Ray Flowers breaks down each position as the 2015 baseball season has reached its conclusion. Here are links to all of the individual breakdowns.
THIRD BASE
- Rankings from March.
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BUSTS
From the second base review: “Rendon finished strong leading to hope in 2016, but injuries and poor performance limited him to just 80 games played. He hit five homers and stole a bag, a year after going 21/17, and drove in a mere 25 runners with a .707 OPS. Ugh.”
Sandoval was an unmitigated disaster in his first season in Boston. Don’t think I can ever recommend anyone drafting him ever again, no matter how deep the league. He hit .245 with 10 homers and 47 runs batted in.
Zimmerman always produces counting numbers when healthy. He wasn’t healthy in 2015. In the end he has a mere 16 homers and 73 RBIs. But, he produced those numbers in a mere 95 games. In the second half his slash line was tremendous (.311/.372/.652).
Wright hit .289 with a .379 OBP. His career marks are .298 and .377. Of course, his OPS was .058 points down and he appeared in just 38 games because of back woes. That’s the first time he appeared in fewer than 112 games since 2005.
Harrison fell from 13 to four homers, 52 to 28 RBIs and 77 to 57 runs scored. He ended up hitting .287 with a strong finish (.315 last year), but he was down all across the board.
SURPRISES
Mike Moustakas (ranked 30th) was just a guy for four years. In year five he became a somebody. His average went up to .284, pretty good for a guy who hit under .245 each of the previous three seasons, and his OPS was .817 (the mark was .640ish the previous two seasons). He also produced 82 RBIs after averaging 48 the previous two years.
Alex Rodriguez (32) appeared in 44 games in 2013. He didn’t play at all in 2014 because of suspension. He went on to hit just .250 but with 33 homers, 86 RBIs and 83 runs scored. 
Tremendous season actually.
Trevor Plouffe (36) hit just .244 but with 22 homers, 86 RBIs and 74 runs scored. Only six third sackers in baseball went 22-86-74: Nolan Arenado, Josh Donaldson, Manny Machado, Todd Frazier, Kris Bryant and Plouffe.
Maikel Franco (39th) appeared in just 80 games as he was called up late from the minors and then missed time with injury. Double up what he did and you would be looking at a season of .280-28-100-60.
Justin Turner (43rd) was out there in 126 games. He hit .294 with 16 homers and 60 RBIs, with a .370 OBP and .861 OPS. Machado’s OPS was .861.
Danny Valencia (45th) usually rips up lefties but he actually hit righties even better this season (.881 OPS compared to .834). He had a mere 345 at-bats but went deep 18 times with 66 RBIs, 59 runs scored and a .290 batting average.
Yangervis Solarte (47th) played all over the place and was successful as a nice spare part. He hit .270 with 14 homers 63 RBIs and 63 runs scored over 152 games for the Padres.
Matt Duffy (N/R) - He wasn't on anyone's radar and likely wasn't even drafted in some NL-only leagues. The Giants suffered a bunch of injuries and turned to the youngster who doesn't look old enough to drive. Duffy had a rather amazing season hitting .295-12-77-77-12 over 149 games. An encoure may not be in the cards.
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