Archive for First Base

Let me apologize for making this title seem like a bigger deal. In reality, I’ll only be examining one particular team’s 2012 first base situation. That being said, this team’s first base .354 wOBA was good for eighth in all of MLB. If you prefer park adjusted numbers, then said team’s first base was responsible for a 127 wRC+, ranking at an astonishing fourth.

Without looking it up, could you guess the fourth most effective first basemen? I know I couldn’t have. Well, okay, I could have guessed, but it would have been an incorrect guess.
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You’d be hard-pressed to find many guys listed on more “sleeper” lists last spring than Ike Davis. The 25 year-old Mets first baseman showed signs of breaking out in 2011, putting up an impressive .302/.383/.543 slash with seven homers and 25 RBI in a season eventually cut short (149 PA) by a left ankle injury. After multiple setbacks late in the season, he proclaimed himself ready to go early in 2012, and with that, the fantasy hype train started rolling. A healthy Davis was locked in as a middle-of-the-order hitter and his 2011 projected full season rates (23 HR, 85 RBI) were set to get a nice boost with the fences at Citi Field being moved in a bit, too. Many owners who passed on elite first basemen like Joey Votto, Albert Pujols, and Miguel Cabrera were skipping past the Freddie Freeman‘s, Paul Konerko‘s, and Billy Butler’s of the world and hoping to snag Davis in the later rounds.

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Nothing better than a piping hot Country Breakfast, loaded with OPS and smothered and covered in rich, delicious stat lines, to help you win your fantasy championship…

After a breakout season in 2012, added position eligibility and arguably one of the best nicknames in baseball right now, Billy Butler is headed towards being one of the sexier picks in fantasy drafts next season. Batting .313 with 29 home runs and 107 RBI while amassing 20 games played at the position this past season, Butler is no longer just a DH and will garner some serious attention in the future. Though accidentally omitted in Zach Sanders’ End of Season First Base Rankings, Butler should be slotted sixth with a value of $19 and while that may not be enough to land him “elite status,” it certainly made him one of the better value picks at the position this past year. Read the rest of this entry »

Bright and early Monday morning, Zach Sanders dropped the first of his End of Season Rankings, looking at how first basemen fared during the 2012 fantasy season. The rankings are based on what actually happened on the field and use the traditional 5×5 roto categories to establish values for the production of each player.

While some of you ottoneuvians are playing a 5×5 format, many more are using the FanGraphs Points scoring system, and that type of linear weights scoring (as well as other OBP-based systems, particularly those that lower the weight on stolen bases) does not always value the same players that 5×5 leagues do. So each week, after Zach posts his rankings, I will follow with a look at where ottoneu FanGraphs Points rankings differed.

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Kendrys Morales completed his first full season since fracturing his tibia in late May 2010. His injuries were not an issue in 2012, but his playing time was limited because he shared time at 1B and DH with Mark Trumbo and Albert Pujols. Morales current talent level is a bit uncertain and his playing time is even more up in the air.

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Freddie Freeman improved almost across the board in his second season. He ended up ranked 15th in our 2012 final first base rankings (with Billy Butler added in), worth about $12. If you expected him to be great, that was a disappointment. Our staff thought he would be 15th, so we nailed it. If you picked him up for a dollar or late in your draft, you were happy with his improvements.

But what did he actually do? If we can figure out if he actually broke out, then we might know a little more about his remaining potential upside.

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It’s hard to find a player who increased his fantasy value last season more than Edwin Encarnacion. For years, he was considered a late-round flyer. The type of player who would breakout and hit 30 home runs one season. But after a promising 2006, Encarnacion went backwards. And by last season, even some of his most enthusiastic supporters weren’t sure if Encarnacion would ever emerge as anything more.

Well, things changed in a big way. He went from fantasy roster fodder, to single-handedly winning leagues. The 29-year-old first baseman slugged 42 home runs and hit .280/.384/.557 in 644 plate appearances with the Blue Jays. Because both players experienced massive breakouts with the same team, Encarnacion’s performance has been compared to Jose Bautista’s 2010 season. Bautista, as we know, managed to build on that success. Now it’s Encarnacion’s turn to prove he is capable of doing the same.

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The pre-season prediction reviews continue this week and today I recap my bold hitter league leaders. Since these players were meant to be bold choices, I purposely did not pick any of the obvious guys or anyone I thought might not be considered very bold. Though I expected to hit a couple of my bold predictions, it would have been quite a surprise if I actually hit on any of these league leaguers. Let’s see how I did.

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The 2012 fantasy baseball season has come to a close, so it is time to look back at the season past and determine which players were the most valuable at each position. This week focuses on first baseman, a popular cornerstone of fantasy offenses everywhere.

The players were ranked based on their 2012 production, using the evaluation system explained and updated on this site some time ago. To keep things manageable and avoid skewing the numbers, players were only considered if they amassed 350 plate appearances over the course of the year. The replacement level was also adjusted to account for players eligible at multiples positions. The valuations are built for $260 budgets and traditional 5×5 roto fantasy leagues.

One important thing to note is the premium (or lack thereof) placed on the position a player occupies in your lineup. While a first baseman may be able to accumulate superior overall numbers, the availability of such production lower in the rankings severely dampers the amount the player was worth.

These rankings are meant to reflect a player’s value should he have occupied this spot in your lineup for the entire year. So, a player who missed time due to injury but put up great numbers during his time on the field — like Joey Votto — would be worth less.

With all this in mind, here are your rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

On Monday, I reviewed the hitters who I calculated to be the most overvalued at each position (sans catcher) in the pre-season. Today I will recap those who I figured to be the most undervalued at those positions. And surprise, we actually have a catcher this time. I will begrudgingly use the Yahoo rankings again and hopefully no position eligibility drama will ensue this time around. Just to repeat what I said in the comments of the overvalued article, I base my own valuations/rankings on 20 games played last year and 10 this year. So to keep things consistent, I have to apply the same rules on the Yahoo final season rankings to accurately compare.

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