When it comes to five tool wunderkinds of the baseball world, they are few and far between in the land of middle infielders. For what ever reason, shortstop has many more tools at your disposal than second base. In my opinion, this factor makes drafting a great second baseman and shortstop early a priority. There’s 20-25 top tier outfielders, I’d be happy with any of the top 10 first or third basemen, but when you get past the top 4 or 5 middle infielders, I start getting sweaty palms.

So, why is it a priority to draft one of the few good middle infielders early and a joke to draft one of the few good catchers early? Because the few good middle infielders will get you 20-30 home runs or 50-70 stolen bases. The few good catchers will get you 15-20 home runs and 120 games played. That’s it. So, here’s some shortstops you may not be aware of and some that you may be TOO aware of:

Sleepers:

1. Jhonny Peralta – Cleveland Indians – For three years in a row Juh-honny has put up very respectable numbers (a 3 Year Average of 84/19/73/2/.273). So, why is it that this guy is ranked #15 among shortstops? He the starting shortstop for a scrappy contender. Is it his dyslexic name? That must be it, because I don’t see any other explanation.

2. Felipe Lopez – Washington Nationals – Oh man, has this guy fallen off the charts. One bad start and mediocre finish will do that in the unforgiving world of fantasy rankings. But, face facts, this guy had some weird things going on. In 2005, he blew the eff up with 23 home runs out of nowhere. In 2006, he forgot how to hit the dinger, but suddenly learned how to steal 44 friggin’ bases. Then in 2007 he kind of forgot how to do any of it until the end of the season. I’m gonna put it on the table that he regains better form this season.

3. Jason Bartlett – Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays – Now, Bartlett’s probably not going to set your roto numbers on fire with his bat. He’ll probably get you 5-6 home runs. His worth lies in the fact that he’ll get you 20-25 stolen bases and 70-80 runs. As a matter of fact, his projected stats are very similar to Orlando Cabrera’s who is ranked 10 spots ahead of Bartlett. The best news is, you could probably hold off on drafting him until the end of the draft and focus on beefing up other spots once the top 4 or 5 shortstops have been drafted.

Busters:

1. Miguel Tejada – Houston Astros – It happens time and time again. A guy who is “allegedly” on steroids (I use “allegedly” because…come on…) goes off the juice and starts getting injured and his play goes down. Guess what happened to the former second most consecutive games played record holder last season? Right! He missed 30 games or so and his production was way down. Then his name shows up in bold print in the Mitchell Report. Factor that in with the fact that he’ll be playing half of his games in the 6th worst park to hit in, suddenly he’s not looking so hot.

2. Orlando Cabrera – Chicago White Sox – Why this guy is in the Top 10 shortstops, I don’t know. As I said a couple of paragraphs up, you can get similar numbers well down the draft board. I know how these prognosticators work, they love to put 100% validity into the previous seasons stats for some reason and ignore a history of mediocrity. I’m a little more cynical than that. I don’t see the value here…

3. Khalil Greene – San Diego Padres – Another instance of one great season makes prognosticators only be able to focus on the giant boobs despite the horse face. Khalil nearly doubled up his home run numbers from his previous three seasons (15, 15, 15, 27) last year. Is it a case of coming of age, or was it just dumb luck? Whatever, Greene is a notoriously slow starter and really shouldn’t you be less worried about the guys who drop off at the end of the season during the draft? If a guy is notorious for terrible Augusts and Septembers, that great you can trade him off in July after he tears up the league. You can’t do a damn thing with a slow starter who will find his way onto the waiver wire by May.

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