RotoGraphs Consensus Rankings: First Base

by
March 2, 2013

Thing might look a little different this year. We’ve got tools upon tools for your drafts this year, and they should be easier to get to now. But we will still do consensus rankings, and we’ll still do tiered rankings. Because it’s all helpful in different ways.

But it’s time for the consensus ranks first.

It’s also worth putting down on ‘paper’ why we do the consensus ranks the way we do them. We have Jeff Zimmerman, Mike Podhorzer and Zach Sanders submitting their individual ranks alongside mine for a couple of reasons. The first is that four is the minimum ‘n’ we can give you: more of a sample should give you a better ranking. It’s like a mini crowd-source. And the second reason is really the same, in an alternate package: each of us uses projections to a different extent, and each of us uses intuition and research to a different extent. And yes, we have the Steamer projection numbers listed here, but no, none of the rankings is solely based on those projections. In any case, you’ll get five numbers to look at, and you can choose which one you like.

To the first basemen!

There’s a lot of consensus near the top of this ranking, but look how quickly it all falls apart. The second half of the top twelve elicited very different opinions from our four rankers. You might be able to see why in the Steamer projections for some of them. Anthony Rizzo, Freddie Freeman and Edwin Encarnacion are all within a couple home runs of each other. But don’t stop looking there, spots 12-24 will probably be owned in most mixed leagues, too. Interesting to see how far the Yankee first baseman has fallen, no?

RotoG ES JZ MP ZS Name PA AVG R HR RBI SB
1 1 1 1 2 Albert Pujols 653 0.299 99 36 110 7
2 3 3 3 1 Prince Fielder 649 0.292 97 31 103 1
3 2 2 2 8 Joey Votto 629 0.298 92 26 87 5
4 4 4 9 3 Billy Butler 661 0.298 87 24 94 2
5 5 7 5 6 Paul Goldschmidt 594 0.268 78 26 87 11
6 7 5 6 5 Adrian Gonzalez 639 0.294 84 27 96 1
7 9 9 4 7 Edwin Encarnacion 558 0.265 76 27 85 6
8 8 8 11 4 Buster Posey 538 0.302 72 19 77 2
9 6 6 12 10 Anthony Rizzo 622 0.267 82 31 94 5
10 10 11 8 13 Allen Craig 546 0.290 73 23 79 3
11 12 12 10 9 Freddie Freeman 624 0.269 78 24 87 2
12 11 15 7 18 David Ortiz 501 0.279 70 22 76 1
13 13 10 13 16 Eric Hosmer 606 0.267 72 19 76 11
14 14 14 15 12 Paul Konerko 545 0.278 71 24 78 1
15 15 17 19 11 Joe Mauer 533 0.299 64 10 60 3
16 16 13 18 17 Ike Davis 638 0.252 79 30 91 1
17 18 21 16 14 Mark Trumbo 502 0.255 63 24 74 3
18 17 18 14 22 Mark Teixeira 573 0.259 77 27 85 2
19 19 22 21 21 Chris Davis 487 0.261 61 25 70 2
20 22 27 20 15 Adam LaRoche 561 0.258 68 23 77 1
21 20 23 23 27 Nick Swisher 615 0.259 79 23 82 2
22 21 28 17 28 Michael Cuddyer 459 0.276 57 17 64 6
23 25 26 22 30 Kendrys Morales 517 0.261 62 22 71 1
24 26 24 31 23 Michael Young 569 0.288 63 12 62 2
25 27 31 24 24 Todd Frazier 502 0.242 55 19 63 7
26 32 32 25 20 Carlos Santana 549 0.247 70 20 71 3
27 24 20 33 33 Brandon Belt 527 0.266 62 15 63 9
28 36 16 36 29 Daniel Murphy 626 0.286 75 9 57 6
29 23 30 27 40 Ryan Howard 524 0.248 66 26 77 1
30 38 37 26 19 Justin Morneau 464 0.266 55 16 59 1
31 37 19 34 31 Dustin Ackley 699 0.241 81 13 58 10
32 34 33 30 26 Garrett Jones 515 0.262 61 21 71 3
33 30 25 35 39 Corey Hart 481 0.259 59 19 66 3
34 33 29 37 32 Yonder Alonso 589 0.255 62 12 65 4
35 29 38 41 25 Adam Dunn 612 0.213 78 31 81 1
36 35 39 29 36 Mike Napoli 427 0.251 56 21 61 2
37 28 35 32 46 Lance Berkman 446 0.273 61 17 61 3
38 31 36 42 42 Logan Morrison 510 0.251 58 16 62 2
39 41 45 39 37 Brandon Moss 392 0.241 47 17 52 3
40 39 34 45 45 Jeff Keppinger 532 0.280 62 10 53 2
41 50 42 46 34 Adam Lind 387 0.260 46 15 51 1
42 43 44 43 43 Mitch Moreland 357 0.262 43 13 46 2
43 40 40 47 49 Mark Reynolds 531 0.225 66 25 70 2
44 42 49 40 50 Chris Carter 368 0.238 45 17 50 3
45 50 41 44 55 Tyler Colvin 390 0.256 45 15 54 4
46 50 52 48 47 Chris Parmelee 358 0.246 38 10 40 1
47 50 43 49 55 James Loney 451 0.266 48 9 47 2
48 50 47 51 51 Jordan Pacheco 323 0.275 32 5 34 3
49 44 48 54 55 Carlos Pena 567 0.210 67 23 68 2
50 50 51 50 52 Brett Wallace 370 0.253 41 12 44 1
51 45 56 53 54 Justin Smoak 331 0.228 35 10 36 1
52 50 55 52 55 Luke Scott 338 0.237 39 13 42 3

Others ranked by only one ranker: Carlos Lee, Casey Kotchman, John Mayberry Jr, Matt Carpenter, Mike Olt and Todd Helton.





 

With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.

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lester bangs
12 years ago

The first column centered would be nice (I know, I’ve got issues). Good luck this year, Fangraphers.

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lester bangs
12 years ago
Reply to  lester bangs

Gracias!

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