2012 Fantasy Baseball: Shortstop Rankings

Opening Day is just a few weeks away and Athlon Sports has all the fantasy baseball rankings you need to get ready for the upcoming season.

Athlon Sports has combined nine fantasy baseball big boards from around the web to compile an updated consensus Top 200 as well as positional breakdowns.

Troy Tulowitzki remains the clear-cut leader at shortstop followed by Hanley Ramirez and his Marlins' teammate Jose Reyes.

Reports out of spring training are that Ramirez has not only embraced the move to third base due to the arrival of Reyes, but he also has looked good at the plate.

Whether you draft and use Ramirez at shortstop or third, when he becomes eligible there, early signs indicate that you may be getting the offensive force at the plate he was just two seasons ago (.342-24-106 with 101 R and 27 SB). One thing's for sure, if you draft Ramirez, who comes in at No. 19 overall on the Big Board, you certainly don't want a repeat of his 2011 injury-plagued campaign (.243-10-45 in just 92 games).

Overall, there's not a lot of changes in the shortstop positional rankings. Erick Aybar and J.J. Hardy both increased their standing in the Top 200 by at least eight slots, while Emilio Bonifacio went backwards 10 spots, resulting in the three of them swapping positions in the positional rankings.

Stephen Drew cracked the Top 200, but it's all but certain he will not be ready by Opening Day as he continues his recovery from the broken ankle he suffered last July. Drew will most likely start the season on the DL in hopes of returning sometime in May.

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Rank – Position ranking
OVR – Overall ranking on The Big Board
LR — Last Ranked, where player was ranked on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012
NR — Not Ranked, means player did not appear on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012

AS – Athlon Sports (updated 3/19/12)
CBS – CBSSportsline.com (as of 3/16/12)
ESPN – (updated 3/13/12)
FOX – FOXSports.com (updated 3/7/12)
MLB – MLB.com (as of 3/15/12)
RC – RotoChamp.com (updated 3/18/12)
RS – RotoSummit.com (updated 2/27/12)
USA — USAToday.com (updated 2/13/12)
Y! – Yahoo! Sports (updated 2/24/12)*

*Yahoo! ranked only 120 players on their list, while Athlon's Big Board contains 200. The aggregated scores of the other eight big boards were used to extrapolate Yahoo!’s rankings to 200 players.

Athlon Sports Fantasy Rankings**: Big Board | C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

**Positional rankings will be updated throughout the week

Other names to consider (in alphabetical order): Clint Barmes (PIT, SS), Willie Bloomquist (ARI, SS/OF), Jamey Carroll (MIN, 2B/SS), Alcides Escobar (KC, SS), Rafael Furcal (STL, SS), Alex Gonzalez (MIL, SS), Macier Izturis (LAA, 2B/SS/3B), Jed Lowrie (HOU, SS/3B), Sean Rodriguez (TB, 2B/SS/3B), Ruben Tejada (NYM, 2B/SS)

— By Mark Ross, updated on March 23, 2012

Other Fantasy Baseball Content:

2012 Fantasy Baseball: First Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Second Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Shortstop Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Third Base Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Outfield Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Catcher Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Starting Pitcher Rankings
2012 Fantasy Baseball: Relief Pitcher Rankings
2012 MLB Fantasy Closer Grid
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Infield
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Outfield
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Starting Pitching
2012 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers and Busts: Closers
Fantasy Baseball Studs to Avoid in 2012
2012 Fantasy Baseball Deep Sleepers

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