Below you will find the compiled chart of our second baseman rankings. I'll tell you now it was a murky, murky group and while each of us only ranked 20 players, 27 different names (and it could have been more) made the list, which certainly says something.
These rankings were done Sunday evening by most of us, so bear that in mind when considering Dustin Pedroia.
Rank | Player | Ray | Jason | Brian | Seth | Average |
1 | Robinson Cano | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
2 | Chase Utley | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
3 | Brandon Phillips | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
4 | Ben Zobrist | 5 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
5 | Dan Uggla | 6 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 6.25 |
6 | Martin Prado | 7 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 6.75 |
7 | Ian Kinsler | 9 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7.25 |
8 | Rickie Weeks | 4 | 12 | 5 | 14 | 8.75 |
9 | Dustin Pedroia | 15 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9.5 |
10 | Howie Kendrick | 10 | 9 | 8 | 15 | 10.5 |
11 | Aaron Hill | 8 | 19 | 13 | 9 | 12.25 |
12 | Juan Uribe | 11 | 14 | 16 | 10 | 12.75 |
13 | Kelly Johnson | 16 | NR | 12 | 11 | 15 |
14 | Ian Stewart | NR | 18 | 10 | 12 | 15.25 |
15 | Casey McGehee | NR | 11 | 18 | 13 | 15.75 |
16 | Ryan Theriot | 14 | 10 | 20 | NR | 16.25 |
17 | Orlando Hudson | 19 | 13 | NR | 16 | 17.25 |
T-18 | Ty Wiggington | 12 | NR | 19 | 18 | 17.5 |
T-18 | Gordon Beckham | 17 | 17 | 15 | NR | 17.5 |
20 | Chone Figgins | NR | 16 | 17 | 19 | 18.25 |
21 | Placido Polanco | NR | 15 | NR | 17 | 18.5 |
22 | Carlos Guillen | 13 | NR | NR | NR | 19 |
23 | Jose Lopez | NR | NR | 14 | NR | 19.25 |
24 | Neil Walker | 18 | NR | NR | NR | 20.25 |
T-25 | Ian Desmond | NR | 20 | NR | NR | 20.75 |
T-25 | Alberto Callaspo | NR | NR | NR | 20 | 20.75 |
T-25 | Christian Guzman | 20 | NR | NR | NR | 20.75 |
As you can see, the whole chart is pretty ugly, a lot of differing opinions at second base. I think first I would like to mention a few players who did not make anyone's list.
First off: Brian Roberts. I've heard Roberts may be returning in 4-5 weeks, yet he still doesn't make the top 20. I can't speak for everyone else, but for me, we still have no clue when Roberts will actually return to the field. He's relatively old and has continually had setback after setback this season. Just not worth using up a bench/DL spot on him with potentially no end in sight.
Next up is Freddy Sanchez. I think Sanchez is worthy of being owned in many leagues--he posts a high average and has done it for some years now. Similar to Callaspo, my No. 20 player, but I kept Callaspo above him because of his slightly additional pop.
Last one is Sean Rodriguez. Rodriguez is really picking it up and as a result is seeing more playing time. If you are searching for power/RBIs and can afford to lose BA, then Rodriguez moves up the list.
As far as Pedroia is concerned, I ranked him as if playing in a 10 or 12-team mixed league. This matters here--my feeling is that if you lost Pedroia, filling in any of the guys at the bottom of this list for 5-6 weeks isn't all that different than the mid-range players like Theriot, Stewart or McGehee. So while you might lose production for that time, it will be more than made up for when Pedroia (hopefully) returns. Note that this is a fairly optimistic approach, I certainly understand Ray's thinking in ranking Pedroia 15th, he could be out longer than we think.
Interestingly everyone ranked Cano over Utley, I was guessing at least one person would have stuck with Chase. I'm assuming most of us were scared enough of Utley possibly playing hurt that it sealed the deal for Cano.
As mentioned previously, there were definitely some differing opinions. We'd love to hear readers' thoughts on some of the more polarizing selections like Rickie Weeks, Kelly Johnson, Aaron Hill and Ryan Theriot. I'll add Gordon Beckham to the list because while I was the only one to not rank him, he wasn't even close to making the top 20 for me. Maybe it's just a person vendetta though after how bad he burned me this year.