Fantasy Baseball 2018: Early season hitting leaders

With 20 games in the books, there are some surprising and some not so surprising names at the top of the leaderboards. Make sure you know who has started the season red hot.

For those of you who drafted Bryce Harper with your first round pick in this season’s fantasy baseball drafts, the rewards have been instantaneous with the Nationals’ superstar leading the league with eight home runs and 24 walks.

Taken far lower down the draft was the Athletics second baseman Jed Lowrie, who leads the league with 28 hits and 21 RBI. Unsurprisingly, he is the most added player but he is still available in 20 percent of leagues. The adjustments he has made at the plate suggest he will eclipse his previous career-high of 16 home runs.

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The Red Sox have started the season in dramatic fashion, and outfielder Mookie Betts has repaid the faith shown by fantasy baseball players taking him in the first round this year. He leads the league with .391 AVG, .797 SLG and 1.277 OPS (min 50 AB), and with 22 runs, the Red Sox’ leadoff hitter heads that category as well.

Although Betts’ .481 OBP is elite, it is slightly below that of the Phillies Rhys Hoskins who has quietly started the season in excellent form with 13 runs, including three home runs, and 14 RBI, three stolen bases and a batting average of .327.

Hoskins’ speed contributions were unexpected, but the joint-leaders with eight stolen bases each are predictable names of Dee Gordon, Trea Turner and Tim Anderson. The White Sox shortstop is perhaps the most exciting of the trio considering he is still available in one-third of leagues and he is the only player in the game to have reached double-digit home runs plus stolen bases.

My favorite category leader is the diminutive Ozzie Albies. The Braves’ 5-foot-8 second baseman entered the season as a much talked about breakout candidate, but is proving that the hype was justified by leading the league with 15 extra-base hits.

With Manny Margot and Wil Myers missing time on the DL, Jose Pirela has seen more playing time in the Padres’ outfield than expected and leads the league with 88 at-bats. He has scored 12 runs but has yet to hit a homer and has only walked three times to 20 strikeouts. Read about Pirela’s waiver wire value in Brad Kelly’s excellent article.

The strikeout leader was another preseason favorite of many. In his 59-game stint in the majors last year, Athletics first baseman Matt Olson hit 24 home runs with 1.003 OPS. This year he has hit three homers and leads the league with 32 strikeouts, that’s a 39.0 percent strikeout rate.

Surprisingly, Olson does not have the worst strikeout rate, that title goes to the player who hit a home run off the very first pitch of the season. Ian Happ’s year has gone downhill since his opening at-bat. His 74 wRC+ will not help get playing time in the stacked Cubs’ lineup and obviously, his league-leading 47.2 percent strikeout rate is unsustainably high.

Next: Is Jose Bautista worth picking up?

There is very little useful fantasy baseball information that can be gleaned from the first 20 games, yet they are prone to encourage overreaction.

Treat the information from this 20-game stretch in a similar way that you would for the 20 games at the end of June. Don’t make rash decisions.