Prepare for the 2010 fantasy baseball season with Athlon Sports’ Fantasy Kit, which continues today with the second basemen.

Listen to the Daily Diamond Update crew dissect this year’s crop of second basemen.

Click here to download the Second Base fantasy page in .pdf format.

View Athlon's Mock Draft

Key:

A: Franchise Player: You need one to compete, two to win, three to dominate.
B: Career Year: Veteran with a strong possibility of delivering his best season.
C: Sleeper: Could be a great acquisition at a price or draft slot below his true value.
D: Roadblocked: Rank lowered because there is no current opportunity to play regularly.
E: Decliner: Expect moderately to significantly worse stats than in 2009.
F: Injury Risk: Has had a recent injury that could affect performance.
G: Investor’s Special: Top prospect whose immediate impact may be minimal.

Batting stats are expressed AVG-HR-RBI-SB

2010 Second Base Projections:

Tier 1

1. CHASE UTLEY, Phillies (A) -- Utley’s .282 AVG was down 50 points from two years back, but his power levels continue to be off the positional charts. He now owns four of the top 38 home run totals ever by a second baseman, and Jeff Kent is the only one with more than Chase’s four 100-RBI efforts since World War II. Dating to 2008, he’s gone 26-for-26 in stolen bases.

2. DUSTIN PEDROIA, Red Sox (A) -- Although he didn’t match his 2008 MVP season overall, Pedroia’s BB-to-SO ratio skyrocketed from 0.96 to 1.64, which portends the durability — and possible escalation — of his numbers. Having led the AL in runs scored two years running, he’s been nearly Utley’s equal in mixed 5x5 leagues, but the Sox trot out a little less firepower behind him this year.

3. BRIAN ROBERTS, Orioles -- Roberts is a WYSIWYG guy -- chalk to give you at least a .280 AVG, 100 runs, 12 homers, 55 RBIs and 30 steals (and likely more in three or four of those columns). Overall, he’s one tick behind Pedroia in four of five categories, and despite dropping from 50 to 40 to 30, three ticks better in base thievery.

4. IAN KINSLER, Rangers (B) -- Kinsler says the superpower he’d most like to possess is x-ray vision. It’s about the only one he lacks. While shifting his paradigm from AVG (.253, down from .319) to HRs (31, up from 18), Kinsler became the third 30-30 keystoner in history. Per career game, he’s better than each of the second basemen ranked above him in at least two categories.

5. BRANDON PHILLIPS, Reds (B) -- The first at this position ever to stack three 20-20 seasons back-to-back-to-back, Phillips’ long swing-induced .265 career AVG is his albatross. He may be about to take flight, however, after two straight seasons of significant strikeout-slicing. He’s literally one hit per week away from topping this list.

6. AARON HILL, Blue Jays (E) -- Hill, along with Kendry Morales, is the co-winner of the Rip Van Winkle Award as the biggest bull’s-eye on our list of “Cs” for 2009. His 36 homers were eight more than he’d collected in his first four seasons. More rational for ’10 is a step back into the 20s. Toronto’s emasculated lineup isn’t going to help him.

7. ROBINSON CANO, Yankees (E) -- Cano’s .320-25-85 was a bit over the top for him, and you can be sure opposing scouts will be poring over the tapes of the 11-for-57/0-HR egg he laid in the postseason. Still, he was only the third player since Rogers Hornsby retired to pair 200 hits and 25 homers as a second baseman.

Tier 2

8. JOSE LOPEZ, Mariners -- That a player of Lopez’s caliber stands eighth in this positional queue speaks to the unprecedented depth of the pool. Jose boasts more hits, homers and RBIs right now than any other active second baseman had at his age (25). His 69 runs were the fewest by a 95-RBI man at the position since 1916.

9. GORDON BECKHAM, White Sox -- The White Sox have been playing Whac-a-Mole with their second base spot, but Beckham (who moves from third) is the ultimate solution. It was easy to look at him in 2009 and see the spittin’ statistical image of Chase Utley circa ’04 -- but three years younger.

10. BEN ZOBRIST, Rays (E) -- We didn’t “C” this coming. Who, at 28, suddenly morphs from a .222 career-hitting utility grunt into an .948-OPS-ing utility superstar? Zobrist did, and now we’re left with the DNA-defying statistical shrapnel to scrutinize for 2010. Best advice is to play it somewhat conservatively -- unless he qualifies in your league at all five of his positions. In that case, he’s priceless.

11. DAN UGGLA, Marlins -- Uggla continues to clear fences at an historic pace for his position, but his .249 AVG since 2007 is an alarming 20 points lower (1,500+ PAs) than all but one of his peers. A nice remedy for the power-poor, but he’s not for every taste.

Tier 3

12. HOWIE KENDRICK, Angels -- Kendrick, between his injuries and freakish streakishness, is a bungee jump of a player. Cut by many owners in early June when he bottomed out at .225 and was deported to Salt Lake, he returned to hit .366 with out-of-the-blue pop over his last 50 games. Three beers into your draft, he’ll look pretty good.

13. RICKIE WEEKS, Brewers (F) -- Weeks’ career has become an indecipherable hieroglyph. Not only has he missed 335 games since 2005, he was a totally different breed of player before getting hurt last year. He was 38 points above his ’08 AVG while setting an unprecedented home run pace and eschewing his bread-and-butter stolen base category entirely. He remains, however, a potential star -- on papyrus.

14. MARTIN PRADO, Braves -- If you’re feeling Placido Polanco-ish about filling your second base hole, Prado’s your man now that the real thing has slid over to third. Martin’s .307 AVG was for real; he’ll hit a dozen homers; he won’t run at all.

15. CLINT BARMES, Rockies (E) -- Yet another study in volatility, Barmes’ 23 HRs more than doubled his personal best, but his .245 AVG placed below only Uggla at the position. At 31, there’s little percentage in counting on him as anything more than an average player.

16. Freddy Sanchez, Giants (C, F)
17. Kelly Johnson, Diamondbacks (C)
18. Ship Schumaker, Cardinals

Tier 4

19. Orlando Hudson, Twins (E)
20. Felipe Lopez, Free Agent (E)
21. Kaz Matsui, Astros
22. Luis Valbuena, Indians (C)
23. Mark Ellis, A’s
24. Mike Fontenot, Cubs
24. Aki Iwamura, Pirates
25. Luis Castillo, Mets (E)
26. Adam Kennedy, Nationals (E)
27. Chris Getz, Royals
28. Scott Sizemore, Tigers
29. Alexi Casilla, Twins
30. Blake DeWitt, Dodgers

Tier 5

31. Maicer Izturis, Angels
32. Emilio Bonifacio, Marlins (C)
33. Omar Infante, Braves (D)
34. Ryan Roberts, Diamondbacks (D, E)
35. Sean Rodriguez, Rays (D, G)
36. Juan Uribe, Giants (D, E)
37. Nick Punto, Twins
38. Alberto Callaspo, Royals (D, E)
39. David Eckstein, Padres
40. Tony Abreu, Diamondbacks (G)

Listen to the Daily Diamond Update crew dissect this year’s crop of second basemen.

Click here to download the Second Base fantasy page in .pdf format.

View Athlon's Mock Draft

These rankings appear in the 2010 Athlon Sports Baseball magazine. Click here to order your copy now.