Elephant Rumblings: Three A’s make fantasy top 100

MLB news roundup

Happy Friday, Athletics Nation!

The A’s have won three preseason games in a row! That doesn’t matter a ton, but I’ll take Ws over Ls in Spring and Summer alike. Though he allowed one dinger, Luis Severino looked sharp overall in his Athletics debut yesterday, while J.T. Ginn picked up the win and improved his 2025 ERA to 14.73. Connor Ashford has the rundown on yesterday’s game right here on AN.

The only sort of fantasy baseball I’ve ever played was a made up sort that I played alone: when I was younger I did stuff like make up games throwing baseballs against my pitchback and compile stats on the results, or generate fantasy stats with 20-sided dice, or via solo Yahtzee games...yes, I am a bit strange. But actual organized fantasy baseball just seemed like too deep a rabbit hole for me to venture down. Or maybe I just understand deep down that it would take over my life if I got into it. Shrugs.

But I know people take their fantasy baseball seriously, so lists like the dynasty rankings shared by Chris Welsh at the Athletic yesterday can serve as a pretty good proxy for who the best real-life players are.

Three Athletics made the bottom half of Welsh’s top 100: Mason Miller (77), Lawrence Butler (89), and Brent Rooker (92). I’d agree that these are the A’s three best players right now. I might reverse the order here, and I definitely think Rooker was the A’s MVP in 2024 and saying he was the 92nd best player last season would be yet another undeserved snub of the A’s top slugger.

But I also understand that projections, with all their uncertainty, might merit more emphasis than recent history in trying to determine who will give your fantasy team the biggest boost. I think Rooker was the most deserving among these three of an extension, but I think Miller is most likely to be a 2025 All-Star, while Butler has the highest ceiling in terms of added win probability.

This list consists of 400 players, and the next Athletic in the rankings hasn’t even made his MLB debut yet: No. 2 A’s prospect Nick Kurtz took the 167th spot.

Have a wonderful weekend, AN.

A’s Coverage:

• Athletics rally late to beat Padres 6-4
• Severino a leader in the clubhouse, confident on the mound for A’s
• A’s Continuing To Give Tyler Soderstrom Catching Reps
• ‘This is unfair’: While Giants expand Spanish broadcasts, A’s go in opposite direction
• Athletics Give Glimpse of Projected Rotation

MLB News & Interest:

• Each team’s top power hitting prospect for ‘25
• Dynasty league baseball rankings: Top 400 players, from Shohei Ohtani to Daulton Varsho ($)
• With 3 longtime fixtures gone, how do remaining Astros bridge the gap? ($)
• Pirates Sign Andrew Heaney
• How a four-time Gold Glover is guiding up-and-coming players
• Andrew Benintendi To Miss Four To Six Weeks Due To Hand Fracture
• Braves chairman says ‘dry powder’ available for payroll; calls MLB-ESPN break-up a ‘non-event’ ($)
• Accused of giving away his team’s pitches, Derek Bender reckons with the world’s mistrust ($)
• Zach Neto Ruled Out For Opening Day
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Luis brought the heat in his A’s debut.

Yesterday’s performance highlights.