Miami Marlins Dee Gordon: Best Fantasy Second Baseman in 2016?

There used to be a time in baseball where speed merchants dominated the game. Everyone in the ballpark knew that they were stealing, but they still could not do anything about it. While speed has largely been tossed aside for home runs and players who excel with OBP, there are still some speed throwbacks left in the league. One of those guys is, Dee Gordon

Gordon was one of the more interesting players entering into last season as many owners were split on whether or not to believe in his breakout 2014. For those owners that took the plunge, he rewarded them with another great season and cemented himself in the conversation for being deemed the best fantasy 2B in the league.

Gordon posted a, .333/4 HR/46 RBI/58 SB/.359 OBP line in 2015, an all across the board increase from 2014 besides his steals total. He would have probably matched and/or surpassed his career high of 64 SB last season, but he was sidelined for over two weeks with a dislocated thumb which served as the only blemish of his 2015 campaign.

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He led the MLB in hits, SB, and AVG which points to the fact that Gordon was offering owners a weekly advantage and offered useful stats nearly every time he was in the lineup. He also happened to league in times caught stealing, 20, but that comes with the territory with players that can run the way he does.

We want him to remain aggressive, so there should be no qualms with Gordon trying to steal nearly 80 times a season. One of the biggest worries for owners selecting Gordon last season was if he could maintain his high average even though his K% flirted with 20%, which is unacceptable for a guy that just needs to make contact to create havoc.

As we know, this is the sole reason that Billy Hamilton still remains a fantasy headache, but Gordon is ultimately everything we could want from a speed option. While Gordon’s BB% dropped by 1% in 2015, his K% also dropped by nearly 3%, which is a huge sign of optimism that Gordon can maintain his production going forward.

One other encouraging sign was that while Gordon has the ability to just slap the ball and put it into play, his LD% actually rose by 4% in 2015. The only real areas where we would like to see Gordon improve would be if he could somehow draw more walks, but if that means that he would have to alter his hitting approach from how it is right now than it becomes a moot point.

Detractors also like to point to his high BABIP the last two seasons, .346 in 2014 and .383 in 2015, but for speed oriented guys these are always higher because they have the ability to turn routine outs into base hits. So even if you want to readjust his BABIP closer to league average, which is around .300, Gordon still would be a near .300 hitter.

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If the season where to start tomorrow, Gordon would be my top ranked 2B. This ranking will not likely change either as the season nears because Gordon’s skillset brings a huge advantage not only in general, but also specifically at the notoriously weak 2B position. Add in the fact that Giancarlo Stanton is going to be returning right behind him in the lineup and Gordon should now be able to offer 100+ Runs as well, stuffing yet another fantasy category.

2016 Early Projections: 100 R/.305 AVG/3 HR/40 RBI/65 SB