Fantasy Baseball: Second Quarter Report Card

I’m better late than never; here’s your All-Second-Quarter Team for fantasy baseball weeks 7-12. Rankings are based on accumulated stats from May 12, 2008 through June 22, 2008 (For a statistics glossary, click here. In terms of K/BB, anything above .55 is acceptable. In terms of OPS, anything above .790 is adequate).

FIRST TEAM
C-- Brian McCann was the #1 catcher in the first quarter and #1 in the second quarter. The only catcher of the M+M+M+M boys that wasn’t kept in our league. Led all catchers with 8 homeruns and had an OPS of .965

1B—Adrian Gonzalez tied for first with 12 homeruns at the position and was second in RBIs with 36. His batting average, on-base and SLUG are still much better on the road then at home, but the run production is about the same and he’s more patient at home, in terms of BB/K, than on the road.

2B—Ian Kinsler and this shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. We all know Kinsler is good and it was just a matter of time that he would go on a tear like he did in the 2nd quarter. A .925 OPS and a BB/K of .73 made for a successful 2nd quarter. He also swiped 10 bags, as he tied for 2nd with Brian Roberts in that category.

SS—Jose Reyes climbed his way to the top spot in the position. Very familiar territory for this phenomenal offensive juggernaut as his .910 OPS, his 6 homeruns, 18 RBIs, and 14 stolen bases was the model of consistency at the position.

3B—Continuing the theme of players being in familiar territory at the #1 spot in their position, Alex Rodriguez’s 2nd quarter not only reminds people why he’s arguably the best 3B, but also the best player in MLB as well. A .83 BB/K, 10 homers (2nd), 30 RBIs (tied for 1st), 1.166 OPS, but the most surprising stat was his 8 stolen bases (1st). He’s pretty good.

LF—Jose Guillen walked the walk after telling his Royal teammates they were a bunch of babies. He walked once and struck out 25 times, but with a .360 batting average (kind of fluky if you consider his .04 BB/K ratio), and a .997 OPS, Guillen was literally hitting everything in sight. 41 league leading RBIs and 16 doubles (1st) solidified his spot at the top. His year-to-date numbers, however, show a mediocre player and this stretch could be as good as Guillen gets for the rest of the season. Don’t go near him!

CF—Carlos Beltran: .889 OPS with a 1.19 BB/K ratio to go along with 8 homers and 29 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. That’s why he gets paid the big bucks!

RF—J.D. Drew came up big with David Ortiz out for a huge chunk of the quarter. With an OPS of 1.225 and walking as much as he struck out, he was able to hit 11 homeruns and knock in 27. His patience also allowed him to hit .351.

DH—Grady Sizemore finally makes his way to one of my articles. OPS of .894 and a respectable K/BB ratio (.70) produced 11 homeruns and 21 RBIs and even stole 10 bases. Has the best chance to join the 30-30 club as far as OFs go.


SECOND TEAM
C-- Russell Martin and Joe Mauer were only a point away from each other so both players deserve a mention. Both will be making the All-Star game. Special note should be taken to Martin’s .888 OPS and his 3 stolen bases in the quarter (tied for 1st). Mauer walked a whopping 23 times to blow by the competition in that category and his BB/K ratio was a very impressive 2:1.

1B—Ryan Howard tied Gonzalez for the homerun lead at the position with 12 and led all 1B with 45 RBIs. His batting average probably made 5X5 leaguers crazy and he struck out a position high 53 times, but with a .936 OPS and the big time run production he achieved in the quarter, you can live with a “few” whiffs.

2B—Let’s take a quick glance into memory lane; “he is susceptible to long slumps just based on his alarming strikeout rate alone.” Well Dan Uggla’s strikeout totals are UGLY (BB/K of .40 is just bad and he’s on pace to strikeout 150+ times this season after whiffing 47 times in the 2nd quarter), but despite his “philosophy” on hitting (to paraphrase his most recent Sports Illustrated appearance of seeing ball and hitting it as hard as he can), 12 homeruns (#1 at the position) and 30 RBIs (#2) are similar numbers that Adrian Gonzalez attained. His .309 batting average is very surprising and clearly opposite of the prediction that I made for him in the 1st. Most impressive still was his OPS of 1.068. When a 2B is hitting like a big-time power corner infielder or outfielder, a few swing and misses is a small sacrifice you pay for the big reward of a homerun. Plus, I can see him finishing with a .285 batting average. .300+ is definitely wishful thinking.

SS—Jimmy Rollins didn’t do anything spectacular in the 2nd quarter. He wasn’t among the elite in terms of power numbers and his .795 OPS leaves an empty space in your stomach, but he did walk more than he K’d out and had position leading 15 stolen bases, WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT ONCE!

3B—Ryan Braun, a.k.a. The Hebrew Hammer, might exclusively play LF, but he qualifies at the hot corner. League leading 13 homeruns, 30 RBIs, 28 runs, and 3 triples, along with a .959 OPS adds up to an impressive quarter. However, A-Rod basically took back what was his. Plus when a player has a K/BB of .27 like Braun did in the 2nd quarter, just the fact that he was #2 at the position points to his superior hitting ability. Now imagine how good he would be if he could take some pitches!

LF—Randy Winn only drove in half the runs that Guillen did in the quarter, but a .324 batting average, to go along with a .930 OPS, and a 1.38 BB/K ratio shows that Winn was the more steadier, better long-term selection than Guillen. However, I think Winn hit his peak during this stretch of the season, but can still be a serviceable OF for your fantasy team.

CF—Josh Hamilton had better power numbers than Carlos Beltran, but with a .34 BB/K ratio, he proves to the rest of us once again that he’s only human. He led all CFs with 12 homeruns and 37 RBIs, nevertheless. Not too shabby!

RF—Shane Victorino, qualifies at the position, the “Flying Hawaiian” was a top 2 CF for most of the 2nd quarter until Beltran went on a tear. Regardless, his patience at the plate (1.21 BB/K) and a .375 on-base% allowed him to score 34 runs (led all RFs.), and steal 12 bags (good for 3rd place behind Ellsbury and Ichiro).

DH—Milton Bradley has always had talent, but has had, to put it lightly, “issues” with authority, fans, and most importantly, injuries. Staying relatively healthy for the quarter, he registered an OPS of 1.23 and showed off his hitting eye with a .85 BB/K ratio. 10 homeruns and 28 RBIs is nothing to sneeze at either.

MISSING THE CUT
C—Geovany Soto made the second team last quarter at this position, but a meager .236 batting average and .713 OPS to go along with an embarrassing BB/K ratio add up to the miserable 2nd Quarter Soto had. Despite his struggles, he is your NL starter at catcher.

1B—Lance Berkman and Albert Pujols, as great as they are, couldn’t keep up the pace of their monster 1st Quarters. Berkman “only” hit 8 homeruns for the quarter, but he was the third best 1B in quarter #2. Pujols was battling a calf injury for most of June and only registered 90 at bats, but still hit 9 homeruns and had an OPS of 1.134! Imagine if he were able to reach 130+ at bats that most of the other players attained in the quarter. Should be interesting to see who comes out on top in Quarter #3.

2B—Chase Utley, what happened? Well, his OPS of .857 is still good, but not as good as the OPS posted by Kinsler and Uggla. He was only 4 points from taking the #2 spot from Uggla. Nevertheless, his .714 BB/K, 9 homers and position leading 35 RBIs has him in place to be back at the top spot at least by the time quarter #3 is over and done with.

SS—Hanley Ramirez got off to a hot start, but a BB/K of 1:2 and the lack of contact (resulting in a .255 batting average), and only 12 RBIs despite 8 homers led Rollins and Reyes to take over the top two spots. 42 K’s in the 2nd quarter (2nd in the position) and only 6 stolen bases let a few owners down, but 31 runs scored (2nd), and 8 homeruns (1st) foreshadows an even better 3rd quarter.

3B—Chipper Jones, despite his great batting eye (1.50 BB/K) and his wonderful OPS (1.084), and flirting with a .400 batting average (.385 for the 2nd quarter); he only finished as the #4 slot at the position. 6 homeruns and 17 RBIs was the low mark for this high-powered position and might have explained why he didn’t dominate like he did in the 1st. 30 BBs meant a higher on-base, but less chance that he could do damage with the bat.

As for the overrated “Greek God of Walks,” Kevin Youkilis (or “You Kill Us”) finished with 5 homeruns, 17 RBIs (low for the position), 7 BBs (why even have that nickname in the first place?), a .23 BB/K (very un-God-like), and an .821 OPS, a far cry from his .996 OPS from the 1st quarter. It’s a shame that he was in the All-Star game this year and that is why that game shouldn’t decide who gets home-field advantage for the World Series.

LF—Matt Holliday spent a good portion of his 2nd quarter on the DL with a hamstring injury and only was credited with 94 official at bats. There is no doubt that Holliday would’ve been mentioned in the top 2 of the list had he stayed healthy as he was crushing the ball when he got off the DL in mid June. He should be back in his rightful spot by the end of the 3rd quarter.

Pat Burrell, his batting average dipped down to .244, but it wasn’t because of his strikeouts. A .93 BB/K rate is still pretty good and his .921 OPS was great. Burrell, is a run-producing slugger who didn’t knock in many runs last quarter (16 RBIs). When Burrell isn’t hitting homeruns or driving in runs, he’s not doing much of anything else. He doesn’t hit for much contact (13 singles in the 2nd), and only scored 18 runs. Burrell seems to be going through a stretch of bad luck, but his skill set is good to this author’s surprise. Continue to be patient with him.

CF—Nate McLouth had a decent BB/K ratio (.625), but a huge dip in the OPS (.828 in the 2nd quarter) is a big reason why he was only the 7th best CF in the fantasy world. Hopefully he won’t continue to dip any further.

RF—Xavier Nady saw his OPS dip all the way down to .822 and only drove in 15 RBIs, half of what he did in the 1st quarter. Carlos Quentin also saw his OPS drop all the way down to .857, but he managed to walk as much as struck out, proving once again he has one of the best hitting eyes in baseball. Plus he hit 8 homeruns and drove in 27, similar numbers he posted in the 1st. He’ll be fine.

DH—Derrek Lee had relatively ordinary numbers in the 2nd quarter. Starting with a .271 batting average, he saw his OPS drop to middle infielder levels at .762 while his BB/K ratio was at a very low .42. Conor Jackson, after getting many kudos in the 1st quarter disappointed once again in the 2nd. 2 homeruns and 10 RBIs is just not going to get it done. A .381 on-base% shows some hope and still has a good batting eye that just screams better numbers.

Next up, the pitchers....


As Written By,

Felipe Melecio