First Base Consensus Ranks for the Second Half

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

BAL	CHW	LAA
BOS	CLE	OAK
NYY	DET	SEA
TBR	KCR	TEX
TOR	MIN	HOU

ATL	CHC*	ARI
MIA	CIN	COL
WSN	MIL	LAD
NYM*	PIT	SDP*
PHI	STL	SFG