Top 10 fantasy baseball shortstops in American League

Some shortstops' fantasy value is boosted by the teammates they have around them. Aybar is definitely one of those shortstops. Put Aybar on the Minnesota Twins and, well, he likely wouldn't even make this list unless he was hitting third in front of Justin Morneau, vintage 2006-2009. Aybar, though, could be a real sleeper pick. He's going to have Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo hitting near him so he'll stumble into 60-75 RBI and/or 75-90 runs. But Aybar will also hit well enough to help you (.290 last year) and steal bases (20 last year) to possibly help you win another category. The concern here is that his steals dropped from 30 in 2011 to 20 last year and he doesn't walk a lot. The lack of walks leads to an ugly on base percentage (.320 for his career) and mediocre runs scored totals (67 last year, 71 in 2011). So he's not Alex Rodriguez. Big deal. Neither is Alex Rodriguez anymore.The Red Sox might be better off with J.D. Drew at shortstop, given brother Stephen's propensity to end up on the disabled list in recent years. But little Stevie is just 30-years-old and if he can stay healthy, hitting off that inviting Green Monster, well, this could be a nice value pick in the middle-to-late-rounds of your draft. Drew has been in and out of rehab assignments the last two years.  But in 2010, when he bothered to show up for work most days, he did hit 15 homers, drive in 61 and hit .278 for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Drew hit .291 with 21 homers and 67 RBI back in 2008 with Arizona and, well, that seems like decades ago. If he's also feeling extra healthy, he might even steal you a base or two (34 in his career). Nobody is going to call him Nomar by the end of the year but he's a decent gamble.Yunel Escobar will likely be one of those guys who plays for every team in the major leagues before his career is over. He's already played for the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays and is now with Team No. 3 in Tampa. And Escobar is also one of those guys who is not really as good as you think he is. Maybe it was that 2009 season in Atlanta when he hit .299 with 14 homers with 76 RBI. Escobar hasn't done that again. But he can hit. He is a .282 career hitter. And in the Blue Jays' lineup, well, he should see nothing but fastballs all season long. If he hits just .250 in the nine hole he could drive in 90 runs. Escobar's ceiling is probably 10 homers and as many steals as you can count on one hand. So don't think you are getting Starling Castro here. But he's good enough to put in your lineup and forget him. But you better have a few All Stars in other places if you want to win your league.View the list »
The No. 10 spot on our list came down to Hiroyuki Nakajima of the Oakland A's and Jhonny Peralta. We went with Peralta because, well, we have a weakness for fat shortstops who should be playing on weekend softball beer league teams and guys who can't spell their own first name. Make no mistake, Peralta is a huge risk. Don't take him unless you absolutely have to. The Tigers, it seems, are always on the verge of replacing him with Dick Tracewski, Don Wert or Eddie Brinkman. Peralta is simply a two-category guy. And he's not all that good in those two categories. He is going to hit you 10-15 homers and rive in 60-75 runs whether you want them or not. And, well, that's not bad for a shortstop that you can probably pick up in Round 20 of your draft. He won't steal any bases and he'll probably hit .239 like he did a year ago. But if he plays -- and he will play because the Tigers are indeed a weekend softball beer league team -- he'll hit the ball out of the park. And, to be honest, even a 75-year-old Don Wert would drive in 60 runs in the Tigers lineup this year.

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If you stapled the typical shortstop's fantasy numbers -- 10 homers, 50 RBI, .265 average, 10 steals -- on an outfielder you would look somewhere else come draft day.

But the beauty of fantasy baseball is you can't load up on 15 outfielders. You have to have a shortstop and maybe two if your league uses a middle infield spot as well.

The number of shortstops in the American League who can actually help your fantasy team is small. The days of Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, a young Derek Jeter, Nomar Garciaparra, Miguel Tejada and Robin Yount bashing the baseball around American League ballparks is long gone.

But there are still a few who can make the difference between a fifth-place team and a league champion. Why not get one? There is always a productive outfielder sitting on the waiver wire, right?

If you want a shortstop that can actually help your fantasy team, instead of one that simply won't kill it, you have to act quickly. In most drafts, once an elite shortstop is taken, there is usually a run on the position because a panic situation starts.

You don't, after all, want to be left starting Nick Punto or Juan Uribe at short.

A look at the Top 10 shortstops in the American League for 2013 . . .

View the list
  • The No. 10 spot on our list came down to Hiroyuki Nakajima of the Oakland A's and Jhonny Peralta. We went with Peralta because, well, we have a weakness for fat shortstops who should be playing on weekend softball beer league teams and guys who can't spell their own first name. Make no mistake, Peralta is a huge risk. Don't take him unless you absolutely have to. The Tigers, it seems, are always on the verge of replacing him with Dick Tracewski, Don Wert or Eddie Brinkman. Peralta is simply a two-category guy. And he's not all that good in those two categories. He is going to hit you 10-15 homers and rive in 60-75 runs whether you want them or not. And, well, that's not bad for a shortstop that you can probably pick up in Round 20 of your draft. He won't steal any bases and he'll probably hit .239 like he did a year ago. But if he plays -- and he will play because the Tigers are indeed a weekend softball beer league team -- he'll hit the ball out of the park. And, to be honest, even a 75-year-old Don Wert would drive in 60 runs in the Tigers lineup this year.
  • Yunel Escobar will likely be one of those guys who plays for every team in the major leagues before his career is over. He's already played for the Atlanta Braves and Toronto Blue Jays and is now with Team No. 3 in Tampa. And Escobar is also one of those guys who is not really as good as you think he is. Maybe it was that 2009 season in Atlanta when he hit .299 with 14 homers with 76 RBI. Escobar hasn't done that again. But he can hit. He is a .282 career hitter. And in the Blue Jays' lineup, well, he should see nothing but fastballs all season long. If he hits just .250 in the nine hole he could drive in 90 runs. Escobar's ceiling is probably 10 homers and as many steals as you can count on one hand. So don't think you are getting Starling Castro here. But he's good enough to put in your lineup and forget him. But you better have a few All Stars in other places if you want to win your league.
  • The Red Sox might be better off with J.D. Drew at shortstop, given brother Stephen's propensity to end up on the disabled list in recent years. But little Stevie is just 30-years-old and if he can stay healthy, hitting off that inviting Green Monster, well, this could be a nice value pick in the middle-to-late-rounds of your draft. Drew has been in and out of rehab assignments the last two years.  But in 2010, when he bothered to show up for work most days, he did hit 15 homers, drive in 61 and hit .278 for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Drew hit .291 with 21 homers and 67 RBI back in 2008 with Arizona and, well, that seems like decades ago. If he's also feeling extra healthy, he might even steal you a base or two (34 in his career). Nobody is going to call him Nomar by the end of the year but he's a decent gamble.
  • Some shortstops' fantasy value is boosted by the teammates they have around them. Aybar is definitely one of those shortstops. Put Aybar on the Minnesota Twins and, well, he likely wouldn't even make this list unless he was hitting third in front of Justin Morneau, vintage 2006-2009. Aybar, though, could be a real sleeper pick. He's going to have Prince Fielder, Josh Hamilton, Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo hitting near him so he'll stumble into 60-75 RBI and/or 75-90 runs. But Aybar will also hit well enough to help you (.290 last year) and steal bases (20 last year) to possibly help you win another category. The concern here is that his steals dropped from 30 in 2011 to 20 last year and he doesn't walk a lot. The lack of walks leads to an ugly on base percentage (.320 for his career) and mediocre runs scored totals (67 last year, 71 in 2011). So he's not Alex Rodriguez. Big deal. Neither is Alex Rodriguez anymore.
  • J.J. Hardy is another one of those two-category shortstops. Hardy, who fashions himself after Adam Dunn and Jim Thome, can hit the ball out of any ballpark. He hit 22 homers in 2012 after hitting 30 in 2011. He's hit 133 homers in his career and has had four years of 20-plus bombs. He's a lifetime .259 hitter and, well, even that sorry number is inflated because he hit .277 in 2007 and .283 in 2008. He'll likely never do that again. So think something along the lines of .235 and you won't be disappointed. Hardy, though, won't disappoint you with his power. Go get your steals (just six for his entire career) and your average somewhere else. And let Hardy do the heavy lifting. But be patient. There will be weeks when it seems like he doesn't even put the ball in play. But he'll break out. He always does. Just leave him alone and worry about other positions.
  • Elvis Andrus is not Jose Reyes. Sorry. But he's pretty darn good just the same. Andrus has absolutely no power (three homers last year and 14 for his 4-year career) and he won't drive in a ton of runs (just 62 last year) despite hitting in a pinball offense. But Andrus will score some runs (85 last year) and steal some bases (21 last year) and hit for a decent enough average (.275 lifetime). Anytime a shortstop can help you in three or more categories, well, don't let him slip too far in your draft. Andrus a safe pick. And he might even see an upturn in steals now that Josh Hamilton is gone and the Rangers might have to manufacture more runs than in recent years. The concern here is that hotshot rookie Jurickson Profar might drive him crazy and Andrus could find himself on the Houston Astros or Miami Marlins if the right deal comes along. But no matter where he ism he'll produce. Just 24-years-old Andrus is fantasy gold for the next decade.
  • Yes, he's probably ranked a bit too high at No. 4. He's getting old (39 in Junes) and his teammates are crumbling all around him. Jeter is definitely closer to the Hall of Fame than he is another World Series title. But don't forget that he hit .316 last year with 15 homers, 58 RBI and nine steals, not to mention 99 runs scored. He also got 683 at-bats. It is probably his last great season but you never know with Jeter. He'll be in Cooperstown exactly five years after he retires. He's one of the all-time greats and the baseball Gods will send a bolt of lightning into my computer if I rank him worse than the No. 4 shortstop in the American League. Unless you have a Horace Clarke or Roy White poster on your wall, don't pick him in the first 10 rounds and you'll be fine.
  • This is probably the highest you'll find Alexei Ramirez ranked anywhere, even on a list of the Top 10 shortstops named Alexei. But the Cuban Missile is one of the most underrated fantasy shortstops in the game. He can help you in just about every category. And he's not 39-years-old. Ramirez has arguably his worst season last year but he still contributed in most categories with 59 runs, nine homers, 73 RBI and 20 steals on a .265 average. He'll bounce back in 2013 to something like 15 homers, 75 runs, 75 RBI, 15 homers and 15 steals on a .270 average. In five years in Chicago, he has 67 steals, 78 homers, 358 RBI on a .276 career average. He's not great in any category but he's not bad in any of them and that alone makes him better than most American League shortstops. He's 31-years-old so he is what he is. He's not Gary Templeton waiting to break out. But he's certainly a nice value pick in the middle of your draft.
  • Asdrubal Cabrera is the best fantasy player in the American League with a  first name nobody can spell. And, oh yeah, he's a pretty good fantasy player even if his name was A.J. Cabrera, like Alexei Ramirez, had a down year in 2012. But don;t let that scare you away from him. Cabrera is just 27-years-old and even Honus Wagner would have struggled in that 2012 Indians lineup. Cabrera scored 70 runs last year, hit 16 homers with 68 RBI and also stole nine bases on a .270 average. He is a career .279 hitter with 53 steals, 59 homers and 326 RBI. He hit 25 homers and drove in 92 runs just two years ago. He stole 17 bases in 2009 and 2011. He scored 81 runs in 2009 and 87 in 2011. This is a guy who can hit 20 homers with 80 RBI and 15 steals on a .280 average very easily this year. And he's just 27-years-old.
  • When a guy goes from New York to Miami to Toronto, well, he needs a better travel agent. Reyes, though, might have a Hall of Fame season in 2013 hitting in that ridiculously good Blue Jays lineup. When you have Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Melky Cabrera, Brett Lawrie, Adam Lind, Colby Rasmus, J.P. Arencibia and speedsters Rajai Davis, Emilio Bonifacio and Anthony Gose hitting and running around you, well, you can't help but score and drive in runs. Reyes has spent the bulk of his career hitting on top of dreadful lineups with the Mets and Miami Marlins. And he still seems headed to Cooperstown. In Miami last year he hit .287 with 40 steals, 86 runs, 11 homers, 12 triples and 57 RBI. And that was in a Triple-A lineup. Reyes, who won't even turn 30-years-old until June, is a career .291 hitter with 92 homers, 410 steals and 821 runs. You could pick this guy at the bottom of your first round if you'd like. He might steal 50 bases, score 120 runs and drive in 75 in this lineup.
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, Fantasy Baseball Examiner

Joe Santoro is an award-winning sportswriter with over three decades of experience. Joe is the dean of Northern Nevada sports reporters and has covered University of Nevada Wolf Pack sports as a beat reporter and columnist for more than two decades. His "Friday Fodder" column is the longest...

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