RotoGraphs Consensus Ranks: Shortstop
You’ve been told position scarcity doesn’t exist because you can get a shortstop late in the draft, he’ll be there for you, he’ll exist. Position scarcity never meant an abject lack of players at a position to me, though. It just meant, to me, that finding useful players at that position gets really hard late in the draft. Just because there was once a Ben Zobrist or a Jean Segura available late in the draft, just because Yunel Escobar exists at the plate for a full season and has some value in a deep league, doesn’t mean the position doesn’t suck pretty hard core once you get about 18 deep.
And, really, doesn’t this position kinda have a ton of warts at the top? Health risks and performance risks and then suddenly you’re in the middle where all the risks are magnified even more. Maybe it makes sense to wait, but it probably doesn’t make sense to wait all the way to the end.
Good luck hunting.
Rankings based on 5×5 roto, 12 teams, single-catcher with Middle Infield and Corner Infield spots, 13 hitters and 9 pitchers. Each ranker had their own mix of projections and intuition.
| RG | Name | Jeff | Zach | Mike | Eno |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Troy Tulowitzki | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2 | Hanley Ramirez | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 3 | Jean Segura | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Everth Cabrera | 3 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
| 5 | Jose Reyes | 5 | 5 | 7 | 3 |
| 6 | Ian Desmond | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 |
| 7 | Elvis Andrus | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 |
| 8 | Starlin Castro | 9 | 9 | 10 | 8 |
| 9 | Brad Miller | 10 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| 10 | Ben Zobrist | 8 | 10 | 8 | 13 |
| 11 | Alexei Ramirez | 11 | 12 | 14 | 12 |
| 12 | Xander Bogaerts | 12 | 13 | 15 | 10 |
| 13 | Andrelton Simmons | 15 | 14 | 11 | 11 |
| 14 | J.J. Hardy | 13 | 11 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | Asdrubal Cabrera | 17 | 17 | 12 | 18 |
| 16 | Erick Aybar | 16 | 16 | 19 | 15 |
| 17 | Jed Lowrie | 20 | 19 | 16 | 19 |
| 18 | Jimmy Rollins | 19 | 20 | 17 | 22 |
| 19 | Alcides Escobar | 22 | 24 | 20 | 17 |
| 20 | Jonathan Villar | 18 | 23 | 18 | 25 |
| 21 | Derek Jeter | 27 | 25 | 22 | 16 |
| 22 | Jhonny Peralta | 21 | 21 | 21 | 27 |
| 23 | Stephen Drew | 25 | 22 | 26 | 24 |
| 24 | Zack Cozart | 23 | 26 | 24 | 26 |
| 25 | Jose Iglesias | 24 | 30 | 27 | 23 |
| 26 | Jordy Mercer | 26 | 35 | 25 | 21 |
| 27 | Yunel Escobar | 28 | 31 | 23 | 28 |
| 28 | Didi Gregorius | 34 | 29 | 30 | 20 |
| 29 | Brandon Crawford | 30 | 28 | 29 | 29 |
| 30 | Pedro Florimon | 32 | 33 | 28 | 31 |
| 31 | Adeiny Hechavarria | 31 | 34 | 31 | 30 |
| 32 | Ruben Tejada | 40 | 32 | 34 | 33 |
| 33 | Maicer Izturis | 40 | 40 | 32 | 32 |
| 34 | Dee Gordon | 40 | 40 | 33 | 35 |
| 35 | Mike Aviles | 40 | 40 | 35 | 34 |
| 36 | Chris Owings | 40 | 40 | 36 | 36 |
| 37 | Nick Punto | 40 | 40 | 41 | 38 |
Ranked by one analyst: Clint Barmes, Eduardo Nunez, Joaaquin Arias, Eduardo Escobar, Jake Elmore, Adam Rosales, and Brendan Ryan.
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.
Nice ranks RG staff! SS up top looks fraught w/ risk: #1, 3, 5 all probably miss nearly a month in 2014. I wonder if this is the year that one of Tulo/Hanley/Reyes’ cumulative career missed time drops his value to a solid value where he ends up going.
How does a two time 20-20 hitter rank behind Segura and Cabrera?
Last two years even!
my projections
Jean Segura 87 62 11 41 0.281
Jose Reyes 89 71 10 29 0.291
Hanley Ramirez 81 84 22 14 0.282
Ian Desmond 71 85 18 17 0.273
Elvis Andrus 89 57 5 29 0.279
I love Desmond as much as the next guy, but he’s a bit of a statistical anomaly.
Its a pretty wicked stroke of luck to manage a 6.6%/22.1% BB%/K% and still post a .280 average. I get that he’s done this twice in a row now, but his peripherals make his skill set look his 2011 (albeit with more HR) line is a more appropriate approximation of his talent level than his 2013 line.
I own him in my dynasty league and am quite content, but when you’re trying to underwrite future performance, you have to factor in the impact those peripherals are likely to have on his fantasy stats, even if he’s so far proved an exception to the rule.
andrus vs e-cab is interesting. i prefer andrus because i think the only stat cabrera has him beat on is steals.
If this is based on a 12 team league as advertised, it’s a reasonably deep position when you have JJ Hardy ranked #14, Jed Lowrie at #17 and Jhonny Peralta at #22.
Ian Desmond is ranked ridiculously low at #6. With Tulo and Ramirez both having injury proclivities, you could easily make a case for Desmond to be #1!
Villar is a sleeper at #20 who could well get into the Segura/Andrus ranks in SB’s.
MI as the note says, so Jimmy Rollins would be rostered in a standard league with these settings and he’s projected to go .240/12/18.
,and……
First of all, there are a couple of guys below Rollins who might be better. Secondly, so the last MI roster spot in a 12 team league with a MI position is not so hot? Stop the presses! SS is not so great at the top because of injury concerns but it’s actually pretty deep this year, IMO.
That’s below replacement level in the OF, which was my point.
Someone might read the idea that there’s no such thing as position scarcity — a main part of a recent book on fantasy baseball — as the fact that they don’t need to value shortstop stats more highly. That was my point.
i haven’t been able to wrap my head around the idea that people are projecting everth cabrera to all of a sudden have a career year. even with the PED nonsense “in the past” he’s still a much more risky player than reyes or desmond … based on what league you play in, e-cab might be a good value pick, but all things being equal, he’s not approaching my top 5 SS.
I’m with you!
How do you get 14 hitters in a 1 Catcher league?
Fixed!
Everth Cabrera ahead of Desmond? Really?
Not for me!
Everth at 4th sticks out…I’d take Reyes and Desmond over him. HanRam is #1, I’m with Podhorzer.
Where would Rafeal Furcal slot in? I assume folks would take him over Punto, right? I guess I’d slot him in at 26, but where do others seem him going?
Everth has had a half season of success. Thats gotta count for something, right?
This does kinda throw cold water on my plans to draft Chris Owings very late. 39th best SS? Yikes
Everything changes if he gets the role, obviously.
I’m rolling with my $1 keeper Xander Bogaerts this year in a 10-team league with R/HR/RBI/OBP/SLG/SB scoring stats. Stupid or daring genius? I’m hoping to use the excess money to make sure I get a top 3 3rd baseman, either getting Cabrera and a mid-tier 2nd or getting a guy below Cabrera and spending a lot of money on a top-tier 2nd.
Wow thats some serious Brad Miller helium, I think its well deserved tho. Have any of you guys seen a picture of him from spring training? Apparently up from 193 to 210, but he looks like a monster now. Any thoughts on whether that kind of weight gain is more good or bad with the possible power/speed trade off?
Mike has Jean Segura over Troy Tulowitzki ………………………….
I don’t see what’s crazy about that.
My projection for Segura is about the same as what Eno posted above. Tulo is never healthy enough to play a full season, so that must be accounted for in his projection, and resulting dollar value.
Playing in points leagues only gives me a different perpective of player values .So many guys who are hailed as roto studs because they steal a bunch of bases are almost worthless in points leagues because steals are their only virtue .
I do not understand segura love, his 2013 looks like Alcides Escobar 2012 with a couple more fluky HRs in first two months of the season, his last 4 months with his high CS, little power and terrible OBP, makes him look like Alcides 2013,
In a league that counts walks as a category, is it crazy to think that Zobrist is 4-5ish?
Castro $5, Hosmer $17, or Andrus $18
Is there more than health concern on Hanley? SSS aside, his tenure so far with Dodgers is pretty impressive.
Everyone is so high on Segura. I just can’t buy it. Sorry. I won’t be drafting him, unless by some act of God he’s sitting there in the 4th or 5th round. He’s probably the scariest player at SS for me.
if one of the top 2 is gone early, why not draft zobrist? you can plug him anywhere on the diamond, and if a good value SS pops up later, grab him and put ben in the OF/2b?
I know he’s one-year-on and one off and he’s due to be off, but Jhonny Peralta ahll the whay dhown there?