Rankings: Shortstops

Previous Rankings: Starting Pitchers, Outfielders

Three shortstops might very well go in the first round of your drafts, and they probably should. My feeling with shortstops is that, after these three, there are enough decent ones to go around in any league not requiring a MI. This grooves with the popular sentiment that middle infield scarcity is overrated these days.

Tier 1: Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Jimmy Rollins

• Brief comments: I take Reyes over Ramirez because of the latter's offseason shoulder surgery, which is currently about as underplayed as Pujols's is overplayed.
• Rollins will go at the end of the round, but unless you are hurting for steals I wouldn't trade him for Reyes with the required marginal pitcher to warrant a lower tier. Rollins will get more runs and RBIs, though I wouldn't be surprised to see close to equal power numbers.

Tier 2:  Derek Jeter, Rafael Furcal, Troy Tulowitski, Carlos Guillen

Tier 3: Miguel Tejada, Orlando Cabrera, Michael Young, Edgar Renteria

Tier 4: J.J. Hardy, Khalil Greene, Julio Lugo, Yunel Escobar, Stephen Drew, Johnny Peralta, Felipe Lopez, Ryan Theriot

That's as far as they go in the first 276 picks. Tier 2 and Tier 3 are pretty close to me, but Tier 3 players simply carry a slightly higher "bust risk". Provided the similarity, I don't advocate drafting a shortstop until late unless one of the top three are there later than you think they should be. I'd rather draft someone who is going to much further from marginal level than the top shortstops with my first pick.