RotoGraphs Consensus Ranks: Shortstop

by
February 24, 2014

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.

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scotman144Member since 2016
11 years ago

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.

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