Hello and welcome to Hitter List, where every Wednesday I’ll be flawlessly ranking the top 150 hitters in baseball from now through the end of the season.

To truly hate something, you must first understand it, so here’s a general overview of how I go about evaluating players so you can be upset with these rankings more thoroughly:

I value stolen bases significantly more than home runs. The 5,585 homers hit in 2018 were the fourth-highest total in modern history. And the Joey Votto . And home runs are an abundant resource that are becoming more prevalent, like Yu Darvish walks 2,474 stolen bases from last year were the lowest total since 1994 and the eighth-lowest total since 1969. In other words, stolen bases are a scarce resource getting even scarcer, like reasons to believe in. And home runs are an abundant resource that are becoming more prevalent, likewalks . All else being equal, I’ll always take the guy with 15 HR/20 SB over the guy with 20 HR/15 SB.

I’m generally not a believer in positional scarcity, so position eligibility only comes into play in two instances: as a tiebreaker when two players are fairly evenly matched, or if a player is eligible at catcher, because catcher is a barren wasteland this year filled with adrenaline-fueled maniacs playing guitar riffs while strapped to 18-wheelers. Wait, no, that’s Mad Max: Fury Road, but catcher is just as bleak and weird.

I’m an old man who’s afraid of change, so I tend to be low on young players without major league track records.

I lean on track record more than recent performance, unless I see a significant underlying change in approach.

These rankings apply only to leagues using standard scoring (R, RBI, HR, SB, AVG) and lean more towards rotisserie and H2H categories leagues. Adjust accordingly for other formats.

These rankings are meant to be from today’s date through the end of the season. These are purely for redraft, so I’m not taking 2020 into account here at all.

A player’s movement in the rankings can be just as much about where guys around them have moved as anything else. A player might move down purely as a result of someone below them rising, and vice versa.

[hitter_list_2019 list_id=”31346″ include_stats=”1″]

Now onto the recaps:

Graphic by Michael Haas (@digitalHaas on Twitter)