Welcome to the deep end. As fantasy baseball has adapted to be more attractive to the masses a huge percentage of the content devoted to it is geared toward mixed leagues. Yet there’s still a significant portion of fantasy baseball enthusiasts who still play it the way it was originally created. Those are the people I’m working for this entire fantasy season. I’ll still do content that addresses all formats, but the emphasis of everything I do this season will be on deep leagues. I’ve already covered NL-Only rankings for catcher and first base. Now it’s time to break into my 2019 NL-Only Second Base Rankings.
If you’re like us you can’t wait until spring to get the 2019 fantasy baseball season started? Well, you don’t have to. Leagues are already forming at Fantrax.com, so head on over and start or join a league today.
About My Rankings
The rankings you see below are derived from the projections attached to them. I work very hard to be objective when doing my projections. I’m sure certain biases seep in, but I try to minimize those. Once I have the projections at a happy place I plug them into an excel file that converts them into rankings using Standings Gain Points. It’s here where I have to trust the system. If the projections are sound, then I have to resist tweaking things and letting my biases change the rankings. It’s a battle at some positions. Luckily, I’m very comfortable with my NL-Only Second Base Rankings.
I’ll be updating my projection and then my rankings as more of the free agents sign and then when Spring Training brings actual news to act on. The entire process is really never done until the last draft is complete.
Second Base Targets
I see two huge value at second base in NL-Only Leagues. Both are of the ‘boring’ veteran type that people seem to be seriously overlooking.
One is Daniel Murphy. His knee issues of last season seem to have impacted the memories of fantasy baseball owners. Do they not remember it was just two seasons ago when he hit .322 with 23 HRs in 2017? Or .347 with 25 homers in 2016? Now you put that same guy in Coors? Sign me up! Maybe the hype will gain steam as more people start having drafts, but right now people seem to be seriously overlooking him. He’s going off the board as the 13th second baseman in mixed leagues on Fantrax; after players like Rougned Odor and Brian Dozier.
Robinson Cano is the other boring vet. He was so good for so long and now many are writing him off as done. Last year’s suspension also has a lot to do with it as well I’m sure. Cano may not be the player he once was, but he can still fill up the counting stats nicely from a middle infield slot.
Second Base Avoids
It sounds strange to have the player I ranked as the No. 1 second baseman be someone you should avoid, but… Baez is going to be valuable. He’s gonna hit 20-plus homers and steal 15-to-20 bases. I just can’t buy him as a .280-plus hitter though. He’s had BABIPs over .345 in each of the past two seasons. If that drops down much at all we could be looking at a Baez with a sub-.260 average. Javier Baez still tops my NL-Only Second Base Rankings, but I don’t see myself owning many shares in 2019. I’m just not comfortable with the risk/reward balance.
2019 NL-Only Second Base Rankings
The following rankings are based on the traditional 5X5 scoring categories, with 20 games played at second base in order to be eligible. If a player did not play 20 games at any position they would then be eligible at second if that was their most played position.
| Rnk | Tier | Player | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Javier Baez | 26 | 92 | 96 | 15 | .267 |
| 2 | 1 | Ozzie Albies | 22 | 100 | 78 | 15 | .280 |
| 3 | 1 | Daniel Murphy | 21 | 79 | 84 | 4 | .308 |
| 4 | 2 | Travis Shaw | 30 | 76 | 89 | 5 | .261 |
| 5 | 2 | Brian Dozier | 24 | 79 | 73 | 12 | .261 |
| 6 | 2 | Robinson Cano | 20 | 84 | 89 | 0 | .288 |
| 7 | 2 | Scooter Gennett | 20 | 83 | 80 | 4 | .278 |
| 8 | 3 | Cesar Hernandez | 12 | 87 | 57 | 12 | .274 |
| 9 | 3 | Starlin Castro | 14 | 80 | 62 | 3 | .274 |
| 10 | 3 | Ketel Marte | 12 | 71 | 56 | 6 | .272 |
| 11 | 3 | Luis Urias | 8 | 70 | 61 | 5 | .272 |
| 12 | 4 | Kolten Wong | 10 | 60 | 45 | 6 | .266 |
| 13 | 4 | Jed Lowrie | 12 | 61 | 66 | 0 | .254 |
| 14 | 4 | Adam Frazier | 10 | 59 | 50 | 3 | .266 |
| 15 | 5 | Joe Panik | 8 | 59 | 49 | 3 | .268 |
| 16 | 5 | Ian Kinsler | 12 | 52 | 43 | 6 | .256 |
| 17 | 5 | Ben Zobrist | 8 | 54 | 50 | 1 | .273 |
| 18 | 6 | Enrique Hernandez | 13 | 45 | 36 | 2 | .254 |
| 19 | 6 | Neil Walker | 12 | 47 | 49 | 0 | .250 |
| 20 | 6 | Jeff McNeil | 7 | 40 | 31 | 6 | .286 |
| 21 | 6 | Wilmer Difo | 5 | 40 | 31 | 6 | .253 |
| 22 | 6 | Brendan Rodgers | 9 | 30 | 28 | 5 | .261 |
| 23 | 6 | Yangervis Solarte | 9 | 35 | 33 | 1 | .257 |
| 24 | 6 | Alen Hanson | 7 | 41 | 32 | 6 | .242 |
| 25 | 6 | Hernan Perez | 8 | 31 | 27 | 8 | .254 |
More NL-Only Rankings: C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP
If you like these AL-Only Second Base Rankings check out the rest of the 2019 FantraxHQ Fantasy Baseball Draft Kit. We’ll be adding more content from now right up until Opening Day!
Doug Anderson is a 10-year veteran of the Fantasy Sports industry. His work has appeared on RotoExperts.com, Yahoo.com, SI.com, and NFL.com, as well as in the pages of USA Today’s Fantasy Baseball Weekly and various other magazines. Doug has participated in both LABR and Tout Wars, the two preeminent expert fantasy baseball leagues in existence. Doug was formerly the Executive Editor at RotoExperts and is now Managing Editor here at FantraxHQ. You can follow him on Twitter @RotoDaddy.
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