We’re continuing our weekly look at 2012 fantasy baseball sleepers with the second base position in this article. I dug pretty deep in picking our first sets of sleepers, with the earliest pick in our current Cafe Mock coming off the board in the 10th round. This one features a couple earlier picks, but they’re [...]
2b is crazy deep this year with guys like Cuddyer, Daniel Murphy, and Michael Young all qualifying. In fact, 2B is so deep, it probably makes more sense to play Murphy and Young at 3B than at 2b.
You have a pretty solid top 8 of: Cano, Pedroia, Kinsler, Zobrist, Utley, Uggla, Weeks, and Kendrick.
But (in addition to Young, Murphy, and Cuddyer) you have 4 youngsters in Altuve, Kipnis, Weeks, and Ackley all looking quite positive for next year, potential bouncebacks from Hill, Kelly Johnson, Beckham (last chance!), Brian Roberts and a potential "leap" from Danny Espinosa.
If I'm in a 12 team league, I'm waiting on 2b as long as possible.
I just don't understand the love for a guy like Daniel Murphy. He's all average , not much pop, not much speed, bats in a crappy lineup. He's waiver wire fodder as far as I'm concerned. 2b and SS should be a position where you get either steals , runs and or HR's, RBI's..
Kipnis is a good pick and so is Ackley. NOT Murphy
J.C.Fighter wrote:I just don't understand the love for a guy like Daniel Murphy. He's all average , not much pop, not much speed, bats in a crappy lineup. He's waiver wire fodder as far as I'm concerned. 2b and SS should be a position where you get either steals , runs and or HR's, RBI's..
Kipnis is a good pick and so is Ackley. NOT Murphy
Your argument is more of a structuring a lineup than a straight up production one, really. You're also being pretty generic specifying that you 'should' get any of 4 of the 5 typical batting categories You should be trying to get those with just about every position -- how you get them is irrelevant.
If Murphy is able to maintain the .315 average and chip in 12 HR and 65 R/RBI apiece, that's not terribly worse than guys like Walker.
People are also probably helping his power gets some boost by moving in the fences at Citi Field. A full year of batting 2nd in front of Wright and Davis, if they're healthy, should mean a decent Run total, as well.
But (in addition to Young, Murphy, and Cuddyer) you have 4 youngsters in Altuve, Kipnis, Weeks, and Ackley all looking quite positive for next year, potential bouncebacks from Hill, Kelly Johnson, Beckham (last chance!), Brian Roberts and a potential "leap" from Danny Espinosa.
If I'm in a 12 team league, I'm waiting on 2b as long as possible.
Espinosa can't hit and doesn't walk much. If you like to see your 2nd baseman with 0's across the board weeks at a time, then be my guess. Aaron Hill / Kelly Johnson are very intriguing options. Both are in loaded lineups but I like Aaron Hill more since he'll most like bat higher than Kelly? I'd be pissed if they were my starting 2nd baseman though. Both go on slumps and that can kills teams.
Altuve, Kipnis, Weeks are solid picks, can't go wrong with either...
bigh0rt wrote:Your argument is more of a structuring a lineup than a straight up production one, really. You're also being pretty generic specifying that you 'should' get any of 4 of the 5 typical batting categories You should be trying to get those with just about every position -- how you get them is irrelevant.
If Murphy is able to maintain the .315 average and chip in 12 HR and 65 R/RBI apiece, that's not terribly worse than guys like Walker.
People are also probably helping his power gets some boost by moving in the fences at Citi Field. A full year of batting 2nd in front of Wright and Davis, if they're healthy, should mean a decent Run total, as well.
I still don't want him.
Murphy ain't no power hitter, he's more of a gap hitter. 10 HR's at best is what you should expect from him. His batting average will go down because he'll not see as many fastballs with Jose gone. I don't know I guess, i'm not a huge fan of guys with low ceilings.
But (in addition to Young, Murphy, and Cuddyer) you have 4 youngsters in Altuve, Kipnis, Weeks, and Ackley all looking quite positive for next year, potential bouncebacks from Hill, Kelly Johnson, Beckham (last chance!), Brian Roberts and a potential "leap" from Danny Espinosa.
If I'm in a 12 team league, I'm waiting on 2b as long as possible.
Espinosa can't hit and doesn't walk much. If you like to see your 2nd baseman with 0's across the board weeks at a time, then be my guess. Aaron Hill / Kelly Johnson are very intriguing options. Both are in loaded lineups but I like Aaron Hill more since he'll most like bat higher than Kelly? I'd be pissed if they were my starting 2nd baseman though. Both go on slumps and that can kills teams.
Altuve, Kipnis, Weeks are solid picks, can't go wrong with either...
Danny Espinosa was 6th among all second basemen in walks last year - including a whopping 3 less than Kelly Johnson and 20 less than Aaron Hill has had in the last two years COMBINED. So I don't really understand your comment about Espinosa not hitting or not being able to walk. Hill has had one season in the past 4 with an OPS over .700
Espinosa and Kelly Johnson had nearly identical seasons last year (KJ a little better BB rate, Espinosa little better K rate, same homers, same steals, and the only difference between their OPS & wOBA is because Espinosa's BABIP was 20 points higher than Kelly Johnson's.
So, considering they had nearly identical seasons, would you rather have the guy who is going to be 24 on opening day or the guy who is going to be 30?
Espinosa hit .236/.323/.414 last year. If Espinosa makes even small improvements in his walk and K rates and gets up to around .250/.335/.440 along with 20-25 homers and 20+ steals, that (by my initial projections) puts him as a top 10-12 2B in standard leagues, and a top 7 2B in OPS leagues.
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by WebHamster » Sun Jan 15, 2012 11:02 pm 
