January 26, 2018

RotoBaller's January fantasy baseball points league rankings for shortstop. Head-to-head (H2) point league ranks for SS, and 2018 season long formats too.

If you play in a head-t0-head points league, or season long format, you already know how difficult it can be to find fantasy analysis tailored to the format. Not only are the traditional rotisserie and head-to-head arrangements more popular, but the very nature of points leagues makes them difficult to cover in a general sense because they carry significantly more variance in terms of settings.

Niche audience or no, there are still plenty of folks out there who love the format, and y’all deserve help from the experts just as much as those who stick to roto or H2H. That’s why we’re excited to unveil the first round of RotoBaller’s 2018 fantasy baseball points league rankings for shortstop and the month of January.

This round comes to you courtesy of Nick Mariano, Chris Zolli, Kyle Richardson, and myself. And in case you missed it, all of our 2018 fantasy baseball rankings and analysis columns are in one easy place including mixed, points, dynasty and AL/NL only leagues.

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2018 Fantasy Baseball Points League Rankings: Shortstop (January)

Tier 1

As it stands I'm the only ranker to like Carlos Correa better than Trea Turner, which I'm actually a little surprised about for points league rankings. Trea Turner has any other shortstop beat in stolen bases, but outside of that category I'm not so sure Turner is a bet to beat Correa. Hitting in the heart of the Astros lineup is going to allow for way more RBI opportunities for Correa, and he's got Turner beat on pure power as well. Correa hit .315 in an injury-shortened season last year, and while that might be a little bit too much to expect he's certainly capable of a .290 batting average over 150+ games. Unless I'm missing something, Correa seems pretty clearly to be the better points-league choice.

Tier 2

I really, really WANT to be higher on Elvis Andrus. He had an enormous breakout season, setting career highs in homers (20), runs (100), RBI (88) and SLG (.471) to go along with the second-best batting average of his MLB career (.297). There was clearly a shift in his approach, as he set a career high in ISO and K-rate while also torpedoing his walk-rate to a career low (5.5%). Swing big, hit big, right? My restraint lies in whether or not this is a sustainable change to his mentality at the plate. The increases in the aforementioned categories were drastic, and I'm not confident it's something that Andrus can replicate. Prove me wrong, Elvis!

Tier 3 

Oh, Nick. I want to follow you down this path...I want to write this Story with you. I just can't yet. It's only January, and things can certainly change, but Trevor broke my heart last year. The magic of the first half of 2016 did NOT continue into 2017, and Story had stretches where it was painful to watch him bat. He struck out in over a third of his at bats, and while Coors can make any stat line look good (24 HR, 82 RBI) I have major concerns for Story's long-term success. Once again, things could change depending on further review. Maybe I see a couple sweet Spring Story Slamma-Jammas...but I'm just not there yet. The pain is still too real.

Tier 4 

So Marwin Gonzalez, the man of a thousand eligible positions, had easily the best season of his career in 2017. I'm not even going to list stats--if it wasn't stolen bases or plate appearances, Gonzalez set his career high in last season. I, uh...I don't know what to do with that. Due to his positional durability he's going to find his way into the Astros lineup most days, I'm just not sure whether or not opportunity was all Gonzalez needed. He more than doubled his walk rate from 2016, his ISO shot up by freaking 79 points, his batting average by 49 points...at this point I'm going to remain cautious, and figure that the real Marwin Gonzalez is somewhere in between 2016 and 2017 Marwin Gonzalez. .275 average, 17 homers, 10 steals, 75 RBI...good and usable, but not a stud by any means.

Tier 5

I'm the lowest on Addison Russell, and I'm fine with that. He's no doubt a talented player and he's had impressive spurts, but I'm seeing Starlin Castro 2.0 here to be honest. Not top-10 at the position, but always in the 15-20 conversation. I saw a lot of good things from Orlando Arcia last year, and I've got high hopes for the future. Definite 20/20 potential, and his points league value could be really solid if he moves up a bit in the Brewers lineup.

Tiers 6 and 7

I'm interested to see what Amed Rosario is capable of in the Mets lineup. His short debut last season was woefully unimpressive, but it's very important to remember that he's just 22 and he flew through the Mets minor league organization. I don't think that 2018 will be the year Rosario "arrives", but he should have a nice, long leash while he figures things out due to the much-needed defense he brings to the Mets infield.

To Troy Tulowitzki, I quote the band No Mercy:

Where do you go, my lovely?
Where do you go?
I wanna know, my lovely
I wanna know

Where do you go, oh, oh, eh, oh?
I wanna know, oh, oh, eh, oh
Where do you go, oh, oh, eh, oh, oh, oh, eh, oh, oh, oh, eh, oh
I wanna know

Come back to me, Troy.

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