2016 End of Season Rankings: Third Base

Coors Field: god’s gift to fantasy sports. If you were to sort a typical FanGraphs leaderboard by offensive production, Nolan Arenado is eighth, sandwiched between Matt Carpenter and Evan Longoria. If the exercise is to grade fantasy production, Arenado outpaced Kris Bryant as the top third baseman by a full $3. As we all know, the real and fantasy worlds do not have a 1:1 relationship.

In case you’re just tuning into this series for the first time, I recommend going back in time and starting from the beginning. Luckily, you won’t need a time machine. The post on catchers has notes on important methodological changes. You can also go straight into the calculator to tweak values for your league.

For these articles, I’m going to assume a 12 team, 5×5, standard deep roster with a pitching cap of 1475 innings (most leagues are 1450 or 1500, I split the difference). I set the batter split at 65% because that produces what I consider to be the most realistic position adjustments.

I already teased the top two, let’s see where the chips fall.

For leagues with a corner infield slot, replacement level was Kang. His value to your team depends on when you owned him. If he began the season on your team, he probably hurt. A lot. If, like me, you snagged several shares in August, he may have saved your season.

As with first base, stolen bases were important. Without the swipes, Nunez and Perez aren’t very useful. Villar’s season would have ranked right around Carpenter and Lamb. Ramirez was the only other player to provide more than a couple dollars of value on the base paths. If you can find stolen bases in the corner infield, you’re well on your way to winning the category.

The position was littered with surprise performances. Villar’s was covered extensively as it happened. It’s easy to forget he was an afterthought during draft season. Nunez’s 40 steal season came out of nowhere, as did Perez’s 34 thefts. Longoria had a rebound season while Ramirez finally put everything together at the plate. Last but not least, Lamb had a powerful first half before fading down the stretch.

Among the negative performers, Healy and Reyes were the most useful to fantasy owners. Both players spent a large chunk of the season away from the big leagues – Healy due to normal prospect development and Reyes because he’s an ass. After a slow start, Healy made a few adjustments to tap into his power. Reyes offered a 25/25 home run-stolen base pace over about a third of a season.

The biggest disappointment was Sano. In a normal season, his 25 home runs would have made up for otherwise Carterian numbers. Unfortunately, 2016 was not a normal year. Franco, Kang, and Moustakas earn honorable mention among the flops. It’s hard to hold a season-ending injury against Moose.