Shortstop Consensus Ranks for the Second Half

A commenter brought up a common refrain on a discussion of the first base ranks yesterday. That commenter asked if I would trade my Mark Teixeira straight up for Adrian Gonzalez, since I had ranked Mark Teixeira one spot ahead of Adrian Gonzalez. It was a simple question, but it brought into focus many of my feelings about these rankings.

First, there’s no such league that I’ve ever been in where I have offered or received an offer of one player at one position for another player at the same position. That doesn’t mean that it never happens, or shouldn’t happen, it just means that the hypothetical doesn’t really match up with reality in a useful way. Then again, if you felt strongly about those two players, perhaps you would make that trade.

But I tend to think of players in tiers, and think of my needs at this point in the season.

So my answer was: sure, if I needed batting average more than I needed power. Because as much as I think Adrian Gonzalez can turn it around, I have to admit that Mark Teixeira’s power is more stable at this point. You have to think about your needs, especially now that you have a fully formed roster and only half a season left.

Do I think the two players are in the same tier? Absolutely. So if I could finagle a trade in which I give up my Mark Teixeira and a pitcher, for example, and get your Adrian Gonzalez and a better pitcher, and that fit my needs, well then I would do that trade. In a heartbeat. Would I look around at the response that Gonzalez ranking got and consider him a buy-low? Yes I would.

And, honestly, I believe most of you are using these rankings that way. We have four ranks at your disposal, and these four ranks represent four different well-informed opinions. By looking across the line, you can see how different people in your league might value a player. And you can get an idea of which players are in a class with each other and which aren’t — Jimmy Rollins might be right behind Elvis Andrus, but a quick look at the variance in his rankings suggests that he’s not nearly on as sure of footing and probably belongs in the next tier. We also provide tiered rankings from our positional correspondents so you can see what the tiers might look like.

If you like Trevor Plouffe or Emilio Bonifacio more than some, you know to try and buy low. If you have Jimmy Rollins on your team and you kind of want to get rid of him, you can see that some people still value him highly, and you might get a decent return. There’s a lot of information here.

Would I take your Jose Reyes for my Starlin Castro? For sure, if I needed stolen bases ahead of anything else. But Jeff Zimmerman and Zach Sanders might not. Now you know that a bigger deal, where you give up Starlin Castro for Jose Reyes, and perhaps improve a starting pitcher, is a reasonable deal.

And that has value.

FanGraphs Consensus Rankings:
Shortstop
New Last Player Name Eno Sarris Mike Podhorzer Jeff Zimmerman Zach Sanders
1 3 Hanley Ramirez 1 1 1 5
2 4 Starlin Castro 3 3 2 1
3 2 Jose Reyes 2 2 5 2
4 5 Asdrubal Cabrera 4 5 3 3
5 6 Elvis Andrus 5 6 4 4
6 8 Jimmy Rollins 6 4 6 12
7 18 Ian Desmond 7 8 7 6
8 7 Derek Jeter 9 7 9 7
9 11 Alexei Ramirez 10 12 8 11
10 12 J.J. Hardy 11 10 14 17
11 N/A Trevor Plouffe 12 16 21 8
12 N/A Kyle Seager 13 19 10 15
13 10 Emilio Bonifacio 8 20 23 10
14 22 Jed Lowrie 14 9 32 9
15 17 Mike Aviles 15 17 16 19
16 21 Rafael Furcal 18 11 22 18
17 9 Dee Gordon 22 18 18 13
18 14 Jhonny Peralta 20 13 17 23
19 13 Erick Aybar 25 21 13 14
20 16 Zack Cozart 16 15 15 28
21 20 Alcides Escobar 17 23 20 16
22 19 Marco Scutaro 21 22 12 22
23 15 Yunel Escobar 19 14 19 26
24 1 Troy Tulowitzki 23 24 11 32
25 30 Ruben Tejada 24 32 30 21
26 24 Stephen Drew 27 27 29 25
27 23 Cliff Pennington 26 25 25 33
28 27 Sean Rodriguez 28 30 28 30
29 32 Ryan Theriot 34 33 27 24
30 26 Alexi Casilla 29 29 34 27
31 N/A Everth Cabrera 31 26 33 31
32 29 Jamey Carroll 32 34 38 20
33 31 Clint Barmes 30 31 36 35
34 N/A Andrelton Simmons 37 36 24 36
35 N/A Willie Bloomquist 38 35 31 29
36 N/A Brian Dozier 35 38 26 38
37 28 Jason Bartlett 40 28 35 34
38 N/A Brendan Ryan 33 39 37 40
39 N/A Jonathan Herrera 36 40 40 37
40 N/A Brandon Crawford 39 37 39 39





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.

65 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
JCA
11 years ago

I don’t see Elliott Johnson rated. Do you expect Rodriguez to push him out of the SS job when Longoria is back? His first half was solidly middle of the pack or even a touch better (counting steals for fantasy purposes).