Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Fantasy Focus: 2016 Shortstop Rankings

Shortstop was another position that saw an offensive resurgence.  Here are the rankings by OPS and you might be surprised at some of the names:

1.  Trevor Story, Rockies- .909.  Season cut short by a torn thumb ligament.  Rockies hitters at any position are always good fantasy baseball bets.

2.  Aledmys Diaz, Cardinals- .879.  Season cut short by broken thumb but a great bet for 2017.

3.  Corey Seager, Dodgers- .877.  Tremendous hitter who may not have reached his ceiling.  Will be very expensive on draft day.

4.  Manny Machado, Orioles- .876.

5.  Jonathan Villar, Brewers- .826.  Comes with 62 SB's!

6.  Carlos Correa, Astros- .811.  A bit of a disappointing sophomore campaign.  2017 could be a breakout year.

7.  Asdrubal Cabrera, Mets- .810.

8.  Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox- .802.  A bit of a disappointment.  Does he still have another level in him?

9.  Elvis Andrus, Rangers- .800.  Andrus is gradually transforming from less of a SB threat to more of a power threat.

10.  Francisco Lindor, Indians- .794.

11.  Brad Miller, Rays- .786.  30 dingers!

12.  Brandon Crawford, Giants- .772.  Crawford's relatively low HR and SB totals don't translate well to fantasy baseball.

13.  Troy Tulowitzki, Blue Jays- .761.  Clearly on the downside of his career but still has sneaky value if you can stand the yearly trip to the DL.

14. Eduardo Nunez, Giants- .758.  He may not play much SS in 2017, but will retain eligibility in most fantasy formats.

15.  Jorge Polanco, Twins- .757.  Breakout potential?

16. Didi Gregorius, Yankees- .751.  Tremendous athlete.  Is he learning to hit?

17.  Addison Russell, Cubs- .738.  Enormous breakout potential for 2017.

18.  Tim Anderson, White Sox- .738.  May take a year or two to develop at the MLB level but a candidate for breakout anytime.

19.  Marcus Semien, A's- .735.  27 dingers!

20. Zack Cozart, Reds- .732.

4 comments:

  1. Because Yahoo! does the multiple position eligibility line-ups, I had Story (replaced by Cabrera after injury), Villar and Crawford plus Jose Ramirez & Ian Desmond as SS's/Utility/OF hitters. In our league scoring Crawford and Cabrera came out virtually identical. Villar was my 3B for most of the season since he had that position eligibility. Ramirez and Desmond were OFers who could be dropped in when too many SS had days-off were traveling.

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  2. Duffy seems to be pegged as SS for the Rays. Is he worth a watch list? He should OPS somewhere in the top 20.

    Crawford did contribute surprising RBIs from the SS spot. Sixth highest just after Ian Desmond, who I think loses eligibility for 2017.

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  3. I always enjoy your breakdowns and comments. You often say things others don't and always put forward an honest opinion. I will preface this by saying I am certainly NOT a Red Sox fan. But in regards to Xander Bogaerts " A bit of a disappointment.". A .294/356/446/802 slash line from a 23 year old is disappointing? You are talking about a kid that has not even reached his prime yet. And how many clubs would kill to have that kind of production from someone so young at such a key position?

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    1. That is a good point. I guess my own expectations for Bogie might have been unrealistic. Despite his young age, it seems like I've been predicting a breakout season forever. I did not mean the "disappointing" comment to reflect on his future so much as this season.

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