Updated Third Base Rankings

It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on the first month of the season, and even a little harder to believe some of the surprises in the performances of the boys at the hot corner. In general, this whole group has been pretty disappointing, but much of that has to do with injury and rotten luck. Some have been great, some have been train-wreck-awful, and we have several new names to add via eligibility updates.  And where a rising tide may float all boats, a collapsing building can produce new views – and thus, the tiers have been shaken up quite a bit from the original ranking.

There are so many changes to the original rankings, including the size and number of tiers, that I’m not going to note an up or down for every player that has moved. Rather, I’ll indicate any notable ascent or descent and give a little rationale thereafter.

Tier 1
Evan Longoria
David Wright
Ryan Zimmerman
Alex Rodriguez

There’s really no change in the first tier in terms of order, but Rodriguez moves up to the top tier as he’s really just crushing the ball right now, and although he was a tad nicked up this past week, owners have to feel pretty good about getting another great year from him. If this list were based on performance, of course, ARod would be #1, but I’m doing my best to try and stay objective and not too reactionary. Yet. Next month might be something different (we’re looking at you, David).

Tier 2
Kevin Youkilis
Jose Bautista
Adrian Beltre
Aramis Ramirez
Pablo Sandoval

Kevin Youkilis is going to produce, and he’s going to do it soon (provided he didn’t break his foot). If the draft happens again today, I’m still taking Youkilis to produce like a top-five third baseman. If Bautista or Beltre were off to insane starts, maybe we bump him down a notch, but I don’t think there’s enough reason to shuffle this group much. The big move is the meerkat, Pablo Sandoval. Despite some initial misgivings about batting versus lefties, it seems Bruce Bochy has realized there’s not much of a difference in his splits to warrant a platoon and he’s been in the lineup routinely, and in there producing at a pretty fantastic clip. He’s looking a whole lot like the 2009 Sandoval right now, although his HR/FB rate will come down soon, only meaning that he’s not going to hit 48 home runs. Sorry.

Tier 3
Michael Young
Martin Prado
Mark Reynolds
Casey McGehee
Pedro Alvarez

The usage of Michael Young was somewhat of a concern headed into the season, but the first few weeks have demonstrated that he’s pretty much a fixture in the Texas lineup (at some position). Mark Reynolds could right the ship with a big weekend, but his production thus far has been so atrocious that he gets dropped down a tick. I had expected Alvarez to overtake McGehee in the rankings by now, but no such luck, so they remain static and we’ll see what another month does for their stock.

Tier 4
Alex Gordon
Chipper Jones
Scott Rolen
David Freese
Michael Cuddyer
Placido Polanco
Chone Figgins

At this point in our rankings, we were already on to “the rest” as the dearth of talent at 3b was lamented by me, and several other contributors. But we’ve had some nice surprises, so welcome back Alex Gordon to fantasy baseball relevancy. Will he keep it up, who knows, but his performance and pedigree warrant the green arrow. Jones isn’t wearing a cast anywhere yet, Freese is hitting a third of his batted balls as frozen ropes, and Polanco clearly wants us to stop calling him little. And even though he wasn’t eligible at third at the time of the original rankings and therefore can’t really be moving down the rankings because he was un-ranked, Figgins gets the ugly arrow simply because he’s earned it.

Tier 5
Ty Wigginton
Chase Headley
Edwin Encarnacion
Juan Uribe
Casey Blake
Jhonny Peralta
Chris Johnson
Wilson Betemit

Not much to say about Tier 5 other than they are “The Rest +”. Uribe and Blake have shown recent signs of life and Ty Wigginton is suddenly very rosterable, even in 10 team leagues.

Valencia, Tejada, and Roberts probably could round out Tier 5, but it was getting a little long, and you’ve just gotta draw the line somewhere. And Ian Stewart is disgraced. But I think he’ll be back.

The Rest
Danny Valencia
Miguel Tejada
Ryan Roberts
Sean Rodriguez
Brent Morel
Alberto Callaspo
Omar Infante
Kevin Kouzmanoff
Jonathan Herrera
Jose Lopez
Brandon Inge
Mike Aviles
Maicer Izturis
Jayson Nix
Jack Hannahan
Felipe Lopez
Emilio Bonifacio
Willie Bloomquist
Ian Stewart





Michael was born in Massachusetts and grew up in the Seattle area but had nothing to do with the Heathcliff Slocumb trade although Boston fans are welcome to thank him. You can find him on twitter at @michaelcbarr.

28 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
duder
12 years ago

Bautista should be in the top tier.

batpig
12 years ago
Reply to  Michael Barr

2 HR + 1 SB today off David Price just to shove it in your face… after nearly hitting for the cycle off Hellickson. TAKE IT BACK! The “fluke” talk is done, he’s going to hit 35+ HR and will easily tally 100+ R and RBI hitting in the middle of the Jays lineup every day, plus it looks like even 8-10 SB to boot. The ZIP’s ROS projections have an excessively low playing time forecast.

For people like me who are in OPS leagues, I would argue that he is the #1 3B right now.

DT
12 years ago
Reply to  Michael Barr

Isn’t Arod the league leader in OPS?

Dave
12 years ago
Reply to  Michael Barr

If only the Jays could gets on base for Jose. How many of his 7 bombs so far have been solo shots? I guess pitchers are probably more aggressive pitching to him with the bases empty but still. He had 9 hits last week and something like 7 or 8 were for extra bases, including 4 home runs, and all he had to show for it were 4 RBI. That’s crazy. Yeah maybe small sample, maybe how he gets pitched with nobody on, but also the terrible OBP of the hitters in front of him.

I think Bautista could potentially keep hitting at the same pace as the top tier guys, but he might not produce as well as they do (RBI’s mainly) because of the lesser hitters in front of him. I would put him last in the top tier (for now) or at least ahead of Youk at the top of tier 2

LionoftheSenate
12 years ago
Reply to  Michael Barr

Just waiting until 2012 when the data normalizes and says it’s okay.

Trust me, it’s okay now.

Andy
12 years ago
Reply to  duder

Agreed. He’s tearing the cover off the ball in his series vs. TB. He looks like a lock for +35 HR

MattK
12 years ago
Reply to  Andy

It’s amazing how good he is doing every pitcher is trying to pitch him away and with junk and he is playing as good as anyone right now.

lee
12 years ago
Reply to  duder

Agreed.

“If Bautista or Beltre were off to insane starts…”

He’s actually having an as-good-if-not-better season than A-Rod right now. While Bautsita is slightly behind in OBP, he’s beating Rodriguez in BB, HR, TB, RC, and WAR, so I’m quite sure I follow the logic here.

No big deal, I suppose. Rest of the rankings seem about right.