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Please see our player page for Ezequiel Tovar to see projections for today, the next 7 days and rest of season as well as stats and gamelogs designed with the fantasy baseball player in mind.

The journey through the 2024 Top Keepers continues this week with a look at the top shortstops. Compared to some of the other positions we’ve covered, shortstop is actually a pretty deep position. If you get stuck with a Tier 4 player, like a Jeremy Pena or Tommy Edman, you still have a decent shortstop on your hands.

Even in Tier 5 (players ranked 31-40), you still can get a decent utility player or fulltime shortstop with some solid upside. Meanwhile, the top shortstops are players who are not just the best at this position, but are some of the best players in the game. Overall, this is a strong group of players.

Now, on to the rankings!

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Now that we’ve recapped the top 20 catchers, top 20 1st basemen and top 20 2nd basemen, we’re starting to see clarity on depth of positions, and shortstops are shallower than 2nd basemen, which is surprising again. I say ‘again’ because it was the same last year. My guess is shortstops will get more robust next year, but they need to metaphorically eat. So, here’s the final ranking 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 2023 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:

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Mike Couillard and Jeremy Brewer have launched a pod, Cards & Categories, to discuss baseball from card collecting and fantasy angles! In our eleventh episode, we open with discussion on Waino’s 200th win, Ohtani hot takes, and multiple superfractors. Then we review the the release of the most eccentric card set of the year, 2023 Topps Allen & Ginter (20:42). […]

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Welcome back to yet another edition of Top Dynasty Keepers. One the field there has been some great baseball played and teams that are proving they are for real this year, meaning there will be a host of good pennant races shaping up for September.

There have also been some players who are proving they should be top dynasty keepers.

This week I want to visit with a player I highlighted earlier this season and one who is new to the Top Dynasty Keepers spotlight. The first player I’ll talk about is Houston catcher Yainer Diaz, while Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies is the second player.

Diaz is a player I featured back in June. But I want to circle back to him because he is apparently not receiving the love I think he should. Despite being one of the best hitting backstops in the majors, he is available in 44% of Yahoo leagues, 79% of ESPN leagues and 40% of Fantrax leagues.

That doesn’t make any sense, because he has basically been an everyday player since June. While only appearing in 10 games in April and 12 in May, he played in 21 games in both June and July and now 19 games in August.

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The Tigers’ lineup reminds me of a streaming show that’s supposed to be better, and you see flashes of why it’s supposed to be better. “Idris Elba is so good in The Wire, he’s gotta be better than this show on the airplane. Hijack? More like Goodbye, Jack. Then again, Idris Elba hasn’t been good since The Wire. Maybe it was The Wire that made him good, and Stringer Bell was such an iconic charac–Hold up, this airplane show is good when it’s not on the airplane.” That’s the Tigers’ lineup. Akil Baddoo? I was told he’s good. Spencer Torkelson? I was told he’s a big-time prospect. Riley Greene? Well, I’m still waiting to see his Stringer Bell role. Matt Vierling? He’s a 4th outfielder hitting third? Zack Short? Well, I was never told he was good. Hijack is better than saying “Hi, Zack” for your fantasy team. Javier Baez? Well, Zack Short at least has going for him that he’s named after the position. Javier Baez should be named Javier Swinging-At-A-Slider-In-The-Dirt. Wait, there’s that one part that is very interesting — Kerry Carpenter! He looks good, and not “Tigers good.” His strikeout rate and BABIP reenforce his batting average, which is solid. His power? Absolutely real. He had 22 HRs in 63 games in Double-A, eight homers in 35 games in Triple-A. That’s real power. When he hits the ball, it’s going for a homer, and the announcer can say, “Hi, jack.” (Was that whole thing just for that ending? Who’s to say?) Anyway, here’s some more players to Buy or Sell this week in fantasy baseball:

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Mike Couillard and Jeremy Brewer have launched a pod, Cards & Categories, to discuss baseball from card collecting and fantasy angles! In our sixth episode, we open with discussion on Luke Raley’s unlikely homer in Oracle Park, Cedric Mullins’ fantastic Sunday in Seattle, and whether we should start stashing other players for the NL MVP Topps Chrome […]

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Angels are Charlie Brown and the every other team is Lucy pulling away the football. Another Peanuts analogy: Every Angels fan is standing at Lucy, under her sign for Psychiatric Help for five cents stating the Doctor is in, and the Angels fan is telling her how they’ve had arguably two of the best two players ever, and can’t win games. One guy, so good, he’s absurdly a top five hitter and a top ten pitcher, and still nothing. Yesterday, the Angels met reality once again, as a team that was seemingly rebuilding just last year is marching towards the AL West title, and every move they do seems to work. They went out and got a future Hall of Famer, who looked past his sell-by date in Max Scherzer (7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 1 walk, 11 Ks, ERA at 3.67) and he’s rejuvenated looking like vintage Max again. Mean’s while, the Angels threw, Patrick Sandoval and he went 2 2/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.09, as he ran up to try to kick the football. Anyone got a nickel he can borrow? Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

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I made a funny mistake in last week’s article by misspelling Clarke Schmidt’s name. The reason I wrote Cole Schmidt is because that’s someone I went to high school with. I actually played baseball with Cole until I was 15 years old, and a few of my friends were talking about just how bad Cole […]

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This year is hilarious! This year is like Opposite World! George Constanza would’ve done so well with pitching this year! Gavin Williams, who sounds like the actor who played Potsie (I’m old!) and had a 7.8 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9, goes against the 5th best team for average, 22nd worst team for strikeouts, 2nd best team for hits, and throws an absolute gem — 7 IP, 0 ER, 1 hit, 1 walk, 12 Ks, ERA at 2.90. Of course, Potsie was supposed to be better than he had showed so far in the majors, but no one was expecting him to have an outing like that! G. Will-ikers! Gavin a (P)Jays Party! It’s square as eff Monday here at Razzball! I’m talking about Potsie and freakin’ pajamas! So, as I alluded to earlier, Gavin Williams was supposed to be good. This might’ve been a wink-wink, nudge-nudge for Gavin Williams 2024 fantasy. For this year? He’s still inducing weak contact, even if the Ks haven’t been there before last night, as his ERA attests. I had them Bibee, Allen then Gavin, but Potsie’s easily jumped Allen, if he’s throwing for strikeouts now. Anyway. here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Please, blog, may I have some more?