Second Base Consensus Ranks for the Second Half
The baseball world is quiet. Only the All-Stars are stirring, and even that action puts many baseball fans to sleep. 90% of the game is on a three-day vacation — but not the gang here at RotoGraphs headquarters. Given the fact that all the teams have played more than half their games, it’s time to update the consensus ranks for the rest of the season. These are built for 12-team mixed leagues with traditional 5×5 stats, but we extended the rankings as far down as we could in order to give managers of all types a reference for the second half.
You’ll disagree with the placement of some of the names on this list — we disagreed with ourselves. And that was the point. You add your opinion to the three shown on this list, and you’re more likely to understand the different ways a player is valued and how best to take advantage of those different valuations.
Like most of our rankings, the top three haven’t changed much at second base. Well, one important player has dropped like a rock — Dustin Pedroia just can’t stay healthy. And while we always liked Jason Kipnis and Jose Altuve here at RotoGraphs, it’s Kipnis’ sustained speed and Altuve’s health and consistency that have helped them rise above the fallers in the field.
If you’re like us, you’ll disagree on Michael Cuddyer and Michael Young the most — these two veterans have upset saberists at times and aren’t having great years, but they still have the skill set to make the top ten at a tough position. Aaron Hill’s re-break-out confounds, and is worth a second and third look as the season progresses. Everybody wants Omar Infante to get a better ranking, but there’s no reason to believe he’s found power at his age. Speaking of finding power, Trevor Plouffe is number one with a bullet but you’ll find plenty of disagreement about the sustainability of that skill.
It’s a tough position. If I told you I had a second baseman with a rest-of-season projection of oh, about a .265 batting average with seven homers and five steals, you might have to go through ten or so names before you guessed my player. That’s pretty mediocre.
| FanGraphs Consensus Rankings: Second Base |
||||||
| New | Last | Player Name | Eno Sarris | Mike Podhorzer | Jeff Zimmerman | Zach Sanders |
| 1 | 1 | Robinson Cano | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 | Ian Kinsler | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 4 | Brandon Phillips | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 12 | Jason Kipnis | 3 | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| 5 | 13 | Jose Altuve | 5 | 11 | 4 | 6 |
| 6 | 6 | Ben Zobrist | 6 | 5 | 8 | 8 |
| 7 | 9 | Michael Cuddyer | 10 | 3 | 5 | 11 |
| 8 | 21 | Allen Craig | 7 | 8 | 15 | 4 |
| 9 | 2 | Dustin Pedroia | 9 | 15 | 7 | 7 |
| 10 | 7 | Dan Uggla | 8 | 10 | 11 | 10 |
| 11 | 8 | Howie Kendrick | 12 | 9 | 12 | 13 |
| 12 | 20 | Aaron Hill | 11 | 17 | 10 | 9 |
| 13 | 5 | Michael Young | 14 | 7 | 14 | 17 |
| 14 | 11 | Neil Walker | 13 | 13 | 9 | 18 |
| 15 | 14 | Kelly Johnson | 19 | 16 | 18 | 15 |
| 16 | N/A | Kyle Seager | 16 | 23 | 16 | 14 |
| 17 | 38 | Trevor Plouffe | 18 | 19 | 22 | 12 |
| 18 | 23 | Chase Utley | 15 | 12 | 31 | 16 |
| 19 | 15 | Dustin Ackley | 20 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 20 | 10 | Rickie Weeks | 22 | 14 | 21 | 21 |
| 21 | 18 | Mike Aviles | 17 | 21 | 20 | 22 |
| 22 | 19 | Danny Espinosa | 21 | 20 | 13 | 30 |
| 23 | N/A | Marco Scutaro | 25 | 24 | 17 | 27 |
| 24 | 24 | Omar Infante | 23 | 26 | 27 | 19 |
| 25 | 16 | Jemile Weeks | 24 | 25 | 30 | 23 |
| 26 | 17 | Daniel Murphy | 26 | 27 | 25 | 29 |
| 27 | 26 | Gordon Beckham | 29 | 22 | 24 | 33 |
| 28 | 30 | Ruben Tejada | 27 | 34 | 36 | 24 |
| 29 | 29 | Darwin Barney | 28 | 32 | 26 | 35 |
| 30 | 22 | Ryan Roberts | 33 | 28 | 29 | 36 |
| 31 | 31 | Mark Ellis | 31 | 33 | 38 | 25 |
| 32 | 36 | Steve Lombardozzi | 32 | 38 | 32 | 28 |
| 33 | 37 | Brian Roberts | 38 | 41 | 29 | 26 |
| 34 | 27 | Sean Rodriguez | 34 | 37 | 35 | 31 |
| 35 | N/A | Jose Lopez | 30 | 43 | 23 | 42 |
| 36 | 32 | Orlando Hudson | 37 | 30 | 34 | 40 |
| 37 | 28 | Alexi Casilla | 36 | 31 | 42 | 34 |
| 38 | 35 | Johnny Giavotella | 39 | 42 | 28 | 39 |
| 39 | N/A | Yuniesky Betancourt | 41 | 39 | 33 | 38 |
| 40 | 33 | Maicer Izturis | 35 | 40 | 40 | 37 |
| 41 | N/A | Skip Schumaker | 37 | 44 | 41 | 32 |
| 42 | N/A | Alexi Amarista | 40 | 36 | 39 | 41 |
| 43 | N/A | Robert Andino | 43 | 35 | 37 | 43 |
| 44 | 25 | Ryan Raburn | 42 | 29 | 44 | 44 |
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.
How does Mike Podhozer have Jose Altuve at 11th? I can kind of understand ranking him that low for real baseball purposes, but this fantasy baseball.
His peripherals support his production and he’ll likely finish with 90-100 runs, 50 RBI, 30 SB, 10 HR and a .300 batting average. He doesn’t walk much but his average is high enough to keep his OBP respectable, so it’s not like you lose much in an OBP league. I can see his average dipping a little bit due to a slightly high Babip, but his Babip is inline with his minor league totals and is sustainable. I see him as the 4th-6th best second baseman in pretty much any format.
***If Allen Craig is eligible at 2B in your league…..he’s top 3.
A .338 BABIP is not “sustainable.” At least not if you’re using that word correctly.
Or, it’s very probably not. The population of players in the modern era with a true-talent BABIP that high is tiny.
Of course it is…look at his career numbers. He’s got a combined 1500+ AB’s through his minor and major league career with a BABIP above .330. The rest of his at bats, all 448 of them, produced a BABIP below the .330 mark.
yeah, MiLB BABIP isn’t the same as MLB BABIP (really, it’s not).
ZiPS ROS projects him at pretty much that babip, give or take.
he’s fast, doesn’t hit HR…i don’t see the big leap.
ZiPS(r) projects his BABIP 11 points lower in the second half. Which, when most of your value comes from the fact that you hit a lot of singles, is sort of a lot.
A .338 BABIP is great, but hardly outrageous. And, ZiPS(r) at 11 points lower means, what, 3 less hits in the ~300 PA he’s projected to have ROS? You’re talking a 1% total difference, if you’re to buy completely into ZiPS. Not so big a deal.
Personally, I’d love if if Podhorzer is right, since I traded for Cuddyer and other than his two homer game almost a month ago, he’s done squat for my team.
The funny thing is, I was one of the biggest Altuve fans pre-season (one of my bold predictions was that he’d be a top 5 2nd baseman this year) and own him in my home league. But, he’s doing nearly exactly what I projected him to, with a slight bump in all categories. I actually valued him as the 8th best 2B before the season, but that excluded guys like Michael Young and Allen Craig, which pushed Altuve down in these rankings.