Reynolds, Gordon, Cuddyer: 2012 Multi-positional Players

by
September 13, 2011

Players who are able to field multiple positions, and field them well, are extremely valuable commodities both inside and outside the fantasy landscape. This week, in two separate posts, I’m going to take a look at some players who have gained or lost a position this year and how they look for next season.

Mark Reynolds (1B, 3B)

Currently the 10th ranked third basemen, Reynolds has picked up first base eligibility thanks to his 32 games there. You know what you’re getting with Reynolds; i.e. a lot of power and little else. He’s hit at least 32 home runs for the third season in a row. Baltimore should move him to DH next season after Vladimir Guerrero departs since he plays the absolute worse defense of anyone in baseball, but he’ll still retain the eligibility at the corners and that’s all that matters to us. His 32 home runs rank second amongst third basemen and fourth amongst first basemen. Think of him as a slightly better version of Carlos Pena.

Alex Gordon (3B, OF, possible 1B)

Gordon finally had the breakout season we’ve all been waiting for; hitting .299/.371/.500 with 21 home runs, 82 RBI and 16 steals thus far. He’s currently outfield and third base eligible, ranking eighth in the former and second in the latter. The problem is that since Gordon no longer mans the hot corner he’s going to lose eligibility at one of fantasy’s weakest positions. He needs only three more appearances to qualify at first base for next season. As a Gordon owner in a keeper league I’m hoping he somehow gets the opportunity over the final two weeks. If he does, his 20 steal ability would be a welcome addition to a usually sluggish position.

You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.

Michael Cuddyer (3B, 2B, 1B, OF)

He’s one of only a few players with eligibility at four positions. The Twins have suffered injuries all over the field this season and Cuddyer has been used as the spackle to mend the holes; the most significant being second and first base. He’s having his second best season of the past four, putting up a respectable line of .282/.347/.460 with 18 home runs and 64 RBI. The Twins offense has been dreadful so the dip in RBI — he had 81 and 94 the last two years – is understandable. He’s going to lose third base eligibility next season but has gained it at second base. Currently he’s ranked as the 11th best second basemen, and when you consider his other options next season will be first base and outfield he’ll likely derive most of his value there.

*this is based off of Yahoo! standard league rules of 5 starts or 10 appearances at a position





 

Erik writes for DraysBay and has also written for Bloomberg Sports. Follow him on Twitter @ehahmann.

4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
geo
14 years ago

Alex Gordon will not play 1st base again this year, you can make book on that. Royals seem to have this young first baseman that they like pretty well.

1