‘Member the days when I told you that you needed a top 1st basemen and you shouldn’t look for sleepers at this position? Don’t remember? Prolly for best, leave more room in your brain to remember excuses for why you didn’t exercise. Previously, I’d tell you to go to my top 20 1st basemen for 2024 fantasy baseball (not clickbait at all) and draft some top guys and stop fooling around with sleepers at this position. Of course, I’m malleable like Gumby and this year we need to look for sleepers at 1st base *ducks head*. Whoa, someone threw a wrench into this! Fine, Triston Casas, Pete Alonso and Matt Olson get my nethers ablaze, but 1st basemen dry up quick. As with other positions like the catchers to target (again, not clickbait), these are 1st basemen that are being drafted late. For the 1st basemen, I’m going with an ADP of 150 or later to be included in this post. Anyway, here’s some 1st basemen to target for 2024 fantasy baseball:
Alec Bohm (NFBC 161, ESPN 186) Can’t believe he’s going this late, I have him all the way up at [looks at my Bohm ranking] Okay, he’s roughly ranked around where he’s being drafted. My takeaway from the 1st basemen is draft one before you get to this post. These are corner infidels. I do have some slight hope for Bohm. His power grew last year; he’s only 27 and he makes excellent contact, which wouldn’t leave me shocked to see him hit .300.
Isaac Paredes (NFBC 177, ESPN 181, Yahoo 182) Already gave you my Isaac Paredes sleeper. Here’s some quotes from that piece, “Don’t worry, money…pulled balls…a terrible thing…But…hold onto your flippers…” Damn, I’m terrible at pulling quotes. Is that saying male dolphins shouldn’t pull their balls? Do dolphins have testicles? I’m a college grad.
Rhys Hoskins (NFBC 204, ESPN 179, Yahoo 151) Bernie Brewer better lube up that slide, because Milwaukee is a great landing spot for Hoskins. Lube it up! Just laughed to myself thinking about the guy at his draft saying, “I’m taking Hoskins because Grey said Bernie Brewer better lube up his slide.” Let that person be you.
Jeimer Canderlario (NFBC 229, ESPN 227, Yahoo 213) Okay, without linking to it, I’ll just say that I wrote a Jeimer sleeper post two years ago, because of how much I liked him, and now he’s on the Reds. [blinking lights] Great park! [light flickers off] Crap, I should’ve paid my utility bill.
Kyle Manzardo (NFBC 398, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 294) Manzardo going 60 picks before Kirilloff is funny. Not ha-ha funny, but Manzardo has no job and projections that say he’ll be worse than Kirilloff. How’sever, this is about being positive and if Manzardo breaks camp, I’m intrigued. He looks a little like the most boring 1st baseman that I don’t usually like: The .275 hitter with 17-homer power. That kinda feels optimistic too. Funny that he was on the Rays, because, if things break right, he looks like the second coming of Yandy. Call him Kyle Yanzardy.
Alex Kirilloff (NFBC 457, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 295) So, this is weird, I got to the end of Kirilloff’s name while typing and BDon jumped through my window, smashing the glass, reciting to me reasons to like Kirilloff. That’s fine, but what I found a little annoying was how he could’ve at least left through the same window rather smashing out another one. Okay, what I’m about to say is both dumb and stupid, but what if Buxton and Lewis get hurt, but Kirilloff actually stays healthy? Then why wouldn’t he hit in the top third of the order? Immediate boost in value, and Kirilloff, while incredibly injury-prone himself, was equally touted not that long ago, and not just by BDon. Many saw Kirilloff as an automatic multi-year All-Star with 30-homers and .280+ average in his future. Couldn’t be more derailed, but it’s still there, somewhere in there.
Elehuris Montero (NFBC 522, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 378) Some of these 1st basemen to target remind me of the Netflix doc, American Symphony, in that both these guys and that movie are boring as crap. I tried watching that flick about five times. Any hoo! I think I might be too tough on Montero, because of how much Bud Black has hurt me. I went and tracked down some out clips of Elehuris Montero homering and he’s a strong boy that could easily get into 25 homers. He also used to be a .290 hitter in the minors, that has just been totally defeated by MLB pitching, but guys click at different times.
Nolan Schanuel (NFBC 549, ESPN unranked, Yahoo 372) I called him Nolan Monaco in the 1st basemen rankings because he was Ty France down the coast, but I might be being too conservative on what to expect. Itch seems more positive, so let’s end with him, “The 11th overall pick, Nolan Schanuel dominated his competition at Florida Atlantic, especially in a preposterous junior season that saw him slash .447/.615/.868 with 19 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 59 games. The team sent him to the complex for three games then to Low-A for two games. What he showed at those levels with a smattering of singles and walks is probably what he’d shown before they drafted him. Bit of travel for puzzling reasons, is all I’m saying. Then he went to Double-A for 17 games and slashed .333/.474/.467 with twice as many walks as strikeouts. That’ll probably be that for his minor league career: 22 games across three levels. There’s just not much argument for him to spend any time in Triple-A this season after he posted a 112 wRC+ and .402 OBP in 29 major league games. Sure, he didn’t get to his extra base power, and he might benefit from some low-stakes opportunities to focus on that, but spring training should offer that. If only someone offered me a chance to punch Grey.” What on earth?