Here are the 2B rankings for mixed leagues using a ranking system that accounts for a player's previous three season's of work and relates those efforts to those of his peers across the five fantasy baseball categories - HR, RBI, SB, R, AVG. Because I did not want diminish the purity of the calcuations, I instead added a "+/-" column to make some commentary on select listed players. You may agree or disagree, and I hope you do.
There are a couple of 2B-eligible players who have a chance to be good 2008 sleepers - the Cleveland Indians' Asdrubal Cabrera and the Los Angeles Angels' Erick Aybar. Cabrera could be a poor man's Placido Polanco while Aybar need only discover the skills that allowed him to be a 40+ SB player in the minor leagues to be the equal of Felipe Lopez.
A player I'd like to highlight as being ranked much lower than I expected is Angels' 2B Howie Kendrick. Maybe I read too many of his press-clippings. Maybe I am too prone to believe prospect rankings. I don't know why, but I expected him to be much higher than 30th. A closer look at his efforts over the first two seasons reveals nothing to be excited about. A handful or HRs and SBs in each won't get you past the high single digit efforts of Freddy Sanchez and Placido Polanco, two players I doubt many fantasy players would select ahead of Kendrick.
Rank | Player | +/- | Rank | Player | +/- | Rank | Player | +/- |
1 | Utley Chase | 16 | Castillo Luis | 31 | Kendrick Howie | up up | ||
2 | Phillips Brandon | 17 | Sanchez Freddy | 32 | Loretta Mark | |||
3 | Roberts Brian | 18 | Weeks Rickie | 33 | German Esteban | |||
4 | Cano Robinson | 19 | Belliard Ronnie | 34 | Harris Brendan | |||
5 | Polanco Placido | 20 | Giles Marcus | down | 35 | DeRosa Mark | ||
6 | Kinsler Ian | 21 | Giles Marcus | 36 | Kennedy Adam | |||
7 | Ellis Mark | 22 | Grudzielanek Mark | 37 | Escobar Yunel | up | ||
8 | Lopez Felipe | 23 | Matsui Kazuo | up | 38 | Counsell Craig | ||
9 | Hill Aaron | 24 | Lopez Jose | 39 | Punto Nick | |||
10; | Hudson Orlando | 25 | Johnson Kelly | up | 40 | Burke Chris | ||
11 | Uggla Dan | 26 | Barfield Josh | 41 | Castillo Jose | |||
12 | Upton B.J. | up up | 27 | Izturis Maicer | 42 | Graffanino Tony | ||
13 | Iguchi Tadahito | down | 28 | Pedroia Dustin | 43 | Valentin Jose | ||
14 | Kent Jeff | 29 | Wigginton Ty | 44 | Bloomquist Willie | |||
15 | Durham Ray | 30 | Theriot Ryan | 45 | Carroll Jamey | |||