Paul Sporer’s 2022 SS Rankings
I’ll be releasing my first run of positional rankings over the next week or so. My rankings with the individual comments will come after the new year, but these will lay the groundwork and show you where I’m at to start. These are for 5×5 15-teamers with a 20-game eligibility threshold.
Let’s discuss in the comments!
SS Rankings
| RK | PLAYER |
|---|---|
| 1 | Trea Turner |
| 2 | Bo Bichette |
| 3 | Fernando Tatis Jr. |
| 4 | Francisco Lindor |
| 5 | Xander Bogaerts |
| 6 | Marcus Semien |
| 7 | Carlos Correa |
| 8 | Trevor Story |
| 9 | Javier Báez |
| 10 | Wander Franco |
| 11 | Tim Anderson |
| 12 | Jorge Polanco |
| 13 | Corey Seager |
| 14 | Willy Adames |
| 15 | Jazz Chisholm Jr. |
| 16 | Jake Cronenworth |
| 17 | Gleyber Torres |
| 18 | Chris Taylor |
| 19 | Dansby Swanson |
| 20 | Brendan Rodgers |
| 21 | Luis Urías |
| 22 | Gio Urshela |
| 23 | Nicky Lopez |
| 24 | Gavin Lux |
| 25 | Brandon Crawford |
| 26 | Jose Barrero |
| 27 | Eugenio Suárez |
| 28 | Amed Rosario |
| 29 | Bobby Witt Jr. |
| 30 | Oneil Cruz |
| 31 | J.P. Crawford |
| 32 | Jonathan Villar |
| 33 | Ha-Seong Kim 김하성 |
| 34 | Andrés Giménez |
| 35 | Josh Rojas |
| 36 | Didi Gregorius |
| 37 | Joey Wendle |
| 38 | Ramón Urías |
| 39 | Miguel Rojas |
| 40 | Bryson Stott |
| 41 | Isiah Kiner-Falefa |
| 42 | David Fletcher |
| 43 | Edmundo Sosa |
| 44 | Thairo Estrada |
| 45 | Paul DeJong |
| 46 | Taylor Walls |
| 47 | Kyle Farmer |
| 48 | Kevin Newman |
| 49 | Luis Rengifo |
| 50 | Willi Castro |
| 51 | José Iglesias |
| 52 | Elvis Andrus |
| 53 | Nick Ahmed |
| 54 | Cole Tucker |
| 55 | Tyler Wade |
1-16 are MVP candidates. This has to be the strongest SS has ever been.
Bichette ahead of Tatis? Lindor at #4 given his real world track record? Jorge Polanco ahead of Seager? I guess it’s early–will look forward to the podcast where these get discussed 🙂
A lot of what you outlined sounds like injury aversion to me.
Bingo and I’m really scared of that Texas park for Seager & Semien
Even before the signings it seemed Seager was getting dropped severely and I don’t get it. Yes he seems to miss time, but when he plays he is a stud.
Interesting list. Seems very floor-based. I don’t have a criticism, but with a position so deep it might be smart to draft based on floor.
Lot of great SS, but Adames looks like an easy bet to beat his projections…
TB home | 626 PAs | 219/277/347
TB road | 628 PAs | 291/363/495
Brewers | 413 PAs | 285/366/521
Davenport 2022 | 239/314/449
Steamer 2022 | 253/330/438
I’m a huge Adames fan, but I think I might have held him back a bit to ensure I wasn’t being too much of a homer with (I’m not a Rays or Brewers fan, but I’m just saying homer in relation to my favoritism for a player).
Wander has to be right after Tatis. I know, crazy, but the guy at 20 just put up a K rate of 12%. He could easily post a 370 OBP in the top 3 of a pretty deep lineup. He could win a batting title, score 100 Rs and chip in with some useful SBs, RBIs, HRs, etc. Adames is also too low, he’s a back end top 10 guy right behind Correa.
Dejong seems low, maybe around Rosario. League avg. bat and defense will keep him on field so…nothing exciting but he’ll get PAs and counting stats and his BABIP should go up a bit.
I might bounce Witt up higher. I’m interested to see how he would do and given you have so many guys in the 20-30 range that are ok (like Dejong) I might take a stab at Witt hoping he hits well in a decent KC lineup starting around June and make do with later round pick Dejong until then.
You might fill your UTIL spot with a SS this position is so deep.
It’s not impossible, but I just don’t see where the HR/SB are coming from to merit such a rank, espec. the SBs. He hasn’t been particularly good on the bases in the minors and TB is unlikely to push him. I think he needs at least 20 HR or 20 SB to merit being that high and probably needs both unless his AVG is truly sky-high. I can’t get there on spec when the position is this deep.
Bout to record a pod, but I’ll get to the rest of this comments & the others this evening!
18-22 HR for Franco seems a fair target for 2022, based on his HR output in both the majors and minors, with a lot more room for unexpected growth than decline as a powerfully built guy turning 21 just before the start of the season.
But I agree 20 SB seems unlikely; while he is fast, he has a pretty bad success rate, just 29 steals in 51 attempts, I think TB recognizes this and it a reason he has only two steal attempts in 70 games with the big league club.
The truth is that with a position this deep, there are 13 or so candidates for the top seven, each has the upside to be in the top seven, and who you target will be swayed by the needs of your fantasy squad, and in auction, the market forces in your league. I happen to have Franco in a deep AL keeper league where my other keepers include Jorge Polanco and in the outfield Yordan Alvarez, Michael Brantley and Andrew Vaughn –> I need a third middle infielder who can also steal bases, a category I won’t fill up with corner infielders and catchers.
Have you checked out Oneil Cruz’ ZIPS and Steamer per 600 PA? ZIPS gives him a .254/68/28/81/25 and Steamer .281/73/27/87/19. And since he had that 2 game cameo at the end of the year (where he hit a ball 118 mph) he might be up real early too.
25th for Crawford who finished 4th in MVP voting? Yikes that’s harsh.
4th in WAR too amongst SS…probably why this website was just a little shy on Ws for the 2021 giants…they just don’t believe
I just can’t be assured he’ll be that again in 2022 or even close to it. He’s 35. It’s a tough bet at such a deep position
Unless the juiced ball makes a comeback, I really really can’t buy into Lindor that high, because that 30-homer version of Lindor is gone permanently with the juice, which helped him in particular a disproportionate amount.
I can’t buy him being much if any better than, say, #11 here, Tim Anderson. Lindor might pop 5 more dingers and 15 more ribbies, but give up 5 SBs and a whopping ~50 points of average. He’s not even been a better or even equal real-life player than Anderson over the past 3 years, despite his vaunted defense and better plate discipline. If you look at just the last 2 years, it isn’t even close, in fantasy or irl. I’d put Lindor down around #15 tbh.
This. People may argue that Lindor is due for a bounce back, but so is Anderson. TA popped 4.3 over 120 games last year.
Should there be any worries about the home/away splits against Wander Franco? His home and away reminded me of his predecessor Adames’ issues at home. Also, what is the rationalization for everyone ignoring him being way better against lefties and leaving some to be desired against righties?
It needs no rationalization. It just is what he did vs both. Although, he did not have this split in 2018 or 2019 in the minor leagues. Also, he already slugged .462 vs righties, at age 20, while playing half of those games at home. The growth rate from players who perform like this at that are phenomenal, so its possible that he is being generally underrated by some as far as what he can do next year. My guess is he will kill MLB righties in 2022
He slugged .388 vs righties, not .462. A 96 wRC+ vs samehanded pitchers at (barely) age 20 is still might impressive, but let’s not overstate it.
He’s a switch hitter so performance against righties proportions heavily on his profile. As a 100 point difference, it isn’t nothing. It isn’t exactly good at home either.
This doesn’t mean he’s bad; just wondering if we are getting ahead.
I wouldn’t suggest Swanson should be in the top 15 but he seems preferable to Taylor or Torres just ahead of him. Swanson has seen a steady increase in ISO every year since 2017 and despite the mild Steamer projections seems like a good bet to break the 30HR plateau in 2022. After his last 650+ PA of a sub 120 ISO over the last 2 seasons, I don’t trust Torres to reach his 2019 heights again.
Seager at 13?! No way
Get ready to bump Wander WAY up!
No Mondesi?
He’s actually 3B only
Does Justin still think that Correa and DeJong are comparable?