And we’ve reached our final top 20 recap for the infield, and, if you exclude the top 20 catchers, 3rd base is by far the shallowest position. 3rd base ain’t great, y’all! This is the first position where there’s guys at the tail end that I actively wouldn’t have wanted on my fantasy teams, and guys like Yoan Moncada, Bobby Dalbec, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Adalberto Mondesi and Anthony Rendon all stunk, and didn’t even come within a sniff of the top 20 3rd basemen. Also, even the top 20 2nd basemen, which wasn’t great saw Wilmer Flores at 20, he’s 19th overall here, so this was a tad shallower. To recap my recap before the recap, this final ranking is from our Fantasy Baseball Player Rater with my comments. This is not for next year. Anyway, here’s the top 20 3rd basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball and how they compare to where I originally ranked them:
1. Jose Ramirez – Prolly the most locked up position player you’re gonna find. Call him Mr. Locked Up from Lockerbie, shopping at Foot Locker with a grant from Lockheed Martin to make specialized drones to take out other 3rd basemen challenging for the top spot. As much as I want to fete Jo-Jo-Ram, and, boy, do I love to fete, even if it sounds like the gayest word ever, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Jo-Jo’s 2nd half wasn’t great and he’s getting up there in age, and, yeah, will save that for next year when I get out on one of the most consistent guys in the sport way too early. Preseason Rank #1, 2022 Projections: 106/34/108/.273/25 in 567 ABs, Final Numbers: 91/29/126/.280/20 in 601 ABs
2. Manny Machado – I’m sorry, but who’s more reliable than Machado? 30 homers — check! 100 RBIs — check! — 10 steals — check! 100 runs — check! Solid average — check! Even his sprint speed has normalized around the 400th slowest in the league, which is so freakin’ funny to me still. He has to have the most steals in the league with the most obscenely terrible home to first times. If you’re not picking up what I’m putting down, then you’re like Machado’s feet to first, i.e., Machado doesn’t run very hard to first but he has speed. Preseason Rank #4, 2022 Projections: 94/32/109/.283/10 in 559 ABs, Final Numbers: 100/32/102/.298/9 in 578 ABs
3. Austin Riley – Struggled in the preseason with how much to trust Riley’s previous season, and for four (stutterer!) months he made me seem silly for ever doubting him, then he trailed off in August and September just to give me some more pause next year. Thank you, Riley, for giving me just a little agita! Also, I mentioned this a bunch in the shortstops recap, but it truly is crazy to me how many at-bats some of these guys had, and how few runs they scored. Not talking about bad teams or guys low in the order, either. Preseason Rank #5, 2022 Projections: 87/33/98/.262 in 588 ABs, Final Numbers: 90/38/93/.273/2 in 615 ABs
4. Nolan Arenado – Kinda weird one, because I was totally out in the preseason, and he did better than I expected but my preseason projections vs. his end-of-the-year numbers are that different? Rhetorical! Though, absolutely screwed up by calling him a preseason schmohawk, and that’s kinda where it stops for me, because my dog ate the rest of my notes on him, and I put my dog by an open window, and, do you need to know more? No! I still have the dog! He pooped out the notes, and I was drying the turd-notes by the open window–NOOOO!!! Torenado! Preseason Rank #8, 2022 Projections: 76/32/89/.252/1 in 580 ABs, Final Numbers: 73/30/103/.293/5 in 557 ABs
5. Bobby Witt Jr. – Already went over him in the top 20 shortstops for 2022 fantasy baseball.
6. Rafael Devers – Do the Red Sox have a San Fran Giants thing going? Are they on an “every other year” thing? Devers seems like he is, though 2020 kinda messes up everything when it comes to multi-year narratives. Saberhagenmetricians are going to studying this all offseason, or at least every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Jokes aside (were they jokes?), Devers’s season looks like a clearcut case of a guy who was nursing an injury in the 2nd half. His numbers look solid, but the ball just wasn’t being driven. Preseason Rank #2, 2022 Projections: 104/36/115/.284/4 in 597 ABs, Final Numbers: 84/27/88/.295/3 in 555 ABs
7. Brandon Drury – Already went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
8. Alex Bregman – Welp, here’s the guy I absolutely nailed in the preseason projections and end-of-the-year stats and the ranking. Might be the most right-on guy across all the rankings. What do I win? Imaginary applause. Thank you, thank you, no, no, that’s enough, you embarrass me! Preseason Rank #9, 2022 Projections: 92/23/102/.267/1 in 561 ABs, Final Numbers: 93/23/93/.259/1 in 548 ABs
9. Eugenio Suarez – Already went over him in the top 20 shortstops for 2022 fantasy baseball.
10. Matt Chapman – Yo, my preseason projections were really good this year, methinks, while metalks like a leprechaun. If being honest (for once!), I’d prolly say I had visions of Chapman hitting more homers than I even projected him for: Delusions of Grandstands Souvenirs is the medical term. It’s promising that he cut his strikeout rate, and, from his O-Swing%, it looks sustainable. Preseason Rank #11, 2022 Projections: 72/31/86/.214/2 in 523 ABs, Final Numbers: 83/27/76/.229/2 in 538 ABs
11. Alec Bohm – Not going to take dubyas that mean nothing: Bohm did pretty close to what I expected, but that is not a hitting line I respect much. It’s so yawnstipating. 12/2 is useless. It doesn’t even make a safe steering wheel grip. This also goes to how sad the 3rd basemen became almost instantly after Eugenio at nine. Preseason Rank #30, 2022 Projections: 62/10/56/.258/5 in 512 ABs, Final Numbers: 79/12/72/.280/2 in 586 ABs
12. Luis Arraez – Already went over him in the top 20 1st basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
13. Josh Rojas – Already went over him at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
14. Justin Turner – I legit called my nearest AM/PM to speak to Toomgis to see if he tampered with the Player Rater to get Turner ranked this high. They said Toomgis doesn’t work in stores, but is a total diva, and “Could I please help them get rid of him?” Whatever that means, and whatever this statline Turner finished with, like, what even? That’s awful! How did he finish 14th here? His average and RBIs are doing a lot of lifting. Preseason Rank #17, 2022 Projections: 73/24/75/.257/2 in 481 ABs, Final Numbers: 61/13/81/.278/3 in 468 ABs
15. Ryan McMahon – Already went over him at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
16. Patrick Wisdom – As someone who rostered Wisdom — the player, clearly not the brain stuff — in a very deep league, and I tried everyone I could to replace him and not play him, so, yeah, these 3rd basemen are super sad. Though, for what it’s Cronenworth, I’d take Wisdom over Turner, and figure out average elsewhere. Preseason Rank #23, 2022 Projections: 58/28/72/.212/3 in 561 ABs, Final Numbers: 67/25/66/.207/8 in 469 ABs
17. Yandy Diaz – Ya know what my Bohm and Yandy Diaz preseason rankings tell me? I do well projecting guys, but I clearly have blindspots when it comes to ranking. I know what Yandy and Bohm are going to do, but I rank them much lower, because I don’t want those stats. I’d prefer to take a flyer off waivers on a breakout or hot schmotato than have Yandy (or Bohm) all year. You could Frankenstein a 3rd baseman together off waivers and beat Yandy or Bohm. Or at least have fun trying. Preseason Rank #42, 2022 Projections: 51/10/56/.267/1 in 445 ABs, Final Numbers: 71/9/57/.296/3 in 473 ABs
18. Kyle Farmer – Continuing thought from Yandy blurb, these guys aren’t exactly producing great stats, they are staying healthy and accumulating runs, RBIs and not totally killing you in average. On a side note, that Farmer saw 145 games the past two years for the Reds should trigger a clause where the Reds’ owner has to sell the team. Preseason Rank #45, 2022 Projections: 41/9/43/.251/3 in 312 ABs, Final Numbers: 58/14/78/.255/4 in 526 ABs
19. Wilmer Flores – Already went over him at the top 20 2nd basemen for 2022 fantasy baseball.
20. Gio Urshela – Ya know what the 3rd basemen are missing? The guys who had less than 400 ABs but were fun and sexy and anything but more accumulators! Like the Jon Bertis and Jose Mirandas of the world, they’d be fun to see here. Wait a second, I just saw them! Because I wrote their names. Wowie wee wow! Preseason Rank #25, 2022 Projections: 71/19/78/.277/1 in 547 ABs, Final Numbers: 61/13/64/.285/1 in 501 ABs
