Shortstop marketplace offers options at every draft stage

The top of the shortstop leaderboard offers an ample mix of power, speed and batting average. Here, as with 2Bmen, it is always useful to grab the speed when you can. But this group also is littered with health and experience risk, so you do need to exercise some caution.

Multi-asset commodities run 20 deep – just like last year – so everyone should be able to grab an anchor.

Here are the BABS ratings for the shortstops who will potentially provide some positive value to your team:

ASSETS: PT (Playing time), Pw (Power), Sp (Speed), Av (Batting Effectiveness), * (OBP help)
LIABILITIES: Av (Batting Ineffectiveness), Inj (Injury), Ex (Experience)

Conceivably, Trea Turner (pictured) should be the most valuable player in baseball. His speed skills are better than Jose Altuve and his power at least shows up on the BABS scale. However, we are still waiting for him to see even 450 AB in a season. His injury indicator is a full-fledged (INJ); if it was at least (inj-), maybe we could sweep it under the carpet. So, take Turner and assume the risk.

Similar to the 2Bmen, the top of the talent pool is composed of players who each have unique skill sets, so there is no room to leverage their market values. However, you should consider each one within the context of the entire player population. For instance, a player like Paul DeJong (PW,a) is in the same asset group as Edwin Encarnacion and Brian Dozier, but can be drafted over 100 picks later and could be $15 cheaper.

The (s,AV) group provides the first opportunity to play the market. Francisco Lindor’s power barely misses registering a (p) grade, so maybe he’s worth his ADP spot. However, you are not giving up that much by waiting on Elvis Andrus or Xander Bogaerts.

The (SB,a) group is even deeper, with a half dozen opportunities to take advantage of those speed skills at various parts of the draft. There is a good opportunity to play the end game here. Wilmer Difo’s multi-position eligibility increases his value and he’s one injury away from gaining good playing time. What if Daniel Murphy is not fully healed? What if Trea Turner finds a way to avoid 500 AB again? He could also pick up ABs at 3B, where Anthony Rendon has had his own history of injuries. What’s the downside at No. 433? As I always say, remove “no path to playing time” from your vocabulary.

The (a) group is a good case study in BABSian thinking. All of those players have some power skill that is not significant enough for BABS to notice. Five of six are full-timers, yet they are being drafted across 400 picks. As always, recency bias pushes last year’s best performer to the top of the list, and Didi Gregorius gets the call this time. But you can wait 90-plus picks or save a few bucks for others who are going to put up highly similar numbers. In real terms, the difference between Gregorius and Brandon Crawford (213 picks later) is about 5 HRs and maybe 10 points of batting average. That’s statistical noise.

The part-timer pool is pretty thin at this position. There are a few pockets of skill but nothing that I would spend time waiting on. Maybe Willy Adames in a dynasty league.