2011 Fantasy Baseball Mid-Season Third Base Rankings: Bautista Leads The Way
Aside from catcher, it would be hard to argue that any position has been shallower than third base this season. Take a look at the graveyard that third base has been this season.
Evan Longoria (Tampa Bay Rays, ADP 5.2) – Longo missed an entire month at the beginning of the season, and his .233 batting average makes it seem like he still might not be quite right.
David Wright (New York Mets, 14.3 ADP) – Set to return from the DL Friday but hasn’t played a game in over two months.
Alex Rodriguez (New York Yankees, 18.7 ADP) – Currently out 4-6 weeks
Ryan Zimmerman (Washington Nationals, 21.8 ADP) – Like Longoria, Zimmerman missed a big chunk of time early in the year and his production since returning makes you wonder if he’s really healthy.
Martin Prado (Atlanta Braves, 71.7 ADP) – Just returned from a five week stint on the DL.
Casey McGehee (Milwaukee Brewers, 90.7 ADP) – A breakout star in 2010 (.285, 23 HR, 104 RBI), McGehee has been a colossal disappointment this year (.225, 5 HR, 38 RBI).
Pablo Sandoval (San Francisco Giants, 109.3 ADP) – The Panda has been pretty good when he’s been in there, but he missed six weeks in the middle of the season.
Pedro Alvarez (Pittsburgh Pirates, 117.6 ADP) – Alvarez is currently hitting .235……in AAA. Which is where he was sent when activated off the DL after hitting a paltry .208 in 125 major league at-bats.
Chone Figgins (Seattle Mariners, 127.5 ADP) – There seems to be a trend of hitters completely falling off the map fairly soon after reaching their 30th birthday (I’m looking at you Adam Dunn and Andruw Jones), and Figgins certainly falls in that group. He’s hitting just .183 and is only cracking the worst lineup in baseball once or twice a week.
That’s nine of the first fourteen third basemen drafted that have had an issue this year. Pretty brutal, huh?
With a few guys on the DL and several others woefully underperforming, ranking the third basemen from here on out isn’t exactly the easiest task. But I’m going to give it a shot.
1st Tier
1. Jose Bautista | Toronto Blue Jays | 100% owned
2. Adrian Beltre | Texas Rangers | 100% owned
3. Kevin Youkilis | Boston Red Sox | 100% owned
Well, I guess it’s not all bad.
2nd Tier
4. David Wright | New York Mets | 100% owned
5. Evan Longoria | Tampa Bay Rays | 100% owned
6. Ryan Zimmerman | Washington Nationals | 100% owned
Lots of health questions here, but there’s no way you could take the risk and trade any of the three for anyone lower on this list.
3rd Tier
7. Pablo Sandoval | San Francisco Giants | 100% owned
8. Martin Prado | Atlanta Braves | 100% owned
9. Aramis Ramirez | Chicago Cubs | 100% owned
10. Ryan Roberts | Arizona Diamondbacks | 94.6% owned
11. Mark Reynolds | Baltimore Orioles | 100% owned
As this group shows, when everyone is healthy, 3B could almost be considered a deep fantasy position. Hopefully, the second half will bring far less frustration to your third base slot.
TANGENT! I’m not breaking any news here, but the process of selecting players for the All-Star game is absurd. Ryan Roberts is a fantastic example of this. Roberts is currently 2nd among NL third basemen on ESPN’s player rater and is second among NL third basemen according to Fangraphs’ WAR calculations, yet Roberts wasn’t even on the All-Star ballot! I repeat, wasn’t on the damn ballot! Moreover, when the original third basemen selected, Placido Polanco and Chipper Jones, couldn’t make the game because of injury, they were replaced by Pablo Sandoval (deserving) and Scott Rolen (not remotely deserving). For me, the not-on-the-ballot Roberts was the biggest All-Star snub.
4th Tier
12. Ty Wigginton | Colorado Rockies | 74.9% owned
13. Danny Valencia | Minnesota Twins | 55.2% owned
14. Edwin Encarnacion | Toronto Blue Jays | 28.1% owned
15. Daniel Murphy | New York Mets | 90.1% owned
This is the fourth of six in this series of these articles I’m writing, and I’m noticing that the bottom falls out quickly. There seems to be a clear delineation between ‘own’-able and not with a lot of jumble on either side of that line.
At this point, we’re firmly on the other side of that line. Wigginton has been the best of this group to this point, but the hot streak that took him an 84.3% ownership percentage seems to have ended as he is hitting just .200 with no home runs over the last 15 days.
5th Tier
16. Alex Rodriguez | New York Yankees | 100% owned
17. Placido Polanco | Philadelphia Phillies | 77.2% owned
18. Casey McGehee | Milwaukee Brewers | 50.8% owned
19. Ian Stewart | Colorado Rockies | 18.6% owned
20. Alberto Callaspo | Los Angeles Angels | 19.0% owned
20. Chase Headley | San Diego Padres | 56.8% owned
21. Chipper Jones | Atlanta Braves | 37.8% owned
22. David Freese | St. Louis Cardinals | 68.8% owned
23. Chris Johnson | Houston Astros | 1.0% owned
24. Scott Sizemore | Oakland Athletics | 1.7% owned
25. Eduardo Nunez | New York Yankees | 13.8% owned
It’s really difficult to rank guys on the DL because it’s difficult to estimate what they’re production will be upon return as compared to what those that are healthy will do with extra at-bats. That said, ranking A-Rod 16th doesn’t feel right to me. As soon as he gets back, he’s instantly a top 5 guy at the position again.
As for the rest of them……ah, screw it. If you’re in the market for one of these guys, there’s not much you can do past trying to catch one on a hot streak. We’re over 1,000 words at this point, so let’s just wrap it up.
All ownership percentages from ESPN.com.
Written by Brett Talley exclusively for thefantasyfix.com. Brett is a law student in Dallas who drafted Jose Bautista and/or Adrian Beltre in approximately zero of his nine leagues. You can follow him and/or ask him for fantasy advice on Twitter @therealTAL
(July 10, 2011 – Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images North America)
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