RADIO
Welcome to the All-Star break, which gives us the chance to catch our breath roughly halfway through the marathon of the regular season. Rather than the composite approach we took to our preseason rankings, we're offering tiered rankings for each position.
I had planned to name each tier after Coen Brothers films, but Alex Chamberlain beat me to the punch. So even though he doesn't have No Country for Old Men or Fargo as the top tier and is therefore objectively wrong, I'm not going to steal his thunder. Instead, the tiers are named for Radiohead albums. Feel free to yell at me on Twitter if you think either set of rankings is bunk: @amoralpanic.
Editor’s Note: You can check out all of RotoBaller’s 2015 fantasy baseball midseason rankings and analysis, which has been updated over the past few days.
More rankings: Starting Pitchers (Part 1), Starting Pitchers (Part 2), Second Base (2B), Third Base (3B), Shortstop (SS), Outfield (Part 1), Outfield (Part 2), Catcher (C), Relief Pitchers (RP)
Tier 1 - Kid A
Released in 2000, Kid A initially divided both critics and audiences. Over time, however, Radiohead’s groundbreaking fourth album came to be considered their magnum opus, and one of the best albums ever released.
Goldschmidt mashed at every level as a prospect, but was consistently dogged by doubters who were concerned about his strikeout rate, body type, and defense. Now, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who doesn’t think he’s one of the best players in baseball. In his fourth full season, Goldschmidt is doing his best Mike Trout impression at the plate and on the bases. Like this album, he’s in a class all his own.
Tier 2 - OK Computer
Anthony Rizzo
Joey Votto
Prince Fielder
Freddie Freeman (DL)
Edwin Encarnacion
Albert Pujols
There are plenty of fans who prefer Kid A’s predecessor. Considering it’s a classic in its own right, there’s nothing wrong with that. While it's hard to believe anybody would take one of the guys in this tier over Goldschmidt right now, they’ve all been elite fantasy producers and should continue to be.
Rumors of the demise of Votto, Pujols, and Fielder were greatly exaggerated, as all have rebounded nicely from injury-marred seasons. Despite all the preseason doom and gloom about the lineup around him, Freeman was on pace for better numbers than last year across the board before suffering a wrist injury last month. Encarnacion has been excellent since getting off to a slow start. Last but certainly not least, Rizzo has built on an impressive 2014 breakout and even added stolen bases to his repertoire.
Tier 3 - In Rainbows
Adrian Gonzalez
Jose Abreu
Miguel Cabrera (DL)
Chris Davis
This album could have been remembered more for its unorthodox “pay what you want” release than for its content. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, because it’s excellent.
A-Gon was an absolute monster in April. Though he hasn’t hit as well since, he’s still on pace for his best season as a Dodger. Abreu has been something of a disappointment after his ridiculous rookie year. Of course, he’s still top-10 at the position by pretty much any offensive measure. Cabrera dropped just a bit in many drafts this year. He was coming off a down year by his lofty standards and it wasn’t clear if he’d be healthy to start the season. Owners who bet on a return to form have been handsomely rewarded, but are also saddled with his first-ever DL stint. He would have been atop the second tier otherwise. Davis is unlikely to ever replicate the out of body experience that was 2013, but he’s rebounded nicely from a lost season last year.
Tier 4 - Amnesiac
Mark Teixeira
Adam Lind
Brandon Belt
Mitch Moreland
From what I can tell, I’m a bigger fan of this album than most people. The songs were recorded at the same time as those on Kid A, but were released several months later. This gave Amnesiac an undeserved reputation as more of a collection of B-sides than a work that stood on its own merits. While not every track is a winner, the album also includes some of the band's best work.
The players in this tier have similarly conflicted reps. Teixeira has resurrected his career with an impressive season at age 35 despite one of the lowest BABIPs in the majors and is among the leaders in homers and RBI. Lind still struggles against southpaws, but he’s been one of the few bright spots during Milwaukee’s unmitigated disaster of a season. Belt has settled in as a mid-tier first baseman, which is either fine or a disappointment, depending on how you felt about him as a prospect. As for Moreland, I’m giving him credit for his performance but still tempering expectations moving forward.
Tier 5 - Hail to the Thief
Carlos Santana
Lucas Duda
Adam LaRoche
Hail to the Thief is Radiohead’s White Album, a haphazard collection of songs with disparate styles that just barely hangs together thanks to flashes of brilliance. It seems fitting to place Santana and LaRoche in this tier, given their career splits for the first and second halves of the season. Duda has shown similar streakiness this year, stumbling badly in June after an excellent start. Any of these three could put together a huge second half. In fact, it will be a surprise if at least one of them doesn’t.
Tier 6 - The Bends
Eric Hosmer
Pedro Alvarez
Chris Carter
This album and the players in this tier are generally more highly regarded by the masses than my personal opinion. The Bends has some great tunes and hints at the masterpieces to come in Radiohead’s catalog, but it’s just a little too straightforward Brit-rock for me.
I’ve never actually owned Hosmer, because I simply don't see the appeal. He’s never hit 20 homers in a season, never reached 80 RBI, has only one season with 80 runs scored, and is only a .277 career hitter. After starting his career with three double-digit SB seasons, he’s not contributing much there anymore either – just eight since the start of 2014. Jack of all trades, master of none is not how I want to describe my 1B. Conversely, Alvarez and Carter offer power but murder your average or OBP and don’t make a big dent in the other counting stats. I’ll give Carter this much – Tha Carter K is a great nickname and that is a scientific fact. Does anyone else call him that? If that’s not a thing, it should be.
Tier 7 - The King of Limbs
Ryan Howard
Joe Mauer
Mike Napoli
Ryan Zimmerman
The King of Limbs is the only album Radiohead has released since I became a fan. It’s good, but it’s not exciting in the way that most of their other work is. After a four-year wait between albums, to only get eight tracks was pretty disappointing. I did see them twice on the tour to support the album, though, and the songs are much better live. The band also released a few songs in the aftermath which are, frankly, better than some of the ones actually made it onto the record.
All of the players in this tier have had incredible success in the past, but their best days are pretty clearly behind them. They can still be great in fits and starts under specific circumstances, but probably not for a sustained period of time.
Tier 8 - Pablo Honey
Logan Morrison
Ben Paulsen
Yonder Alonso
Justin Bour
Mark Reynolds
Ike Davis
Hey, remember that song “Creep”?
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