Welcome to the May shortstop rankings. As always, players are ranked based on how I believe they will perform in 5x5 scoring over the rest of the season. Included along with the position rankings is an updated top 300 list. I try to list players at the positions at which they're most valuable, so if you can't find that second baseman you're looking for, check shortstop instead.
Click to see other May rankings:
Top 300 | SP | RP | OF | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | C | DH
Editor's Note: Rotoworld's partner FanDuel is hosting a one-day $45,000 Fantasy Baseball league for Monday night's MLB games. It's $25 to join and first prize is $7,000. Starts at 7:05pm ET on Monday. Here's the FanDuel link.
Follow us at @Rotoworld_BB and @matthewpouliot on Twitter.
Shortstop Rankings
| May | Shortstop | Team | 2014 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hanley Ramirez | Dodgers | 1 |
| 2 | Troy Tulowitzki | Rockies | 2 |
| 3 | Ian Desmond | Nationals | 5 |
| 4 | Jose Reyes | Blue Jays | 4 |
| 5 | Dee Gordon | Dodgers | 25 |
| 6 | Starlin Castro | Cubs | 9 |
| 7 | Elvis Andrus | Rangers | 3 |
| 8 | Alexei Ramirez | White Sox | 10 |
| 9 | Jean Segura | Brewers | 6 |
| 10 | Andrelton Simmons | Braves | 8 |
| 11 | Ben Zobrist | Rays | 12 |
| 12 | Everth Cabrera | Padres | 13 |
| 13 | Jed Lowrie | Athletics | 15 |
| 14 | Jhonny Peralta | Cardinals | 16 |
| 15 | Jimmy Rollins | Phillies | 18 |
| 16 | Brad Miller | Mariners | 7 |
| 17 | Xander Bogaerts | Red Sox | 14 3B |
| 18 | Asdrubal Cabrera | Indians | 11 |
| 19 | Erick Aybar | Angels | 14 |
| 20 | Alcides Escobar | Royals | 19 |
| 21 | Jonathan Villar | Astros | 26 |
| 22 | J.J. Hardy | Orioles | 17 |
| 23 | Derek Jeter | Yankees | 22 |
| 24 | Chris Owings | Diamondbacks | 20 |
| 25 | Stephen Drew | 21 | |
| 26 | Yunel Escobar | Rays | 24 |
| 27 | Mike Aviles | Indians | 32 |
| 28 | Adeiny Hechavarria | Marlins | 29 |
| 29 | Zack Cozart | Reds | 23 |
| 30 | Javier Baez | Cubs | 27 |
| 31 | Brandon Crawford | Giants | 33 |
| 32 | Jordy Mercer | Pirates | 28 |
| 33 | Eduardo Escobar | Twins | 52 |
| 34 | Brandon Hicks | Giants | 82 |
| 35 | Ruben Tejada | Mets | 30 |
| 36 | Rafael Furcal | Marlins | 31 |
| 37 | Eduardo Nunez | Twins | 34 |
| 38 | Andrew Romine | Tigers | 39 3B |
| 39 | Marwin Gonzalez | Astros | 41 |
| 40 | Cliff Pennington | Diamondbacks | 38 |
| 41 | Greg Garcia | Cardinals | 85 |
| 42 | Maicer Izturis | Blue Jays | 35 |
| 43 | Brendan Ryan | Yankees | 46 |
| 44 | Zach Walters | Nationals | 81 |
| 45 | Daniel Descalso | Cardinals | 47 |
Dropping off: Pedro Florimon Jr. (36th), Pedro Ciriaco (37th), Didi Gregorius (39th), Addison Russell (40th)
- I can’t say I’m thrilled about this list. One major question is how much faith to put into Gordon’s start. Obviously, he’s not a .357 hitter, but if he’s good enough to hang on to the leadoff spot all year, then he could steal 80 bases and score 90 runs. So, how good would he have to be to pull that off? I mean, .280 is perfectly realistic, but as rarely as Gordon walks, he’s not a great leadoff hitter while batting .280. But he doesn’t need to be great… he just needs to stay in the lineup and steal bases.
I’m putting him fifth, which seems like a compromise. If he were more of a lock for 550 at-bats, he’d be No. 3.
- Andrus was going to stay in the third spot, but then manager Ron Washington had to go and drop him from second to ninth in the lineup on Sunday. That’s not a bad thing for the Rangers – handing Andrus the second spot in the lineup year after year was the bad thing for the Rangers – but it’s a pretty awful thing for his fantasy value. I’m guessing it’s just a temporary move while he’s slumping. If I thought Andrus were going to remain the ninth spot, he’d have fallen out of the top 10 here.
- I still have a lot of faith in Miller, but it concerns me that the Mariners might not feel the same way. While I still think there’s a good chance he’ll be a top-10 shortstop the rest of the way, I can’t continue to rank him up there given that he’s lost playing time and he could be a bad week away from a demotion to Triple-A.