Those approaching hoof beats? They belong to the 2021 MLB season, and in preparation for its arrival we are honor-bound to rank things and then shout those rankings at you over the internet. So we shall now do just that.
As prelude to the forthcoming top 100 players (which will be released Thursday), in which 100 players are ranked according to the their topness, we present to you the top five players at each position/role. While you're without question not reading this intro, we're nonetheless going to explain these rankings in general terms. First, these aren't fantasy rankings. While there's plenty of overlap with fantasy rankings, these are rankings based on actual on-field value. Do not draft your fantasy team based on these rankings. Go here for that sort of thing. Also, these rankings are for 2021 only -- not 2022 or 2020 or 2030.
As for what matters, with position players it's a mix of batting, defense, and baserunning. On offense, we're not concerned with things like RBI. Getting on base and hitting for power matter above all, as do playing time and context of the player's home ballpark. For pitchers -- and since this a backward-looking assessment of value provided -- run prevention and workload will be the drivers, but we'll also give some consideration to underlying fundamental indicators like strikeouts and walks. When it comes to relievers, leverage, or the relative importance of the innings a reliever works, are taken into account. In the rare case of two, we're making some assumptions about what exact position the player will man in 2021.
Recent history necessarily informs these rankings, but this year we're paying a bit less heed to the season immediately prior. That's of course because the 2020 season was played in the middle of a pandemic and entailed a sample size of just 60 regular season games. We won't ignore it entirely, but we'll put much less emphasis on it than we would a standard season.
As always, reach to the author at his personal email address -- hotmail@aol.jpg -- with all your complaints. Now for the position-by-position rankings for the 2021 season...
Catcher
First base
Second base
Third base
Shortstop
Left field
Center field
Right field
Designated hitter
Starting pitcher
Relief pitcher
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"five" - Google News
March 24, 2021 at 05:54AM
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MLB player rankings 2021: Top five at every position, including loaded groups at shortstop, third base - CBS Sports
"five" - Google News
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