Top 20 catchers, 1st basemen and 2nd basemen are in the books. What a strange, glorious trip it’s been! Though not really. Today, the top 20 shortstops for 2013 fantasy baseball get to shine. Hmm… Actually, most of these won’t shine. They’re cloudy with a chance of crapballs. To be a bit more specific, the top ten shortstops were about equal with the 2nd basemen through the top 10, then they actually go a bit deeper than the 2nd basemen. Yes, shortstops are deeper. Barely. Mike Aviles was 18th overall for 2nd basemen, here he doesn’t even make the list coming in 22nd. Either way, it’s ugly. Okay, enough of the hubbub on the tomfoolery. To recap, this final ranking is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. The Player Rater allows me to be impartial while looking at how I ranked them in the preseason. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2013 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
1. Ian Desmond – My preseason projections aren’t that far off for Desmond. Few runs here, a little average there. I say this to illustrate how pee poor shortstops are. Desmond was ranked 6th in the preseason and, with around the same level season, came in a tie for first. Yes, a tie. More on that below. Preseason Rank #6, 2013 Projections: 68/20/77/.264/18, Final Numbers: 77/20/80/.280/21
1B. Jean Segura – For the first time that I can remember we have a dead heat in the top of the rankings for a position! Yes, that’s as exciting as end of the season rankings get. Sue me for the 1/127th of a penny I made when you clicked on the page. I loved Segura in the preseason and told you to draft him everywhere. If you didn’t, you weren’t paying attention. Segura would’ve finished clearly in first too if Rudy didn’t use some of his black magic to make sure he didn’t reach 75 runs. Is it okay to say black magic? Or should it be African-American magic? Preseason Rank #16, 2013 Projections: 75/5/50/.282/32, Final Numbers: 74/12/49/.294/44
3. Elvis Andrus – Really surprised he only hit four homers and not my projected five. Kidding. I nailed this one, and he would be ranked seventh if the shortstops could’ve found four more top names to fill themselves out. I’m trying to make all of these recaps about this year and not next, but Andrus will only be twenty-five next year and could be ready to steal 45+ bases. How he hasn’t scored 100 runs once in his career is slightly baffling. Not baffling enough to spend another whole sentence on. Doh! Preseason Rank #7, 2013 Projections: 91/5/60/.285/35, Final Numbers: 91/4/67/.271/42
4. Troy Tulowitzki – I think this is an organizational edict –> Tulo can’t stay healthy, so they asked him to stop stealing. He wasn’t unsuccessful a handful of times. He had one steal in one attempt. I wouldn’t be surprised if that one steal was a botched hit and run too. Oh, and I have no idea what an edict is. Fooled you into thinking I was smart! Preseason Rank #1, 2013 Projections: 83/25/98/.288/7, Final Numbers: 72/25/82/.312/1
5. Hanley Ramirez – Somehow he hit .345 this year. Well, I know how. He was lucky. He had a .363 BABIP, which would’ve been top ten for all of baseball. He also managed a homer in just about every four games. The explanation of that was the 21.1% HR/FB. So he was hitting line drives for hits and every time he hit a fly ball it left the park. Hanley was pretty much the luckiest man to play baseball since Lou Gehrig retired. The sad thing for shortstops, because we always have to bring it back to shortstops and how pathetic they are, he only played a half a year and ranked in the top five. No one with less than 60 RBIs should be top five for anything. Preseason Rank #15, 2013 Projections: 69/17/79/.253/14, Final Numbers: 62/20/57/.345/10
6. Jed Lowrie – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen post.
7. J.J. Hardy – I said this a lot in the 2nd basemen recap and mentioned it again in Desmond’s blurb, but to belabor the point. Hardy’s projections aren’t 15 ranking spots off. Maybe 5 spots. So if you jumped out of a DeLorean in March and told me Hardy would’ve had the season he had, I’d say, “Okay, so I’ll rank him 17th instead, and this is the info you bring me from the future? Did they outlaw lotteries? The stock market? Anything I can actually make money on?” Preseason Rank #22, 2013 Projections: 68/20/79/.244, Final Numbers: 66/25/76/.263/2
8. Ben Zobrist – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen post.
9. Alexei Ramirez – We talked about the dearth of RBIs in the 2nd basemen recap. Today, it’s runs. There were only 9 guys who scored 100 runs this year. 11 guys in 2012. 30 (!) guys in 2007. 35 guys in 2001, ending with your mom’s lover, Corey Koskie. Alexei had 572 ABs in the three hole or higher this year and stole thirty bases and hit .284, and he got 68 runs?! White Sux, I know. But c’mon. Preseason Rank #24, 2013 Projections: 66/12/70/.259/12, Final Numbers: 68/6/48/.284/30
10. Brian Dozier – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen post.
11. Andrelton Simmons – Not a bad year for him, considering he popped out of Sigourney Weaver’s belly in March. Preseason Rank #19, 2013 Projections: 56/5/67/.272/15, Final Numbers: 76/17/59/.248/6
12. Everth Cabrera – EverCab could have the key to translate stats for all PEDs users. He should’ve hit one homer and instead hit four. So, Barry Bonds hit 18 homers in 2001, which is less than Domonic Brown hit pre-All-Star break. Unless Brown was also found to be doing PEDs then Brown hit 6 homers. Now, Chris Davis hit 13 homers this year which beat Brady Anderson’s Orioles record of 12.8 homers. See, how easy it is to make sense of PEDs-tainted records? Preseason Rank #17, 2013 Projections: 45/1/22/.240/35, Final Numbers: 54/4/31/.283/37
13. Asdrubal Cabrera – Had a pretty brutal year that proved further that his ‘breakout’ in 2011 with 25 homers, wasn’t a breakout season as much as a ‘get out of here, you liar’ season. Granted, a ‘get out of here, you liar’ season doesn’t roll off the tongue quite the same. He also dealt with some bad luck that lowered his average, but this is a team sport and the Indians did well–Oh, who cares, Asdrubal sucked. Preseason Rank #10, 2013 Projections: 77/17/86/.272/14, Final Numbers: 66/14/64/.242/9
14. Jose Reyes – When he had 4 homers and 8 steals at the All-Star break, I tried to get people to trade him away. After the ASB, 6 homers and 7 steals. Yay. Again with less emotion: yay. Omar Infante pfft’s at that 2nd half. Preseason Rank #2, 2013 Projections: 110/12/60/.285/40, Final Numbers: 58/10/37/.296/15
15. Stephen Drew – This was his healthiest year since 2010, which allows us to see the upper reaches of his talent — 13 homers and a .250 average. Martin Prado called and said, “I pity you, fool.” Preseason Rank #14, 2013 Projections: 42/15/55/.262/2, Final Numbers: 57/13/67/.253/6
16. Erick Aybar – I had high hopes for the Angels offense coming into this year, especially Aybar as its main benefactor. The good news is I didn’t spend one-point-seven trillion to have my hopes crushed like Arte Moreno. Preseason Rank #12, 2013 Projections: 92/9/62/.292/24, Final Numbers: 68/6/54/.271/12
17. Zack Cozart – He wasn’t Billy Hamilton in the minors, but he did swipe 30 bags one year. Now Cozart is looking as fleet of foot as Pedro Alvarez. Dusty Baker or his trusty toothpick must’ve put the kibosh on Cozart’s running game. Phone rings. “Hello, this is Cozart’s running game, who is this? Mark Prior’s arm? You wanna have a word with me?” Preseason Rank #18, 2013 Projections: 72/17/81/.255/10, Final Numbers: 74/12/63/.254
18. Jhonny Peralta – Wanna know how bad the shortstops were? Exhibit A. A guy that missed 50 games ranked in the top 20. Oy gevalt! Preseason Rank #27, 2013 Projections: 56/15/70/.245/1, Final Numbers: 50/11/55/.303/3
19. Jimmy Rollins – And a guy that turned 50 years old this year ranked in the top 20 too. Preseason Rank #5, 2013 Projections: 88/19/61/.248/24, Final Numbers: 65/6/39/.252/22
20. Yunel Escobar – I’ve never embraced position scarcity, and the lack of shortstops doesn’t have me changing that. I am embracing offense scarcity. I want you to write on the blackboard, “All hitters are scarce and pitchers are abundant and I will not waste chalk.” Preseason Rank #26, 2013 Projections: 78/8/57/.261/5, Final Numbers: 61/9/56/.256/4
