2011 Fantasy Baseball Preview - Shortstop Rankings

Introduction  - Catchers  - First Basemen  - Second Basemen  
Third Basemen  - Shortstops  - Outfielders 1  - Outfielders 2  
Starting Pitchers 1  - Starting Pitchers 2


#1 Hanley Ramirez
Hanley is basically a no-brainer as the number one shortstop. He's a 5-tool guy who contributes in big ways in almost every offensive category. He's a very good bet for 20+ homers, a .300+ average, and 30+ steals. He's still very young with room to improve even more. Last year his ISO and LD% dropped, and he showed a lot of discontent playing for the Marlins. I expect him to put those issues behind him enough to improve on his 2010 numbers. Hanley will be one of the most valuable fantasy players in the game, definitely worthy of a first round pick.

#2 Troy Tulowitzki
Tulowitzki played only 122 games last year due to injury. Despite that he still managed to hit 27 home runs with a .315 batting average. A lot of that was due to a ridiculous tear he went on in September where he hit .377 with 14 home runs in 15 games. All of his numbers from above were higher than his career averages except for LD%, so that shows that 2010 was pretty lucky for Tulowitzki. He's going to be a great player and have outstanding value at the short stop position, but don't be surprised if he doesn't replicate his 2010 numbers.

#3 Jose Reyes
Reyes was one of the game's most exciting players just a couple seasons ago, but injuries have brought him down a long ways. He played only 36 games in 2009, but somewhat bounced back with a 133 game season last year. In those games he hit .282 with 11 home runs while stealing 30 bases. Reyes is getting into his upper 20's now, so he's not at the age where we expect him to fall off. The days of 70+ stolen bases might be over, but he'll still be near the top of the league in that category while contributing nicely in runs scored and batting average. He's a slight injury risk, but he could be a good buy-low candidate.

#4 Jimmy Rollins
Rollins is another guy who has injury problems recently. Last year he played only 88 games, the lowest number of his career. In those games he put together an ugly .243 batting average with only 8 home runs. Rollins had a really low BABIP, which could have resulted from the decline in LD%. He didn't hit the ball very well last year, and he stole only 17 bases. He is 32 right now, so I expect Rollins to start to decline pretty rapidly. He might one or two more solid seasons in him, and the consistency he's shown in his career led me to rank him at #4. The position really falls off after Rollins, so this was pretty much a no-brainer.

#5 Elvis Andrus
Andrus is 22 years old and has only been in the league for 2 seasons. It's kind of hard to predict a player like him, but all signs point to him being a very good big leaguer for a long time. Andrus hit only .266 last year and hit .267 in 2009, so you probably aren't going to get a real good batting average out of him. His BABIP last year was .317, but because of his age it's unfair to say he can't improve on batting average. He should continue to improve at the plate and get his numbers up more and more every year. Andrus is a guy that could break out this year, although he realy doesn't have any power. He did not hit 1 home run last year, that's right, zero. The reason you're going to draft this guy is for the stolen bases, which he should get a ton of. If you don't have a shortstop and you need steals, Andrus is a guy you could get at a pretty decent time in the draft, and he has good upside.

#6 Ian Desmond
Desmond is another young shortstop that will be interesting to watch this year. Last year he hit .269 on a .317 BABIP, so the average isn't very appealing. There's nothing impressive about the rest of his numbers either, but his age and make up give him some upside. The position gets thin fast, which earns Desmond a starting spot on a roster in just about every fantasy baseball league imagineable. If you miss out on the top guys, Desmond has some pretty decent potential and you could be pleased with selecting him in the middle rounds.

#7 Alexei Ramirez
People have been waiting Ramirez to bust out for a couple of years now, and as he heads into his 4th season in the majors, he's losing my confidence pretty fast. He's done the same thing almost every year of his career, with a batting average around .280 and around 17-19 home runs. He doesn't steal many bases, which is pretty important for a fantasy shortstop, however he does have better power than most guys. It's important to look at your team needs when selecting a middle of the road shortstop, and if you need some more pop and a solid batting average, Ramirez is your guy, but the upside is limited and he isn't going to steal you many bases.

#8 Derek Jeter
Oh, Jeter. Every year we're waiting for this guy to completely fall off the map, but he just doesn't seem to want to do it. Last year he struggled, hitting .270 with 10 home runs, which looked extra bad after his 2009 season of .334 with 18 bombs. Jeter has a career average BABIP of .356 which is almost unbelievable. You could then say that he was really unlucky last year with a .307 mark, so the average should come up. However, he's 36 years old now and he knows his days are numbered. The defense is really bad, which leads people to believe he could be moved to the outfield. He's guaranteed at bats just because of his name, so he's a pretty safe bet if you know what you're getting and don't expect too much. He'll hit for good average, score a lot of runs, and swipe some bases, but there's no upside at all here. What you see is what you get, and I don't think you're going to be seeing it much past 2011.

#9 Starlin Castro
Completely opposite of Jeter is Castro. He came into the league last year at the fresh age of 19 and played really well. He hit .300 and scored 53 runs in 125 games for a Cubs team that wasn't very good. Castro hit only 3 home runs but he has more power than that number suggests. His line drive percentage was 19.5 which is really good to see from a young guy and he had a pretty solid .340 on base. He should improve very, very fast and could turn into a top 5 fantasy shortstop in the next few years. There's a lot of work to be done, and at the age of 20, I'm not going to be picking him in front of safer bets like Desmond, Ramirez, and Jeter (well, I might take him in front of Jeter, but that's kind of an anti-Yankee thing).

#10 Stephen Drew
Drew is another guy that some people have been waiting to break out, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. He's a career .272 hitter and he's been in the league since 2006. His career high in home runs is 21, but he has hit less than 20 for the last 2 seasons. Playing in Arizona isn't helping him out, so there's not a lot of upside for Drew. He'll be 28 years old this season and it seems he'll remain a .275 or so hitter for the remainder of his career. His on base percentage last year was encouraging, but the rest of his numbers above remained pretty on pace with his career average. I'd try to get somebody before Drew is the best available, because he's pretty unspectacular.

#11 Rafael Furcal
Furcal isn't a young guy anymore, he'll be 33 years old this season and his numbers have been very inconsistent the last few years. He played only 97 games last season, but hit a solid .300/.366/.460 in those games. He stole 22 bases, which is decent for the sample size. Furcal had a good LD% and still shows the ability to be an effective hitter when healthy, but he's just not healthy enough to trust him as a fantasy starter. He's got good value for where you'll get him, and if he puts together a whole season he could end up being a very good draft pick, but don't reach for him.

#12 Alcides Escobar
Escobar is a young kid that the Brewers thought would be their starting shortstop for a long time. However, they traded him to the Royals this offseason to get Zack Greinke. Escobar played his first full season last year and wasn't good. He hit an ugly .235 with 4 homers and only 10 steals. He has some upside because of his age and makeup, but I won't be going anywhere near him this year.

#13 Erick Aybar
Aybar is nothing special. His best season in the bigs was 2009 when he hit .312, but didn't do anything else. He has no power and doesn't steal a lot of bases, which is saying a lot in the Angels system. There's really nothing encouraging about his numbers, I would avoid him altogether.

#14 Asdrubal Cabrera
Cabrera is another classic shortstop that makes his living with the glove. Last year he hit .276 with 3 homers and 6 steals. His best season was 2009 when he hit .308 with 6 homers. He's young and has some upside, but don't expect anything more than the potential for a good batting average with nothing else.

#15 Yunel Escobar
Just another weak hitting shortstop. Escobar hit .256 last year with two teams and hit only 4 home runs after having an encouraging 14 homer season in 2009. There's a 15 home run upside here, but the batting average probably won't be good and he doesn't steal bases.

#16 Tsuyoshi Nishioka
We've talked about Nishioka. He's coming over from Japan and has batting average and speed upside with a lot of flexibility possibly playing 3 different positions. It's really hard to rank him fairly, and he could easily turn into much better than a #16 shortstop, but for now I just don't know enough about him to put him ahead of anyone. I suppose there's upside, so I might consider taking him above a handful of the other guys on this list, but only in a back-up role.