Aramis Ramirez’s demise has been greatly exaggerated. But after a .241/.294/.452 slash line at age-32, it looked like the end of the line for Ramirez. Those thoughts were premature, as Ramirez bounced back the following season, hitting .306/.361/.510. Even with the bounce-back, there were still concerns about Ramirez. He was getting older, and age-related decline would have to come soon. Again, Ramirez defied the critics. At age-34 he had one of the best offensive years of his career. But, again, fantasy owners are going to have concerns about Ramirez heading into next season. Entering his age-35 year, it’s going to be tough for Ramirez to keep up the production.

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It’s hard to believe, but 2013 will be the 10th major league season for David Wright. In those ten years, it seems like he’s been about three different players.

Wright has hit as many as 33 home runs and as few as 10. He stole 34 bases one year only to follow it up with 15 the next. He’s gone from a decent to a terrible to a very good defender. Indeed, in fantasy baseball circles, if you’re a Wright owner, it has been a bit of a roller coaster — but he has always provided good value at third base with the exception of 2011.

And good he was in 2012. If you count his defense, Wright was great — but chances are you don’t, which limits just how high you’re jumping up and down about him. His .306/.391/.492 line with 21 home runs, 91 runs, 93 RBI, and 15 stolen bases is awfully nice production from a third baseman, but if you’re a Wright owner, you’re always looking for a little more than that, right? Even if it’s unreasonable, you kind of expect 26, 27 home runs and triple digit runs and RBI.

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Why was there so much excitement in Minnesota for Trevor Plouffe this year? Here are a few names to keep in mind: Danny Valencia, Joe Crede, Brian Buscher, Nick Punto, Michael Cuddyer, Corey Koskie, the illustrious crew of Twins’ third basemen since 2000. While Plouffe’s 106 wRC+ ranks just about dead average for that group, five of the six years better than his belong to Koskie, who was the Twins’ last offensively acceptable third baseman and who left the team in 2004. Valencia’s half-season of success in 2010 gave fans — and likely the team as well — hope that they had found a long term answer, but by June or July of 2011, it was clear that Valencia was another in the line of replacement level replacements. It looked, for more than a fleeting moment during the summer, that Plouffe would be the answer the Twins have been looking for. Read the rest of this entry »

The competition for biggest disappointment of 2012 is a tough one. Names like Roy Halladay, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester, Tim Lincecum, and John Axford come to mind. The one who sticks out most to me, and admittedly it may be because I’m a Rays fan, is Evan Longoria.

It certainly wasn’t performance based. Longoria hit .289/.369/.527 in his time this year, the highest OPS of his career. The issue was the amount of time he was actually on the field. You see, thanks to a torn hamstring he played in just 74 games. At the plate he showed no lingering effects from the injury – his .378 wOBA was fourth among third basemen (min. 300PA). His legs were understandably effected as he wasn’t able to run with the speed or aggressiveness we’re used to seeing. He missed out on a few extra bases and runs because of it.

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Another week, another position. Hopefully the conclusion of the World Series (congrats to the SF Giants) and the concerns over Hurricane Sandy haven’t deterred you from staying in tune with the rest of the baseball world, because Zach Sanders has just released his Third Base End of Season Rankings and like the good minions of RotoGraphs that we are, we are spending the week discussing players from the hot corner. So let’s scroll on down to number eight in the rankings and talk a little Hanley Ramirez, shall we? Read the rest of this entry »

Fantasy owners hoped Mike Moustakas would breakout in 2012 after a disappointing rookie season in 2011. For a few months it looked like the breakout would happen as he hit .268 AVG with 15 home runs in the first half of the season. In the second half, the production dropped as he barely hit over .200 with only 5 HRs. In 2013, his talent level will be tough to predict due to his up and down production.

In Mike’s short career, he looks to have three distinct “seasons” — 2011 and the first and the second halves of 2012.

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Adrian Beltre turned 33 before this season. No matter if you look at his plate discipline or power components, the aging curves say that he’s post-peak and we should see some decline. Not every player follows the curves the same, but look at Beltre’s recent years, and it just looks like he’s getting better. Impossible.

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It was a nice comeback season for Ryan Zimmerman. After injuries held him to just 101 games in 2011, Zimmerman was going to need a good 2012 to restore the faith of fantasy owners. And while Zimmerman’s final slash line of .282/.346/.478 looks strong, he gave owners a bit of a scare early in the year. With his numbers seemingly back to normal, can fantasy owners expect bigger and better things from Zimmerman next season?

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This week is all about the hot corner. Our own mathemagician Zach Sanders published his final season rankings and dollar values for third basemen this morning. Sitting all the way down at a disappointing 19, with just $4 earned, is the Blue Jays’ third sacker Brett Lawrie. In the pre-season, we were pretty consistent with our opinon on Lawrie and ranked him fifth overall, tied with Adrian Beltre. Were we suckered in by his sizzling play in 2011 in a small sample of just 150 at-bats?

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The 2012 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. This week focuses on third baseman, a hotly contested position on draft day.

The players were ranked based on their 2012 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. To keep things manageable and avoid skewing the numbers, players were only considered if they amassed 350 plate appearances over the course of the year. The replacement level was also adjusted to account for players eligible at multiples positions. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and traditional 5×5 roto fantasy leagues.

One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. For example, while a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth.

These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. So, a player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field would be worth less.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »