Shortstop Rankings

Rk. Name Pos R HR RBI SB AVG 1. Hanley Ramirez ss 112 22 78 41 .309 2. Jose Reyes ss 111 14 66 63 .288 3. Jimmy Rollins ss 110 21 76 31 .286 4. Troy Tulowitzki ss 99 22 92 9 .286 5. Derek Jeter ss 102 12 75 15 .306 6. Carlos Guillen ss 86 17 83 12 .295 7. Rafael Furcal ss 99 10 56 28 .281 8. Miguel Tejada ss 77 19 88 4 .298 9. Michael Young ss 81 12 80 9 .299 10. Jhonny Peralta ss 92 21 84 4 .272 11. Yunel Escobar ss 85 8 70 12 .297 12. JJ Hardy ss 85 23 84 3 .270 13. Orlando Cabrera ss 88 9 70 18 .273 14. Stephen Drew ss 77 18 78 8 .264 15. Edgar Renteria ss 82 10 61 10 .287 16. Khalil Greene ss 74 22 82 5 .252 17. Julio Lugo ss 75 7 56 26 .269 18. Brendan Harris ss 77 14 74 5 .270 19. Asdrubal Cabrera ss 78 9 57 18 .266 20. David Eckstein ss 82 4 49 10 .280 Average ss 93 16 77 18 .287 Replacement Level ss 75 9 58 12 .272

Who does not love fantasy baseball? This is the first entry in a series of posts that will rank fantasy players based on their projections for the 2008 season. The projection systems that are used to come up with a players projections are PECOTA, Bill James' and ZiPS. An estimate was made based on depth charts to see how many plate appearances can be expected by each player, injury likelihood included. This cuts out projections where the PT is low because of flukish injuries, like Derrek Lee's. Shortstop happens to be the position that has the least depth this year, but it's also quite top heavy. Three shortstops are going in the first round. They're elite status, and are top 12 players.

I have several strategies I like to employ at short. The two guys I like to target are Derek Jeter and Stephen Drew. When I draft Jeter I usually do it for his batting average. Drafting his average allows you to invest in guys who are good power hitters but do not hit for a great average. The four guys that immediately come to mind are Ryan Howard, Adam Dunn, Josh Fields and Chris Young. Jeter also adds some runs and some steals on the side. Drew's a bit of the opposite. He has nice power upside, although the projections are not the greatest in the world. He probably won't hit higher than .290, but he's a good gamble late.

I don't advise investing a top five pick on Jose Reyes. I have him rated #10 overall and I just don't see the point of investing in a two category player in the first round. You're limiting yourself way too much.