Second Base Consensus Ranks for the Second Half

by
July 10, 2012

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.

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dakoose
11 years ago

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.

1
Andy
11 years ago
Reply to  dakoose

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.

-1
dakoose
11 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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.

1
Andy
11 years ago
Reply to  Andy

yeah, MiLB BABIP isn’t the same as MLB BABIP (really, it’s not).

0
ccoop
11 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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.

1
Andy
11 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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.

0
Jason
11 years ago
Reply to  Andy

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.

1
Mike Podhorzermember
11 years ago
Reply to  dakoose

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.

0