Updated Consensus Ranks: Second Base
Second base. Where you stick your shortstops that fail defensively and your third basemen that can’t hit. Second base, where a little agility can turn a tweener bat into an every day asset. Second base! Where fantasy team dreams go to die.
Second base. Where you hope you’re in a 16-team league or less, because the 17th-best second baseman might not hit .230 the rest of the way. Second base, where a guy like Darwin Barney — who may not hit six homers or steal six bases or hit .280 — may yet figure in to your deep league plans.
I make fun, but at least some sleeper two-baggers have shown us enough to solidify the back end in traditional mixed Leagues. Josh Rutledge has his flaws, but he’s already shown power and speed. Chase Utley has a degenerative knee condition, but he’s doing well for now. Neil Walker and Howie Kendrick haven’t been vintage Neil Walker and Howie Kendrick, but it wouldn’t kill you to run them out there for a while. Especially if you’re waiting for Aaron Hill, who showed enough in a short sample sophomore effort in Arizona to be exciting.
Second base. Maybe not as bad as we thought, at least in traditional mixed leagues. You in the onlies, and the 20-teamers? I hope you have someone.
Who do you like more? Less?
With the color-coding we hope to highlight the biggest movers. That definition changes as you follow the ranks down the list — players had to move more to register a color change as you near the bottom of the list. These are rest-of-season rankings for 5×5 roto.
| RG | Player | JZ | ES | MP | ZS |
| 1 | Robinson Cano | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Ian Kinsler | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Dustin Pedroia | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Jose Altuve | 4 | 4 | 5 | 8 |
| 5 | Ben Zobrist | 7 | 6 | 7 | 4 |
| 6 | Jason Kipnis | 8 | 7 | 4 | 5 |
| 7 | Brandon Phillips | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 |
| 8 | Martin Prado | 10 | 12 | 8 | 7 |
| 9 | Aaron Hill | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 |
| 10 | Kyle Seager | 11 | 11 | 9 | 9 |
| 11 | Josh Rutledge | 5 | 5 | 12 | 25 |
| 12 | Chase Utley | 15 | 9 | 11 | 13 |
| 13 | Howie Kendrick | 13 | 14 | 14 | 12 |
| 14 | Neil Walker | 12 | 13 | 15 | 16 |
| 15 | Rickie Weeks | 14 | 15 | 13 | 17 |
| 16 | Michael Young | 16 | 16 | 17 | 10 |
| 17 | Dan Uggla | 20 | 19 | 16 | 22 |
| 18 | Omar Infante | 19 | 17 | 24 | 18 |
| 19 | Matt Carpenter | 23 | 18 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | Daniel Murphy | 17 | 21 | 23 | 21 |
| 21 | Marco Scutaro | 24 | 23 | 21 | 14 |
| 22 | Danny Espinosa | 18 | 24 | 19 | 26 |
| 23 | Jedd Gyorko | 25 | 20 | 20 | 24 |
| 24 | Dustin Ackley | 21 | 25 | 22 | 27 |
| 25 | Everth Cabrera | 22 | 22 | 26 | 28 |
| 26 | Kelly Johnson | 29 | 28 | 27 | 15 |
| 27 | Mark Ellis | 38 | 31 | 35 | 20 |
| 28 | Emilio Bonifacio | 33 | 27 | 25 | 40 |
| 29 | Cliff Pennington | 32 | 26 | 34 | 34 |
| 30 | Darwin Barney | 31 | 29 | 32 | 37 |
| 31 | Jeff Keppinger | 30 | 33 | 30 | 38 |
| 32 | Gordon Beckham | 26 | 37 | 36 | 36 |
| 33 | Jordany Valdespin | 27 | 41 | 28 | 41 |
| 34 | Maicer Izturis | 41 | 32 | 29 | 35 |
| 35 | Donovan Solano | 41 | 35 | 39 | 23 |
| 36 | Yuniesky Betancourt | 41 | 30 | 31 | 41 |
| 37 | Chris Getz | 41 | 34 | 38 | 31 |
| 38 | Munenori Kawasaki | 28 | 41 | 37 | 41 |
| 39 | Jurickson Profar | 41 | 36 | 41 | 29 |
| 40 | Steve Lombardozzi | 35 | 41 | 41 | 33 |
| 41 | Adeiny Hechavarria | 39 | 41 | 33 | 41 |
| 42 | Chris Nelson | 40 | 41 | 41 | 32 |
| 43 | Tyler Greene | 36 | 38 | 41 | 41 |
| 44 | Jamey Carroll | 37 | 41 | 41 | 39 |
These players appeared on one ranker’s list: Pedro Ciriaco, Alexi Amarista, Jemile Weeks, Logan Forsythe, and Kolten Wong.
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.
Suprised to see Kipnis below Zobrist… I assume this doesn’t take into account position flexibility. I know Kipnis struggled early in the year, but he probably has the best Power/Speed combo on the board (besides Kinsler who can never stay healthy). I am also suprised to see Gyorko so low still, even though he raised his ranking. After his 30 some bombs in the PCL last year, I am still hoping for around 20-25 dingers this year.
Hope you enjoy waiting
I’m still hoping for Jerko’s power to appear. I enjoy waiting for their glorious arrival; the day when Jerko’s home runs blot out the sun.
Matt Carpenter feels too low.
* He’s going to get consistent AB’s this season.
* He’s either going to score a lot of runs high in the order, or drive in a lot of runs lower in the order.
* HR power is a bit down from what might be expected. 2B’s are already there.
Obviously not a SB threat. But I like him better ROS than a few of the guys ahead of him.
Couldn’t agree more as I would slot him in somewhere between 10-12. With his OBP skills at the top of a good Cardinals line up I like his run potential (already 30 Runs) and in OBP league he is a big plus. Sure he lacks power/speed of some of the guys ahead of him but he won’t kill your BA/OBP like some of these others (Uggla/Weeks/ Rutledge).
i had asked eno about carpenter at 2b in a chat a few weeks back, and i believe there he had said carpenter could finish the season in the top 12, around the same ranking as aaron hill.
Chats are more off the cuff, and I do think that’s Carp’s upside, but after looking at him longer, I’m not sure he’ll hit more than 10-15 homers. If that comes with a .280 batting average and no speed….
^Eno, if he contributes, hell, excells, in 3/5 cats with avg/r/rbi, that’s not gonna offset that he never steals and is onthe light side of power?
10-15 homers is not excelling.
that’s why I didn’t include it.. I was more or less saying he will excel in r/avg/rbi, with light power and no speed
oh my bad. dunno, you’re depending a bit on BABIP for the average.
I don’t like the word excel when talking about Carpenter. A .280-.290 AVG is good, but not excelling and I actually think he will be a liability in RBI if they keep him in the 2 hole. He’s only on pace for 55-60 RBI. You’re looking at a 2 cat guy here.
I see that Eno gives his own vote slightly more weight than the other three (due to Kinsler showing up ahead of Pedroia despite being tied) 🙂
Jokes aside, thanks for doing these. Much appreciated.
thanks!
I don’t own Everth but shouldn’t the SBs put him a tad higher?
yeah, he’s got a carrying skill and isn’t even completely awful at some other things, yet he’s ranked below at least eight warm bodies. that’s not correct
Remember, too, steals are twice as valuable as homeruns so Cabrera could end up with the equivalent of 80 homeruns: Fantasy Gold
Would love to hear Zimmerman’s reasoning for Solano over Rutledge.
Zimmerman ranked Rutledge 5th, and Solano 41st. Not sure on this one, but last time I checked, being ranked 5th is slightly better than 41st.
ZS is not Jeff Zimmerman…Zimm is JZ
ZS is most likely Zach Sanders (see list of blog authors to the right)
Thanks, him then. Never been good at readin real good.
I would also like to hear a reason why he has Rutledge so much lower than the other authors. It can’t be playing time because he has Profar ranked higher than everyone. Honestly, I can’t find any trends based on his other rankings so it’d be interesting to hear him chime in why he thinks Rutledge is below fantasy replacement level.
Wow. Rutledge the polarizer: 5, 5, 12, 25! Quite the spread.
Aaron Hill and Josh Rutledge above Chase Utley…not based on performance or track record.
based on risk. the utley of april isn’t going to be the utley of the rest of the year. even if he stays healthy, he’ll get more regular off days which will hurt counting stats, esp with freddy galvis heating up.
i can easily see utley finishing as a top 5 2b even if he does only play 125-150 games, but i can also easily see him missing half the season or playing through injury and experiencing long cold streaks. Too much risk to go all-in on him outperforming hill or rutledge, despite the maybe 60-75% chance that he does outperform those guys.
1.) Freddy Galvis heating up?…the same Freddy Galvis whose career minor league line was .246/.292/.613 307Ks, 123 BB?…why on God’s Earth would Manuel ever bench Utley for Galvis except for maybe the occasional day off once every 2 weeks?
2.) Utley has never experienced long cold streaks. he’s just experienced long DL-stints. When he plays, he’s an elite player at 2B.
3.) If you actually watch Phillies games, you will see that Utley looks better than he has in quite some time. Furthermore, his degenerative knee condition has always kept him out to start the season. Once he began playing in real games, he wasn’t on and off the DL much at all.
4.) Hill and Rutledge have no risk at all? Really? Hill hasn’t exactly been the healthiest guy in the league the last 3-4 years, and Rutledge’s .677 OPS isn’t exactly screaming “stud”…
5.) If there is a 75% chance that Utley outperforms Rutledge or Hill, why wouldn’t you take Utley? That makes no sense at all. You’d rather take the 25% chance that he doesn’t?
For me the Utley ranking was based on the fact that his knees have a degenerative condition. By definition that’s not getting better, and it means he’s a risk to shut it down, especially since his team is struggling. Or he gets traded to a contender and has a vintage year. I struggled with his ranking.
yeah, I find it unlikely that he will just shut it down considering he’s in a contract year.
I hope my league-mates share this consensus view of Utley because I don’t think Utley is a sell high, but rather a buy high. If I could extricate myself from Martin Prado, Brandon Phillips, or even Ben Zobrist (in a nonOBP league), I’d gladly do so.
1. It’s a valid point that Utley’s knees are not getting better, by definition. However, noting that misses that his tolerance for pain is a key PT driver here and he’s shown his pain tolerance to be extremely high.
When he does play, he’s been supremely effective. Last year, by rate, he was the 3rd best 2b despite missing all of ST (and this is pure narrative conjecture–taking the first 25 games to get back his approach at the plate). This year, he’s 3rd again. He isn’t benefiting from a fluky HR/FB rate or Babip here. He is who he is. As such, I don’t think we need to be comfortable using the top end PA’s for Utley top-8 value.
2. Speaking of PAs…I think the probability space for Utley’s PAs takes a bit different shape than for the average player. If we accept a cap at 140 games, I’d guess that the current models undervalue the probability he reaches 140 (or 60) and overvalue 100. This is a subtle distinction but I think this offers a risk-taking manager some opportunity for upside at minimal cost. If everyone thinks 100, and you think that 130-140 (or 60-70) are more likely, maybe this is a good spot to acquire some risk?
One last thing–I’m not sure that the Phillies are in that dreadful/awful tier of teams who are going to be 15 behind Atlanta by July 4th so I think it’s a bit unfounded to say he’s a shut down risk based on team performance. In fact, if they are that bad, I think a more plausible conclusion is that they deal Utley (I just threw up in my mouth) and he finishes the year for a contender.
Hasn’t Howie Kendrick been better than vintage Howie Kendrick?
I was about to say this.
2013 (pace:) .294 AVG, 23 HR, 15 SB, 49 R, 68 RBI.
2012: .287 AVG, 8 HR, 15 SB, 57 R, 67 RBI.
2011: .285 AVG 18 HR, 14 SB, 86 R, 63 RBI.
Right in line with Average, steals, RBI. On pace to match/exceed power from 2011. Runs down, likely due to Hamilton/Pujols not batting him in; while 86 Runs is probably out of reach, a slight uptick gets him to 60. Seems pretty vintage to me.
Neil Walker – was one of my favorite preseason underrated steady guys. I’m about to pick him up off waivers now that he’s back healthy, but my confidence has certainly been shaken…
But as we know, power is the last thing to stabalize, so his early season power numbers can’t be trusted as anything but a fluke at this point, without at least some reason to believe he’s had change in approach. If everything else is equal, and he’s just hit a few more HRs this year, the odds are it’s just random variation so far.
A name that will be on this list in the next iteration when Espinosa finally goes under the knife: Anthony Rendon.
doubtful. Rizzo loves lombardozzi.
Just my opinion. He’s playing more 2b at AA and all the pieces are lining up for him to take over.
Just went through the boxscores, Rendon has played in 10 games this month for the Senators and played at 2nd in only 2 of them (and only 4 games there all season). That doesn’t look like a serious attempt to shift his position.
I’m in dire straights at 2B only having Rickie Weeks and Jedd Gyorko. I have no idea whether I should continue to wait out the slow starts by either or both or whether I should move onto a free agent like Scutaro who offers a little less icing on the cake but won’t kill me when he’s slumping. (K’s are a category)
I’m in the same boat. I drafted Weeks on what I thought was good value since his numbers last year were depressed by his horrible start. I didn’t really believe he was going to start making horrible starts the norm. Pretty frustrating.
Where would Jed Lowrie fit in this list when he becomes eligible?
“Where you hope you’re in a 16-team league or less, because the 17th-best second baseman might not hit .230 the rest of the way.”
I ALWAYS hope I’m in a 16-team league or less! 🙂
Prado over Utley?! I have both on my team and would not even think of starting Prado right now.
I have the black hole that is ricky weeks on my team (not in the racist sense, but the terrible player sense ). Its a 10 team cbs league where you have to play both a 2b and an MI.
Neil Walker was dropped. He makes me yawn as he really does not excell in any category. Quite the vanilla player (again, in the boring sense, not the racist sense). Is he an upgrade over weeks or will weeks turn it around? My regular 2b is utley so the degenerative knee thing is a slight worry. However he is running well and stealing bases consistently. Looks like vintage utley at the moment.
I hate guys like Walker. In shallow leagues empty average players will sink you. Michael Young, Scutaro, and Daniel Murphy are in the same boat.
Much rather go for it with Weeks, or even Espinosa, Gyorko or Kelly Johnson.
I think at this point I would rather take Walker’s blandness than Weeks’ likely suckitude, all else being equal. Some of it depends on the texture of the rest of your lineup, too; if you have a lot of higher risk, higher variance players already then I would jettison Weeks and take Walker for sure. On the other hand, if you have a lot of average-ish players then you likely need to roll the dice on a few upside plays.
Chase utley and justin masterson have a love child. It is called chase masterson and has to work dabo tables for ferengis as she gets no support from her papa’$.
pass the dutchie to the left
I was expecting to see Utley no lower than 3 on anybody’s ranking…
lolwut
Me too! Also Chipper Jones was inexplicably missing from the 3B ranks, and I don’t expect that Grady Sizemore will be ranked properly either.
How the hell is Betancourt #35 when he’s got 8 hrs and 24 rbis?
And? Why would that matter? These are rankings from this point forward.
There is just no defending Josh Rutledge as the 25th best fantasy 2B. I would LOVE to hear the logic behind that one. ZS, you have Donovan Solano ranked above him. Let’s start there.
Well he’s in the minors so that’s a good start to the argument.
*Really* didn’t think that would happen obviously. Probably because I thought he was decent in fantasy, but in real life he had his problems. At least DJLM is all glove, no bat, and isn’t really a threat long-term.