2012 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Shortstop

With pitchers and catchers reporting as soon as this weekend, Ray, Robert and I will be taking a look at our position rankings again, and Marc will be releasing his tiered rankings as well. You can keep up with all of Fake Teams' ranks via our Google Docs spreadsheet:

Fake Teams 2012 Fantasy Baseball Ranks

These shortstop ranks are for a standard 5x5 mixed league. I've included 30 players, followed by a few brief explanations, especially where there are deviations from previously published ranks, which can be found here (mixed league) and here (league-specific). I produced my fantasy prospect rankings for SS, which can be found here as well. Kevin has also published second base ranks for head-to-head points leagues, which can be found here.

2012 Mixed League 5x5 Shortstop Rankings

1. Troy Tulowitzki, COL

2. Jose Reyes, MIA

3. Hanley Ramirez, MIA

4. Asdrubal Cabrera, CLE

5. Jimmy Rollins, PHI

6. Starlin Castro, CHC

7. J.J. Hardy, BAL

8. Elvis Andrus, TEX

9. Alexei Ramirez, CHW

10. Jhonny Peralta, DET

11. Stephen Drew, ARI

12. Dee Gordon, LAD

13. Erick Aybar, LAA

14. Derek Jeter, NYY

15. Emilio Bonifacio, MIA

16. Yunel Escobar, TOR

17. Ian Desmond, WAS

18. Alcides Escobar, KC

19. Zack Cozart, CIN

20. Jason Bartlett, SD

21. Sean Rodriguez, TAM

22. Marco Scutaro, COL

23. Rafael Furcal, STL

24. Mike Aviles, BOS

25. Jed Lowrie, HOU

26. Willie Bloomquist, ARI

27. Cliff Pennington, OAK

28. Alex Gonzalez, MIL

29. Robert Andino, BAL

30. Clint Barmes, PIT

• Shortstop remains extremely shallow, as you could pretty much mix up anyone ranked between 15 and 30 and be fine with the ranking.
• I like the move of Marco Scutaro from Boston to Colorado, and I think he's going to be a solid performer there, even if he's not likely to provide high-level production in any category.
• I've been pretty consistent all winter about liking Zack Cozart as a nice sleeper, and I still think he can provide 12-15 home runs and 15-20 stolen bases, albeit with a batting average around .250. If you miss out on the elite shortstops, he could be a good target later in drafts.
• The most common question in the chats I've been having has been whether I'd want Jose Reyes or Hanley Ramirez. I think Reyes is more likely to provide value similar to where you're going to have to draft him, and I'm concerned that the position switch could have an effect on Ramirez' performance.