MLB Review/Preview: Third Base Rankings

It’s been a busy offseason for third base around the league with a number of moves taking place either through trades or free agency. However, for the fantasy landscape the boat has not been rocked too greatly with only one top 10 player at the position last year being involved. That player was Josh Donaldson who moved from the cavernous O.co Coliseum in Oakland over to the hitter friendly Rogers Centre in Toronto. Some other names involved this winter were Pable Sandoval, signing with Boston, Will Middlebrooks, moving to San Diego, Brett Lawrie, Oakland, and Chase Headley, staying in Yankee Stadium. So how has this offseason affected third base rankings? Who was a surprising package last year and are they someone you should be investing in? Let’s take a look shall we?

2014 Third Base Top Tens (Only my personal rankings and CBS sports points totals will be used in this article due to ESPN being down for maintenance preventing the comparison with their player rater.)

Roto		Points
Player	Points	Player	Points
Anthony Rendon	27	Miguel Cabrera	535
Miguel Cabrera	24	Anthony Rendon	526
Todd Frazier	23	Josh Donaldson	502
Josh Donaldson	21	Todd Frazier	463
Kyle Seager	19	Adrian Beltre	450
Josh Harrison	19	Carlos Santana	446
Adrian Beltre	17	Kyle Seager	445
Carlos Santana	16	Evan Longoria	435
Evan Longoria	16	Matt Carpenter	435
Daniel Murphy	16	Josh Harrison	398

Firstly the bad news: Miguel Cabrera will not be eligible for third base next year in many leagues as he only played 10 games at the position. If he has lost that eligibility in your league that does affect his value a little and when combined with the injury he currently has does create a little cause for concern.

Now the good points!

Anthony Rendon was a beast last year bursting onto the scene and surprising everyone in the fantasy world by being the best player in roto leagues at the position. His duel position eligibility makes him a very valuable commodity.

Josh Donaldson should just keep getting better now he is in a hitter friendly ball park so do not be surprised if he is pushing to be the number 1 overall third baseman next year. Todd Frazer broke out spectacularly last year for fantasy owners and was the only 20/20 player at the position. While I expect a little regression next year he still has decent 20/20 opportunity.

Third base was generally solid and predictable last year with many of the names above being guys who would have featured heavily in top 10 lists this time last year and that is good news for fantasy owners. While it may not be the most explosive position there is solid value in the middle rounds of drafts as emphasised by the appearances of Daniel Murphy and Kyle Seager in the top popu10’s

Now let’s take a look at the leaders in each category for roto:

Runs		Home Runs		RBI		Stolen Base		Average
Rendon	111	Donaldson	29	Cabrera	109	Bonifacio	26	Turner	0.340
Cabrera	101	Frazier	29	Donaldson	98	Frazier	20	Beltre	0.324
Carpenter	99	Santana	27	Seager	96	Harrison	18	Harrison	0.315
Donaldson	93	Davis	26	Longoria	91	Rendon	17	Cabrera	0.313
Frazier	88	Cabrera	25	Santana	85	Aviles	14	Uribe	0.311
Longoria	83	Seager	25	Rendon	83	Murphy	13	Murphy	0.289
Beltre	79	Longoria	22	Frazier	80	Amarista	12	Rendon	0.287
Murphy	79	Reynolds	22	Plouffe	80	Holt	12	McGehee	0.287
Harrison	77	Rendon	21	Beltre	77	Romine	12	Arenado	0.287
Seager	71	Beltre	19	McGehee	76	Garcia	11	Ramirez	0.285

 

My take-aways:

• Rendon is a true five category player who has duel eligibility. Yeah that’s rather good.
• Donaldson has a park and offence upgrade in 2015 so he could easily increase runs scored, home runs and RBI this season.
• Chris Davis hit 26 home runs in a down season. If he bounces back this year 35 could be easy
• Todd Frazier is quality player who can help across all categories
• Beltre’s power isn’t what it once was but his average was still over 0.300 meaning you shouldn’t give up on him just yet. He is still capable of putting up top 10 numbers in runs, home runs and RBI as well as average.
• McGehee could be an interesting prospect moving to San Francisco this year where he has the potential for the better part of a starters at bats.

My early 2015 rankings:

1. Anthony Rendon, WSH
2. Josh Donaldson, TOR
3. Evan Longoria, TB
4. Kyle Seager, SEA
5. Adrian Beltre, TEX
6. Todd Frazier, CIN
7. Chris Davis, BAL
8. Nolan Arenado, COL
9. Josh Harrison, PIT
10. David Wright, NYM
11. Carlos Santana, CLE
12. Matt Carpenter, STL
13. Manny Machado, BAL
14. Ryan Zimmerman, WSH
15. Chase Headley, NYY
16. Pable Sandoval, BOS
17. Kris Bryant, CHC
18. Xander Bogaerts, BOS
19. Aramis Ramirez, MIL
20. Trevor Plouffe, MIN
21. Pedro Alvarez, PIT
22. Martin Prado, MIA
23. Brett Lawrie, OAK
24. Nick Castellanos, DET
25. Casey McGehee, SF