Fantasy Baseball: Jason's 1B Rankings

Here at Fake Teams, we're in the process of releasing our writer rankings. Over the coming days, our writers will be posting their own personal rankings, and will be building composite rankings from them as well.

You can find Ray's 1B rankings here.

I have been posting my position rankings over at my blog here, and have expanded my 1B rankings along with a couple of updates.

Tier 1:

1. Albert Pujols (STL)
2. Miguel Cabrera (DET)
3. Prince Fielder (MIL)
4. Mark Teixeira (NYY)
5. Ryan Howard (PHI)

Tier 2:

1. Joey Votto (CIN)
2. Mark Reynolds (ARI)
3. Kevin Youkilis (BOS)
4. Adrian Gonzalez (SD)
5. Kendry Morales (LAA)
6. Pablo Sandoval (SF)
7. Derrek Lee (CHC)
8. Justin Morneau (MIN)
9. Adam Dunn (WAS)

Tier 3:

1. Carlos Pena (TAM)
2. Billy Butler (KC)
3. Victor Martinez (BOS)
4. Lance Berkman (HOU)
5. Paul Konerko (CHW)
6. Todd Helton (COL)

I think that first base is extremely deep this season. You've got a lot of power available, and some excellent hitters as well. Some players of note:

• I really think that Joey Votto is going to be special this season. I think that if he's given the opportunity to steal more often, he could approach 20. 
• I am not a fan of Lance Berkman this season. He had a drop off in power that appears mostly related to the time he missed. While he should return to normal for those numbers, if he doesn't get back to hitting .300, he's not a whole lot different from some of the other 1B.
• I would be really interested to see what Adrian Gonzalez can do if he gets traded to somewhere other than Petco Park. He is a career .300 hitter away from Petco Park, and could conceivably vault into the top tier of 1B if he did.
• After the top two tiers, I think that you're really looking at finding specific needs for your team. Todd Helton would provide batting average, Paul Konerko and Carlos Pena power.

I think that unless you get one of the first tier 1B, you are probably better off waiting and filling other positional needs instead. The difference between the third tier 1B and second tier 1B is not as much as it has been in the past.

Some high-upside and deeper league plays at 1B:

• Chris Carter (OAK)
• Justin Smoak (TEX)
• Chris Davis (TEX)
• Garrett Jones (PIT)

Both Carter and Smoak will most likely start the season in the minors, but seem likely to be up in the Majors by about midseason. If Davis can get that strikeout rate under some kind of control, he will be worth owning. But if he struggles again, Smoak will probably get the call sooner rather than later.

Garrett Jones worries me a bit. If you can get him later, he could be a good sleeper. But I think it's highly unlikely that he repeats what he did in the half season he played last year. His peripheral numbers all point to last season being a career year.