Matt Dominguez was the 12th overall pick of the 2007 draft by the then Florida Marlins. He hit well at Single-A in 2008, posting a .382 wOBA and .203 ISO, and that was enough to get him listed among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects at 64 for the 2009 season. Unfortunately, it all went downhill offensively from there. Since then, he failed to exceed a .347 wOBA, which he posted the following season at High-A. He then missed being ranked among the top 100 prospects in 2010 before making a return at 81 in 2011. Now a member of the Houston Astros, we fast forward to 2013, his first full season. Dominguez hit 21 home runs, which was enough to make him the 18th most valuable third baseman, the last one at the position to earn positive value.

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I have made it very well known that I wasn’t particularly optimistic about Pedro Alvarez’s fantasy value this season. We all figured him for a poor batting average, so he would have to make it up with immense power to truly benefit his owners. And boy did he ever. He upped his home run total and boosted his ISO, fueled up by a slight nudge in his HR/FB ratio. Despite hitting just .233, the power output was enough to make him the ninth most valuable third baseman in fantasy leagues this year.

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When we think of batting crown contenders, we have an image in our minds of a high contact line drive hitter who sprays the ball to all fields. Good power certainly helps as home runs are hits and don’t factor into BABIP, so hitting home runs are an easy way to boost batting average without requiring an increase in BABIP. Speed also helps as it could lead to a greater rate of infield hits and even bunt hits. Chris Johnson isn’t exactly the picture of a batting average leader, and yet, he finished second in the National League with a .321 mark, which ranked fifth in baseball.

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We have made it to third base week here and that means another round of recapping my Pod’s Picks at the position. There were a couple of breakout stars, while Miguel Cabrera once again led the pack. Looking at the difference in my preseason rank and the consensus, we find that there really wasn’t much difference, as a ranking disparity of just two or three places is rather insignificant. That means we generally agreed on third base rankings, even for the guys listed below. Let’s see how I did.

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Episode 78
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss the impact of playoff performance on draft value and wrap up the second basemen.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter and tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Intro by DJ Sinton (no, contrary to popular belief, I do not moonlight as a rap star)

Approximately 41 min of joyous analysis.

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At just 5’5 and 175 pounds according to our data, Jose Altuve is tiny, at least compared to his colleagues in the professional athlete world. In fact, his size is so much fun to discuss that a new unit of measurement was devised in his honor. How Many Altuves are you? I am 1.03 Jose Altuves. Altuve finished the season in fairly expected fashion, earning the 11th highest value among second basemen, which is exactly where he ranked during his first full season in 2012. Can the little man take his game to an even higher level?

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I think it’s fair to see that no one saw what Brian Dozier did this year coming. And it’s not to say that Dozier was anything special, but preseason projections figured he would be pretty useless offensively. The 2013 ZiPS projections went with a .281 wOBA, while the four fans aggregate projections yielded barely more optimism with a .288 wOBA. Instead, Dozier posted a .319 mark and actually recorded the eighth best WAR among all Major League second basemen. But of course, we’re supposed to be talking fantasy here, and Dozier finished 14th in fantasy value at the position, solidly above replacement level and a surprise to nearly everyone.

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Episode 77
Today’s episode of The Sleeper and the Bust stars yours truly and features RotoGraphs editor Eno Sarris. We discuss the prospects for another potential Japanese import and begin chatting about the second base crop.

Don’t hesitate to direct pod-related correspondence to @mikepodhorzer or @enosarris on Twitter and tweet us any fantasy questions you have that we may answer on our next episode.

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or via the feed.

Intro by DJ Sinton (no, contrary to popular belief, I do not moonlight as a rap star)

Approximately 44 min of joyous analysis.

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After the 2012 season, Dan Uggla ranked just 17th among second basemen. We thought that was bad and he had hit rock bottom. But the downward spiral actually continued. His encore was not one to celebrate, as he slid even further to just 27th within the position. Heading into his age 34 season, is the power hitting, some time acceptable batting average contributing middle infielder officially done as a fantasy delight?

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Today we begin second base week and that means a look back at my Pod’s Picks at the position. It wasn’t that crazy a season with most of the usual suspects atop the value list and only a couple of true surprises. Let’s see how my rankings compared to the actual ones.

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