The start of the 2016 season is quickly upon us so it’s time to start talking about baseball again. Below you’ll find my top 29 second basemen. The rankings are based on NFBC style leagues with 12-teams.
The second base position is incredibly top heavy with two superstars (Jose Altuve and Dee Gordon) with 4-5 other players who could finish as the best second baseman. After the first 6-7 second baseman they’re all about the same.
The Javier Baez projection assumes he starts the year in the majors. I ranked Addison Russell as a shortstop.
When evaluating Anthony Rendon is entirely dependent upon the league format. If I’m in a shallow league I’ll bump him up in my overall rankings. The reason being you win leagues by having players dramatically outperform their ADPs. In a deeper league I would be more wary. The reason being if he gets hurt the replacement level player is so much less than in a shallower league. Rendon has battled injuries for most of his professional career. Last year he had a MCL knee sprain in Spring Training then he hurt his oblique in a rehab game. Overall, injuries limited him to 80 games and when he did play he didn’t provide much value. I personally discounted his 2015 statistics because his hard hit rate was so much lower than his previous two seasons. If he plays a full year he’s going to bat second and he could score more than 100 runs in that lineup.
DJ LeMahieu is going as the 11th second baseman in NFBC drafts, which is too low. His career road numbers suggest he’s not a good hitter, but that doesn’t matter because he plays half of his games in Colorado. LeMahieu is getting the 2015 Charlie Blackmon treatment in that he’s being overlooked because the road numbers suggest he’s not good and therefore the market suppresses their value during the draft. I projected a .290 batting average because of the home ballpark and the hard hit rate increased 40 percent last year. Also, Walt Weiss is back as the Rockies manager so he could steal 20 bases again.
I have no idea why Joe Panik is being drafted as the 20th second baseman. In 719 career plate appearances he has a .309 batting average with a .336 BABIP. Some fantasy owners may discount the high batting average as BABIP inflated, but I believe that’s essentially his baseline. Panik has a great approach at the plate and makes a lot of contact. If he played a full year he would have finished sixth in contact rate. Last year he missed the second half of the year with a back injury so that is something to monitor in Spring Training. If he plays a full year he could score 100-plus runs in a lineup that should be much improved.
I Would Not Be Shocked If He Finishes Year As Top 10 Second Baseman:
This recommendation depends on Chase Utley earning a starting job, but I believe a path to playing every day is easily within reach. I don’t believe Enrique Hernandez’s .302 batting average last year (because of the insanely high BABIP and his ability to make contact in the minors has been very sporadic). Utley had a horrible BABIP 2015, but that came along with a really high hard hit rate; so high that ranked in the top 30 percent of hitters last year. If he plays a full year and maintains the hard hit rate he’s going to hit 16-plus home runs. If he plays he’s going to hit atop the lineup so he could score 80-plus runs. There are a lot of if’s but at his current price he’s worth a look in deeper formats.
