July 13, 2016

Rotoballer lead columnist Bill Dubiel examines the rankings for shortstop (SS) at the midway point of the season. These are rankings looking forward to the second half of the season.

Welcome back to RotoBaller's midseason rankings update. We are gathered here today to walk through the second base rankings, analyzing some key names and providing tiers for your consumption. Assume a standard 5x5 redraft league when reading.

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2016 Fantasy Baseball Midseason Rankings Analysis: Shortstop

Sorry, regular MLB shortstops. Mr. Machado is once again eligible at your position, so everyone is moving down a slot. Not much to say here--if you've been paying attention at all to fantasy baseball then you know that the Orioles slugger has been putting up MVP numbers all season, and he should continue to do so. Next.

In our Midseason Awards, the Rotoballer staff voted Ian Desmond as our AL Comeback POTY, and he's more than deserving. In 2015, following a trio of 20/20 seasons in 2012-14, Desmond was drafted as that type of player only to disappoint the Nationals and fantasy owners alike. He only mustered 19 homers and 13 stolen bases, hit .233 and had his lowest run and RBI totals since 2011. He's back and better than ever though, as he already has 15 homers and 15 steals in 2016. His .322/.375/.524 slash lines are all the best of his career, and should earn him some murmurs in the AL MVP conversation.

Boy howdy, Troy Tulowitzki was booty before that injury. Before heading to the DL with a quad injury, Tulo was hitting .204 with...pretty much nothing but a handful of homers. Since returning he hitting .313 with seven jacks and 20 RBI. The Blue Jays offense is finally starting to click, and Tulo is at the very heart of it. Historically, he is much better in the second half of the season, and that's why I have him ranked in my top seven--you can't keep a talent like that down. His stats will regress to the mean, which means there is a huge second half in store for him.

Nobody appreciates Brandon Crawford. Nobody but me--I appreciate you, you handsome son of a gun! He collected awards like Pokemon last season, receiving an All Star nod, a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award. The case can be made that he's hitting even better this season, as he seems to have sacrificed a bit of power for average. After hitting .256 with 21 bombs and 84 RBI in 2015, Crawford hit .281 with nine homers and a whopping 60 RBI in the first half (best among all shortstops). He's poised to continue this production in the second half, as his .321 BABIP indicates there isn't a whole lot of room for regression (although we have to expect some). Can you imagine getting 110 RBI from a shortstop? Chills.

Jean Segura has been a pleasant surprise in 2016, and I'm glad to see it happen. Segura had a rough and tragic history in Milwaukee that I won't get into here, but the change of scenery seems to have changed everything for the better. He's boasting the highest line drive percentage of his career (20.5%) and is spraying the ball to all parts of the field. He's seventh in the MLB in total hits, and he's also swiped 15 bags in just 85 games. Segura may not be able to keep this level of production up for the entire season, but I also don't see him falling off a cliff at any point.

So what to do with Jose Reyes? In his first few games off his domestic violence suspension, the former (and now current) Met is showing a surprising amount of pop, with three homers in his first 24 at bats. Considering he hasn't hit more than 11 during any season in this decade, it's tough to believe that he'll sustain that kind of power in the second half. With that said, he did still hit .274 between the Rockies and Blue Jays in 2015, and he managed to swipe 24 bags. I imagine that's where we'll see him in the second half--right around .270 with maybe 10 stolen bases between now and the end of September. He can certainly be useful, and I recommend a speculative add in case there's still some of that premium unleaded left in the 33-year-old's tank.

Sweet sassy molassey, can we just get Alex Bregman to the majors already? He's destroyed the minor leagues in 2016, hitting .309 with 19 homers, 60 RBI and 64 runs scored across AA and AAA. The only thing keeping him from the major league roster is Luis Valbuena (he'll play third base with Carlos Correa locked in at shortstop for the foreseeable future). The veteran infielder had to know the youngster was breathing down his neck, because across his last 30 games he's hitting .329 with six homers, 19 RBI and 16 runs scored. It's only a matter of time before he cools off though, and when he does Bregman will be there to boot him out the door. He's a must-add for anyone who has the roster space, as he could be a huge difference-maker for the home stretch of the fantasy season.

Midseason Shortstop Tiered Fantasy Baseball Rankings

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