Fantasy Baseball 2016 Rankings: Top 10 Lists Revealed For 2016 MLB Season

Fantasy baseball 2016 rankings are coming out, and many top 10 lists are ready for fans.

The 2016 fantasy baseball season is about to begin on many sites, with Yahoo! opening its portal on Thursday, January 28. A report from CBS Sports breaks down the top players available at individual positions, while a new report from ESPN.com ranks the top 250 players in this year’s drafts. Many of the same players are ranking high in fantasy baseball draft kits, with Mike Trout as the best position player and Clayton Kershaw as the best pitcher to own.

Kershaw is the only pitcher to show up in the ESPN top 10, ranking fourth among a host of big MLB hitters. The other top ranking players (in order) are outfielder Mike Trout, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, outfielder Bryce Harper, third baseman Josh Donaldson, outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, third baseman Manny Machado, outfielder Andrew McCutchen, third baseman Nolan Arenado, and shortstop Carlos Correa. There are a lot of top-notch third basemen available this season, making it one of the deepest positions in fantasy baseball.

A report from USA Today also weighs in on the 2016 fantasy baseball rankings, with some very familiar players in the top 10 list. That top 10 is Trout, Harper, Goldschmidt, Kershaw, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, McCutchen, Correa, Stanton, Donaldson, and second baseman Jose Altuve. USA Today has Arenado at No. 11, and Machado at No. 13. As for where ESPN placed the two new guys, Altuve was at No. 11 and Rizzo was at No. 16. CBS Sports currently ranks the top first basemen as Goldschmidt, Miguel Cabrera, and then Rizzo.

In regard to where the top starting pitchers are getting ranked, ESPN.com has Clayton Kershaw at No. 4, Jake Arrieta at No. 20, Max Scherzer at No. 21, Chris Sale at No. 24, David Price at No. 26, Gerrit Cole at No. 29, and Madison Bumgarner at No. 31. USA Today puts Kershaw at No. 4, Bumgarner at No. 19, Scherzer at No. 20, Arrieta at No. 22, Zack Greinke at No. 23, Price at No. 24, and Sale at No. 30. Greinke came in ranked No. 33 for ESPN, while Cole is way down at No. 49 on the USA Today list.

As for the fantasy baseball rankings and top 10 list of pitchers from CBS Sports, it looks a bit different, as well. They have (in order) Kershaw, Scherzer, Arrieta, Bumgarner, Price, Corey Kluber, Sale, Jacob deGrom, Matt Harvey, and Greinke. Cole doesn’t appear on that list until No. 15, coming in behind Stephen Strasburg, Jose Fernandez, Dallas Keuchel, and Chris Archer. One starting pitcher that appears to be getting undervalued by the MLB analysts is Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez. He is projected to be a late sixth round pick or worse during 2016 drafts.

These fantasy baseball rankings and top 10 lists are based on standard roto scoring, with slight adjustments for head-to-head formats. Though the order of the top three players may differ, just about every MLB analyst is stating that Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Paul Goldschmidt need to be the first three players off the board in every fantasy draft. While things could change before drafts take place this winter and spring, those players offer to-notch stats in every format.

Regarding the top 10 catchers of 2016, ESPN.com has Buster Posey at No. 43 overall, Kyle Schwarber at No. 70, Brian McCann at No. 119, and Jonathan Lucroy at No. 123. USA Today puts Posey at No. 28, Schwarber at No. 66, and Salvador Perez at No. 99. CBS Sports has the top catchers as (in order) Posey, Schwarber, Lucroy, McCann and Travis d’Arnaud. This will make drafting catchers particularly difficult in 2016 fantasy baseball drafts, as there are even fewer sure-fire draft picks than in previous seasons. After the elite guys, it thins out pretty quickly.

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