Archive for Shortstops

Rotographs Midseason Rankings – Shortstop

Continuing the positional rankings, we move over to shortstop. It’s been something of a barren wasteland this year. Thankfully, the unquestioned top two – Tulowitzki and Hanley – have been the unquestioned top two (with Hanley leading the way). but it’s been pretty jumbled from that point on. The landscape has really opened up with a lot of new names emerging as some former stalwarts have sunk further. I wasn’t even sure Correa would be called up in 2015 and now he’s looking like a game-changer at SS.

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Filling Categorical Needs at Shortstop

Most add/drop questions I get on Twitter ask from the perspective of which player has the highest overall value. My response generally requests additional information, usually about what the team’s categorical needs are. The lack of this information in the original query could sometimes be due to the fact that it’s hard to ask a question and provide background info in 140 characters, but it seems that more often the categorical needs of an owner’s team are not a major consideration.

I’m tasked with writing about shortstops on Mondays, so I wanted to look at the shortstops owned in less than half of ESPN.com leagues who can best help you address categorical needs. I’ll only be addressing home runs, steals and batting average as there would be some overlap were I to discuss runs and RBI separately. I’ll try to list a player owned in less than 50 percent of leagues and one owned in less than 10 percent of leagues to try and help out deeper league players. Read the rest of this entry »


Tiered Shortstop Rankings: July

An even-thinner-than-normal shortstop position got some reinforcements in June with Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor getting the call. If you’re not convinced that shortstop is as shallow as ever, consider the following, which shows that a steadily declining position has seen a big decline this season. Read the rest of this entry »


Cesar Hernandez & Xavier Scruggs: Deep League Wire

Our journey to the far reaches of the fantasy dumpster take us to two National Leaguers who have recently come into playing time and are being introduced to owners for the first time. As usual, the players listed in this column are better suited for mono leagues, and the ownership percentages are by way of CBS.
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Bradding Miller

Too big of a reach on the title?

As I tend to do on Sundays when considering a topic for my Monday post on shortstops, I was perusing the leaderboards and settled on Brad Miller as today’s topic. What caught my eye with Miller was that he has the lowest BABIP of any healthy shortstop with a wRC+ north of 100. Read the rest of this entry »


Francisco Lindor’s Fantasy Value

With Carlos Correa playing in his first major league game last Monday, the fantasy gods provided me the most obvious topic for a Rotographs post as the guy on the SS beat on Mondays. Well, the gods have smiled on me again with Francisco Lindor getting the call and likely to start his first major league game tonight. Read the rest of this entry »


C.J. Cron & Ruben Tejada: Deep League Wire

Would it be too awful a pun (or half-pun) to say this week’s column is a tribute to fallen angels? Probably, so I’ll rephrase: Here are two former full-time players who lost their jobs after some struggles but have now returned to regular playing time. As usual, the players featured in this column are better suited for mono leagues, and the ownership percentages are by way of CBS.
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Carlos Correa’s Fantasy Value

Baseball Twitter was all atwitter on Sunday night as news of Carlos Correa’s call-up broke. Questions about Correa’s fantasy value immediately popped up in my notifications. Given that I’m tasked with the shortstop beat here on Mondays, the prompt for today’s post was a no-doubter.

To determine Correa’s fantasy value, let’s first start by projecting his plate appearances. Steamer has him at 214 PA, but that will obviously get an update soon given today’s news. It’s probably safe to assume he’s going to play every day for now, but the eventual return of Jed Lowrie sometime around the All-Star break could complicate things. My guess is that Lowrie will work in frequently at third base and not cut into Correa at short much so long as Correa is producing. As for his spot in the batting order, it’s likely to be somewhere in the 5-7 range.

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The Curious Case of the Elite Fantasy Shortstop

This was not the plan. With Troy Tulowitzki, Hanley Ramirez and Jose Reyes among the top group, shortstop was always at the mercy of injuries. Poor performance while on the field was not supposed to be the issue. While they’ve thwarted countless fantasy seasons, the star shortstops have tossed the keys to the position to… Brandon Crawford. No kidding. Crawford leads the position in wRC+ with Jhonny Peralta right on his heels.

What went wrong? Let’s take a gander at the top 5 by RotoGraphs preseason consensus rankings.

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Shortstop Tiers: June

According to both ESPN’s Player Rater and the Zach Sanders z-score method, Brandon Crawford has been the top fantasy shortstop so far this year. But in today’s post, Crawford is playing the role of Aaron Rodgers in the 2005 NFL Draft. Let’s see how far he falls. Read the rest of this entry »