2023 Mid-Season BABS Ratings

At the All-Star break, Ronald Acuna, Jr. ($58) is the Roto earnings most valuable player and on a historic pace. Far behind in his rearview  are Shohei Ohtani ($43) and Freddie Freeman ($39). On the pitching side, Nathan Eovaldi ($30), Zac Gallen ($29) and Felix Bautista ($28) are neck and neck at the top. But in BABS-land, such rankings obscure the fact that there is actually a larger group of players with roughly equivalent value.

Rookie Elly De La Cruz (PW,S+,A+) pairs with Acuna atop the skills leaderboard, but he's accomplished that in a little more than a third of the playing time -- just imagine the potential! Of the full-timers, Ohtani (P+,SB,A+) and Fernando Tatis, Jr. (P+,s,A+) follow the pace-setters. There are some interesting asset groups down the board.

We usually see some deeper groups at the top of the pitching leaderboard, but there are currently only two at the top (E+,KK) right now -- Framber Valdez and Clayton Kershaw. Behind them is an interesting quintet (ER,K+) -- Kevin Gausman, Spencer Strider, Ohtani, Blake Snell and James Paxton. Paxton has half the innings of the leaders, but we can see the potential if he can only stay healthy.

We usually find a few unexpected names sneaking into these upper groups. Seeing Matt Strahm alongside Pablo Lopez, Kodai Senga and Hunter Greene is interesting. And the group with Josh Lowe, Chas McCormick and Nolan Jones is a head-scratcher. But BABS rated Elly De La Cruz on draft day as (P+,S+,a) and has consistently downgraded Vlad Guerrero's power (is 2021 the outlier?), so who are we to argue?

While we are more than halfway into the 2023 season, we can’t lock in these ratings. Playing time samples are still too small. But we are starting to see how the asset group tiers are shaping up, and by the end of the season, we'll have a fuller view.

Click here to access the database. Make sure the year is set to 2023 and the Report Type is set to In-Season Rankings (batter or pitcher). And again, use carefully.