Detroit Tigers: Top five fantasy players so far

The season is almost a month underway. With baseball season comes fantasy baseball. So who are the top five fantasy players so far this season?

The Detroit Tigers have been playing surprisingly well. They’re sitting just under .500 which is better than some thought they’d be (even this early on). But how are the players performing so far in fantasy baseball?

In this article, we are going to take a look. Full disclaimer, we are going off of the FS Experts Fantasy Scoring, which is slightly different than ESPN Standard. Which means if you went to CBS Sports you might come up with a different top five. Which is totally fine, but I think there will be a difference of one player at most.

In years past Miguel Cabrera has been the top fantasy player on the Tigers roster. He’s still in the top five so far, but he’s not in the number one spot. Surprisingly one pitcher does make the list. Well, maybe not too surprising given how well the starting rotation has been and how cold the bats were the first couple weeks of the season.

We are going to start at five and work our way down to number one. Coming in at number five is lefty Francisco Liriano will 81 fantasy points so far this season.

#5 LHP Francisco Liriano.

The Detroit Tigers lefty has pitcher has posted twenty-three innings of work in four games so far this season.  He’s struck out twenty batters while posting two quality fantasy starts. He’s walked just twelve batters and given up fourteen hits so far this season.

He’s the only pitcher on our list and he’s slightly behind another newcomer to the Tigers. Coming in at number four on our list is OF Leonys Martin.

#4 OF Leonys Martin

The veteran outfielder has scored 84 fantasy points so far this season while playing for the Olde English D. The FanSided Experts league doesn’t account for home runs or batting average. But some notable stats we keep track of include Total Bases (Martin has 32 so far), stolen bases (he’s stolen one) and game-winning RBI (one for Martin).

The veteran player has been electric so far playing for the Tigers and he comes behind Jeimer Candelario.

#3 Jeimer Candelario

The Detroit Tigers third baseman has scored eighty-five fantasy points so far this season. He has 41 total bases, ten RBIs, and one game winning RBI. He’s knocked twenty-hits in 83 at-bats.  In 20 outings this season he’s posting a .849 OPS.

Those stats only put him third on our list. He’s behind slugger Miguel Cabrera on our list.

#2 Miguel Cabrera

So far the Detroit Tigers slugger is only posting the second best fantasy stats on the team. In our league, he’s racked up 92 points so far. He’s brought in fourteen RBIs and two game-winning RBIs. Through 20 games this season his batting average is above .300 and his OPS is above the .855 mark.

The 35-year old is seeing a better year than 2017 so far, and he could pass Nicholas Castellanos to reclaim the top fantasy player spot before the year is over.

Next: Who should start in left field?

#1 Nicholas Castellanos

The fan favorite has scored 95 fantasy points so far in our league. He’s brought in eleven RBIs and one game-winning RBI. But he’s scored 13 times and has covered thirty-seven total bases. In just two games he’s brought his batting average from .264 to .309 going 6-for-9.

Castellanos wanted to continue the success he had offensively towards the end of last season and it looks like he’ going to do that. 20 games in and Castellanos is creeping in on 100 fantasy points.

In our league there are plenty of players over the 100 point mark already, but for a rebuilding Tigers Castellanos provides something fun to watch.