Updated Consensus Ranks: Second Base
Let’s take a minute all sitting right here to tell you how these rankings came to be. In West fantasylandia, born and raised, on fantasy leagues is where we spend most of our days. Chilling out, ranking, adding, dropping, all trading players with the dudes on the playground, when a couple of guys, they were up to no good, started asking “What about rankings for the rest of the season?” We got in one little fight, and the Dark Lord got scared, and he said “You good for nothings gotta get a consensus together.” So we pulled up our own rankings, each with our own methods, and we yelled to Appelman “Yo dude smell you later.” We looked at our blog, we were finally there, we had Rest-of-Season Consensus Ranks for all of our players.
Uh, so yeah, the point is, these are our consensus ranks for the rest of the season. Because of our methodology, they will move slower than popular opinion. They also don’t give a ton of credit for past work. Just enough we think. On to the second baseman.
The top three stay mostly the same, and even the top five look similar, with a notable exception. Standing out like the Fresh Prince in Bel-Air is Ben Zobrist. His BABIP is just totally toast, despite a decent line drive rate and no change to his batted ball mix or plate discipline. Maybe his early-season struggles just ‘reminded’ our systems that he won’t have a great batting average. Or maybe his career-worst fly-ball rate made us worried about his home run power. Can’t speak for the rest of my gang. He didn’t get demoted far anyway.
Jose Altuve gets the award for fastest riser, and for good reason. Starlin Castro at second base sounds pretty good to most fantasy ballplayers. For those that wanted him, or Jason Kipnis, to move more, just remember that RotoGraphs loved those guys from the start. They didn’t have to go far to reflect their value.
And yeah, it looks like Danny Espinosa’s contact issues worry us. And 31 isn’t being as kind as 30 to Ryan Roberts, mostly because of his bad BABIP and power dropoff.
Who do you like better than we do?
| 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 | 2 | Dustin Pedroia | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | Ian Kinsler | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | Brandon Phillips | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 7 | Michael Young | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 |
| 6 | 4 | Ben Zobrist | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| 7 | 6 | Dan Uggla | 7 | 9 | 6 | 5 |
| 8 | 8 | Howie Kendrick | 8 | 8 | 8 | 10 |
| 9 | 10 | Michael Cuddyer | 11 | 4 | 10 | 9 |
| 10 | 9 | Rickie Weeks | 10 | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| 11 | 13 | Neil Walker | 13 | 11 | 11 | 14 |
| 12 | 12 | Jason Kipnis | 9 | 13 | 9 | 19 |
| 13 | 17 | Jose Altuve | 12 | 10 | 13 | 18 |
| 14 | 18 | Kelly Johnson | 14 | 14 | 19 | 8 |
| 15 | 16 | Dustin Ackley | 17 | 15 | 15 | 13 |
| 16 | 14 | Jemile Weeks | 15 | 16 | 14 | 17 |
| 17 | 19 | Daniel Murphy | 19 | 18 | 18 | 16 |
| 18 | 28 | Mike Aviles | 16 | 20 | 24 | 12 |
| 19 | 15 | Danny Espinosa | 23 | 17 | 17 | 20 |
| 20 | 21 | Aaron Hill | 24 | 19 | 20 | 15 |
| 21 | 25 | Allen Craig | 18 | 23 | 21 | 22 |
| 22 | 20 | Ryan Roberts | 20 | 21 | 22 | 27 |
| 23 | 11 | Chase Utley | 25 | 24 | 16 | 29 |
| 24 | 23 | Omar Infante | 21 | 29 | 23 | 21 |
| 25 | 22 | Ryan Raburn | 26 | 22 | 28 | 26 |
| 26 | 24 | Gordon Beckham | 27 | 27 | 27 | 30 |
| 27 | 29 | Sean Rodriguez | 28 | 28 | 26 | 31 |
| 28 | 31 | Alexi Casilla | 31 | 26 | 34 | 23 |
| 29 | 32 | Darwin Barney | 30 | 31 | 29 | 25 |
| 30 | NA | Ruben Tejada | 34 | 33 | 32 | 24 |
| 31 | 33 | Mark Ellis | 32 | 32 | 33 | 28 |
| 32 | 27 | Orlando Hudson | 37 | 25 | 31 | 38 |
| 33 | 34 | Maicer Izturis | 33 | 36 | 30 | 33 |
| 34 | 26 | Freddy Sanchez | 36 | 30 | 35 | 32 |
| 35 | 36 | Johnny Giavotella | 38 | 38 | 25 | 34 |
| 36 | NA | Steve Lombardozzi | 29 | 35 | 38 | 35 |
| 37 | 30 | Brian Roberts | 35 | 37 | 36 | 37 |
| 38 | NA | Trevor Plouffe | 39 | 34 | 37 | 36 |
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.
No Robert Andino?
Makes no sense to have a DL’d Roberts on the list and no Andino.
Not if you have Andino as below replacement going forward. I have him at .250 5/5 and that’s only playable in a 12-team AL-only, and even then only because you have to.
Eno: Andino is currently ninth among qualified second basemen in OPS. That should be worth something. Though his BABIP is unsustainable, even at his worst, he is much more valuable to a fantasy baseball team right now than a 35 year old who might never play again, and will be significantly limited if he does.