Is being strong up the middle important for your Fantasy team, or does that only hold true for real-life teams?  Well, you can win your league with or without a great shortstop, so I would suggest that building a strong core “up the middle” is slightly overrated, for Fantasy purposes at least.  In no way am I advising you to avoid Hanley, Reyes and Rollins; afterall, those three are the cream of the crop, and their value is almost infinite.  However, after the Big Three, finding good value for a shortstop is nearly impossible. Below is a list of five shortstops that are nothing “short” of great value picks.

1. J.J. Hardy, Mil. JJ Hardy, a sleeper?  This guy is O-Ranked 87 on Yahoo and generally being taken in the 95-105 draft pick range.  This means that Hardy is the 9th shortstop drafted on average.  That’s just not right, and managers that instead choose players like Derek Jeter, Michael Young or Rafael Furcal will be punching themselves in the nuts when they realize the mistake they’ve made.  Hardy is hitting in the 2 Hole for one of the strongest lineups in the National League.  It looks as if a Breakout Season may be brewing for this Brewers shortstop.

2. Yunel Escobar, Atl. In 833 Career At-Bats, Yunel has been a pleasant surprise, hitting .303/.373/.420 from the shortstop position.  A lot of hitters start to show their true potential as they surpass the 1000-AB plateau of their career.  Escobar will glide right through his 1000th AB this season, meaning the best may still be yet to come.  It would not be surprising if he out-produced shortstops like Michael Young in 2009, or even the man he replaced, Rafael Furcal.

3. Christian Guzman, Wash. Guzman is not the “sexy sleeper pick” that produces tears of joy after you finally draft him and makes you feel like you got the steal of the draft. What guzman can give you is a leadoff hitter that will hit .300+ and cross home plate nearly 90 times, if not more.   You can generally snag Guzman up in the last five rounds of your draft, as well, making Guzman well worth the squeeze.

4. Jed Lowrie, Bos. The injury to Julio Lugo really boosted Lowrie’s chances of being fantasy relevant.  Once as highly touted as Dustin Pedroia in terms of Red Sox prospects, Lowrie hasn’t developed quite as quickly.  Lowrie is going undrafted in a lot of leagues, making him a great value pick in the last few rounds of your draft, or even a free agent pickup. His power ceiling is likely not any higher than 15 Home Runs, but where his value should come from is having a decent average while scoring plenty of runs.

5. Brandon Wood, LAA.  Brandon Wood has shown flashes of brilliance in the Minor Leagues, even flat out dominance at times. Wood has hit 20+ Home Runs for the last four seasons of Minor League ball.  The power will certainly transfer to the Major Leagues, but will he be able to cut his K% enough to be given At-Bats? That is the question that remains to be answered.  With the proper adjustments, Wood has potential that exceeds even a player like JJ Hardy.  A much more likely scenario would be Jhonny Peralta-esque statistics.  Keep Wood on your Watch List, because he may become very good friends with Breakout Season very shortly.

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