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Top 25 First Base Rankings for 2016

Ray updates his 2016 first base rankings to include a couple guys who will be playing first base for the first time in the big leagues next season.

Caylor Arnold-USA TODAY Sports

I just received Ron Shandler's 2016 Baseball Forecaster in .pdf form on Thanksgiving, and I highly recommend that you buy it as it is the fantasy baseball bible for me. I buy it every year to help level set my expectations for hitters and pitchers heading into the next fantasy baseball season.

There are about 70 pages of sabremetric articles that address various hitter and pitcher statistics, fantasy baseball draft and auction strategies, and much more to help you raise your game heading into your 2016 drafts. Oh yeah, there are mini profiles and projections for hundreds of hitters and pitchers as well.

I think this book is a must read for all fantasy baseball owners year in and year out. I am not getting paid to push the book. I didn't get a free book. I purchase my own every year. I feel strong enough to recommend the book here to supplement to fantastic fantasy advice that we offer you here at Fake Teams.

You can purchase the book at www.baseballhq.com. It is worth the $26 investment.

Now that that is out of the way, here are my updated 2016 first base rankings. I have added Twins new first baseman Byung-ho Park and Red Sox new first baseman Hanley Ramirez. Here is what I wrote about Park after they signed him:

Remember when the baseball media were skeptical on how Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu would translate to pitching in MLB? Or Pirates shortstop Jung-ho Kang? Both turned out to be pretty darn good major league baseball players and I see Park performing very well in Minnesota. He will strike out a ton, as he did in the KBO, but has excellent power that should play well at first base.

I think he will transition well from the KBO league to major league baseball, and hit for solid power that one would expect from their first baseman. I can see him putting up a 25 home run, 80 RBI season hitting in the middle of the Twins young lineup that will feature Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Joe Mauer and others in 2016.

As for Ramirez, I know he won't be eligible at first base on draft day (he is outfield eligible only), but he the plan is for him to play first base every day in 2016, so I think it makes sense to rank him there. He comes with risk on draft day due to how often he gets injured, plays injured, or just sits on the bench instead of being placed on the disabled list, which seemed to happen quite a bit in 2015. If he is healthy heading into the season, he could move up these rankings, and hitting in that lineup, he has a chance to be a top 5-6 fantasy first baseman.

i also made a few other changes to my rankings, moving Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman down due to all of the in-season and offseason moves the Braves have made to make their lineup look like a AAA lineup. His runs and RBI could fall as a result.

Once the Hot Stove gets percolating over the next few weeks heading into the Winter Meetings in the second week of December, I will update my rankings accordingly.

Let me hear what you think about these rankings, who is ranked too high, too low in the comments section below.

First Base Rankings for 2016

Rank

$ Value

Name

G

PA

HR

R

RBI

SB

AVG

OBP

SLG

wRC+

WAR

1

$40

Paul Goldschmidt

159

695

33

103

110

21

0.321

0.435

0.570

164

7.4

2

$37

Anthony Rizzo

160

701

31

94

101

17

0.278

0.387

0.512

145

5.5

3

$33

Joey Votto

158

695

29

95

80

11

0.314

0.459

0.541

172

7.4

4

$32

Miguel Cabrera

119

511

18

64

76

1

0.338

0.440

0.534

165

4.3

5

$32

Edwin Encarnacion

146

624

39

94

111

3

0.277

0.372

0.557

150

4.5

6

$25

Chris Davis

160

670

47

100

117

2

0.262

0.361

0.562

147

5.6

7

$30

Jose Abreu

154

668

30

88

101

0

0.290

0.347

0.502

129

3.0

8

$26

Todd Frazier

157

678

35

82

89

13

0.255

0.309

0.598

114

4.4

9

$25

Adrian Gonzalez

156

643

28

76

90

0

0.275

0.350

0.480

129

3.0

10

$25

Buster Posey

150

623

19

74

95

2

0.318

0.379

0.470

138

5.7

11

$25

Albert Pujols

157

661

40

85

95

5

0.244

0.307

0.480

116

2.0

12

$22

Freddie Freeman

118

481

18

62

66

3

0.276

0.370

0.471

133

3.4

13

$17

Eric Hosmer

158

667

18

98

93

7

0.297

0.363

0.459

125

3.5

14

$14

Brandon Belt

137

556

18

73

68

9

0.280

0.356

0.478

135

4.3

15

$19

Hanley Ramirez

105

430

19

59

53

6

0.249

0.291

0.426

89

-1.8

16

$10

Adam Lind

149

572

20

72

87

0

0.277

0.360

0.460

119

2.2

17

$8

Byung-ho Park

18

$7

Mitch Moreland

132

515

23

51

85

1

0.278

0.330

0.482

115

2.1

19

$7

Carlos Santana

154

666

19

72

85

11

0.231

0.357

0.395

110

2.4

20

$6

Ryan Zimmerman

95

390

16

43

73

1

0.249

0.308

0.465

107

0.6

21

$6

Lucas Duda

135

554

27

67

73

0

0.244

0.352

0.486

133

3.1

22

$6

Adam LaRoche

127

484

12

41

44

0

0.207

0.293

0.340

75

-1.4

23

$6

Wil Myers

50

224

8

40

27

4

0.272

0.344

0.465

127

0.8

24

$4

Justin Bour

117

399

18

35

62

0

0.264

0.326

0.456

112

0.1

25

$3

Mark Teixeira

111

462

31

57

79

2

0.255

0.357

0.548

143

2.9

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