RotoGraphs Consensus Ranks: Second Base

by
March 4, 2013

We know y’all are starting to draft, so we’re going to pump the rankings out two at a time. We even started over the weekend, you might have noticed. The first baseman were first, the catchers were second, and now we get to the second basemen.

I’m partial to these guys — as a bad glove, no-bat youngster, I usually ended up at second base when I played. And it’s one of those positions that teams seem to find. There, among the failed shortstops and slightly athletic former tweener third basemen, they find a guy that works for them. And no, Matt Carpenter is not ranked here yet, (I might put him around 22nd), because you can’t play a guy in a position where he’s not eligible.

No matter where you find your second baseman, though, you need to find one. On to the ranks.

Just because I’m partial to second basemen doesn’t mean I’m slightly horrified by this list. Even in twelve-team leagues, it gets iffy near the bottom of the rankings. Once you take away the guys that will probably play at shortstop, you’re looking at Michael Young or Daniel Murphy as your worst mixed-league starting second basemen. And those two both showed up in the bottom five in the league last year in combined home runs plus stolen bases for a player with more than 600 plate appearances. Maybe it’s worth picking in the middle of that top twelve just to avoid that fate.

(Here are the catchers and first basemen. The projections are from Steamer, and our analysts did not necessarily use them to inform their rankings.)

RotoG ES JZ MP ZS Name PA AVG R HR RBI SB
1 1 1 1 1 Robinson Cano 671 0.293 88 25 98 3
2 2 3 2 2 Dustin Pedroia 663 0.29 92 17 77 15
3 3 4 3 5 Ian Kinsler 685 0.263 98 21 75 17
4 4 6 4 3 Jason Kipnis 680 0.253 85 16 70 19
5 6 2 6 10 Jose Altuve 684 0.275 84 10 59 26
6 5 5 7 8 Brandon Phillips 660 0.276 84 18 69 10
7 7 7 9 6 Martin Prado 642 0.294 85 13 66 8
8 8 9 8 4 Ben Zobrist 676 0.262 89 19 77 11
9 9 8 5 7 Aaron Hill 641 0.268 84 20 73 10
10 12 13 11 12 Kyle Seager 628 0.254 68 16 68 9
11 13 14 12 9 Rickie Weeks 619 0.243 80 20 64 9
12 10 10 10 19 Josh Rutledge 556 0.279 74 15 63 14
13 11 11 15 13 Neil Walker 636 0.273 79 16 64 6
14 14 16 14 11 Howie Kendrick 526 0.275 60 10 56 8
15 16 17 17 14 Michael Young 569 0.288 63 12 62 2
16 17 12 21 16 Daniel Murphy 626 0.286 75 9 57 6
17 16 15 20 18 Dustin Ackley 699 0.241 81 13 58 10
18 15 21 13 22 Chase Utley 420 0.267 55 13 51 9
19 18 18 18 20 Danny Espinosa 562 0.234 58 17 62 11
20 21 20 19 15 Marco Scutaro 578 0.284 72 7 51 5
21 22 23 16 17 Dan Uggla 571 0.237 65 22 71 2
22 23 22 22 21 Omar Infante 470 0.282 55 8 51 8
23 20 19 26 25 Jeff Keppinger 532 0.28 62 10 53 2
24 24 24 24 23 Everth Cabrera 443 0.237 44 3 32 30
25 25 26 23 24 Emilio Bonifacio 346 0.258 38 2 29 20
26 27 25 28 29 Darwin Barney 555 0.263 50 5 48 6
27 28 28 30 26 Gordon Beckham 490 0.251 55 13 53 4
28 26 31 31 28 Cliff Pennington 394 0.253 37 5 37 9
29 19 27 35 36 Jedd Gyorko 391 0.269 42 13 59 4
30 30 30 35 30 Jamey Carroll 485 0.275 51 1 37 7
31 29 29 35 42 Jurickson Profar 345 0.232 38 6 34 11
32 35 42 25 34 Maicer Izturis 254 0.263 27 3 24 7
33 41 35 27 33 Kelly Johnson 419 0.227 45 11 44 6
34 41 37 34 27 Donovan Solano 411 0.248 34 3 34 5
35 40 40 29 31 Adeiny Hechavarria 397 0.235 32 5 34 6
36 31 46 35 32 Brian Roberts 137 0.255 16 2 12 3
37 34 32 32 46 Chris Nelson 304 0.274 33 8 37 2
38 38 36 35 37 Steve Lombardozzi 298 0.252 27 4 27 6
39 41 38 33 38 Mark Ellis 403 0.248 40 6 34 4
40 39 34 35 44 Jemile Weeks 362 0.253 39 3 30 9
41 41 45 35 39 Alexi Casilla 234 0.246 23 2 20 10
42 41 41 35 43 Daniel Descalso 380 0.247 34 4 35 3
43 37 46 35 45 Ryan Roberts 286 0.236 30 7 29 5

Also ranked by one analyst: Tyler Greene, Ramon Santiago, Ryan Raburn, Chris Getz, DJ LeMahieu, Jerry Hairston, Jordany Valdespin, Logan Forsythe, and Sean Rodriguez.





 

With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

39 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Cody
12 years ago

It is predictable as the sun rising in the east: Ben Zobrist getting ranked absurdly on a second base list (RotoG consensus). I agree with Zach Sanders in this case, he is no worse than fourth.

2
ManwichManMember since 2018
12 years ago
Reply to  Cody

At the very least, I’m not sure how altuve could be higher than hill, phillips, prado, and zobrist, let alone second overall. Is 10-15 steals and maybe .25 in ba worth everything you lose with him?

0
MJ888
12 years ago
Reply to  ManwichMan

No kidding. Sometimes people overvalue categories as opposed to the overall talent of a player. Zobrist is easily the 4th best secondbaseman….maybe ahead of Kinsler even.

1
hobbes020
12 years ago
Reply to  ManwichMan

I think you are not giving Altuve much credit at all in terms of BA. His past performance makes even the projects for his BA seem low, and you are randomly projecting him even lower to be a 0.250 BA? Seems very low indeed.

-1
J. D. KaPow
12 years ago
Reply to  ManwichMan

Pretty sure ManwichMan is saying that Altuve gives you about a 0.025 BA advantage over those other guys, not that he’s going to hit .250.

1
Jonathan Sher
12 years ago
Reply to  ManwichMan

Altuve is being moved to second in the order (he led off most of the time last year. That, along with the move to the AL and DH means he should bump up his RBIs considerable.

When you consider his age, his improved plate discipline and the decent power he showed in the high minors, I’d say his ceiling in 2013 is markedly higher than in 2012.

0
tylersnotes
12 years ago
Reply to  Cody

fun fact 1: according to this, there are 11 top 10 second basemen and kyle seager (the consensus number 10) is not one of them.

fun fact 2: all 4 of the writers could draft one of his top 3 second basemen and ian kinsler would still be left.

0