The 2012 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. This week focuses on second baseman, a popular cornerstone of fantasy offenses everywhere.

The players were ranked based on their 2012 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. To keep things manageable and avoid skewing the numbers, players were only considered if they amassed 350 plate appearances over the course of the year. The replacement level was also adjusted to account for players eligible at multiples positions. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and traditional 5×5 roto fantasy leagues.

One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. For example, while a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth.

These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. So, a player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

If you know much about me, you’re not terribly surprised I’ve chosen to profile Justin Morneau in the scope of Colonel Sanders publishing his first base rankings this past Monday. And while I think the conception that Morneau had a less-than-optimal season is probably apt — he’s 26th in Zach’s rankings — there are some underlying factors to his season that might be signs for optimism that one doesn’t usually find in a stiff-bodies first baseman entering his age-31 season. Read the rest of this entry »

I hit .307/.354/.522 with 22 home runs, 92 RBI, and 76 runs scored in just 469 at bats and yet ottoneu hates me.  I’m Allen Craig and I disapprove of this message.

But based on Zach Sanders and his magical ranking system, Allen Craig squeaks into the top ten rankings among first basemen in typical 5×5 leagues, ahead of the likes of Adrian Gonzalez and sometimes catcher Joe Mauer, which ain’t a terrible place to be for a guy that was going for a song when the 2012 season started.

Read the rest of this entry »

If you’d done nothing in 2012 but read the local papers, you might think that Adrian Gonzalez was among the biggest busts of modern times. Coming off a stellar 2011 Boston debut, his production was down, his Red Sox team was a circus – which he was not immune from after being reportedly caught up in the “text message to Boston ownership” controversy – and he didn’t even end the year with the team. In one of the most shocking trades in baseball history, he was shipped to Los Angeles just a year-and-a-half after the Red Sox gave up Anthony Rizzo, Casey Kelly, & Reymond Fuentes to acquire him and invested seven years & $154 million into retaining him.

While that reaction and Gonzalez’ culpability in the flaming collapse of the 2012 Red Sox are perhaps slightly overblown, it clearly wasn’t the year anyone expected. Gonzalez set full-season career lows in OBP, SLG, wOBA, & wRC+, managing to avoid bottoming out in WAR only because his fielding was so highly graded as compared to his early years in San Diego. Considering that Gonzalez was around the 11^th overall pick on average in ESPN leagues headed into the season, the fact that he ended up only 10^th just among first basemen in Zach Sanders’ end-of-year rankings has to be considered a huge disappointment. Read the rest of this entry »

Before this Roto Riteup gets too far underway, this was hands down the biggest announcement from yesterday.

• It was confirmed Albert Pujols underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee last week. The Los Angeles Angels claim that it was “a minor cleanup surgery” and that Pujols will be ready for spring training. Per wOBA and wRC+, Pujols is on a five year slide. Despite this trend and the surgery, Pujols still figures to be a pillar of any fantasy squad. If anything, I think natural aging is the cause of any decline. And of course, Pujols’ worst year of his career in 2012 was “only” 30 home runs, 105 RBI’s with a .285 batting average. As far as re-draft leagues go, proceed as usual.
Read the rest of this entry »

With the publishing of Zach Sanders’ 2012 first base rankings on Monday, most owners probably had a good idea where everyone was going to fit. Obviously Miguel Cabrera was going to be king of the hill and everyone knew they were going to have a scroll a while to find Eric Hosmer’s name. But quietly holding onto the seventh spot was a guy who didn’t even start the year in the first base discussion: Corey Hart.

Read the rest of this entry »

Going into this season, it was obvious that Prince Fielder was leaving a park that was friendly to his lefty power and going to one that was less cozy. The difficulty in using that one fact to predict Fielder’s 2012 power was that he’d play half his games in other parks. So Chad Young and I tried to correctly weight the lefty home run power factors for each of the stadiums he’d see. Our answer was that he’d see a 6.7% reduction in home run production on the road. Combined with a 30% drop at home (118-88), he could expect a 18.65% drop overall.

Edit: Nailed it!

Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing with our retrospective of first basemen fantasy performances, it’s time to check out number seven on Zach Sanders’ First Base End of Season Rankings and take a look at the Arizona Diamondbacks’ lumbering slugger, Paul Goldschmidt. Though technically not a rookie due to 156 at-bats in 2011, this was Goldschmidt’s first full season in the bigs. Not only did he meet most expectations, but he actually exceeded quite a few and his end of season value of $16 puts him right on the cusp of elite first baseman status. Read the rest of this entry »

Every season, we fantasy owners could choose to bust our budget for a top first baseman who will contribute handsomely in four categories or spring for a cheaper option, perhaps one we might consider a sleeper. Brandon Belt and John Mayberry were two popular choices for the latter category, but unfortunately, they remained in a slumber all season. Based on Zach Sanders’ magical formula, Belt actually reduced the final value of a fantasy team by a buck, ranking 39th among first basemen, while Mayberry did even more damage, “earning” a strong -$5 (yes, negative), and ranking 46th. So what happened and is there post-sleeper hope for next season?

Read the rest of this entry »