MLB Reviews/Previews: Second Base Rankings

Second base was a position that had the potential to be completely forgotten coming into the offseason with no major free agents on the market. However, thanks to an extremely active winter meeting we saw two top 10 second basemen in all formats last season change team. Those trades saw Dee Gordon head home to Miami and Howie Kendrick cross the city of LA to go from the Angels to the Dodgers. So what does that mean for those two players next year?

Well for Gordon he is sure to be the number one middle infielder for the Marlins and is likely to bat in front of Giancarlo Stanton so that should give him a great opportunity to be a top 10 second baseman next year.

Kendrick moves into a completely vacated middle infield for the Dodgers with both Hanley and Gordon gone. The Dodgers gave up a pretty nice piece to acquire Kendrick so I would be stunned if he isn’t the full time player at second base for them this season. Justin Turner is the other guy in the mix there but he has capability to play SS that Howie doesn’t.

Before we bury any deeper into the upcoming season let’s take a whirlwind tour of the leaders from last season across my roto ranking system, the ESPN player rater and points total according to CBS fantasy.

Roto		ESPN Player Rater (Roto)		Points Leagues
Player	Score	Player	Score	Player	Points
Anthony Rendon	25	Jose Altuve	14.56	Jose Altuve	560
Brian Dozier	23	Dee Gordon	11.12	Anthony Rendon	526
Ian Kinsler	23	Anthony Rendon	9.93	Brian Dozier	500
Jose Altuve	21	Ian Kinsler	8.53	Ian Kinsler	499
Robinson Cano	21	Robinson Cano	8.33	Robinson Cano	479
Josh Harrison	20	Josh Harrison	7.85	Dee Gordon	446
Howie Kendrick	18	Brian Dozier	7.83	Matt Carpenter	435
Dee Gordon	15	Howie Kendrick	6.93	Chase Utley	434
Neil Walker	15	Daniel Murphy	5.88	Howie Kendrick	425
Asdrubal Cabrera	14	Neil Walker	5.72	Ben Zobrist	409

The immediate stand out here is that Jose Altuve who tops the CBS and ESPN rankings sits fourth in my system. This is due to the relatively low number of runs scored, home runs and RBI that he accrued this season. Yes he dominated in steals getting nearly three times as many as most but he also hit three times less home runs, scored nearly 30 less runs and had 10 less RBI than the guy who ranks second in Dozier (Altuve had a SIGNIFCANTLY better average than the swing happy Dozier).

Seven players appeared in all three lists but there was a little more variation in the lower places than for other positions with Carpenter, Utley and Zobrist all appearing in point’s leagues only.

Speaking of Zobrist, he has also changed teams this year moving over to Oakland where he fits the philosophy perfectly with his multi positional ability and as always this eligibility means he will probably end up being drafted higher than his production actually merits.

Roto Categories

Dozier	112	Dozier	23	Kinsler	92	Gordon	64	Altuve	0.341
Rendon	111	Walker	23	Rendon	83	Altuve	56	Turner	0.340
Kinsler	100	Rendon	21	Cano	82	Bonifacio	26	Harrison	0.315
Carpenter	99	Kinsler	17	Utley	78	Kipnis	22	Cano	0.314
Gordon	92	Valbuena	16	Walker	76	Dozier	21	Panik	0.305
Altuve	85	Schoop	16	Kendrick	75	Wong	20	Kendrick	0.293
Kendrick	85	Cano	14	Dozier	71	Harrison	18	Gordon	0.289
Zobrist	83	Cabrera	14	Infante	66	Rendon	17	Murphy	0.289
Murphy	79	Ackley	14	Ackley	65	Kinsler	15	Gennett	0.289
Cano	77	Harrison	13	Cabrera	61	Kendrick	14	Rendon	0.287

 

My Immediate stand outs:

• Dozier was a 20/20 player last season and was drafted in the later rounds of virtually every draft
• Rendon broke out in spectacular fashion and was in the top three in runs scored, home runs and RBI. He was also top 10 in steals and average making him the ideal five category player at the position.
• Cano wasn’t the titan at the position he was in New York but he was still a great option at the position scoring top ten in four categories.
• Kinsler put a hold to the talk he was done also placing in the top 10 in four categories in a powerful Detroit line up.
• Jacob Turner, who I mentioned above, hit for a stunning average and could be a big threat for more player time for the Dodgers
• Josh Harrison came on strong last year but possibly won’t start the year with second base eligibility depending on your league rules.

My early 2015 rankings:

1. Anthony Rendon, WSH
2. Robinson Cano, SEA
3. Jose Altuve, HOU
4. Ian Kinsler, DET
5. Brian Dozier, MIN
6. Dee Gordon, MIA
7. Jason Kipnis, CLE
8. Neil Walker, PIT
9. Howie Kendrick, LAD
10. Dustin Pedroia, BOS
11. Kolten Wong, STL
12. Daniel Murphy, NYM
13. Ben Zobrist, OAK
14. Jedd Gyorko, SD
15. Chase Utley, PHI
16. Aaron Hill, ARI
17. Brandon Phillips, CIN
18. Javier Baez, CHC
19. Marin Prado, NYY
20. Eric Young, NYM
21. Roughned Odor, TEX
22. Jurickson Profar, TEX
23. Brett Lawrie, OAK
24. Scooter Gennett, MIL
25. Josh Rutledge, LAA