2020 Fantasy Baseball: Top 10 H2H third basemen, ranked
By Manny Gómez
Manny Machado, San Diego Padres
2019 MLB Season: .256 AVG / .796 OPS / 21 2B / 2 3B / 32 HR / 85 RBI
2020 STEAMER: .272 AVG / .863 OPS / 29 2B / 3 3B / 37 HR / 102 RBI
At the time of it’s signing, Manny Machado owned the richest contract (10-years, $300M) in baseball history. Since then, that title has been passed to two other players: Bryce Harper (13-years, $330M) and Mike Trout (12-years, $426.5M).
Perhaps the pressure of the dollar got to Machado last season because his numbers really went down in his first season with the San Diego Padres. The good news is, however, that this season he is projected to bounce-back.
In fact, the Steamer system currently ranks MM as the 9th among all MLB third basemen. Offensively, he’s projected to improve across the board. That’s good for H2H fantasy baseball owners looking to take him higher than what we’re projecting him here.
Rafael Devers, Boston Red Sox
2019 MLB Season: .311 AVG / .916 OPS / 54 2B / 4 3B / 32 HR / 115 RBI
2020 STEAMER: .300 AVG / .903 OPS / 42 2B / 3 3B / 32 HR / 103 RBI
Last season, Rafael Devers emerged as the force he flashed signs of back in 2017 when his home run off of Aroldis Chapman made him and a certain fan (above) a viral sensation. He led the league in 2B (54) and total bases (359), resulting in a top-15 season in terms of run creation (122 wRC).
This season, the Steamer system projects Devers to repeat the type of season he had in 2019, which is good news for fantasy baseball team owners. In fact, perhaps the most popular fantasy platform, ESPN him ranked in the top 3.
Call me crazy, but I might take him over Alex Bregman, and I’m a Yankees fan (shrug emoji).
Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians
2019 MLB Season: .255 AVG / .806 OPS / 33 2B / 3 3B / 23 HR / 83 RBI
2020 STEAMER: .278 AVG / .885 OPS / 39 2B / 3 3B / 31 HR / 101 RBI
In 2019, Jose Ramirez started the season off slowly. Some even worried that a suspicious report out of the Dominican Republic linking him to PED’s might be true.
In the end, as is often the case, Ramirez found his swing again, hitting .312 with a 1.025 OPS in the last 2-months of the season.
Ramirez is the first player on this list of third basemen in which the Steamer system and our ranking agree. Steamer expects Ramirez to have a bounce-back 2020 MLB season as do plenty of expert Fantasy Baseball analysts.
Pray that your opposing owners forget about his amazing end to the 2020 season, you may end up stealing him in later rounds.