Ranking players is particularly difficult in a 60-game season. Typically, I avoid playing the hot hand, instead choosing to stick with my stars. If I bench Pete Alonso for Jesús Aguilar, and then Alonso ends his rut by hitting two homers that night, I would feel foolish.
I’m not implying that, by any means, I prefer Aguilar to Alonso. But hot and cold streaks are real and, in such a short season, we have to take advantage of them to be successful.
As a result, I decided to shake things up in this edition of my corner infielder rankings.
| Rank | Name | Team | Positions | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nolan Arenado | Rockies | 3B | +1 |
| 2 | Cody Bellinger | Dodgers | 1B OF | -1 |
| 3 | Anthony Rendon | Angels | 3B | – |
| 4 | Freddie Freeman | Braves | 1B | +1 |
| 5 | Jose Ramirez | Indians | 3B | -1 |
| 6 | Alex Bregman | Astros | 3B SS | – |
| 7 | Jose Abreu | White Sox | 1B | +1 |
| 8 | Rafael Devers | Red Sox | 3B | +1 |
| 9 | DJ LeMahieu | Yankees | 2B 1B | +8 |
| 10 | Anthony Rizzo | Cubs | 1B | -3 |
| 11 | Paul Goldschmidt | Cardinals | 1B | -1 |
| 12 | Pete Alonso | Mets | 1B | -1 |
| 13 | Matt Chapman | Athletics | 3B | +6 |
| 14 | Matt Olson | Athletics | 1B | -2 |
| 15 | Yoan Moncada | White Sox | 3B | -1 |
| 16 | Manny Machado | Padres | 3B SS | -1 |
| 17 | Josh Bell | Pirates | 1B | -4 |
| 18 | Eugenio Suarez | Reds | 3B | -2 |
| 19 | Max Muncy | Dodgers | 2B 1B | +2 |
| 20 | J.D. Davis | Mets | 3B OF | +9 |
| 21 | Luke Voit | Yankees | 1B | +13 |
| 22 | Carlos Santana | Indians | 1B | – |
| 23 | Justin Turner | Dodgers | 3B | +1 |
| 24 | Gio Urshela | Yankees | 3B | +17 |
| 25 | Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | Blue Jays | 3B | -5 |
| 26 | Daniel Murphy | Rockies | 1B | NEW |
| 27 | Kris Bryant | Cubs | OF 3B | -4 |
| 28 | Rhys Hoskins | Phillies | 1B | -2 |
| 29 | Tommy Edman | Cardinals | 2B 3B | -2 |
| 30 | Brian Anderson | Marlins | OF 3B | NEW |
| 31 | Renato Nunez | Orioles | 1B | +9 |
| 32 | Yuli Gurriel | Astros | 1B 3B | +5 |
| 33 | Eric Hosmer | Padres | 1B | -5 |
| 34 | Jesus Aguilar | Marlins | 1B | NEW |
| 35 | Kyle Seager | Mariners | 3B | NEW |
| 36 | Miguel Sano | Twins | 3B | -11 |
| 37 | Edwin Encarnacion | White Sox | 1B | -5 |
| 38 | Jake Cronenworth | Padres | 1B, SS | NEW |
| 39 | Starlin Castro | Nationals | 2B 3B | -1 |
| 40 | Eduardo Escobar | Diamondbacks | 2B 3B | -9 |
| 41 | Tommy La Stella | Angels | 2B 3B | NEW |
| 42 | Christian Walker | Diamondbacks | 1B | – |
| 43 | Hunter Dozier | Royals | OF 3B | NEW |
| 44 | Donovan Solano | Giants | 2B, 3B | NEW |
| 45 | Asdrubal Cabrera | Nationals | 2B 3B | +5 |
| 46 | Howie Kendrick | Nationals | 2B 1B | +2 |
| 47 | David Fletcher | Angels | 2B 3B OF SS | -3 |
| 48 | Hanser Alberto | Orioles | 2B 3B | NEW |
| 49 | Joey Votto | Reds | 1B | -13 |
| 50 | Miguel Cabrera | Tigers | 1B | NEW |
Sorry To See You Go
As alluded to above, you simply can’t wait on certain guys to turn it around if they’re just holding on by a name-value thread.
Consequently, I’ve removed Joc Pederson from the list. He is what he is at this point in his career. He’ll hurt your batting average (.196 this year) and provides cheap power, but you should only start him against righties. His upside is accordingly limited. The same goes for Justin Smoak and Ji-Man Choi. None of these guys are giving you the power you paid for and they’re all hitting below the Mendoza line.
I also knocked off Maikel Franco. He’s still performing, but he might get pinched for playing time with the return of Hunter Dozier (welcome back to the list!), and Franco’s 7:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio scares me. Evan White is another casualty of me playing the hot hand, given he’s hitting just .106 with one home run and no steals. And Colin Moran‘s ascension was just about as quick as his fall, as he’s already hitting just .226 without any home runs since my last edition of these rankings.
Alex Bohm lost his spot simply to make room for a lot of fun new additions. If he gets called up, he immediately jumps up the list. Danny Santana and C.J. Cron join Josh Donaldson and Mike Moustakas as IL-eligible players that will have spots upon their return.
New Faces
My previous omission of Daniel Murphy was likely an accident, but assume I would have had him in the 40s. Now that he’s healthy, he’s making a strong case that he’s the Murphy of old for whom the sky’s the limit. Yes, that Daniel Murphy, who hit .326 from 2016-18 with the Nationals and who we were so excited to see play in Coors. I’ve slotted him in at 26th and would be adding him everywhere.
Let’s also welcome back Brian Anderson, who had some time off when the Marlins paused their season and just barely cracks my top-30. He hasn’t missed a beat, hitting .306 with four homers while regularly batting in the heart of the order for the Fish. Based on projections alone, I liked Anderson coming into the season as an under-the-radar bat. He doesn’t strike out too much and he’s currently sporting a 65th-percentile barrel rate and 79th-percentile hard-hit rate.
It’s a little more difficult for me to make heads or tails of Aguilar and Kyle Seager, whom I’ve ranked back-to-back in the 30s. The former was a league-winner in 2018 only to completely fall apart in 2019. Aguilar occupies the cleanup spot for the Marlins and, with four homers already and 35 in 2018, he clearly has some pop. What’s really interesting about him is that, this year, his BABIP is a mere .219, but he’s still rocking a .282 AVG on the back of his excellent 5:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
For his part, Seager hasn’t been mixed-league relevant since 2016. It’s unclear what change he made, but Foolish Baseball said it better than I could:
Kyle Seager's last 75 games (since July 25, 2019)
.284/.369/.564
.382 xwOBA
19 HR
62 RBI
150 wRC+
3.4 fWARThe only hitters with more WAR in that stretch are Betts, Realmuto, Rendon, Semien, and Bregman.
— Foolish Baseball (@FoolishBB) August 12, 2020
With apologies, but I’m going to have to lazily quote another tweet to get my feelings across about my 38th corner infielder, Jake Cronenworth. But hey, at least this time it’s my own (shameless plug)?
Jake Cronenworth is rocking a .421 xBA, .812 xSLG, .520 xwOBA, and 205 wRC+.
He has 5 strikeouts and barrels apiece in 32 plate appearances.
He’s a 45 future value prospect.
#2020 pic.twitter.com/Rmi5Q4MpAa
— Dan Richards (@Fantasy_Esquire) August 12, 2020
Do I occasionally look at shoes online and that’s why I have that weird ad at the bottom? Definitely not. Let’s talk about something more interesting, like the resurgence of Tommy La Stella. He’s picking right back up where he left off in 2019 before fracturing his tibia. Last year, La Stella managed an 8.7 K% and 6.2 BB% and hit .295 with 16 home runs in basically half a season. This year? He’s got a 5.1 K% and 16.9 BB%! That’s just wild. So it’s no surprise, then, that he’s batting .292 while regularly hitting second for the angels — right in front of Mike Trout. La Stella is absolutely mixed-league viable, he’s available in 70% of ESPN leagues, and I’ve ranked him 41st. Act fast before he’s gone.
I’m less interested in Donovan Solano and Hanser Alberto, who strike me as empty batting average types. But you could do worse than Solano’s .458 and Alberto’s .348 batting averages. They might even chip in a home run or a stolen base here or there, which is more than I could say for many of the guys who fell off the list this week. I’ve ranked them towards the end of the list accordingly.
Finally, open your mind to the possibility that Miguel Cabrera has returned (somewhat). His hard-hit rate is up to a whopping 60% and he’s got a .293 xBA and .539 xSLG to boot. I’m tepidly interested, having been burned in the past, so I added him to the list but ranked him last.
Other Adjustments
After three weeks of putrid play, I felt it was time to move Cody Bellinger under Nolan Arenado, particularly in light of Arenado going 8/12 with three home runs over the last three days. Bellinger is hitting just .171 with 11 strikeouts to five walks, two home runs, and one stolen base. Plus, Arenado will always have the cushion of playing in Coors.
One guy you’re probably happy owning is DJ LeMahieu. Given his middling performance all those years in Colorado, it may seem strange for his name to appear among the elite corner infielders like Rafael Devers and Anthony Rizzo. But if you actually watch him bat, you’ll see that he’s a really tough out. He almost always puts the ball in play sharply, often the opposite way. That explains his 97th-percentile strikeout rate and xBA. With a .431 AVG, he’s living up to his nickname — the Machine — and picking up right where he left off in 2019. Having ranked him in my top-10, I’m buying high and expect great things from the leadoff hitter of arguably baseball’s best lineup.
Separately, there’s a tier of corner infielders whom I felt were difficult to distinguish in the preseason. Power-first bats who all projected for low or acceptable batting averages. From Paul Goldschmidt all the way down to Max Muncy, I’ve been waiting for one of these guys to separate themselves from the pack. Enter Matt Chapman. He’s already amassed six homers with 12 runs and 15 RBI with a .269 AVG. Sure, he’s striking out a lot (26:4 strikeouts-to-walk ratio). But he’s also got a 97th-percentile barrel rate, 90th-percentile hard-hit rate, and 90th-percentile xSLG. Maybe expect closer to a .250 AVG going forward, but his power looks like the real deal to me and I’ve moved him to 13th overall.
More New York corner infielders earned some love. J.D. Davis, Luke Voit, and Gio Urshela have all impressed this year. Davis is hitting .300 with three homers, Voit .275 with five homers, and Urshela .273 with three homers. And on draft day you got them all on the cheap, which makes their ascensions even more satisfying. They now find themselves in my top-25.
You’re also probably happy owning Renato Núñez. He’s like Voit and Davis combined, having already hit five homers with a .302 AVG. With a .245 xBA and far less red on his Statcast page, however, I have lower expectations for Núñez’s prospective performance than either of Voit’s or Davis’s, and have ranked him accordingly at 31.
Still, it’s not all sunshine and daisies in the world of corner infielders. Take Josh Bell, for instance. Bell hasn’t shown much of anything since the first half of 2019 and I’m worried. It’s not entirely his fault — the Pirates have had some off days given their scheduled games against the Cardinals were canceled. But even when he has played, we’re talking a .213 AVG with two home runs, five RBI, and seven runs. He has struck out 20 times and walked only three times. He does have a 72nd-percentile hard-hit rate, but his 55th-percentile barrel rate suggests he’s putting the ball on the ground too often to capitalize. To that point, his 50% ground-ball rate is nearly five percentage points above the league average and his 16.7% fly-ball rate is over five percentage points below the league average. This is not what you paid for, so he tumbles down the rankings to 17.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. profiles similarly to Bell, albeit with better plate discipline (11 strikeouts to four walks). He’s hitting .237 with two homers and five RBI and runs apiece. Like Bell, he’s got an 83rd-percentile hard-hit rate, but only a 38th-percentile barrel rate because he puts the ball on the ground too often. Guerrero has a 60.4% ground-ball rate (fifteen percentage points above the average!) and a below-average 14.6% fly-ball rate. He needs a tweak to his swing to activate his power, and I’m not going to keep ranking him among the stars expecting that to happen tomorrow. I’d rather own any of Davis, Voit, or Urshela in a re-draft league.
There’s little to like about where Miguel Sanó‘s season is going. Unlike Guerrero and Bell, his problem is making contact in the first place. It probably wouldn’t shock you to learn that Sanó’s barrel rate is in the 98th-percentile. But he’s striking out in a whopping 46.4% of his plate appearances, leading to a .137 AVG. Even if he hits home runs, that’s simply unplayable. No longer a young rookie, Sanó’s inability to hit the ball is really concerning and, if it continues, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him lose playing time to Marwin González, particularly when Donaldson returns. I dropped Sanó to 36 accordingly.
Finally, I felt compelled to knock Eduardo Escobar and Joey Votto down the list — they’re now both in the 40s. Escobar’s slashing an ugly .171/.227/.243, with one home run and no stolen bases. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I had reservations about Escobar’s prospects in the preseason, so his continued struggles are merely confirming my suspicions. Votto got off to a hot start with three quick home runs, but he’s now hitting .211 and hasn’t hit a home run in weeks. Hope remains for Votto given his elite patience (13 walks to three strikeouts thus far), but for fantasy purposes, I think his best days are behind him.
