Top 300 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - Nick Mariano's Rest-of-Season Outlooks for: Lars Nootbaar, Josh Bell, Justin Verlander, more

Nick's updated top 300 fantasy baseball rankings for roto leagues as of Week 19 (August 2, 2023). Check out his rest-of-season rankings and projections for hitters and pitchers.

Welcome back, RotoBallers! Now that the dust has settled and the MLB trade deadline is over. It's time for another rankings check-in. We saw many players on the move this past week, which either increased or decreased a player's fantasy value. Some of the big names that changed jerseys include Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery, Amed Rosario, Jake Burger, Paul Sewald, Lucas Giolito, Randal Grichuk, C.J. Cron, Jordan Hicks, Scott Barlow, Aaron Civale, Jack Flaherty, Lance Lynn, David Robertson, Michael Lorenzen, and Josh Bell. Below is another edition of Nick Mariano's updated 2023 fantasy baseball rankings and tiers for roto leagues (5x5 mixed leagues) as of August 2, 2023. These rankings are being released in August and are looking at rest-of-season fantasy baseball rankings and player values for the rest of this MLB season. There are many interesting storylines we are following closely, which are all baked into these updated rankings.

We have recently seen some top prospects called up to the big leagues, such as Cleveland Guardians shortstop Brayan Rocchio. At the same time, fantasy managers patiently wait for the call-up of Detroit Tigers third base prospect Colt Keith, who has collected a hit in seven of his last 10 games with Triple-A Toledo, while St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn is slashing .327/.393/.673 with eight home runs, 27 RBI, 28 runs, and two stolen bases over 25 games with Triple-A Memphis.

The Guardians acquired top prospect Kyle Manzardo (shoulder) from the Rays as part of the Aaron Civale deal. He has been on the 7-day injured list since July 6 due to a sore shoulder. The 23-year-old had struggled this season, slashing .238/.342/.442 with 11 home runs, 19 RBI, 33 runs, and a .784 OPS over 73 games with Triple-A Durham. After the Mets sell-off at the MLB deadline, infield prospect Ronny Mauricio could be the next prospect to be promoted to the big leagues. The 22-year-old is slashing .290/.340/.487 with 16 home runs and 16 stolen bases over 427 plate appearances at Triple-A Syracuse.

August Top-300 Updates

Injuries continue to pile up; Chicago White Sox right-hander Liam Hendriks (elbow) underwent Tommy John surgery on Wednesday and will miss the rest of the season. The Blue Jays placed Bo Bichette (knee) and Jordan Romano (back) on the injured list. Tampa Bay Rays Shane McClanahan (forearm) is battling with forearm tightness and exited Wednesday's start early. The Yankees placed Domingo German on the restricted list. Reinforcements are coming as Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story (elbow) and New York Yankees southpaw Nestor Cortes Jr. are set to come off the injured list soon.

Some notable recent performances include Boston Red Sox right-hander Nick Pivetta, who has racked up two double-digit strike-out performances while posting a 1.40 ERA and 0.57 WHIP over his last 19 1/3 innings. St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar is starting to live up to all the hype given to him this offseason. Nootbaar is hitting .500 (11-for-22) with four home runs and seven RBI over his last five contests. The Angels acquired Randal Grichuk from the Rockies before the MLB deadline. Grichuk should have an everyday role with Mike Trout (wrist) sidelined. The 31-year-old is slashing .375/.405/.700, four home runs, five RBI, seven runs, and a stolen base over his last 10 games.

Some players are off to a terrific start in the second half, while some have struggled mightily after the All-Star break. Which of these hot streaks do we take seriously, and which do we put less stock into? Is it time to raise our expectations on certain players and elevate touted prospects into a higher tier for fantasy baseball leagues? How much patience must we show for highly-touted players who have struggled recently, especially veterans with proven track records?

Hopefully, the rankings below will give you some perspective on our thoughts on these topics and help you assess the strength of your rosters going forward. Let's see where players such as Nick Pivetta, Randal Grichuk, Lars Nootbaar,  Josh Bell, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Jake Burger, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Will Benson, Andrew Abbott, Luke Raley, Anthony Volpe, Triston Casas, Giancarlo Stanton, Brandon Woodruff, Wilmer Flores, Lucas Giolito, rank, all of who have had an interesting start to the second half of the season.

Top 300 Fantasy Baseball Rankings - Week 19 Update

These rankings will be updated every week throughout the season, so some of these situations are very fluid. It's not panic time yet, and we may not be ready to elevate hot-starting players into the elite yet either, but it's certainly a good checkpoint for the long fantasy season.

As always, be sure to stay on top of all the MLB news with our running list of 24x7 fantasy baseball news and injuries. And if you don't yet have our free mobile app, be sure to download it and stay on top of all the MLB news and analysis with our free push notification alerts.

Nick Mariano's ranks are as of August 2, 2023. They are for 5x5 category mixed roto leagues and will be updated regularly on our main fantasy baseball rankings dashboard all season long. Be sure to read our daily fantasy baseball analysis articles as well.

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