Best "small ball" shortstops

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Casey89

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Best "small ball" shortstops

PostTue Dec 03, 2013 6:42 pm

My home park is Forbes 09 and I'm in a division with Griffith 24 and two Forbes 57 teams.

I did a search of all shortstops by BA (not all are free agents of course) and these are the ones that have at least "2" range at SS and fewer than 15 HRs.

Appling 7.52
Lloyd 7.49
Wagner 11.35
Dahlen 6.60
Cronin 7.42
Jeter 8.96
Wagner 7.92
Pesky 6.12
English 7.25
Johnson 6.54
Groat 3.49
Rizzuto 8.46
Pesky 5.85
Fletcher 4.18
Bancroft 5.56
Jackson 5.19
Monroe 6.89
Appling 4.18
Knickerbocker 2.71
Trammell 7.43
Lundy 5.41
Aybar 3.41
Bancroft 3.96
McDougald 5.34
Fernandez 5.94
Reese 5.93
Rizzuto 2.25
Boudreau 7.12
Concepcion 4.25
Franco 2.77
Allen 4.58
Parent 2.99
Larkin 6.91
Chapman 6.25
Smith 7.31
Bankhead 4.43
Dark 3.00
Davis 3.60

So, of this list, who are 1) the best small-ball hitters regardless of salary and 2) the best "value" plays taking salary and injury risk into consideration. Thanks.
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gkhd11a

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostTue Dec 03, 2013 8:22 pm

What is the salary cap?
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Valen

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostTue Dec 03, 2013 8:51 pm

I would take Wagner now and go with whichever version you can afford after crafting the rest of your team.
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Casey89

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostTue Dec 03, 2013 9:07 pm

gkhd11a wrote:What is the salary cap?


It's a 100 million DH league.
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Valen

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostWed Dec 04, 2013 1:17 am

If you think the expensive Wagner is too much at 100 mil and the cheaper one has too much injury risk then my next choice would probably be Jeter. Good defense, stealing, running, bunt and H&R ratings and positive clutch.
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Frank Bailey

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostWed Dec 04, 2013 1:39 am

Never can argue with Wagner. Dahlen and Appling fill holes on offense nicely. Fernandez has plenty of fans. Aparicio and Bowa are fine choices if good field-no hit with speed is your preference.

Many others have their backers. Most on your list will win if you put them in the right situation.

Probably a bit of trial and error will be necessary to figure out what works best with your style.

We've all had our trials and most of us will admit to plenty of errors.

Happy hunting.
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supertyphoon

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostWed Dec 04, 2013 7:38 am

All things considered, I'd say the expensive Wagner and the $8.96M Jeter without BP homers are the best small-ball SS at higher salary caps. At $100M they are still worth having on your team, but may be too expensive depending on the rest of the players you have. So you're looking for value, you'll have to sacrifice something, either defense, injury risk or speed to get a cheaper player that allows you to spend elsewhere. I like the cheaper Wagner, Appling, Pesky and the so-called Home Run Johnson as good values, but there are many good SS in the 5-8M range to choose from.
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rburgh

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostWed Dec 04, 2013 9:22 am

Another vote for little Honus. He rates to miss about 35 games, so have a decent backup - Ward is popular for the job; I like Risberg. There are others in the .80-.90 million range, and you don't have much competition since few use bench players that costly at the low caps.
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gkhd11a

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostWed Dec 04, 2013 5:17 pm

I would rate the shortstops at:
Honus Wagner 7MM
Luke Appling 7MM

Then a large gap down to :

Honus Wagner 10M
Phil Rizutto 8M - With the assumption of other strong small ball hitters
Appling 4MM
Bowa 3MM
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Salty

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Re: Best "small ball" shortstops

PostWed Dec 04, 2013 7:06 pm

2 assumptions I would not make.

1. that an SS with more than 15HRs wont be good in small ball-
I think there are definitely some choices there.

2.the 8m Rizzuto would be a value at any cap level- if you are paying for defense, there are better options at a cheaper price.
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