Shortstop Tier

Hanley Ramirez has pretty much separated himself from Reyes and Rollins. I’m not sure what’s happening with the MI nowadays — but it seems like low-average / high-power is now en vogue.

The Rankings are still rough, but you can adjust them as you see fit.

1	*Hanley Ramirez*	Best player in fantasy baseball
2	*Jose Reyes*	Wasn’t he supposed to have developed power by now?
3	*Jimmy Rollins*	Bounce back year in store. Stolen Bases go down, other numbers go up!
4	*Rafael Furcal*	Lets say 525 AB, and he still gets it done
5	*Stephen Drew*	Looks to improve across the board – Power may drop if BA goes up.
6	*Jhonny Peralta*	Power is power, and Peralta has power.
7	*Troy Tulowitzki*	Should start 2009 the way he ended 2008. No more sophomore slumps
8	*J.J. Hardy*	Just keeping Escobars spot warm – Should be more than incentive for awesome year
9	*Derek Jeter*	What doesn’t Jeter do – No upside really, you get what you pay for.
10	*Michael Young*	Switch to third should help, not hurt him.
11	*Elvis Andrus*	Enters the spot vacated by Young – Will Steal, Steal a lot of bases.
12	*Ryan Theriot*	Solid fantasy producer across the board
13	*Orlando Cabrera*	Where does he land?
14	*Yunel Escobar*	Nice OBP, and with 600AB should approach 90 R. Production depends on rest of line-up.
15	*Khalil Greene*	I’m picking a bounce-back year, and I’m almost certainly wrong.
16	*Christian Guzman*	I’m not sure if he sticks at the top of this Nats line-up. Maybe he reproduces 2008 OBP + AVG?
17	*Edgar Renteria*	Getting older, and he’s on a bad team. Maybe he gets to 12-15 SB?
18	*Miguel Tejada*	Lying to congress may have hurt him. Follow this closely.
19	*Jed Lowrie*	He plays in Boston’s line-up so the RBI and R should be nice. Looks like it’s an open comp. vs. Lugo
20	*Jerry Hairston Jr.*	Left field? If Hairston has a gig all year, he could be a fantasy saviour.
21	*Mike Aviles*	I do not buy the hype, at all. Return to sender.
22	*Jason Bartlett*	Primed for a solid year.
23	*Erick Aybar*	He’ll bat in the bottom half with the addition of Abreu, but he’ll steal bases and score runs
24	*Yuniesky Betancourt*	Things are starting to look brighter
25	*Asdrubal Cabrera*	I cannot make up my mind on Cabrera, Should be solid at the very least
26	*Clint Barmes*	He’s got a starting gig in Coors
27	*Emmanuel Burriss*	Quick-Fast.
28	*Brandon Wood*	Angel’s acquiring Abreu hurts Wood the most
29	*Jeff Keppinger*	Solid across the board production. He wont hurt, or help you.
30	*Cesar Izturis*	A less appealing Aybar with maybe a smidgen more speed
31	*Cliff Pennington*	Baseball cube has him at 35 Power, 85 Speed, 78 Contact, and 87 Patience.
32	*Ben Zobrist*	Doesn’t look like he’ll be playing the field all that much
33	*Nick Punto*	I like his speed and versatility
34	*Julio Lugo*	Ugly average, but powers always nice. Open competition for the job.
35	*Aaron Miles*
36	*Bobby Crosby*
37	*Brandon Harris*
38	*Alberto Collaspo*	Sleeper time
39	*Ronny Cedeno*
40	*Ryan Freel*	Set him free.

…spreadsheet available here.