Fantasy Baseball: Midseason First Baseman Rankings
This article was originally written by Seth Walder over at Fake Teams
Below you'll find our midseason first basemen rankings. Brian (bluethunder33) has been added to the rankings corps for a fourth perspective, which is nice to have.
As always, remember that these rankings are the order in which we would like to own these players from this point forward.
| Rank | Player | Ray | Jason | Brian | Seth | Average |
| 1 | Albert Pujols | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Miguel Cabrera | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | Ryan Howard | 4 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 4.75 |
| T-4 | Justin Morneau | 3 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 5.25 |
| T-4 | Mark Teixeira | 5 | 3 | 8 | 9 | 5.25 |
| 6 | Prince Fielder | 6 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 6 |
| 7 | Joey Votto | 9 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6.5 |
| 8 | Kevin Youkilis | 7 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 6.5 |
| 9 | Adrian Gonzalez | 8 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 6.75 |
| 10 | Mark Reynolds | 13 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 11.75 |
| 11 | Adam Dunn | 14 | 12 | 12 | 10 | 12 |
| 12 | Billy Butler | 11 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 13.25 |
| 13 | Pablo Sandoval | 10 | 15 | 13 | 16 | 13.5 |
| 14 | Paul Konerko | 18 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 13.75 |
| 15 | Carlos Pena | 12 | NR | 15 | 15 | 15.75 |
| 16 | Troy Glaus | 19 | 11 | 19 | 17 | 16.5 |
| 17 | Adam LaRoche | 17 | NR | NR | 11 | 17.5 |
| T-18 | David Ortiz | NR | 17 | 16 | 18 | 18 |
| T-18 | Derrek Lee | 16 | 14 | NR | NR | 18 |
| 20 | Lance Berkman | 15 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 18.5 |
| 21 | James Loney | 20 | 18 | 17 | NR | 19 |
| 22 | Justin Smoak | NR | 19 | 18 | 20 | 19.5 |
Doing these rankings made me realize one thing: first base is incredibly deep. Picking and choosing the end of my 20 was difficult to do, those who just missed out were deserving to make the list--there just weren't enough spots.
As I saw it there was a clear tier of 9: Pujols and Cabrera, followed by the other seven players that make up our 3-9 rankings. It appears that everyone agreed with this--while we all ranked the the 3-9 players quite differently, no other player made the top 9 on any of our lists. While I do have an order of preference for those players, I must confess there is little difference between them. If I were to acquire Mark Teixeira today (my No. 9-ranked player) I would have no qualms about it.
Also, I have seen rankings with Miguel Cabrera ahead of Pujols recently, though I had no hesitation in putting Albert No. 1. When he sent in his rankings, Jason said, "I couldn't quite do it, but 1 and 2 are essentially 1 and 1A to me." I wonder how many people feel similarly.
The back 11 were a real mix and match, and its interesting to see where everyone put them. Clearly, Jason is a fan of Troy Glaus, Ray is a Pablo Sandoval believer, and I love me some Adam LaRoche.
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