So, you need someone at third base to finish out your season. Maybe you don’t like who you have. Or maybe you do and you lost them due to injury. Here are a few players that are widely available at Third.
As always, players are listed in order of least likely to most likely to help your team down the stretch and are limited to players owned in 50% or less leagues.
Fantasy Third Base Replacement Options
Owned in 22% of leagues and also eligible at 1B, 2B & SS. I’m not sold on him repeating this performance next year or down the stretch. While his .333 AVG looks nice and shiny, this is also aided by a .404 BABIP. Once you strip this away, he’s closer to a .265 hitter, who hits for minimal power and isn’t getting regular playing time even in a year like this where he’s one of the luckier hitters in baseball; I’m going to have to pass on this one.
Bottom Line: Not Worth It
Owned in 22% of leagues and also eligible at 2B. Even in this being his best season, his batting average is only .249. The hidden reality is darker than this due to a higher than usual BABIP and I think he’s likely closer to a .230 hitter. So far this year, he does have 16 HR. For future seasons I think 10-12 HR would be an optimistic projection due to a better than usual HR/FB rate and I’m not sure if he’ll continue to get as much playing time as he has gotten this year.
Bottom Line: Poor AVG, mediocre power, future playing time far from a given
Owned in 20% of leagues but not eligible at any other positions. The Dodgers may be playoff bound, but their third base options from a fantasy standpoint are just not that strong. With Uribe, there are some similarities between him in Justin Turner as they’re both on the Dodgers and have both benefited from good luck (though Uribe will at least hit some home runs).
While Uribe is hitting .309 his BABIP of .367 is much higher than his .287 career total. Factoring this in, I see him as being closer to a .240 hitter in the long term. The power numbers he’s put up 9 HR over 380 PA is pretty close to where I think his actual ability is. To recap, my prognosis of Uribe includes mediocre batting average, moderate power and not quite every day playing time.
Bottom Line: Better than Turner but still not worth it
Owned in 29% of leagues but not eligible at any other positions. Freese has had a couple of disappointing seasons after some promising years in 2011 & 2012. He has rebounded strongly in September with a .353 AVG 3 HR & 11 RBI in 15 G.
Even with this, he is still hitting .261 and I don’t see much upside in this area as his BABIP is in line with his career totals. While his HR/FB ratio this year (11.3%) is below his career total of 13.6%, I don’t think there’s enough of an upside there to expect his power totals to approach the 20 HR he hit back it 2012. Freese may be on a playoff team but I don’t see him being the piece that helps fantasy owners win their playoffs.
Bottom Line: Possible double digit power but best days are behind him
Owned in 33% of leagues but not eligible at any other positions. He’s never going to hit for a high average but the question is whether he can get the power numbers at least towards the 24 he hit in 2012. This year, he has HR/FB rate of 8.5% below his career total of 11.5%, this indicates the possibility of providing more power than his 14 HR from this year indicates.
Bottom Line: Decent buy-low bet on power, batting average likely a liability though
Owned in 11% of leagues and also eligible at 2B & SS. It goes without saying that Flores had a pretty good Tuesday as he had 2 HR & 6 RBI. Even with that game, his 2014 numbers are nothing to write home about as he is still hitting .246.
However, September has been better to him as he has .273 AVG 4 HR & 12 RBI over 14 G. While he’s obviously not going to have multi-homer games every day, he could be in line to break out the rest of this season and heading into 2015.
This year, he has a .254 BABIP which has dragged down his batting average well below his actual ability. If this normalizes out to around .300, he could easily hit .290. Even with Tuesday’s game his HR/FB ratio is still relatively low 7.6%. An improvement in this area could result in double-digits in Home Runs. In addition, he also turned 23 last month so he should continue to get better. The one weakness to keep an eye on (that could make the above points moot) is the opposing starting pitcher as he’s hit .137 in 57 PA against lefties this year. Even with this flaw, Flores still has plenty of upside.
Bottom Line: Possible Breakout Player in 2015, still needs to show improvement against lefties though.
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All stats referenced found on fangraphs.com
All ownership% numbers based on Yahoo! Fantasy
