With the top 150 fantasy baseball players all ordered and ranked on the initial 2015 Big Board, it’s time to get into the individual position rankings. All told, there will be (count ’em) 300 players ranked.
After providing some sequencing to the first basemen last time out, next up is second base, which has one longtime star (Robinson Cano) and one new fantasy darling (Jose Altuve) at the top.
After that duo, the next tier is headed by the still-solid Ian Kinsler, who is followed by a batch of wild-card types, like Jason Kipnis, Brian Dozier, Dustin Pedroia and Dee Gordon, each of whom has been both good and bad in recent years.
There are more starter-worthy second basemen after that group, but only a few, and Kolten Wong is the only one of the bunch with upside.
In leagues that go deeper than 10 teams, one or two owners (or more) will come up short at this position, but later-round fliers could provide a solid bang for the buck. The trick is choosing the ones who will go bang.
Let’s run down the top 25 overall fantasy second basemen and a few others you should watch, including potential impact rookies.
These rankings consider three factors:
First, everything is based on 10- or 12-team mixed leagues with standard 5×5 rotisserie scoring (BA, R, HR, RBI, SB for hitters; W, ERA, WHIP, K, SV for pitchers).
Second, lineup construction accounts for 22 active roster positions consisting of: one each for catcher, first base, second base, third base, shortstop, corner infield, middle infield and utility, along with five outfielders and nine pitchers.
And, third, to be eligible at a particular position, players either must have played at least 20 games there in 2014 or be in line to start there in 2015.
Statistics are accurate through the 2014 season and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.