Week 2 of the baseball season has now come to a close. In last weeks 2017 Rest-Of-The-Season Rankings article, we said to not take too much consideration into hot and cold starts.

Baseball is a long season, and takes the longest time out of any sport for stats to actually be trustworthy. So early on in the season you have to normally expect a player to produce like he has normally produced in his career rather than having the first few weeks be indicative of an entire season.

While there still are some exceptions, we have seen many players bounce back from cold starts or go back down to earth after starting out on fire.

However, just like we had in our previous week, there are some players who’s hot or cold starts may actually indicate their future performance going forward. Also, there are some particular stars that we are going to cover that have gone back to their usual ways.

So, before we reveal this weeks 2017 Rest-Of-The-Season Rankings, let’s go over a few players who deserve some extra attention.

2017 Rest-Of-The-Season Rankings

Stock Up

Daniel Murphy, 2B, Washington Nationals

After a breakout season last year, Fantasy owners still were a little cautious when drafting Daniel Murphy this season. There was reason for this as well: he was a proven .290 hitter (valuable, but not elite) who didn’t do much else. Then all of a sudden, he batted .347 on his way to a batting title, almost doubled his previous career high in home runs, and topped 100 RBI for the first time in his career when his previous career high was 78.

However, Murphy has quieted doubters early on this season. He is batting .408 through 50 plate appearances this season with two home runs, 10 RBI and seven runs scored. This should fully wipe out any doubts of Murphy’s elite Fantasy status, and that leads to a pretty decent rise in our rankings.

Yoenis Cespedes, OF, New York Mets

Yoenis Cespedes is an elite Fantasy player, there is no arguing that. He is one of the few players who can hit over 30 home runs without punting the batting average category. Fantasy owners may have been surprised to see a slow start from Cespedes, but the sample size was too little to begin to worry about. During this past week, Cespedes raked, including one game where he hit three home runs.

He now has six home runs, nine runs scored and 10 RBI through 53 plate appearances on the year. Cespedes should be able to build off of his last few great seasons with the Mets, and this week of production ensures that that first week was only a fluke.

Dee Gordon, 2B, Miami Marlins

Coming into the season, everyone knew that Dee Gordon would be one of the best sources of stolen bases out there. The question was if his batting average would be able to propel him from good to great like in years past. Last season, Gordon missed a lot of time due to injury, but his important counting stats looked on par with years past. The batting average was the stat of worry for him. In 2014 he batted .289 and in 2015 he batted .333. Both seasons he put up great run and stolen base totals on his way to huge years. Last year, other than injuries, he was held back by his pedestrian .268 batting average.

I figured that Gordon would have a bounce back year, and for that reason, I tried to grab him in as many leagues as possible. This move has rewarded me so far. After a bit of a cold start in the first week, he tore the cover off the ball in the second week, and his batting average now sits at a clean .300. If he can keep this up, he could prove to be a huge steal and one of the elite Fantasy second baseman this year.

Stock Down

Kenta Maeda, SP, Los Angeles Dodgers

Coming into the season, I thought that Kenta Maeda was extremely overrated in the Fantasy world. He had a good season last year, but I don’t think it was good enough to warrant his ADP, which hovered right around the #100 mark. He was easily not a Top 100 player for me and I made sure not to touch him in my drafts.

This has also turned out to be a good move for me. Maeda has given up 11 runs over 14 IP (three starts), giving him a 7.07 ERA to open up the year. While I expect that he should still end up being a solid pitcher this year, I seriously doubt he will live up to his ADP.

Todd Frazier, 3B, Chicago White Sox

Going into this year, I had two players that I recognized to have pretty much the exact same profile. They were both aging sluggers who had been consistent Fantasy studs on the same team before being traded to a new team last year and struggling. I thought that both would finally adjust to their new teams this season and be great value picks. One of these players was Jay Bruce, who has been playing great to start the season, making me look good and just missing the Stock Up section of this very article. The other one is Todd Frazier, and he is a different story.

Through 31 plate appearances, Frazier is batting a mere .111 with one home run, a solo shot that gave him his only RBI so far on the year. While it would be a stretch to expect this level of bad from Frazier for the rest of the year, I think it would be fair to say that last year was an accurate representation of Frazier.

2017 Rest-Of-The-Season Rankings

Rank	Name	Team	Positions
1	Mike Trout	LAA	CF
2	Kris Bryant	CHC	1B,3B,LF,RF
3	Nolan Arenado	COL	3B
4	Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1B
5	Bryce Harper	WSH	RF
6	Jose Altuve	HOU	2B
7	Clayton Kershaw	LAD	SP
8	Manny Machado	BAL	3B,SS
9	Josh Donaldson	TOR	3B
10	Mookie Betts	BOS	RF
11	Noah Syndergaard	NYM	SP
12	Miguel Cabrera	DET	1B
13	Anthony Rizzo	CHC	1B
14	Madison Bumgarner	SF	SP
15	Joey Votto	CIN	1B
16	Charlie Blackmon	COL	CF
17	Max Scherzer	WSH	SP
18	Corey Seager	LAD	SS
19	A.J. Pollock	ARI	CF
20	Starling Marte	PIT	LF,CF
21	Freddie Freeman	ATL	1B
22	Nelson Cruz	SEA	RF,DH
23	Chris Sale	BOS	SP
24	Trea Turner	WSH	2B,CF
25	Corey Kluber	CLE	SP
26	Daniel Murphy	WSH	1B,2B
27	Yoenis Cespedes	NYM	LF,CF
28	Robinson Cano	SEA	2B
29	Jake Arrieta	CHC	SP
30	Francisco Lindor	CLE	SS
31	Carlos Correa	HOU	SS
32	Edwin Encarnacion	CLE	1B,DH
33	Rougned Odor	TEX	2B
34	George Springer	HOU	CF,RF
35	Brian Dozier	MIN	2B
36	Ryan Braun	MIL	LF
37	Yu Darvish	TEX	SP
38	Christian Yelich	MIA	LF,CF
39	Dee Gordon	MIA	2B
40	Trevor Story	COL	SS
41	Carlos Gonzalez	COL	RF
42	Giancarlo Stanton	MIA	RF
43	Jon Lester	CHC	SP
44	Stephen Strasburg	WSH	SP
45	Chris Davis	BAL	1B
46	Justin Verlander	DET	SP
47	Johnny Cueto	SF	SP
48	Xander Bogaerts	BOS	SS
49	Jacob DeGrom	NYM	SP
50	Chris Archer	TB	SP
51	Jonathan Villar	MIL	2B,3B,SS
52	Buster Posey	SF	C,1B
53	Jose Abreu	CWS	1B
54	Wil Myers	SD	1B,RF
55	Matt Carpenter	STL	1B,2B,3B
56	Ian Kinsler	DET	2B
57	Adrian Beltre	TEX	3B
58	DJ LeMahieu	COL	2B
59	Justin Upton	DET	LF,CF
60	Kyle Schwarber	CHC	C,LF
61	Khris Davis	OAK	LF,DH
62	Andrew McCutchen	PIT	CF,RF
63	Adam Jones	BAL	CF
64	Kenley Jansen	LAD	RP
65	Carlos Martinez	STL	SP
66	Aroldis Chapman	NYY	RP
67	Jose Bautista	TOR	RF,DH
68	Carlos Carrasco	CLE	SP
69	Zach Britton	BAL	RP
70	Jean Segura	SEA	2B,SS
71	Cole Hamels	TEX	SP
72	David Price	BOS	SP
73	Zack Greinke	ARI	SP
74	Jonathan Lucroy	TEX	C,1B
75	Matt Harvey	NYM	SP
76	Billy Hamilton	CIN	CF
77	Gregory Polanco	PIT	LF,RF
78	J.D. Martinez	DET	RF
79	Gerrit Cole	PIT	SP
80	Kyle Seager	SEA	3B
81	Mark Trumbo	BAL	RF,DH
82	Kyle Hendricks	CHC	SP
83	Mark Melancon	SF	RP
84	Evan Longoria	TB	3B
85	Dallas Keuchel	HOU	SP
86	Jose Quintana	CWS	SP
87	Carlos Santana	CLE	1B,DH
88	Adam Eaton	WSH	CF,RF
89	Gary Sanchez	NYY	C
90	Edwin Diaz	SEA	RP
91	Ian Desmond	COL	LF,CF
92	Dustin Pedroia	BOS	2B
93	Julio Teheran	ATL	SP
94	Seung-Hwan Oh	STL	RP
95	Lorenzo Cain	KC	CF,RF
96	Wade Davis	CHC	RP
97	Albert Pujols	LAA	1B,DH
98	Aaron Sanchez	TOR	SP
99	Stephen Piscotty	STL	CF,RF
100	Eric Hosmer	KC	1B
101	Odubel Herrera	PHI	CF
102	Hanley Ramirez	BOS	1B
103	Matt Kemp	ATL	LF,RF
104	Anthony Rendon	WSH	3B
105	Roberto Osuna	TOR	RP
106	Craig Kimbrel	BOS	RP
107	Rick Porcello	BOS	SP
108	Kenneth Giles	HOU	RP
109	Kendrys Morales	TOR	1B,RF,DH
110	Danny Salazar	CLE	SP
111	Justin Turner	LAD	3B
112	Miguel Sano	MIN	3B,RF,DH
113	Todd Frazier	CWS	1B,3B
114	Kelvin Herrera	KC	RP
115	Aledmys Diaz	STL	SS
116	Brandon Belt	SF	1B
117	Jose Peraza	CIN	2B,SS,LF,CF
118	J.T. Realmuto	MIA	C
119	Marcus Stroman	TOR	SP
120	Kevin Gausman	BAL	SP
121	Addison Russell	CHC	SS
122	Rich Hill	LAD	SP
123	Willson Contreras	CHC	C,LF
124	Cody Allen	CLE	RP
125	Jay Bruce	NYM	RF
126	Jason Kipnis	CLE	2B
127	Marcell Ozuna	MIA	LF,CF,RF
128	Masahiro Tanaka	NYY	SP
129	Danny Duffy	KC	SP,RP
130	Jeurys Familia	NYM	RP
131	Kenta Maeda	LAD	SP
132	Felix Hernandez	SEA	SP
133	Andrew Miller	CLE	RP
134	Jose Ramirez	CLE	2B,3B,LF
135	Jackie Bradley	BOS	CF
136	Adrian Gonzalez	LAD	1B
137	Michael Fulmer	DET	SP
138	Tanner Roark	WSH	SP
139	Alexander Colome	TB	RP
140	Jake Lamb	ARI	3B
141	Salvador Perez	KC	C
142	Adam Duvall	CIN	LF,RF
143	Lance McCullers	HOU	SP
144	Francisco Rodriguez	DET	RP
145	Ben Zobrist	CHC	2B,LF,RF
146	Eric Thames	MIL	LF,RF
147	Jameson Taillon	PIT	SP
148	Eduardo Nunez	SF	3B,SS
149	Kole Calhoun	LAA	RF
150	Joc Pederson	LAD	CF
151	Jake Odorizzi	TB	SP
152	John Lackey	CHC	SP
153	Hunter Pence	SF	RF
154	Troy Tulowitzki	TOR	SS
155	David Robertson	CWS	RP
156	Manuel Margot	SD	CF
157	Nomar Mazara	TEX	LF,RF
158	Andrew Benintendi	BOS	LF,CF
159	Elvis Andrus	TEX	SS
160	Brad Miller	TB	1B,2B,SS
161	Keon Broxton	MIL	CF
162	Victor Martinez	DET	1B,DH
163	Maikel Franco	PHI	3B
164	Jonathan Schoop	BAL	2B
165	Yasmany Tomas	ARI	LF,RF
166	Mike Moustakas	KC	3B
167	Yangervis Solarte	SD	2B,3B
168	Alex Bregman	HOU	3B
169	Brandon Crawford	SF	SS
170	Kevin Kiermaier	TB	CF
171	Marcus Semien	OAK	SS
172	Greg Holland	COL	RP
173	Aaron Nola	PHI	SP
174	Randal Grichuk	STL	LF,CF
175	Nick Castellanos	DET	3B
176	Robbie Ray	ARI	SP
177	Drew Pomeranz	BOS	SP
178	Michael Brantley	CLE	LF
179	David Peralta	ARI	RF
180	Joe Ross	WSH	SP
181	Neil Walker	NYM	2B
182	A.J. Ramos	MIA	RP
183	Brian McCann	HOU	C,DH
184	Yasiel Puig	LAD	RF
185	Michael Pineda	NYY	SP
186	Joe Panik	SF	2B
187	Matt Moore	SF	SP
188	Dansby Swanson	ATL	SS
189	Garrett Richards	LAA	SP
190	Brandon Finnegan	CIN	SP
191	Neftali Feliz	MIL	RP
192	Sonny Gray	OAK	SP
193	Jason Heyward	CHC	CF,RF
194	Mark Reynolds	COL	1B
195	Ryan Zimmerman	WSH	1B
196	Jarrod Dyson	SEA	LF,CF,RF
197	Jayson Werth	WSH	LF
198	Ryon Healy	OAK	3B,DH
199	Wilson Ramos	TB	C
200	Mitch Haniger	SEA	LF,CF,RF

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Josh Morgan

Josh is a current student at Las Lomas High School in California. This is his second year writing for the So-Called Fantasy Experts. He has been an avid fantasy player for a long time and loves writing. If you have any fantasy related questions, be sure to ask him on Twitter @SCFE_Josh.

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