Welcome back to the series that further proves that the itch of fantasy baseball never goes away.

We're gathered here to look at my thoughts on the top players at each position. Assume a standard 5x5 redraft league with the rankings.

We led off with catchers before hitting first base, and now we're stealing second. Please note that 2016 was a wild year for homers all around, with its 5,610 homers being the second-most all time (2000: 5,692), so my soft advisory is to take the gains with a grain of salt.

Editor's note: Be sure to also check out our 2017 fantasy baseball rankings dashboard. It's already loaded up with tons of great rankings articles and draft analysis. Aside from our tiered staff rankings for every position, we also go deep on MLB prospect rankings, impact rookies for 2017, and dynasty/keeper rankings as well. Bookmark the page, and win your drafts.

 

Early 2017 Rankings: Second Basemen

1. Jose Altuve, HOU – Getting a 20/30 season out of anyone is going to make you a top-round pick. Let alone also scoring over 100 runs, coming four ribeyes shy of the century mark, and batting an AL-leading .338. Doing this all from second base is just icing on the decadent cake. The man can hit and the power has been trending up for two seasons now, buy confidently.

2. Trea Turner, WAS – The TT Cruiser took the baseball universe by storm with an electric 53-13-40-34-.342 line in only 73 games (327 PAs). Yes, that would prorate out to roughly a 115-30-90-75-.340 line. Ohhh-kay. Don’t anchor yourself to that, but this is a five-tool guy that will deliver from atop Washington’s lineup. Do note that he started 25 games at 2B and is much more valuable there than at OF, but the versatility only further helps his case.

3. Brian Dozier, MIN – How hard do you think you would’ve been slapped if you told someone that Dozier would finish the season with 42 homers on June 24, 2016? Through nearly three months he had cleared the fence only eight times and had a measly 29 RBIs. He went absolutely berserk from June 25 on, hitting 34 homers in 87 games and vaulting himself back into the top 2B discussion. Don’t expect the world, but the 29-year-old can clearly swing with the best of them.

4. Daniel Murphy, WAS – At 31 years old he came within inches of winning the Major-League batting title (.347, still prettay, prettay good), while hitting 25 dingers and 104 RBIs in his first year as a National. In 2015, he had a 31% hard-hit rate. That rose to 38.2% in 2016 alongside a 5.9% increase in fly balls. This explains the power, and his line-drive rate even crept forward a tick to help his average too. This is what sustainable growth and a changed swing looks like.

5. Robinson Cano, SEA – Robbie nearly doubled his 21 homers from 2015 with 39 in 2016, don’tcha know. It wasn’t fluky or cheap either, as he saw his fly-ball rate jump by a wild 10.8% (to 36.1%) to fuel the power surge. Heading into his age-34 season, the Seattle slugger should have a floor of 28 homers and a near-.300 average.

6. Matt Carpenter, STL - This is a guy you've already seen in the 1B rankings, and he's a guy you'll see again in the 3B rankings. Hitting leadoff means Carp should regularly flirt with 100+ runs, though missing a month due to an oblique injury will hinder the chances of that. He's posted respective ISOs of .233 and .235 in the last two seasons, and his 41.9% hard-hit rate led all second basemen (Murphy was second).

7. Ian Kinsler, DET – Kinsler hadn’t topped 20 homers since 2011, but nearly tripled his 2015 homer total (11) by hitting 28 homers in 2016. His 117 runs were also tops for all second baseman, besting superstar Jose Altuve’s total by nine. Runs are difficult to predict, but leading off in front of a powerful Detroit lineup (despite J.D. Martinez missing time) has its benefits. He also has stolen at least 10 bases in each of his 10 seasons in the bigs.

8. DJ LeMahieu, COL – Your 2016 MLB Batting Title Champion took huge strides at the plate at 27 years old. His hard-hit rate spiked from 26.6% to 35.2% while his swinging-strike rate dropped from an already-impressive 6.4% to 4.1%. It is mighty impressive when you cut down so mightily on whiffs while actually making stronger contact with the ball. Rumor has it that hitting in Coors Field never hurt anyone either (.391 home average, .303 road).

9. Jean Segura, ARI - What a comeback season for Mean Jean, as he popped off for career highs in runs (102), homers (20), RBIs (64) and batting average (.319) alongside 33 steals on 43 attempts. This is a guy who has been through a lot on a personal level, and a fresh start in Arizona may have been just what was needed. His 13.5% HR/FB rate may come down a bit towards his 8.6% career mark, but the speed is real and the opportunity atop Arizona’s lineup should lead to him being another 100-run threat in 2017.

10. Rougned Odor, TEX – It can be easy to forget that 2016 was his age-22 season, and all the kid did was blast 33 homers. Yes, his walk rate dropped to a measly 3% and his strikeout rate rose from 16.8% to 21.4%. One has to be much more encouraged by the power coming out to play than discouraged by the plate discipline slip. He’s growing into his power, and can hopefully improve the batting eye as he matures as well. Showing this much at such a young age is a mighty good sign.

11. Jason Kipnis, CLE – After hitting only 15 homers over his last two seasons, Kipnis crossed the 20-homer plane for the first time in his six-year career in 2016. His 23 homers yielded 82 RBIs, though his elevated power approach (fly-ball rate up 9.3%) did shave off some batting average points. Still, his .275 average is more than plenty alongside 20+ homer pop and his healthy double-digit steal potential.

12. Dustin Pedroia, BOS – Pedey topped the 100-run mark for the first time since 2011 (guess that’s going around) and also turned in his best batting average (.318) since 2008. His success came due to a resuscitated line-drive rate (24.2% from 2015’s career-low 17.7%) and a 6.2% bump in his hard-hit rate. The 33-year-old won’t have Big Papi to knock him in anymore, but should still post healthy numbers in Boston’s strong offense.

13. Dee Gordon, MIA - 80-game suspensions are going to really cut into one's productivity, but the speedy Marlin still swiped 30 bags in 79 games. His .268 average was way down from 2015's .333 mark though, thanks to a horrid 29.7% soft-contact rate. He should bounce back at least a little bit, but that .333 mark will likely be an outlier when his career is all said and done.

14. Devon Travis, TOR - While Travis is dealing with an unknown (as of 10/15) right knee injury at the moment that knocked him off of the postseason roster, he still posted a 54-11-50-.300 line in 101 games. Playing in Toronto's lineup does one's counting stats good, and hitting .300 always helps.

15. Ryan Schimpf, SD - One may be shocked to learn that Schimpf is 28, since 2016 was his first exposure to the Major Leagues. He had been in the Blue Jays' farm system since 2009, and notably hit 20 dingers in only 307 Double-A PAs in 2015. He then went to San Diego in 2016, and was called up after hitting 15 bombs in 190 Triple-A PAs before the 20 Maj0r-League HRs in 330 PAs. The power is real.

16. Jonathan Schoop, BAL - Looks like that 2015 batting average didn't regress that much after all. The power held steady, as he became one of only six 2Bs to hit 25 or more homers in 2016 while being the only one to play in all 162 games.

17. Ben Zobrist, CHC - Zob had a solid season, but an out-of-this-world May really buoyed it all. He posted a ridiculous 25-6-25-1-.406 line in 101 May ABs, but didn't hit better than .270 or knock in more than 13 runs in any other month. Careful now.

18. Logan Forsythe, TB - The 29-year-old missed some time in 2016 due to a hairline fracture in his scapula, but still hit 20 homers in only 127 games. While his batting average did fall, his line-drive rate rose by 3% and his hard-hit rate rose by 5%. Not a bad trend.

19. Neil Walker, NYM - Dude's season started off with a bang thanks to nine April homers, but he only hit eight in the following three months. He brought it back with six homers in 18 August games before undergoing season-ending back surgery. Streaky? Yeah. Still solid though? Yeah.

20. Starlin Castro, NYY - Well, a star wasn't born in New York or anything, but Castro still blew his old career-high in homers (14) out of the water in 2016. The counting stats weren't amazing, but they're serviceable, as was his .270 average.