As terrible as the 2nd basemen were, the top 20 shortstops for 2020 fantasy baseball were that good. Just absolute nails, and not like the Nails interview Donkey Teeth and I did with Lenny Dykstra on our Patreon podcast (it’s $5/month; the price of one fancy coffee if you’re in a non-fancy coffee shop) where Nails is having sex while talking to us, but nails like nails nails. These guys could make a difference for your fantasy team. From the top, until, well, they fall off at a certain point. We’ll get there. To recap my recap before the recap, this final ranking is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. This is not for next year. Anyway, here’s the top 20 shortstops for 2020 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:
1. Trea Turner – So, Treat Urner wasn’t only the top shortstop, he was also the top hitter in all of fantasy. (#2 was FTJ, so, yeah, it was a good year for top shortstops.) Digging in on Treat Urner like someone named Treat Digger, who picks out all the good mix-ins from your ice cream and leaves your chocolate chip ice cream as vanilla, I couldn’t find a damn thing on Urner. His Launch Angle was actually flatter, and, while his fly balls went up (literally); it was not dramatic. His Hard Contact and Exit Velocity were basically samesies, and his HR/FB% went up, naturally, but not insanely. I’m flummoxed! The only thing I can think, and I’ll admit to be stretching, he hit a handful of homers that just cleared the fences, so he was really a seven-homer guy vs. 12 homers, but since it’s a small sample, it’s not showing up as largely flukey, and his power had no time to regress back to the norm. Preseason Rank #3, 2020 Projections: 41/7/23/.287/15 in 229 ABs, Final Numbers: 46/12/41/.335/12 in 233 ABs
2. Fernando Tatis Jr. – He was ranked in the top ten for me. This past year. So, when people (ESPN, for unstints) start talking about how Tatis is now a top ten hitter for 2021. Please inform them he was already, which is why Razzball had him ranked there. Also, his stats make him an easy top five hitter going forward, maybe top two, maybe, dare I say–Well, he hit 62.2% of balls hard. That’s pretty good, and that’s a wildly modest way to say Fernando Tatis Jr. aka FTJ aka Fun The Jewels is absolutely gorgeous. Preseason Rank #4, 2020 Projections: 39/12/25/.259/11 in 220 ABs, Final Numbers: 50/17/45/.277/11 in 224 ABs
3. Manny Machado – In 2018, Machado went 37/14/.297 with similar K and walk rates to this year (14.6%, 10.2%, respectively), so this year doesn’t seem that out of nowhere. For whatever reason, it seemed like everyone figured his 2019 season (32/5/.256) was his new normal, but I’m not even sure now why. My rationale in the preseason was he hadn’t been great in San Diego, so he was more of a product of Camden. That might’ve been others’ thinking too. I did say to draft Machado back in January, so I didn’t hate him, but there were a few guys above him that I didn’t like that I just ranked up there: Gleyber Torres, Jonathan Villar, and Bregman. Three guys who were massive holes this year. A-holes? Yeah, that’s it. Preseason Rank #12, 2020 Projections: 33/13/38/.269/2 in 219 ABs, Final Numbers: 44/16/47/.304/6 in 224 ABs
4. Trevor Story – Everyone talks about position scarcity. That’s fool’s gold. Here’s something you don’t hear elsewhere: Stacked positions? Draft as many guys as you can from them. Think about this, would you prefer to have Trea Turner and Trevor Story or Trea Turner and JT Realmuto? Is it really close? That’s assuming you nail the position scarcity pick too, because I could’ve easily said, do you prefer Tatis and Machado or Tatis and Gary Sanchez? Whoever came up with position scarcity was someone who didn’t win many fantasy leagues. Preseason Rank #1, 2020 Projections: 39/14/38/.293/6 in 216 ABs, Final Numbers: 41/11/28/.289/15 in 235 ABs
5. Corey Seager – Fully expect him to burn me next year, but I’m buying this breakout. Ks down, and he hit everything hard. On a side, but related note that is prolly more inside baseball than you need to know, Statcast was added to FanGraphs, but they kept their batted ball numbers (provided by someone else). So now you see Seager’s Launch Angle is 11.9, and his HardHit% is 55.4% so that’s a lot of line drives, right? Well, yes and no. Line Drive rates at FanGraphs say 22.6%, but Statcast says 33.3%. Why the difference? Different stat providers judge line drives differently. This isn’t the first or last time that I’ll say I don’t know why they can’t get on same page. It’s massively confusing, and a rabbit hole you prolly don’t care about at all. Preseason Rank #26, 2020 Projections: 31/9/34/.275 in 194 ABs, Final Numbers: 38/15/41/.307/1 in 212 ABs
6. Adalberto Mondesi – His stats ended up not that different from his projections, and he ranked 17th at the end of the year overall, and I ranked him 19th. The thing with him is if there’s another four months of a season, is he more August or September? If he’s more September, he could be the top shortstop and player overall. If he’s more August, he’d fall out of this top 20 shortstops, and top 200 overall. The balancing act with him is his downside is way too scary to ignore, while also accepting he does have huge upside. Look at the Player Rater for him, he had $25.4 worth of value in steals alone. That was by far the highest value for any one category for any player. Next closest was Brad Hand with $18.6 in saves, then Jose Abreu recording $16.8 in RBIs. Think about how awful Mondesi would have to be in four other categories to not be worth owning with $25.4 in steals. That essentially means if you pay $25 for Mondesi in auctions (2nd round value), all he has to give is $1 in other categories to be a good value. Instead, he gave $5 in other categories and was great value. Preseason Rank #6, 2020 Projections: 31/6/29/.258/19 in 206 ABs, Final Numbers: 33/6/22/.256/24 in 219 ABs
7. Dansby Swanson – It’s a bit misrepresentative that I ranked him 21st overall for shortstops. I wrote a sleeper post for him, and there’s just so many great shortstops that he was 21st for shortstops, but there weren’t a ton of bad shortstops above him. I mean, a few — *cough* Kingery *cough* This is my way of saying I love Swanson, and nailed him. Again, not nailed like mentioned in the opening. Preseason Rank #21, 2020 Projections: 30/8/27/.274/4 in 210 ABs, Final Numbers: 49/10/35/.274/5 in 237 ABs
8. Xander Bogaerts – This post is going about 1200 words too long, so I’ll just say Xander Bogaerts hid his lack of fly balls with a huge uptick in steals. You take his steals away, and he was about as valuable as Chris Taylor. Not bad, but not Bogaerts. Preseason Rank #8, 2020 Projections: 39/13/41/.307/2 in 221 ABs, Final Numbers: 36/11/28/.300/8 in 203 ABs
9. Tim Anderson – Damn, this position was stacked this year. From one thru ten, you couldn’t have gone too wrong. Preseason Rank #14, 2020 Projections: 32/8/27/.272/8 in 216 ABs, Final Numbers: 45/10/21/.322/5 in 208 ABs
10. Didi Gregorius – Okay, last point on how many great shortstops there were. Bo Bichette was headed for a great season, until he missed half of it with an injury. Potential bounce backs: Javier Baez, Carlos Correa, Paul DeJong, Bregman, Gleyber, and Villar. If they all had great years (which is unlikely, but still…), there would’ve been about 30 great shortstops. Didi was also the cut-off for the great shortstops. There’s a few below that didn’t kill you, but the Player Rater value on Didi was $22.5 and Taylor is $13.1. So, yeah, big fall-off. Preseason Rank #19, 2020 Projections: 24/9/30/.268/2 in 202 ABs, Final Numbers: 34/10/40/.284/3 in 215 ABs
11. Chris Taylor – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2020 fantasy baseball recap.
12. Dylan Moore – The beef I have Dylan Moore is if he had 200+ ABs, and the runs and RBIs that comes with that, he’s a top eight shortstop. The beef I don’t have with Dylan Moore is nasty beef in a can, because that’s Dinty Moore. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 26/8/17/.255/12 in 137 ABs
13. Francisco Lindor – Lindor was the cut-off for the solid, not great shortstops. Obviously, when his preseason ranking is factored in, he was not solid, great or passable, but a disappointment. What happened? I think he just had two unlucky months and if I were drafting for 2021 right now, I’d go ahead and still draft Lindor high. Luckily, you prolly don’t need to draft him quite as high, and I’m already excited about getting him at a discount. Now, watch him get traded to the Rockies and his draft price goes a Mile High. Preseason Rank #2, 2020 Projections: 41/13/33/.287/8 in 229 ABs, Final Numbers: 30/8/27/.258/6 in 236 ABs
14. Nick Ahmed – There were 13 shortstops you would’ve been fine with this year. Ahmed is notably number 14. Preseason Rank #37, 2020 Projections: 24/6/26/.248/2 in 198 ABs, Final Numbers: 29/5/29/.266/4 in 199 ABs
15. David Fletcher – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2020 fantasy baseball recap.
16. Joey Wendle – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2020 fantasy baseball recap.
17. J.P. Crawford – Seeing this schmohawk here is shocking. I looked three times at the Player Rater to make sure I hadn’t transposed in my giant dumb brain J.P. Crawford with Brandon Crawford or anyone else. I didn’t. Also, I didn’t mention Crawford once all year, and the reason for that, well, there was no reason to mention him. He hit two homers and stole six bags. Yeah, as previously mentioned, shortstops fell off around the 14th spot. Preseason Rank #47, 2020 Projections: 24/4/18/.222/2 in 168 ABs, Final Numbers: 33/2/24/.255/6 in 204 ABs
18. Jean Segura – Went over him in the top 20 2nd basemen for 2020 fantasy baseball recap.
19. Willy Adames – This begins the section of the top 20 shortstops I like to call, Willy or Willi? Which one has a Y? Willy! Which one did you think you owned but maybe not? Willy! Which one did you think finished higher in the rankings at the end of the year? Willy! To be continued in the next blurb. Preseason Rank #23, 2020 Projections: 27/9/30/.268/2 in 210 ABs, Final Numbers: 29/8/23/.259/2 in 185 ABs
20. Willi Castro – Which Willi is Willi? Willi! Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 21/6/24/.349 in 129 ABs
