First Baseman are First in Fantasy Depth — 2015 Fantasy Rankings

I’ve already taken part in two mock drafts, including the first round of a 2015 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft on FantasySports.About.com (with the second round posted on this site) and one that MLB.com hosted here.

In both instances, Miguel Cabrera, who lost his third-base eligibility for 2015, was the top first baseman selected (second and third overall).

MLB.com’s Cory Schwartz explained his choice (after Mike Trout and Andrew McCutchen were taken first and second respectively), this way:

“It’s aawwwwfully tempting to take Giancarlo Stanton here but I’ll stick with chalk and take Miguel Cabrera. In a down year by his standards he hit .313-25-109 with 101 runs, and his career averages are around .320-35-120. Losing the 3B eligibility hurts (although he’ll still have it in 10-game leagues), but he’s in a class by himself as far as money-in-the-bank four-category production.” – @Schwartzstops

The other Fantasy writer that took Cabrera (second overall), was RotoWire.com’s Jeff Erickson, who mentioned that he doesn’t think Cabrera’s stats will fall off a cliff just yet, despite his age (32), and that he should be a 30-100-.300 player again this season.

Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt was a close second place, getting picked up among the top seven overall draft picks in each draft.

Who’s the Worst at First?

Despite Billy Butler’s trip to the World Series, he just doesn’t have enough power to serve as a top-20 Fantasy first basemen. If he can go back to batting over .300 on the season, like he did three times in the past six years, then “Country Breakfast” would certainly shoot up the rankings inside the top 15.

And two players with big names on high profile teams will likely go higher than their true Fantasy value deserves are Mark Teixeira and Allen Craig.

Big Tex will be 35 next season, and wrist surgery sapped his ability to hit safely – hitting just .216 on the season, which was his first year under .245. If he regains some strength, in both his wrists and upper body, he could be a 25-HR hitter again.

Craig, however, believes a foot injury he suffered in 2013 cause his problems in 2014. After being a .300 hitter for three straight seasons (averaging over 15 home runs per season), he batted just .215 with eight home runs for the Cardinals in 126 games.

2015 First Base Rankings

These catcher rankings are for standard Rotisserie formats for 12-team leagues that reward home runs, RBI, runs scored, stolen bases and batting average.

Rk	Player	Notes
1	Miguel Cabrera, DET	Just 32 yo, plenty of big seasons left in his bat
2	Paul Goldschmidt, ARI	Could post .300-30-110-100-15 in age 27 season
3	Jose Abreu, CHW	No longer an unknown, Abreu is a 1st rounder
4	Edwin Encarnacion, TOR	Capable of 40-HR season after ’13 wrist surgery
5	Freddie Freeman, ATL	Some of those 43 doubles ready to be HRs
6	Buster Posey, SF	Best Fantasy catcher won’t play 1B for you
7	Anthony Rizzo, CHC	As Cubs improve, Rizzo’s RBI will skyrocket
8	Carlos Santana, CLE	No longer C eligible, Santana remains stud at 1B/3B
9	Chris Davis, BAL	Back to earth in ’14; mid-rd gamble for power return
10	Adrian Gonzalez, LAD	RBI machine in middle of 2nd-best offense in NL
11	Victor Martinez, DET	Free agent would do well back in Detroit for Fantasy
12	Todd Frazier, CIN	Might never steal 30 bags again, but improved all over
13	Mark Trumbo, ARI	Struggled through injury-plagued 1st season in NL
14	Joey Votto, CIN	Bad quad ended his ’14; Big bargain ability in mid-rounds
15	Prince Fielder, TEX	Neck surgery killed 1st yr in Texas, reb. candidate
16	Albert Pujols, LAA	Tough to expect .270-28-100 again from Pujols
17	Joe Mauer, MIN	Turning 32 in April; Drop in BA/OBP looks as bad as HR
18	Eric Hosmer, KC	Just turned 25, so power/RBI potential still exists
19	Matt Adams, STL	Older than Hosmer (26), but with better power future
20	Brandon Moss, OAK	Had offseason hip surgery, should be fine for spring
21	Lucas Duda, NYM	Has ability to hit for average, just not with power
22	Jon Singleton, HOU	Big free swinger, could see 200Ks if he gets 550 ABs
23	Mike Napoli, BOS	Coming off worst season since ’07, but just 33 yo
24	Mark Teixeira, NYY	Will he overcome surgically repaired wrist at age 35?
25	Billy Butler, KC	Just average or below average in hitting categories
26	Justin Morneau, COL	3 yrs with 17-19 HR, 77-82 RBI, but better BA in ’14
27	Allen Craig, STL	Foot injury slowed him, but is that all?
28	Adam LaRoche, FA	Averaged 26 HR/85 RBI over the past 3 seasons
29	Kendrys Morales, FA	Sat for 3 months as FA, then hit .218 once he returned
30	Brandon Belt, SF	Tough to see improvement if Giants offense steps back

I’ll be updating these 2015 First Base rankings as the offseason progresses, so make sure you check back after the winter meetings and into spring training. Drop a comment below if you disagree – or agree – with a ranking so our readers can get multiple viewpoints.