We rolled out our final update on 2017 rankings this past weekend. While there haven’t been seismic shifts, some players have naturally seen their stocks rise or fall since our initial valuations were made in December. However, our third base rankings, tiers, and auction values have remained shockingly consistent – the top 15 haven’t budged. With that in mind, I’ll offer thoughts on where I diverge significantly with each individual ranker today. It’s kinda like our rankings debates, except they’re not here to defend themselves! Ain’t it grand?

As before, this round of rankings features picks from myself, Nick Mariano, Bill Dubiel, Brad Johnson, Harris Yudin and Jeff Kahntroff.

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2017 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Third Basemen (March Updates)

Third Base Rankings Analysis: Divergent Opinions

Jeff: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians

Jeff fully buys into Ramirez’s breakout and sees him as a top-50 overall player. Meanwhile, I’ve got him just barely inside the top 100. Ramirez is unlikely to hit .300 again. While he makes a lot of contact, he doesn’t hit the ball especially hard, and speed can only help you so much. Even with a .363 OBP last year in a good lineup, he only managed a modest 160 R+RBI. Ramirez will still be valuable thanks to his ability to contribute across the board, but he’s certainly not worth a fourth-round pick.

 
Harris: Maikel Franco, Philadelphia Phillies

Here’s a situation in which I’d love to be wrong, given my personal rooting interest. Harris is significantly more bullish on Franco, ranking him over 40 spots higher. The 24-year-old has an intriguing profile in today’s whifftastic environment, with enough pop to threaten 30 homers but without the typical pile of Ks to go along with them. Unfortunately, he does have a pretty serious pop-up problem, which keeps his BABIP suppressed and mitigates the advantage of fewer strikeouts.

 
Nick: Ryon Healy, Oakland Athletics

Shifting gears, Healy is a player I’m buying. He was lightly regarded as a minor leaguer, barely mentioned by prospect mavens when they reviewed Oakland’s decidedly unspectacular farm system. Despite always being on the old side for his level, Healy hadn’t distinguished himself in his first three minor league seasons. In 2016, however, he began raking at Double-A, and didn’t stop even as he was promoted to the majors at midseason. Healy totaled 27 homers – half of them in the majors – after hitting 32 in the three prior seasons combined. When this kind of surge occurs, generally what you want to see is a tangible adjustment in mechanics or approach on the part of the hitter. We’ve got that here, as Healy lowered his hands to flatten out his swing path and load to a lower position. Nick cares naught for this evidence. He’s the low man on Healy, over 70 spots below me.

 
Bill: Adrian Beltre, Texas Rangers

Beltre is a marvel. Dude’s turning 39 next month and he just hit .300/.358/.521 with 32 homers, 89 runs, and 104 RBI, while providing his usual superb work in the field. Even with the lull in home runs he suffered in 2014-15, he’s still averaged 28 homers (and 62 extra-base hits) per season this decade. During that time, he’s hit below .296 once and never posted a strikeout rate above 12.5%. Guess how many other players did that?

 
Brad: Eugenio Suarez, Cincinnati Reds

Last season, Brad and I were driving the Suarez bandwagon, ranking him as a top-10 shortstop. He didn’t fulfill that destiny, despite logging the 20/10 season each of us expected. That was partly due to the flood of talent at the position, but it was mainly a result of middling run production and a lousy batting average. Suarez is just eligible at third base now, and with the pool being so deep, he’s not even a top-20 option for me.

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