2016 Second Base Tier Rankings – August Edition
Check out last month’s tiers right here.
TIER ONE
Jose Altuve
A couple weeks ago, I wrote a piece on this very website entitled “Jose Altuve: Fantasy Baseball’s Most Valuable Hitter.” It is a celebratory collection of fun facts about the best position player in fantasy, and I invite you all to partake in its many enjoyable info nuggets. Altuve should claim the No. 1 overall spot soon, which is currently held by the injured Clayton Kershaw. (Kershaw is seriously still the top performer in 2016 in traditional 5×5 formats, despite the fact that he last pitched five weeks ago.)
TIER TWO
Daniel Murphy
Ian Kinsler
Robinson Cano
Dustin Pedroia
The Murphy/Kinsler/Cano trio have held down this tier for months, and now Pedroia moves up to join them. The soon-to-be 33-year-old socked five homers in July, while hitting over .300 for the third time in the season’s four months. Pedroia also has more walks than strikeouts over the last two months. He’s now sitting on a .303/.373/.453 season slash, with 12 homers, 70 runs and 46 RBI. With his prime position in the two-hole of Boston’s powerful lineup, Pedroia’s four-category contributions should continue to pay big dividends for his owners.
TIER THREE
Dee Gordon
DJ LeMahieu
Ben Zobrist
Jason Kipnis
Rougned Odor
Jean Segura
I had Zobrist in Tier Two for months, but his value keeps falling. His season stats are largely propped up by his wonderful month of May, when he hit .406/.483/.653 (1.137 OPS). In June, that fell to .221/.339/.368 (.708 OPS), and his .209/.303/.384 (.687 OPS) July wasn’t any better. He certainly possesses the talent to turn it around, and the Cubs’ lineup provides him plenty of opportunities for counting stats, so I’m not going full doom-and-gloom.
TIER FOUR
Anthony Rendon
Brian Dozier
Jonathan Schoop
Addison Russell
Trea Turner
Javier Baez
Yangervis Solarte
Neil Walker
Coming off a resurgent June — in which he hit a monstrous .369/.435/.728 — Dozier predictably came back down to earth, but not all the way down to the ugly numbers he put up in his previous five months. The 29-year-old slashed .242/.293/.505, as the power production held over, although little else did. Still, nobody drafted Dozier for batting-average help in the first place, so I’m sure his owners are more than happy with the 14 homers he gave them from June through July.
Both Baez and Turner have worked their way into five or six games a week lately. Turner picked up seven steals in his first 16 major-league games of the season, and if he can stick at the top of the Nats’ lineup, he could easily work his way up a tier next month. Baez offers a balanced power/speed combo, with nine homers and seven steals in the last two months. Despite his early struggles, his season slash is all the way up to .289/.330/.468. Baez has the talent to ascend this list, but it’s going to be tough if the Cubs keep batting him seventh or eighth most games.
TIER FIVE
Logan Forsythe
Steve Pearce
Jurickson Profar
Devon Travis
Hernan Perez
Joe Panik
Howie Kendrick
Jedd Gyorko
Ryan Schimpf
There’s a considerable amount of disappointment in this tier. Forsythe had a hideous July, fighting a losing battle against the Mendoza Line. The most alarming aspect of his data is the fact that his plate discipline has somehow completely flown out the window:
- 2015 Season (615 PA) – 8.9% BB, 18.0% K
- April/May 2016 (123 PA) – 11.4% BB, 21.1% K
- June 2016 (92 PA) – 3.3% BB, 21.7% K
- July 2016 (113 PA) – 3.5% BB, 23.0% K
In other unpleasant news, Profar finally saw steady playing time last month, but he didn’t do much with it. As for Travis, the fantasy owners’ dream of him batting near the top of the Jays’ order seems like a distant memory.
There’s also some encouraging signs in this tier. Kendrick saved his season with an explosive .352/.430/.557 July, with more weighted runs created (20) than in the season’s first three months combined (18). Gyorko received far more playing time last month than he did in the season’s first half, and responded by drilling seven bombs, with a .300/.347/.614 slash.
Schimpf, the 28-year-old ‘Three True Outcomes’ rookie, continues to consistently hit bombs (nine in 131 PA), walk (14.5%) and strike out (28.2%). If you can take the batting-average damage, Schimpf can help considerably boost your middle-infield power numbers.
For more on Travis, Gyorko and Schimpf, check out my piece from last week.
TIER SIX
Josh Harrison
Brock Holt
Brandon Phillips
Scooter Gennett
Cesar Hernandez
Marwin Gonzalez
Raul Mondesi
Hernandez is running more lately, so that’s somewhat interesting. Mondesi just celebrated his 21st birthday last Wednesday, and his tools started translating into minor-league statistical production for the first time this year. He’s got a high ceiling as a prospect, but I won’t be counting on him too much for 2016 fantasy numbers, especially if he stays at the bottom of the Royals’ batting order.
TIER SEVEN
Starlin Castro
Brett Lawrie (+)
Chase Utley
Kolten Wong
Johnny Giavotella
Aaron Hill
Chris Owings
Gordon Beckham
Most of these players receive at least semi-regular playing time. So, there’s that. You got that goin’ for ya.
TIER EIGHT
Daniel Descalso
Derek Dietrich
Kelly Johnson
Adam Rosales
Darwin Barney
Phil Gosselin
Chris Coghlan
Ryan Goins (+)
Nope.
Scott Strandberg started writing for Rotographs in 2013. He works in small business consultation, and he also writes A&E columns for The Norman Transcript newspaper. Scott lives in Seattle, WA.
Carpenter?
Tier Two
Hernan Perez for Prez – he has been really solid the past month, and is now playing everyday
I keep forgetting that he’s eligible at 2B in many leagues, due to his 13 starts there last year. Perez is on a roll right now, and the speed is legit. I have serious questions about how sustainable his power is — seven homers in the majors this year, no more than eight in any minor-league season (2012 in A-ball) — the .343 BABIP feels fluky, and his plate discipline is terrifying.
All that said, I did just pick him up in a not-all-that-deep mixed league. Riding the wave while he’s hot isn’t a bad idea at all. I’ll stick him in Tier Five.
I think the Odor ranking is really poor. Would def rather have him than Pedroia or LeMahieu
In my OBP league, I’m much more happier with LeMahieu, thank you very much.
I could maybe see an argument for Odor above LeMahieu, but Pedroia? I honestly can’t think of a redraft league format in which I’d rather own Odor than Pedroia.
I mean, Odor’s numbers are just better. Way more HR, more SB, more RBI. Pedroia has a small edge in runs and a nice edge in avg, but I’d rather have the 22 year old filling up the stat sheet than the soon to be 33 year old with a history of injuries.
OBP league, sure that would change things. Standard 5×5, no way.
Agree fully. I can’t see any justification for Odor to be ranked this low.
Jason Kipnis in Tier 3 is a little light, especially relative to Pedroia.
No second baseman in baseball has hit better than Kipnis over the last month and on the season he’s basically pulling a Pedroia but with more power. Even if you anticipate Kipnis’ annual second half drop off, hard to see the case for Pedroia over him in any league outside of OBP just on the counting stats alone.
Kipnis ranks favorably to most of these guys in all categories, is pulling the ball more and hitting it harder which is leading to the season many people thought he’d have the past couple of years. And July was a great month for him, leading me to think that the second half slump might not happen. And add to it his typical month of greatness sandwiched around months of mehness doesn’t seem to be happening either as he’s been above average since April.
But somehow, we still can’t even get a blurb justifying his ranking or talking about what he’s done lately. At the very least, he and Odor should be at the top of tier three, if not the bottom of two. The comment placing Carpenter in tier two despite the fact that he’s still on the DL recovering from an abdominal strain (the same injury that tanked Kipnis in 2014), has me questioning the author’s judgement. Abdominal strains should be scaring people off. I know the injury scared me enough to grab Rendon in my league even though Carp should be coming back at the end of the week. I don’t want to risk relying on Carpenter exclusively RoS.