Jon Anderson's Second Base Tiered Rankings and Projections

3 years ago by Jon Anderson

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The second base position has long been a wasteland for fantasy purposes. For whatever reason (maybe there's no reason at all and it's just random chance), the least exciting athletes seem to end up playing this position. You can typically squeeze a lot of batting average and even some steals out of here, but you don't often find the 40+ homer threat (shout out Dan Uggla though!) or the 30/30 guy.

Here in 2022, thanks to a big trade last July, we do have an elite fantasy bat at the second base position. We also have a pretty decent consolation prize, but after things rapidly decline.

We'll take a look at my second base fantasy baseball rankings inside the top-300 or so players here, while we rank 'em and tier 'em off. Let's do it!

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Tier One

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Trea Turner	1	1.8	651	109	25	85	32	.303

It's only Trea, you cannot convince me to put anybody in the same grouping. This guy adding second base eligibility with the Dodgers last year was massive for his already sky-high fantasy value. That alongside the lack of steals and batting average in the field, plus the injuries to guys like Jacob deGrom and Ronald Acuna Jr., have put Trea right at the top of the ADP boards, going #1 or #2 in most drafts.

Tier Two

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Ozzie Albies	2	20	645	99	29	89	17	.272

I don't know if the editors are going to like me for this, but I'm going back-to-back one-player tiers to start. Nobody would consider taking Albies ahead of Turner, but also nobody would consider taking any of the Tier Three guys ahead of Albies. That makes it pretty obvious to me that it must be done this way.

Albies had an awesome 2021 season, showing increased pop while stealing bases and racking up tons of runs and RBI. The batting average dipped due to a high fly ball rate, but he still managed the strikeouts beautifully. It would not be surprising for Albies to have just a massive season here at age 25 and be right in the top-five picks next year. Getting Albies in the second round is a great way to go, and he's a total steal in the third.

Tier Three

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Whit Merrifield	3	30	656	88	12	65	30	.282
Marcus Semien	4	32	665	96	31	85	11	.259
Ketel Marte	5	78	610	85	24	82	5	.292

Merrifield stays near the top of the position as he just keeps stealing a bunch of bases. His projection for 30 here is a pretty conservative one too from my view. While we expect plenty of regression for Semien, he still profiles as an easy top-50 pick with the power/steals combo at a bad position.

I have Ketel well ahead of the field, as you can tell by the ADP disparity there. He has shown massive raw power while profiling for a really strong batting average and being non-zero in steals. He's one of my favorite targets in the top-100 picks relative to price.

Tier Four

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Brandon Lowe	6	77	594	88	33	91	6	.255
Jorge Polanco	7	78	639	90	26	82	9	.266
Tommy Edman	8	86	617	83	12	58	23	.268
Jonathan India	9	94	628	97	22	70	12	.261
Jose Altuve	10	68	632	100	25	77	6	.277
Javier Baez	11	64	590	80	28	84	15	.253
Jazz Chisholm Jr.	12	80	555	75	21	63	23	.241

This is where it gets tough. We have exactly zero five-category players from here forth. All of these names do one or two things very well, but they all come up short of the "potential league winner" by the projections.

The big upside names here are Lowe (if he can continue to improve in K%), India (if he can add a bit more raw power), and Chisholm (if he can make a big stride in striking out). Polanco and Edman are very safe for what they can do - so this tier is really all about how you like to play the game.

Tier Five

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Jake Cronenworth	13	115	602	81	17	71	6	.273
DJ LeMahieu	14	108	645	85	14	64	4	.282
Luis Urias	15	150	547	68	19	65	5	.251
Brendan Rodgers	16	154	528	65	18	66	2	.278
Ryan McMahon	17	161	582	76	25	81	5	.254
Chris Taylor	18	133	552	77	19	69	10	.254
Jean Segura	19	207	581	74	15	63	9	.281

The home well has dried up here. Only McMahon in this tier projects for 20 homers, and it's not that hard to project for 20 homers these days. This tier is mainly high-contact, versatile players. In fact, we have four of the 13 hitters with triple-eligibility all in this tier.

by my count, there are 13 hitters with eligibility at three different positions. This is a significant advantage. I'm assuming that it's baked into their respective ADPs, but a good list to be aware of as you head into drafts pic.twitter.com/pZwgRGShUO
— Jon Anderson (@JonPgh) February 7, 2022

If you miss the boat on Turner/Albies, this seems like a pretty decent way to fill a 2B spot, as all of these guys are pretty safe bets at some kind of fantasy production.

Tier Six

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Eduardo Escobar	20	186.1	590	71	23	79	2	.243
Enrique Hernandez	21	207.8	577	77	22	68	2	.248
Ty France	22	132.1	591	73	19	72	0	.272
Josh Rojas	23	225	522	64	10	49	10	.248
Jonathan Schoop	24	288	598	73	23	75	2	.263
Kolten Wong	25	196	553	73	12	55	14	.266
Gavin Lux	26	226	442	57	12	50	5	.259

At this point, you really want your 2B spot to be taken care of. None of these players are very exciting, and the ceilings are all quite low (save Rojas and Lux, maybe). They can make for serviceable middle-infield options in deep leagues, but you really should not be looking to rely on these names for offensive production.

Tier Seven

Player			Current Projections
Name	Rank	ADP	PA	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG
Abraham Toro	27	257	486	57	15	57	7	.249
Andres Gimenez	28	271	419	51	12	41	18	.245
Garrett Hampson	29	273	433	56	11	40	16	.249
Nick Madrigal	30	303	482	56	4	45	9	.296
David Fletcher	31	333	620	69	4	49	12	.271
Luis Arraez	32	303	551	67	5	50	3	.299
Adam Frazier	33	323	590	72	8	49	8	.266
Jeff McNeil	34	310	496	59	12	55	3	.277

This is essentially "the rest". Toro had a pretty nice 2021 season, lowering his strikeout rate while raising his barrel rate. Gimenez and Hampson are young players that can steal bases and have a good amount of upside, and then the rest of these guys are batting average specialists only, pretty much.

My Second Base Strategy

If I got my pick of a draft pick, I would probably be taking the #1 or #2 overall pick. I usually don't feel this way, but the draft really opens up for you if you can bag one of Tatis or Turner to start things off. Albies is also a favorite of mine in the second round; I don't think I'll ever let him get past me after pick 20.

If I miss on those two, I'm probably going to aim for two of the Tier Four guys with all that position eligibility (say, Cronenworth and Urias). I would hope that I have plenty of homers already locked in if I get to that point though because, after Tier Three, the power numbers are pretty much dried up.

Thanks for checking out second base tiers, keep on coming back as we tier off every single position to help you prepare for your draft!

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