1. Florida Marlins - Hanley Ramirez
Whenever you hear news line about the Florida Marlins most of the time it's about Hanley Ramirez wealthier it's about him not running after a ball or hitting a monster home run for the Fish, either way the spot light is always on this kid. Ramirez was drafted by the Boston Red Sox and a year later he was traded to the Marlins for Josh Beckett and Mike Lowe and this trade really paid off in both ways. Beckett and Lowe won a World Series in 2007 and Ramirez well his team has yet to make it to the postseason but he has been the main reason fans in Florida still come out to the ball park to see this kid play. Ramirez can do it all, he can run, hit, he can throw a ball a mile long, and is a great impact player. I think if he were to play on a better team he would be an even better player and might even be considered an MVP vote in the NL or AL and if he were to be in the postseason and he were at the plate for a key moment he would the man you would want in the spot light. His career batting average is .313 and career slugging percentage is .520. Not too bad for a shortstop who is on a losing team every year, but I think in 2011 the Fish will have a somewhat better year with a lot of young talent on the way and some really good pitching. In 2010 Hanley had another good solid year after missing a few game being injured batting .300, hitting 21 home runs, driving in 76 RBI's, and in his career he was won the 2006 NL Rookie of the Year award, and has won the 2008 - 2009 NL Silver Slugger award.
2. Colorado Rockies - Troy Tulowitzki
Talk about a player anyone would love to have on their team this guy would be it! In the 2010 season Tulo missed most of the season and I really think this might be the main reason why the Rockies missed the postseason in 2010 because when he is healthy he is a monster player. When Tulo came off the DL he hit 15 home runs and 40 RBI's in one mouth of baseball and can you imagine if he were healthy the whole year what he could have done? I think if he did stay healthy he might have won the NL MVP award. But as an overall player he has it all, he is a great fielder and he is a great leader in the club house and knows when it's crunch time. He has also helped the Rockies make it to the postseason in 2007 and 2009 as the wild card team. In 2007 the Rockies would make it to their first ever World Series match up against the Boston Red Sox but got swept in 4 straight games and in the 2009 postseason they fell short in the NLDS to the Philadelphia Phillies in 4 games. Tulo’s career batting average with the Rockies is .290 with a slugger percentage of .495 and he is just going to get better as he gets older at the age of 26 years old. In 2010 after missing a good two months of the season he batted .315, hit 27 home runs, and drove in 95 RBI's. Also in 2010 Tulo won his first NL Silver Slugger and Gold Glove award. Now I did say the Rockies made it to the postseason twice and when Tulo was in the bright lights of October his numbers weren't too bad batting .211, hit 1 home run and drove 6 RBI's.
3. New York Yankees - Derek Jeter
When you hear the name "Mr. November" you automatically think the captain of the New York Yankees Derek Jeter as he was the first player in major league history to hit a home run in November of the 2001 World Series, not only that but it was a game winning home run. This is a player who will someday find himself in the baseball Hall of Fame and his jersey number, #2 will be retire just like the Yankee players that came before him. Derek has played for the Yankees his whole career and he said when he was a kid "I wanna play for the New York Yankees". Little did he know at the time but that dream had come true and if he could have seen his career before it had happened I don't think he would have believed it. As of right now he has the most hits as a Yankee and that's pretty hard to believe considering the players that came before like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle and so on. At one point Lou Gehrig was the only Yankees player to have the most hits and in 2009 Derek Jeter broke that record. As of today Jeter has 2,926 career hits and is well on his way to be the first ever Yankee player to hit 3,000 hits. Besides him being a great hitter he is one of the best fielders of all time. I can't recall about how many times he has been on the top 10 plays on ESPN or top 10 greatest plays of all time on the MLB Network. Derek Jeter is like the Michael Jordan of baseball and as of right now he is bigger than the game. Over the year Jeter's numbers have fell a little bit and that is the only reason he is number three on my list but if I were to name the greatest shortstop of all time he would be number one. I also forgot about how many postseason games this guy has been in, he has been in 15 postseason games and he has won 11 American League East Division titles and 5 of them have been World Series titles. His postseason numbers are the best at shortstop with a .309 batting average, hitting 20 home runs, and driving in 57 RBI's. Jeter's career batting average with the Yankees is a .314 average with a .452 career slugging percentage. He has also won 5 AL Gold Gloves awards, 4 AL Silver Slugger awards, 2 AL Hank Aaron awards; won the 1996 AL Rookie of the Year award, won the 2000 World Series MVP award, and has won the 2002 ESPY Play of the Year award. As you can see Jeter has more awards at spot more than any other player. In 2010 he had somewhat of a down year but nonetheless is still an impact player at the age of 36, he hit .270, hit 10 home runs, and drove in 67 RBI's. One of the best shortstops you will ever see again in this game.
4. Chicago White Sox - Alexei Ramirez
Now this shortstop to me is one of the most underrated in game only because he has only been in the league for 3 years. But in those 3 years he has done a lot of things. Now he is mainly overlooked at shortstop in the American League because of Derek Jeter but I think when Jeter's time comes to an end Ramirez will win a lot more awards in the AL. Ramirez who is fairly getting a little bit older at 29 years old is still a big part of this White Sox team. Now he has only been in the postseason once in his big league career only batting .250 with 2 RBI's but I think if the White Sox can make it to the postseason more while this guy is still on their team he will do big things. But during the season he is a key player and in 2010 he really proved that he is a big time player batting .282, hitting 18 home runs, and driving in 70 RBI's in 2010. Also in 2010 Ramirez won the 2010 AL Silver Slugger award. Now that Ramirez has only been the league for three going on four years his career batting average is .283 with a .430 slugging percentage, not to bad at all.
5. Chicago Cubs - Starlin Castro
Now some people may think this is being too nice by putting a rookie ahead of a few other players but if I were to tell you that this rookie player had a better year than most veteran players did then why doesn't he deserve to be ahead of some of the older players? Castro has showed in one year that he will be the future of the Cubs and in the National League at shortstop. The only issue with Castro is he has some trouble throwing the ball to first base but I think it's a small problem that he can easily fix during spring training. Last season in his first year he batted .300, hitting 4 home runs, and driving in 41 RBI's. Now tell me that this kid doesn't deserve this spot and he also already has a .408 slugger percentage in one year of baseball. This kid is the for real and he will only get better as he goes along, expect big things from this young talented shortstop.
Players who just missed the list.
6. New York Mets - Jose Reyes 2010 - BA .282, 11 home runs, 54 RBI's.
7. Boston Red Sox - Marco Scutaro 2010 - BA .275, 11 home runs, 56 RBI's.
8. Washington Nationals - Ian Desmond 2010 - BA .269, 10 home runs, 65 RBI's.
9. Texas Rangers - Elvis Andrus 2010 - BA .265, 0 home runs, 35 RBI's.
10. Philadelphia Phillies - Jimmy Rollins 2010 - BA .243, 8 home runs, 41 RBI's.
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