Third base has just been a minefield of excrement recently. Yes, I said excrement.

Jose Bautista has a bum neck, Ryan Zimmerman is out for another 6 weeks, Alex Rodriguez is on again off again with a variety of ailments, Pablo Sandoval is gone for breaking the bone all baseball players should have surgically removed, and even David Freese got in on the act with a broken hand of his own. Howard did a nice job of griping about third base on Thursday so I won’t try to continue that particular rant. What I’d like to do is look at a couple of players that some of us have had to turn to as we wait for something better to come along.

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Blame it on the injuries.  Blame it on the fact that the once lush and dense forest of talent to be found at third base is thinning out faster than a middle aged guy’s hairline.  Blame it on Rio or the bellboy, I don’t really care.  The fact of the matter is, the position is like a fantasy nightmare that picks right back up where you left off no matter how many times you wake yourself up and try to calmly fall back asleep.  And it just keeps getting scarier each time. Read the rest of this entry »

Like vultures picking every last piece of meat off a carcass in the hot desert sun, it’s time for us to take another look at the waiver wire and see what remaining pieces of fantasy value lie in the pool of unwanted free agents… Read the rest of this entry »

I still have the Aramis Ramirez experience fresh in my mind where I dumped him in frustration mid-June 2010 as he was struggling to hit even Congressional approval ratings. And then you know what he did in the second half — he turned into, well, Aramis Ramirez — hitting .276/.321/526. Ergo, I’ve become particularly attentive to the don’t-overreact approach.

While not having the major league success nor pedigree that Aramis Ramirez boasts, Pedro Alvarez and his start to the 2011 season reminds me a lot of this situation. Being your third base guy for the season, I wanted to take a deeper look at his struggles (sample size be damned) and see whether or not he’s planning on pulling an Aramis Ramirez on you going forward. For good measure, we’ll also peek at Chone Figgins and his continued struggles.

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Today’s emphasis: versatility. There’s nothing better than a quality player eligible at multiple positions…

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It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on the first month of the season, and even a little harder to believe some of the surprises in the performances of the boys at the hot corner. In general, this whole group has been pretty disappointing, but much of that has to do with injury and rotten luck. Some have been great, some have been train-wreck-awful, and we have several new names to add via eligibility updates.  And where a rising tide may float all boats, a collapsing building can produce new views – and thus, the tiers have been shaken up quite a bit from the original ranking.

There are so many changes to the original rankings, including the size and number of tiers, that I’m not going to note an up or down for every player that has moved. Rather, I’ll indicate any notable ascent or descent and give a little rationale thereafter.

Tier 1
Evan Longoria
David Wright
Ryan Zimmerman
Alex Rodriguez

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I don’t have to tell this audience about the what goes up must come down principle, but we’ve had some, ahem, “performances” that haven’t been quite up to snuff at third base and I thought it was high time to give their shortcomings a little virtual ink. This isn’t a comprehensive list by any means as there have been several candidates at the hot corner who haven’t lived up to expectations (Casey McGehee, Ian Stewart, Pedro Alvarez, I’m giving you the evil eye) but between Kevin Youkilis and Chone Figgins we’ve got good poster boys for small sample size analysis.

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Time to take a look and see who might be available in your leagues and could be worth adding to your squad.  It’s still real early, but there might be a few choice names out there that can help, whether it’s short term or long term.  Here’s a few to think about… Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll be the third base guy throughout the season, and today I want to highlight a few situations worth monitoring at the hot corner.

Pablo Sandoval

It’s probably a good thing that Sandoval is off to a solid start, because there were some people mumbling “platoon” in the Bay Area, evidenced by his hitting 8th in the order versus one lefty and sitting against another.  Against righties this year, he has hit 4th, 5th, and 6th, so Bruce Bochy is still trying to iron out exactly what he wants to do with him. That Bochy would put him down in front of the pitchers spot in the order when lefties are on the mound is a little bit odd as his career splits aren’t eye-popping in terms of production:

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It’s a tough time of year to find fantasy gold on your waiver wire as your competition is picking through players just as intently as you.  But you might want to build your bench depth by taking a chance on some overlooked guys like a veteran infielder who has had batting average issues or a formerly hyped prospect who just needed a little extra time to break out. Read the rest of this entry »