RADIO
What's up RotoBallers. I'm here today to try and unearth some shortstops that you can get later in your drafts, and will also provide similar value to other shortstops who are being drafted earlier on average.
If you’re looking to make a splash on draft day, you should give RotoBaller’s ADP Draft Sleepers Tool a long, hard look. The tool allows you to compare a player’s expected production against his top comparables going later in the draft.
Frankly, it's a great resource for identifying overvalued talents and hidden gems alike. To give you a glimpse into how it works, I've used the tool to scan through this year's stock of shortstops. Ready to see what value picks the Draft Sleepers Tool unearthed? Let's take a look:
Starlin Castro vs. Erick Aybar
| Name | ADP | Age | PA | BA | OBP | R | HR | RBI | SB |
| Castro | 113.8 | 24 | 574 | .274 | .320 | 63 | 12 | 60 | 8 |
| Aybar | 215.0 | 30 | 619 | .271 | .312 | 66 | 8 | 59 | 14 |
There are teams for which Starlin Castro makes sense. If you have bigger holes to fill in the 12th round, however, Erick Aybar is a good bet to replace 80% of Castro's production. Aybar might not be the most exciting player in the world, but with a decent combination of power and speed, he's a top 10 shortstop available in the closing rounds of the draft. There's real value in that if Castro is too expensive for your team.
Alexei Ramirez vs. Jimmy Rollins
| Name | ADP | Age | PA | BA | OBP | R | HR | RBI | SB |
| Ramirez | 104.7 | 32 | 635 | .265 | .300 | 68 | 11 | 63 | 17 |
| Rollins | 143.3 | 35 | 628 | .237 | .306 | 72 | 13 | 53 | 20 |
Alexei Ramirez is in a similar camp to Castro. He'll make sense on certain teams, but others may find it prudent to wait a bit longer on shortstop. Aybar was the late round solution for teams that needed help across the board. Teams that can afford to take the hit in batting average, however, may prefer Jimmy Rollins instead. He'll easily exceed Ramirez' production in power and speed. Even if that comes with a sub .240 batting average, a 15th round pick is a good price to pay for that kind of production.
Jhonny Peralta vs. J.J. Hardy
| Name | ADP | Age | PA | BA | OBP | R | HR | RBI | SB |
| Peralta | 199.3 | 32 | 575 | .256 | .323 | 59 | 15 | 64 | 3 |
| Hardy | 266.7 | 31 | 614 | .253 | .298 | 64 | 17 | 65 | 2 |
If you're in a league deep enough to care about Jhonny Peralta and J.J. Hardy, I don't see a very good reason to choose the former over the latter. Both are power bats that don't bring much to the plate outside of the occasional dinger. Hardy might be the smarter bet going forward.
He's a year younger than Peralta. Based on his recent track record, he has a superior power ceiling. Even after accounting for last year's disappointing production, Hardy has averaged five more home runs a season than Peralta over the past four years. That he's going almost 70 picks after Peralta only reinforces Hardy's value.
All RotoBaller readers can use the 2B/SS ADP Draft Sleepers Tool (also in the upper right corner of site). And to get full access to all positions (SP, OF, 1B/3B) you can just...
