No, I’m not alluding to Alexander the Great or commenting on Chris Young’s agility, which I’m sure he possesses boatloads of. Back on October 20, Young came to the Beane, as he was traded to Oakland to give them their bajillionth outfielder. Without even looking at numbers, we could be pretty sure that all else equal, Young’s performance will suffer moving into spacious O.co Coliseum (can I officially nominate this as the worst name for an MLB park? thanks). But of course, this is FanGraphs, and we’re all about our calculators and slide rules, so let’s see exactly how his production may be affected.

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Mike Aviles played in 136 games for the Red Sox in 2012, mainly at short stop. This off season, Aviles has been on the move. First, he was traded to the Blue Jays. Two weeks after that trade, the Blue Jays traded him to the Indians. Aviles should be an OK middle infielder in deep and AL only leagues depending on if he can get on the field.

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As we make our way through Zach Sanders’ Shortstop End of Season Rankings, we are as obligated to steer you away from drafting some players as much as we are to recommend drafting others. Scrolling down the list, you’ll notice at number 30, we have World Series champion and recent Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award winner Brandon Crawford with a -$7 value. He is, essentially, picking up the rear at the position. While newbies to the fantasy game and perhaps a few Bay Area homers could potentially get caught up in the World Series hype and wait so long on the shortstop/middle infield position that they happily settle for Crawford, it is our responsibility to tell you to snap out of it and get your head right if you want to win. Brandon Crawford ain’t winning you no fantasy championships. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone remembers the great car chase scene from The French Connection, right? It’s basically Gene Hackman chasing a hitman in New York City. Except the hitman is on an elevated-train while Hackman is in a car below him. Hackman has to avoid a woman and her baby, oncoming traffic as well as plenty of other obstacles.

Alexei Ramirez faced his share of obstacles this season, not the least of which involved him chasing out of the zone. After posting an average .326 wOBA for his four season career, Ramirez saw his offensive game take a steep dive in 2012: he posted a .282 wOBA — ranking dead last among qualified shortstops. Despite this poor showing in the advanced side of the numbers, his fantasy tallies were sufficient to rank him as the 15th best shortstop.
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Comparing Everth Cabrera to the likes of Davey Lopes, Willie Wilson, Otis Nixon and Tim Raines would be ridiculous, but Cabrera has something in common with all of them. Only ten players in Major League Baseball history have had fewer than 450 plate appearances and stolen 44 or more bases. Cabrera is one of them.

As you know, Cabrera wasn’t originally in the San Diego Padres’ plans for 2012. They started the season with Orlando Hudson at second base and Jason Bartlett at shortstop. After miserable starts for both (and an injury to Bartlett), the Padres recalled Cabrera in late May and he summarily turned in a nice little season.

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It was shaping up to be a breakout season for Led Lowrie. The 28-year-old shortstop had already clubbed a career-high 14 home runs before the start of July, and it was beginning to look like he was living up to the hype. Just a few weeks later, his season was effectively ended after Gregor Blanco slid hard into Lowrie’s ankle. Lowrie did return in September, and received 60 more plate appearances, but his performance was abysmal. Entering this upcoming season, nothing has changed for Lowrie. He remains a talented, injury-prone player at one of fantasy’s weakest positions.

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Who was one of the most surprising shortstops this season? Your fourth ranked Nationals breakout star Ian Desmond, who earned $19 this season. Obviously, no one saw this coming. The RotoGraphs consensus ranked him just 15th at the position, and no one was more optimstic than Jeff Zimmerman at 14, whose ranking was based on ZiPS projections. If it weren’t for a torn oblique injury that forced him to miss nearly a month of the season, his counting stats, and resulting ranking, would have been even better. So has he established a new level of skill, or was this just a typical career year ripe for regression?

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2012 wasn’t supposed to look anything like 2011 for the Miami Marlins as they added a whole mess, and I do mean mess, of new salaries to help inaugurate their new digs in downtown. But for all their trouble, the Marlins finished 69-93 having been outscored by their opponents by some 115 runs, which was actually slightly worse than 2011’s 72-90 finish with a -77 run differential.

2013 won’t look much like 2012 whether the Marlins manage to extricate themselves from the cellar of the NL East or not simply by virtue of the roster shuffling that has already started. Despite signing a rich deal last winter, Heath Bell was one of the very first players moved this offseason, and Ozzie Guillen wasn’t far behind him out the door. In fact, about the only things that really came as advertised were Giancarlo Stanton, the home run monstrosity and Jose Reyes. Read the rest of this entry »

There are certain types of players in fantasy that drive us all crazy. The most maddening of all might be the inconsistent hitter who vanishes for long stretches of time but is able to catch fire and carry your whole offense. Sure, the month or so the player is hitting the cover off the ball is nice, but the dead weight in between can be tough to handle.

No one better epitomized that player last season than Jimmy Rollins.

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Another week, another position. If you haven’t already, then take a look at Zach Sanders’ Shortstop End of Season Rankings and we can scroll down together to find Cincinnati’s Zack Cozart, probably one of the more disappointing players this year, given the preseason hype and expectations. He was supposed to be this awesome blend of power and speed who was also capable of hitting for average, but after a season filled with a few bumps in the road, Cozart had left his owners wanting/needing more. Read the rest of this entry »