May First Baseman and DH Rankings

Here is the May edition of my rest-of-season position rankings and overall top 300 for 5x5 leagues. I’m using five-game eligibility, so plenty of players have added new positions since Opening Day. Because I love you, I’ve also tweaked the top 300 to include previous rankings this year.

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Top 300 | SP | RP | OF | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | C

First Baseman and Designated Hitter Rankings

Dropping off: Brandon Belt (No. 44), C.J. Cron (No. 45), Bobby Dalbec (No. 47), Gio Urshela (48th), Keston Hiura (No. 50), Joey Votto (No. 51), Cavan Biggio (No. 53), Darick Hall (No. 54)

• I have downgraded my expectations for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. some. It genuinely seems like Rogers Centre has turned into a tougher home run park for right-handed hitters since last year’s changes, and it’s been especially problematic for Guerrero, due to his proclivity for line-drive homers. That said, I think he’s a nice buy-low candidate at this point. He’s still hitting the ball very hard; his 106.1 mph average on the top-50 percent of his balls in play is third highest in baseball. He’s striking out more than usual, but not alarmingly so. His groundball rate has also come down some in recent days. Things should get a whole lot better.

• After previously trying him at second base, in center field and at third base, the Brewers decided to make Tyler Black a first baseman this season, playing him there in 18 of his 19 starts in the field before calling him up for the first time Tuesday. One imagines he’ll take over as their first baseman against righties, with Rhys Hoskins DHing most of the time. Black is a strong prospect anyway, but what makes him really interesting for fantasy purposes is his stolen base ability; he was 55-for-67 in 123 minor league games last year. He’s not at all likely to run like that in the majors, but the all-around game makes him a nice option in mixed leagues, even though he’ll probably sit versus lefties initially.

• The Guardians probably should have just gone with Kyle Manzardo initially, but it’s extremely obvious that he belongs in the majors now after going 15-for-38 with six homers in his last 10 games for Triple-A Columbus. I expect that Manzardo will be a fringy mixed-league option when he gets the call, but that’s more than can be said the team’s alternatives in the DH spot. He’ll also be a defensive upgrade at first base, with Josh Naylor typically serving as the DH.