Next up on the All-Value All-Star team is our third baseman, and the Diamondbacks' Ryan Roberts started the season as a complete afterthought. However, his performance has caused him to be owned in nearly every league. You can find the other All-Value All-Stars here:
Catcher - Alex Avila
First Baseman - Michael Morse
Second Baseman - Danny Espinosa
Shortstop - Asdrubal Cabrera
Coming Into The Season
Roberts played in only 36 games with the Diamondbacks in 2010, hitting a very poor .197 with 2 home runs. He was widely expected to be a bit of a utility player, filling in behind Stephen Drew, Kelly Johnson, and free agent signee Melvin Mora, among others. ESPN had ranked Roberts at #60 among third basemen, clearly making him a non-entity in all but the deepest of leagues.
His Performance To Date
Through Monday's games, Roberts has posted a .251/.337/.427 line with 10 home runs, 33 runs batted in, 12 stolen bases, and 44 runs scored. In addition, he has qualified in many leagues at both second and third base. Yahoo currently has him ranked #9 among second basemen, and #8 among third basemen.
Can He Continue This Performance?
I think we may actually be looking at a real performance here, as Roberts showed this combination of power and speed in both the minors and majors in each of the last 3 seasons. There may even be some room for improvement in the batting average category as well, as his BABIP is around 50 points lower than any other season's number to date. He's going to continue to get playing time with Mora being released recently, and while there is some exposure as he goes through the league again, he should keep performing near the level he has given you to date.