2011 N.L. Shortstops

It's nice when what I'm doing in my tiny corner of the baseball universe dovetails with big news in the real world.

Ten Most Expensive N.L. Shortstops, 2011

#	Player	$	Sal	+/-	CBS	LABR	TW	PK	2010
1	Hanley Ramirez	$16	44	-28	49	41	42	41	$33
2	Troy Tulowitzki	$32	40	-8	48	35	37	36	$31
3	Jose Reyes	$36	30	6	32	29	29	29	$25
4	Jimmy Rollins	$27	24	3	23	25	25	21	$12
5	Stephen Drew	$9	24	-14	24	21	26	20	$20
6	Starlin Castro	$30	19	10	21	18	19	16	$15
7	Ian Desmond	$18	18	0	19	17	18	15	$18
8	Rafael Furcal	$8	18	-10	17	19	18	18	$21
9	Miguel Tejada	$5	14	-9	13	16	14	13	$16
10	Jason Bartlett	$14	12	1	11	12	14	11	$12
	Average	$20	24	-5	26	23	24	22	$20

Shortstop has been a big money position in N.L. Rotisserie leagues in recent years, and 2011 was no exception. For the fourth year in a row, three N.L. shortstops were paid $30 or more in Roto leagues. Tulowitzki replaced Reyes in 2010, who replaced Rollins on this list last year, but the names at the top have been pretty stable on the whole. Hanley is the only SS who has cracked a $30 salary in N.L. leagues four years running, so naturally he rewarded N.L. owners with one of the biggest losses at any position since Reyes took a $37 loss in 2009.

Up until now, the N.L. market had been paying the most expensive players something closer to what they had earned in 2010 than the freewheeling A.L. had been doing. Here, that all changed. These raises all come for the top six hitters on the chart. Once again, CBS is the most enthusiastic bidder, but everyone - including conservative Rotoman - thinks all of these hitters are worth at least a $4 raise from what they earned the year before.

Recovering from a Hanley-sized wipeout is usually impossible. But a $32 return on a $40 plzyer (Tulo) is always better than an $8 return from an $18 one (Furcal) even though the actual dollar loss is very close. And if you were willing to bet a little bit more than what Reyes earned in 2010, you hit the jackpot: $36 worth of stats at a slight bargain.

In most of these N.L. charts so far, there haven't been too many single digit players...and there haven't been any freebies (players that CBS, LABR and Tout didn't even see fit to pay $1 for). That's not true at SS.

Top 10 N.L. Shortstops, 2011

#	Player	$	Sal	+/-	CBS	LABR	TW	PK	2010
1	Jose Reyes	$36	30	6	32	29	29	29	$25
2	Troy Tulowitzki	$32	40	-8	48	35	37	36	$31
3	Starlin Castro	$30	19	10	21	18	19	16	$15
4	Jimmy Rollins	$27	24	3	23	25	25	21	$12
5	Ian Desmond	$18	18	0	19	17	18	15	$18
6	Hanley Ramirez	$16	44	-28	49	41	42	41	$33
7	Darwin Barney	$14							$1
8	Jason Bartlett	$14	12	1	11	12	14	11	$12
9	Dee Gordon	$13
10	Yuniesky Betancourt	$13	5	8	4	7	5	8	$15
	Average	$21	24	0	21	18	19	18	$16

 

Betancourt cracks the Top 10 earners, but it's Barney and Gordon here who make news as the first free agents to show up in my 2011 N.L. charts.

Why are the freebies important?

If you bought Hanley or Drew at a position where there were no strong free agent earners, then it was more difficult to make up for the lost stats. Getting a $6 earner back for an injured player is OK...but since you were picking up that player mid-season you're really getting production at a $6 pace, not the full $6 worth of stats.

Barney and Gordon, on the other hand, are the types of players who probably earned almost all of their $13 or $14 for their owners. If you were fortunate enough to pick these guys up in the early going, you got something back for your trouble when Drew went down for the year.

You were probably stuck with Hanley all year long, though. Big bust or no, he was the sixth highest earning shortstop in the N.L. last year.

Reyes' confirmed return to the National League makes the position fairly stable next year. It will be interesting to see if Rollins slips, if Castro can keep it up, or if Desmond can build on what he did last year and put two strong halves together. The radical hierarchy between the top and the bottom of the position makes me believe that Roto owners are going to be even more aggressive in pushing the top hitters salaries even higher this year. If you want an elite option, you're going to have to pay for it. If you want Hanley, you're probably not getting any kind of bargain.