Fantasy Baseball Cheat Sheet 2012: SS Rankings

Most of what we do here at Scouting Book is about prospects and rookies, but we do get many requests for our opinions on veteran players, too. Especially from fantasy owners looking for extra tidbits of advice to help them with their upcoming draft.

If you're one of those types, you're probably thirsting for every drop of info or guidance you can find. So here, have a drink on us.

 C   1B   2B   3B   SS   OF   SP   RP 
Player Tm Smart and/or Smartass Comments
1 Jose Reyes  MIA He's going to enjoy this season. A lot.
2 Hanley Ramirez * MIA Dicey shoulder, but maybe he'll hit better angry and bitter? Worked for Cobb, Rose, Bonds...
3 Troy Tulowitzki  COL If his body holds up, could be a huge season.
4 Elvis Andrus  TEX Driven to improve, he just keeps getting better. And better.
5 Asdrubal Cabrera  CLE Auditioning for a new team, maybe.
6 Starlin Castro  CHC Finding his feet now and ready to step up.
7 Emilio Bonifacio  MIA We don't know where he lines up, but he'll slap the ball and run like hell regardless.
8 Alexei Ramirez  CWS We are now entering the power portion of Alexei's career.
9 Jimmy Rollins  PHI The old master still has legs and a bat. He'll produce.
10 Rafael Furcal  STL He's still got the skills, the wheels, the bat. He'll score when healthy.
11 Erick Aybar  LAA Coming into his own as a hitter. Finally.
12 Derek Jeter  NYY Don't overpay for the glitz. But don't write him off either. Hard to fail on Yanks.
13 Dee Gordon  LAD He's Starlin Castro, but faster, and a year further behind.
14 Ian Desmond  WAS The Nationals are on the rise, and Desmond is a big reason.
15 Yunel Escobar  TOR He'll go unnoticed in the Great White Ugly Ballpark, but he should produce.
16 Jose Iglesias  BOS (R)  Only half a stick, but shortstop is his job. The only question is: April or June?
17 Stephen Drew  ARZ He'll start late. Diamondbacks could be sneaky contenders this year if he heals up.
18 Alcides Escobar  KC He's never reached his potential. He might soon.
19 Zack Cozart * CIN (R)  A nice sleeper, could end up playing every day.
20 Nick Franklin  SEA (R)  Has a great chance of breaking camp with MLB team. Nice switch hitting sleeper.
21 Jhonny Peralta  DET He's never lived up to the tools, but in Detroit this year, everyone scores.
22 Jed Lowrie  HOU You know who could use a good young shortstop like Lowrie? The Red Sox!
23 Tsuyoshi Nishioka  MIN Speaking of sleepers: presumably he won't miss half the season injured this time.
24 Maicer Izturis  LAA Mister Peppermint Clutch. He'll play all over the diamond again, probably.
25 Mike Aviles  BOS Everyday player now, or backup plan if Iglesias falters? Solid bench guy, anyway.
26 Tyler Pastornicky   ATL (R)  Good player, great kid, not much of an offensive threat.
27 Ryan Theriot  SF Super-Theriooooot will play all over SF.
28 JJ Hardy  BAL Baltimore this time. Yawn.
29 Reid Brignac  TB Time to step into that potential we saw a few years ago?
30 Osvaldo Martinez  CWS (R)  Promising youngster could get ABs this year, if only as UT.

Warning: this information is 99.5% opinion, and isn't processed, scored, cross-checked, balanced or otherwise mathemagicked like our Prospects Rankings are. As such, it's even more highly subjective and much more subject to whim and error. Owner beware.



Asterisks denote players who might or might not qualify at SS for you, depending on your league's own rules and the whims of real life. Check carefully, and use our handy Multi Position Qualifiers tool to find extra-valuable treasures. Green ® circles, obviously, mark rookies who have their own deeper profiles available right here at Scouting Book. These are not all possible rookies.