t mean I wouldn’t start them in 10s, but rather that it’s a more open choice as opposed to a slam dunk.

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