End of Season Rankings: Third Base

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.

Rnk	Name	Pos	AB	HR	R	RBI	SB	BA	$$$
1	Miguel Cabrera	3B	622	44	109	139	4	0.33	36
2	Edwin Encarnacion	3B	542	42	93	110	13	0.28	26
3	Chase Headley	3B	604	31	95	115	17	0.286	26
4	Adrian Beltre	3B	604	36	95	102	1	0.321	24
5	Aramis Ramirez	3B	570	27	92	105	9	0.3	22
6	David Wright	3B	581	21	91	93	15	0.306	20
7	Ryan Zimmerman	3B	578	25	93	95	5	0.282	17
8	Hanley Ramirez	3B	604	24	79	92	21	0.257	16
9	Chris Davis	3B	515	33	75	85	2	0.27	13
10	Mark Trumbo	3B	544	32	66	95	4	0.268	13
11	Martin Prado	3B	617	10	81	70	17	0.301	12
12	Marco Scutaro	3B	620	7	87	74	9	0.306	10
13	David Freese	3B	501	20	70	79	3	0.293	9
14	Kyle Seager	3B	594	20	62	86	13	0.259	8
15	Alex Rodriguez	3B	463	18	74	57	13	0.272	7
16	Pedro Alvarez	3B	525	30	64	85	1	0.244	7
17	Jose Bautista	3B	332	27	64	65	5	0.241	4
18	Mike Moustakas	3B	563	20	69	73	5	0.242	4
19	Brett Lawrie	3B	494	11	73	48	13	0.273	4
20	Daniel Murphy	3B	571	6	62	65	10	0.291	3
21	Michael Young	3B	611	8	79	67	2	0.277	3
22	Chris Johnson	3B	488	15	48	76	5	0.281	3
23	Todd Frazier	3B	422	19	55	67	3	0.273	3
24	Chipper Jones	3B	387	14	58	62	1	0.287	2
25	Mike Aviles	3B	512	13	57	60	14	0.25	1
26	Pablo Sandoval	3B	396	12	59	63	1	0.283	1
27	Jordan Pacheco	3B	475	5	51	54	7	0.309	1
28	Kevin Youkilis	3B	438	19	72	60	0	0.235	0
29	Jeff Keppinger	3B	385	9	46	40	1	0.325	-1
30	Chris Nelson	3B	345	9	45	53	2	0.301	-2
31	Trevor Plouffe	3B	422	24	56	55	1	0.235	-2
32	Jamey Carroll	3B	470	1	65	40	9	0.268	-4
33	Alberto Callaspo	3B	457	10	55	53	4	0.252	-4
34	Ryan Roberts	3B	439	12	51	52	10	0.235	-4
35	Jed Lowrie	3B	340	16	43	42	2	0.244	-7
36	Logan Forsythe	3B	315	6	45	26	8	0.273	-7
37	Wilson Betemit	3B	341	12	41	40	0	0.261	-8
38	Steve Lombardozzi	3B	384	3	40	27	5	0.273	-10
39	Robert Andino	3B	384	7	41	28	5	0.211	-15