First Base Consensus Ranks for the Second Half

by
July 10, 2012

Perhaps I shouldn’t have scheduled the rankings week during a vacation week, but this isn’t a normal vacation. My wife and our three-month-old are visiting her sister, her 18-month-old, and her newborn in Hawaii — it wasn’t going to be a vacation like most vacations. In fact, even though rankings are a grueling, thankless task, they offer a respite (a vacation, perhaps) from my vacation.

Another way of saying it is that with all the noise coming out of this house, a little good-natured back and forth about where we ranked a first baseman for the end of the season won’t seem like such a big deal. And since we didn’t agree on everything, I don’t expect you guys to agree with us.

Take Mark Trumbo for instance. Mike Podhorzer would be selling and Zach Sanders would be buying. Pablo Sandoval makes some hearts flutter and leaves others flat — whatever stirs your drink, you know. Some of us feel like Allen Craig will mash his way into an every-day job no matter what, and some of us feel there’s still a risk that his bad glove will leave him without regular work when Lance Berkman returns. The projections don’t love the old guys like Berkman and Todd Helton, mostly because guys over 36 don’t usually do that well at that age.

A note about mostly-DH David Ortiz: he’s played seven games at first base, which is enough to make him a first baseman in some leagues. In those leagues, he’s probably the fourth- or fifth-best first baseman. I’ll gather the numbers for him from the rankers and get you a more scientific answer. I have him at fourth, Jeff Zimmerman has him at fifth, and Mike Podhorzer has him at seventh so far.

No matter what, expect to see some arguments about these players in the coming weeks. That’s the whole point of ranking them.

FanGraphs Consensus Rankings:
First Base
New Last Player Name Eno Sarris Mike Podhorzer Jeff Zimmerman Zach Sanders
1 1 Miguel Cabrera 1 2 1 1
2 2 Albert Pujols 2 1 3 3
3 3 Joey Votto 3 3 2 2
4 4 Adrian Gonzalez 5 5 5 7
5 6 Prince Fielder 4 4 4 11
6 5 Mark Teixeira 6 6 6 8
7 8 Paul Konerko 7 12 10 5
8 9 Billy Butler 8 9 11 9
9 17 Edwin Encarnacion 9 7 16 6
10 26 Mark Trumbo 10 16 9 4
11 7 Eric Hosmer 11 11 7 10
12 14 Michael Cuddyer 13 10 8 22
13 11 Freddie Freeman 12 19 15 14
14 13 Pablo Sandoval 14 8 14 27
15 N/A Corey Hart 16 18 13 18
16 28 Paul Goldschmidt 17 23 12 15
17 N/A Allen Craig 18 22 21 12
18 10 Michael Young 19 17 19 23
19 18 Michael Morse 15 15 26 24
20 30 Bryan LaHair 28 28 24 16
21 24 Mark Reynolds 27 30 20 19
22 12 Lance Berkman 20 13 36 28
23 35 Ryan Howard 25 21 28 25
24 49 Anthony Rizzo 21 38 27 13
25 16 Howie Kendrick 24 24 18 34
26 20 Nick Swisher 22 27 17 35
27 44 Chris Davis 30 32 23 17
28 32 Adam Dunn 26 14 29 36
29 37 Brandon Belt 31 37 31 21
30 19 Kevin Youkilis 23 26 33 40
31 15 Carlos Lee 44 25 22 33
32 21 Ike Davis 35 20 47 29
33 29 Carlos Pena 33 35 38 26
34 42 Adam LaRoche 37 36 40 20
35 27 Kendrys Morales 29 29 43 39
36 22 Lucas Duda 32 33 34 42
37 33 Daniel Murphy 38 43 37 32
38 34 Justin Morneau 34 34 41 47
39 41 Garrett Jones 39 50 25 43
40 25 Adam Lind 54 31 30 46
41 31 James Loney 49 42 35 37
42 38 Mitch Moreland 36 45 32 51
43 N/A Yonder Alonso 42 48 50 31
44 N/A Jim Thome 43 41 58 30
45 36 Todd Helton 41 49 52 38
46 N/A Brandon Moss 40 46 53 45
47 43 Justin Smoak 47 39 57 44
48 40 Mike Carp 51 44 44 50
49 47 Casey Kotchman 52 52 45 41
50 39 Luke Scott 45 40 54 52
51 N/A Brett Wallace 48 47 51 48
52 N/A Jesus Guzman 46 55 42 54
53 45 Ty Wigginton 50 53 46 49
54 23 Gaby Sanchez 53 57 39 56
55 46 Aubrey Huff 56 51 49 55
56 50 Juan Rivera 57 54 48 53
57 N/A Matt LaPorta 55 56 55 57





 

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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TacoTruck13
12 years ago

I figured Rizzo would be the toughest to gauge. Ranked from 13 to 38 …. Im very curious to see how he does the rest of the year.

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