The 2014 season was not what most envisioned for Everth Cabrera. From the hangover of a 50-game suspension following the Biogensis scandal to separate hamstring-related disabled list stints and finally an arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence of marijuana, this year was disappointing for a variety of reasons. Cabrera had tons of hype and owned a pre-season rank of 4th best shortstop, but failed to crack even the top-25 of Zach Sanders’ end of season shortstop rankings, coming in at number 30.
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Chicago Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro entered 2014 with a lot at stake. After three straight above-average years to begin his career, Castro faltered badly in 2013. It wasn’t difficult to see why that happened. Castro’s peripherals moved in the wrong direction, and his BABIP dropped to a career-low .290. On top of that, he seemed out of sorts at the plate, posting negative pitch values against anything with decent velocity. Explaining why this happened, though, was difficult, and made Castro impossible to project going into 2014. Those questions were rendered moot after Castro posted his finest offensive season in 2014. As a reward, the Cubs might ship him to another club in 2015.

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My concept of Jhonny Peralta was born after his first few seasons, in 2005: “meh.” Since then, the league has changed. Which means it’s time to re-evaluate players that have stayed the same since then. Like Jhonny Peralta.

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How often does the hotshot rookie generate tons of hype, just to disappoint fantasy owners who expected the player to be a force from the get-go? It seemingly happens all the time. Owners then give up rather quickly on said player and move onto the next big thing. And that’s exactly when the former top prospect breaks out. It’s precisely why the post-hype sleeper term was coined to begin with. Will Xander Bogaerts follow this path?

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There’s nothing terribly sexy about Alexei Ramirez as a fantasy baseball player, despite his 2014 line. He batted .273 with 15 home runs and 21 stolen bases this past season, but we know that power isn’t a big part of his game anymore. This year’s homer total clearly pushed some of that volume in RBIs and runs scored.

Come to think of it, there’s nothing terribly sexy about Ramirez, period. He’s listed at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds (incidentally, also my dimensions). Look at him. He’s a stick. Granted, some people find men like him extremely attractive. I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I’m confident that folks in that demographic don’t make up the majority. He doesn’t exactly fit the image of the prevailing notion of a hot slab of man beef.

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After losing four categories of production in 2013, Jimmy Rollins disappeared from draft boards around the country. Nobody wanted a piece of his age 35 season when it seemed like his career might be winding down. However, I boldly predicted 40 home runs plus steals (HR+SB) in a rebound season, and Rollins provided the goods. For a player I acquired in most of my leagues for $3 or less, Rollins turned around with $16 of value. According to FantasyPros, he averaged just $4 to acquire.

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It’s been more than a decade since Jose Reyes broke into the majors, and for this Mets fan, who grew up in Shea’s baseball wasteland of the ’90s when the likes of Jay Payton, Paul Wilson and Rey Ordonez were paraded around as can’t-miss future superstars, the teenaged shortstop’s arrival was indescribably refreshing and exciting. Here, at last, was a homegrown all-star who was a natural leadoff hitter, excellent fielder and stolen base machine whose energy, smile, youth and awe-inspiring talent seemed to spell the coming of better days in Flushing.

Eleven years and two teams later, it’s still a bit unsettling to talk about Reyes as an aging ballplayer, though his injury history and 31 years of age make it unavoidable. But the star power continues to shine, as Reyes this year finished second among all shortstops in Zach Sanders’ end of the year rankings, first at the position in standard CBS formats and 36th overall on ESPN’s Player Rater, re-establishing his credentials as an early-round candidate after an injury-marred 2013 campaign.
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The Javier Baez era has begun. Perhaps it did so a bit sooner than most had anticipated. Baez came up as a shortstop, but someone named Starlin Castro had solidified himself at the position in Cubby Land. So in 2014, Baez was pushed over to second base to accelerate his path to the Majors. He had just defensive wiz Darwin Barney in his way there, so it was clearly the path with the least resistance.

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Going into the season, we ranked Elvis Andrus seventh and Alcides Escobar 19th. At the end of the season, Andrus was 12th and Escobar was sixth. And yet, they’re still the same person. That’s the perils of depending on the ball in play for your value.

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The headline on this column may not feel particularly bold, seeing as Ian Desmond finished 2014 as the No. 1 shortstop in fantasy. Still, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume he’ll be behind the likes of Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Reyes and Hanley Ramirez in the majority of 2015 preseason rankings.

In a way, this is completely fair. Both Tulowitzki and Hanley have higher ceilings year-to-year than Desmond, while Reyes has been a top option at the position for nearly a decade. What sets Desmond apart is his ability to stay on the field, compared to his competition among the top few shortstops.

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