Yesterday, I went over the top 10 for 2024 fantasy baseball. Today, I throw out preconceived notions, drink some potions and lather up my body with lotions, as I sloppily slip and slide my way through a very precarious top 20 for 2024 fantasy baseball. This top twenty is a blind man playing Twister. Half the time, I’m grabbing for things not knowing if they’re there or not. I legit think this top 20 could go countless other ways. Is countless a widowed Countess? No, it’s not, it’s a confusing AF top 20 for fantasy baseball. All the positional rankings will live under the 2024 fantasy baseball rankings. Here’s Steamer’s 2024 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Hitters and 2024 Fantasy Baseball Projections for Pitchers. The projections in this post are, as always, mine. (But if you click on a player’s name, you see Steamer’s projections for that specific player. It’s magic!) Subscriptions are up and running, and you can already get Rudy’s Draft War Room. Anyway, here’s the top 20 for 2024 fantasy baseball:
NOTE: All my 2024 fantasy baseball rankings are currently available on Patreon for the price of a Starbucks coffee, if you get one of those extra grande frappuccino jobbers. Don’t wait for the rankings to come out over the next month, and get them all now.
11. Bryce Harper – This tier started in the top 10 for 2024 fantasy baseball. This tier goes from here until Ohtani. I called this tier, “The wistful eye glimmer of a child with a mustache.” As for Harper, it was announced this offseason he would be playing primarily 1st base. Rest in Peace is Rhys, as E.T. would’ve say when he grabbed a bag of those candies. Always thought Hoskins would make a nice name for condoms, though it needs an apostrophe between the O and S, and now he don’t fit with that mitt. I must be wearing question mark leotards, because I’m speaking in riddles. Harper didn’t return until May, struggled until July, when he was originally supposed to come back, and didn’t hit for power until August, yet still finished 77th on the Player Rater. That illustrates what we’re working with from Bryce. He’s basically a top 15 hitter when healthy. There’s no one I want more when I have the 11th pick. Why not want him over guys in the top 10? Well, while Harper never truly disappoints, he also hasn’t been a top top guy since 2015. Harper is steady as they go, but seems to have smoothed down his peaks (and valleys). 2024 Projections: 102/32/109/.286/13 in 505 ABs
12. Yordan Alvarez – Can we talk a second about what an absolute stacked hitting class we have for fantasy baseball? Ohtani is the 2nd best hitter in baseball if he’s 100% healthy, and he’s ranked 13th! From Ohtani and up could be the best hitter in baseball after Acuña. Everyone is “after Acuña” except for Acuña. But still, all of those guys vying for the 2nd best hitter? These guys are not in the 2nd tier of the top 10 for 2024 fantasy baseball because they’re more of a long shot to be the “After Acuña” guy, but they also wouldn’t shock me to be Mr. After Acuña. Yordan aka Captain Woo Cubano? I’m actually shocked we haven’t seen him Clubber Bang 50 ding-dongs in a year and be the top hitter for fantasy yet. Do I think it’s coming? Absolutely. He’s got a better shot of being this year’s Matt Olson than Matt Olson. Anyone who’s seen Captain Woo can tell you he just needs to play in 150 games and have one extended hot streak to sniff 60 homers in a season. If Yordan hit 70 homers, it honestly wouldn’t shock me. Watch highlights of him when he’s hot, there’s literally no way to get him out. 2024 Projections: 89/41/102/.303/1 in 492 ABs
13. Shohei Ohtani – As I said when he signed with the Dodgers, “After the passing of Adam West, there’s one great man left in the world, his name is Shohei Ohtani. He comes from the island nation of Japan, and he accepts MVP awards with his puppy.
Sitting on couch with a dog, he just like me fr pic.twitter.com/A0tSbwdJen
— Razzball (@Razzball) November 17, 2023
Shohei looks so emo in that pic of him and his dog it farkin’ kills me. He looks like he just learned his dog died, but we know it’s not true, it’s laying next to him thinking about licking its privates. How do I know what a dog is thinking? All dogs think that. It goes with being a dog. By the way, he said the dog’s name had to do with where he signed, but he refused to say what the dog’s name was. If his dog’s name is Vin or Scully, I might cry a little. Maybe he named his dog Shawngreen, for the two teams it was down to. In the end it was the Dodgers, who gave him $700 million for 10 years. The most absurd number there is the 10 years.
“It’s 2033, and fires, famine and war has engulfed the world for the third year in a row, now we go to Shohei Ohtani playing baseball” pic.twitter.com/cAnEwVv65p
— Razzball (@Razzball) December 9, 2023
The deal involves no opt outs. Naturally, there’s no more LA teams to go to. What, he gonna play for the Lakers? Actually, I beat he could.
So, I am an Ohtani fanboy, an Ohstani, so to speak. As long as he’s hitting monster flies like he’s on safari and hitting them so-far-y, then I’m on board. As long as he’s stealing bags while doing it, I will [saluting] Ohstani. He’s extraordani. His new environs means less to me than, “How will he react after elbow surgery?” Anyone who tells you they know is a lying liar. I hate lying liars. We can guess? Oh, sure, I don’t hate guessing guessers. It wasn’t the same operation as Bryce Harper, but even if the road back is the same, Ohtani had the operationi a full month earlier, so at worst Ohtani is great by June and back for Opening Day. I’m not counting Ohtani out for anything. Knowing him, he’ll be throwing gems by September, even though the assumption is he won’t be ready until 2025 for The Mound. In 135 games last year, he went 44/20/.304, so we might miss a month of him “being good.” To quote P!nk, so what? I don’t even know what Ohtani not “being good” looks like. He only hits seven homers and steals three bags in his first month, then ramps up to 12 HRs the following month? Aw shucks, that sounds terrible. He’s only as good as a healthy Bryce Harper when not healthy and way better than a not-healthy Bryce Harper? Sign me up, you ding dongs! Listen, it comes down to do you want possibly the 2nd best hitter in baseball from June to September and only the 20th best hitter for April and May? Yes, I do.” And that’s me quoting me! 2024 Projections: 101/36/92/.281/18 in 503 ABs
14. Freddie Freeman – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until Jose Ramirez. I call this tier, “Fah-tee-gay.” It’s fatigue, but it’s pronounced fah-tee-gay. It’s Italian. That’s only reason why you’re not excited about this tier. You’re guessing they’re going to fall off, because it’s more interesting to say that than simply: Meh, they’re always good and they’ll be always good again. The only reason why they’re ranked this low is because there are so many guys in baseball right now that could go 30/30 or 40/40 or 50/20 or other huge, big STATS/STATS.
As for Freeman, at some point his steals have to disappear, don’t they? At some point, he has to see less than 600 at-bats in a season, doesn’t he? At some point, he won’t have a .350+ BABIP, right? At 34 years of age, that has to happen, doesn’t it? Really trying to not make same mistakes as previous years. Previously, I would’ve guessed that Freeman would fall off before he actually fell off, whether it was this year or five years from now. I’d just spend every year saying this is the year, even though, well, why? Why does he have to fall off? He’s a Hall of Famer, maybe he is built differently. I know those teeth of his are — sic stats, Chompers! 2024 Projections: 114/25/95/.307/17 in 611 ABs
15. Jose Ramirez – That I ranked JoJo-Ram this high shows you how much growth I’ve made this year. Let’s bask in my growth. Previous years, I’d say I’m out on JoJo-Ram because of his 2nd half. Because of his fly balls, SLG, and ISO being down. His age, infield flies, and ground balls being up. Mostly, I’d be out because I was bored of him. Fah-tee-gay. Not this year. Please clap, Jeb. He’s 31 years old, but hitters are lasting longer than ever in their productive era. He stole 28 bags last year, and, with the rules change, he could steal 30+ bags this year without much difference. I don’t think there’s much difference between 25 steals and 35 steals, other than some desire. If JoJo wants to run-run, he will-will. That’s baseball right now. Desire is all that stands between zero steals and ten bags. His homers were down, and his flies, but he still hits plenty of fly balls for homers. While I wouldn’t rely too heavily on xBA, it shows you what we’re working with that he had a top 4% in the league xBA (.297). JoJoRam could easily go 30/30 this year, because, well, everyone who can hit 30 homers and previously stole 20-ish bags can. Don’t let the fah-tee-gay get you. 2024 Projections: 91/28/104/.286/26 in 605 ABs
16. Spencer Strider – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until here. I call this tier, “Fritos feet.” Fritos feet is when your dog’s feet smells like Fritos. This is a real thing. Google it, and you’ll see article after article about how to get rid of Fritos feet if your dog suffers from it. An article I am searching for is, “If your dog doesn’t have Fritos feet, how do you give it to them?” Because Fritos feet sounds wonderful. The tier name refers to me ignoring the draft while a pitcher gets drafted in the top 20, and googling a “How To Give My Dog Fritos Feet.” If you’ve been following my rankings for a minute, and not an actual minute, but an Urban Dictionary minute, which is actually a long time, you know I’d never draft a starter in the top 20. So, yes, I’ve chosen to only rank one starter in the top 20 this year, and this is more to point out how I would not draft him. If you want to bemoan my low ranking of this one starter, then bemoan away. Just remember, a bemoaner sounds a bit to me like, “U be a boner.”
Here’s what I’ve said previously about ranking starters in the top 20, “Before you say, ‘Grey, you’re handsome AF, and super smart. You rub-a-dub places I thought only ladies could rub and/or dub. Yet, you say you’d never draft a starter in the top 20, but you’ve ranked Strider in the top 20. Should I not draft Strider if he’s available? Thank you for your time, you are a real pleasure.’ This always drives me crazy. Not the compliments, those are nice. If you’re following my rankings, Juan Soto, Yordan, Harper, and more are ranked higher than their ADP and where others are ranking them (for the most part; there’s exceptions, obviously). So how on earth did you get to pick 16, and have no one else available to you but Strider? As lovely as that sounds, you’re not in a league with 15 me’s. There’s guys available to draft I like more than Strider. A companion piece to this question is the guy (and, let’s be honest, it’s always a guy), who says, ‘Only players available were Strider and Jose Ramirez and I didn’t want to draft JoJo-Ram, so I went with Strider.’ So, you don’t want to listen to me on who to draft in regards to Ramirez, but you want me to say it’s okay to draft a guy I’ve ranked later who I’ve said not to draft? Okay…*places traffic cone on head, kneels down in driver’s ed course, gets slammed by pimple-faced teenager’s Sebring* So, why even rank Strider 16th overall if I wouldn’t draft him here? I gotta rank him somewhere! What, I’m gonna rank him 450th overall next to Sean Manaea?” And that’s me quoting me! I changed some names and numbers from last year to this year, but that’s still completely applicable, so please appliqué!
As for Strider, he’s great! None of this is about not liking Strider. I love Strider, but there’s a ton of pitching later. I’ll go over this more in my pitching rankings, but you could’ve had Justin Steele, Zach Eflin, Kyle Bradish, George Kirby and Senga last year, had more than enough pitching and only drafted one guy anywhere near the top 100 overall, forget the top 20. You, “Sure, but Strider is so rock solid. I need him, daddy.” Last year’s top starter drafted was Corbin Burnes. Where’s he now? I don’t see him. Weird. 2024 Projections: 17-5/2.81/1.04/267 in 184 IP
17. Francisco Lindor – This is a new tier. This tier goes from here until the end of the top 20. I call this tier, “Commit me.” This is always the hardest post to write. It’s incredibly hard. I rank 500 other players. 500 other players could not be in the top 20, but a good 30 others could. Maybe 50 if you galaxy brain strong enough. I just had to commit to a few names in the top 20, otherwise I’d go crazy, which is where the tier name comes from. Do I not like, say, Randy Arozarena? Luis Robert? Pete Alonso? Corey Seager? No, but I couldn’t rank 50 guys in the top 20, otherwise someone would commit me. In the end, I narrowed the field to a tier of guys who were incredibly steady. If I were hit on the head and woke with amnesia and asked to rank the top 20 again, it might not look like this. I might’ve put Austin Riley at 18 and not ranked Lindor at all. That’s how close all of the top 20 are from around Freeman to the end. They’re so close, honestly, I could see someone making the case that it’s more Acuña, then 19 guys vying for the 2nd spot. I’m not joking. It’s a weird time.
First off, Francisco Lindor was 12th on the Player Rater last year. That’s what he did. Better than Corey Seager, Austin Riley, Adolis Garcia, Luis Robert Jr., you name ’em (unless you name the first 11). Is last year’s stats 100% relevant for this year? Not 100%, but we’re not talking about a guy who just came out of nowhere. Also, I’ve mentioned Corey Seager a few times already, but one more for you: I couldn’t figure out how to rank a guy with no speed in the top 20, when there’s a guy like Lindor who just went 30/30. Even if he goes 25/25 this year, it’s just too much value from those steals to overcome for a guy, like, Seager with no speed. I also think most people are down on Lindor for a perceived average risk that just doesn’t exist. He has an under 20% K% and a career .292 BABIP and .274 average. Recent Launch Angle shows him more of a .250 hitter, but, if that’s the case, then he’s a 30-homer hitter. He will either hit for a better average and less homers or more power and less average. Whatever tradeoff he makes, he’s valuable. The only thing stopping him from being a 35/35/.270 guy is a little thing called, “The deal the Mets made with the devil for that ball to trickle through Bill Buckner’s legs.” 2024 Projections: 94/27/101/.258/30 in 591 ABs
18. Matt Olson – Mustachioed men don’t eat “their greens” unless they’re Jolly Ranchers, and I ain’t here to get my Jollies off! Hmm, that sounds wrong. I don’t even add cumin to my chili because of how it sounds. Can we back this up? The greens I eat are Reds. Not Marlboro, but Statcast Reds:
Okay, just looking at Statcast Reds ain’t it, dawg. It can easily be misleading. Also, all of the guys in this post have dynamite Statcast pages. With that said, Matt Olson’s? Well…[gets on knees, prays towards Mecca] Thank you, Allahson. He’s goofy perfect. Matt Olson is basically a neutral 50-homer hitter. Also, one who should hit .270. Going back to something that might trip up some of you about Acuña, Olson, Strider, and Albies all in the top 20. Sorry, the Braves are good. I couldn’t even squeeze in Austin Riley or Michael Harris II. If I were the Braves, I’d think about possibly getting a decent number two starter, but we’re not the comment section on MLB Trade Rumors making up fake trades for real baseball. We only worry about real trades for fake baseball! 2024 Projections: 104/46/121/.271/1 in 602 ABs
19. Marcus Semien – For full disclosure porpoises, I was between Semien and Adolis for this ranking. I said to myself, as they commonly say in places where towels feel like they’re coated in dried glue, be a good spurt, and put in Semien. Is Semien here a hot take? Maybe, I’m just trying to impregnate you with knowledge. The only reason why you should be out on Semien is if you’re sterile or anticipating him suddenly falling off. His Ks were down to 14.6%, his walks up to 9.6%, he’s a 30-homer, 20-steal hitter with a career .258 average, and that’s being dragged down by his early years in the league when he struck out a lot. He’s now a .270 hitter with neutral luck. Don’t get your tubes tied, Semien’s got more to give! 2024 Projections: 112/31/94/.272/18 in 632 ABs
20. Ozzie Albies – As someone who is also five-six and seven-eighths inches tall like Albies, us short kings have to stay together. That’s why Albies is ranked here. Okay, besides being able to fit in a middle seat on an airplane, he has a few more things going for him. He’s a neutral 30-homer hitter. That seems decent. He has 20-steal speed. That doesn’t sound bad. He’s neutrally a .280 hitter. Hmm, that’s not bad either. Okay, I’m listening, but I’m still very interested in him because we’d be picked to be captains in a pickup basketball game since we couldn’t be on the same team for fear that our team would be too good, as they’d tell us. He just turned 27 and is in his career peak? That sounds good. He’s in arguably the best lineup in baseball? That sounds enticing. His Ks went down, his walks went up, his zone contact is elite, he is never called for strikes, his soft contact is nearly nonexistent…Hmm, these all sound good, but, like me, he also needs a parent to accompany him on a roller coaster, so I’m sold! 2024 Projections: 90/32/105/.283/18 in 588 ABs
