Let's Look At Depth At: First Base

[Greg Ambrosius]

In our just completed Fanball Just Cheat Sheets Magazine, 10 different writers ranked their Top 60 players at each position. The editors then created a grid with all of these rankings by position and created an ADP of sorts. It's a great exercise and a neat breakdown of opinions. Granted, all are from the same staff but we're unique in that writers are spread out everywhere from the West Coast to the East Coast with fewer actually working in St. Louis than outside that office.



So it's a unique range of opinions and I thought it would be fun to look at these rankings by position and create some chatter on our boards. Let's add in 100+ more opinions and have some fun with this. In the end, everyone has to make their own decision on Draft Day, but it could be fun to discuss nonetheless.



So here's my first attempt at this: First Base. Here are the facts from our magazine. Let's go 15 deep since NFBC drafts are 15 teams and see what it looks like:



First Basemen

Name, Avg Pick by Fanball, High, Low

1. Albert Pujols, 1.0, 1, 1

2. Miguel Cabrera, 2.6, 2, 5

3. Ryan Howard, 3.5, 2, 5

4. Mark Teixeira, 3.7, 2, 5

5. Prince Fielder, 5.3, 4, 8

6. Adrian Gonzalez, 6.7, 3, 8

7. Mark Reynolds, 9.7, 6, 14

8. Lance Berkman, 10.3, 6, 15

9. Pablo Sandoval, 10.4, 6, 15

10. Joey Votto, 10.5, 6, 16

11. Kevin Youkilis, 10.9, 3, 15

12. Justin Morneau, 11.0, 6, 17

13. Derrek Lee, 11.3, 4, 16

14. Kendry Morales, 12.0, 9, 15

15. Victor Martinez, 14.3, 6, 20



The first base position is among the deepest in the infield thanks to so many players who have multiple position eligibility. Just in the Top 15, you have Reynolds, Sandoval, Youkilis and Martinez who qualify at other positions along with first base, and other Top 25 first basemen with multiple eligibility include Adam Dunn and Jorge Cantu.



There are nine different first basemen who had 100 or more RBIs last year and 11 who had 30 or more homers. This is a deep, deep position and even in an NFBC 15-team league you should get a solid first baseman and a solid corner infielder this year. It's not all roses here, but the young talent here is impressive and upside is all over the place.



From the minors, Justin Smoak of Texas could be called up at some point this year, earlier if Chris Davis struggles at all. Pittsburgh may give Jeff Clement a shot at the starting job, too.



I agreed with the overall rankings of the Fanball group as I had 14 of the Top 15 guys in my rankings. I actually had Adam Dunn 13th and Derrek Lee 16th, but that was about it. I still hold out hope that James Loney will find some power down the road to go with that sweet stroke and had him 19th here. I also had Carlos Delgado higher than the rest as I thought he might get one more shot at a starting job, but I'm not so sure of that anymore. But overall, the Top 15 is pretty established here and the leftovers aren't too bad either.



Interestingly, it looks like 16 first basemen are going in the Top 75 in most drafts. Pujols, Cabrera, Howard, Teixeira and Fielder are all going in the first round of NFBC drafts, with Reynolds going in the second round.



Is there any breakout star here like we saw last year with Kendry Morales? Only time will tell as some teams still are undecided at this position.



How do you see first base? Deep or just top heavy with stars? And how would you rank the Top 10 or 15 at this position? Similar to the Fanball writers or much different? Inquiring minds want to know.