‘Member the days when I told you that you needed to draft a top 1st baseman 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 2025 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 2025 fantasy baseball:
Jake Burger (ESPN 162) What’s loaded with protein and roughage so when you eat it you get the gas to power you through the night? The Jake Burger. Colon Blow would’ve also been an acceptable answer. I’ll be 100% honest with you (for first time ever) and say I don’t think you’re getting Jake Burger at 162 overall like at ESPN, but power up that gas and go bah-lau if you can. (At Yahoo, he’s ranked inside the top 100, which seems too high on the other end of things.)
Paul Goldschmidt (ESPN 172, Yahoo 170, NFBC 160) I rank a guy, and it makes sense where I put them, then I get to draft season, and hate all of the options on the board at a particular spot and start getting warmer on a player. This happened to me with Au Shizz. I think through no fault of his own, he’s being unfairly compared to what happened to Rizzo on the Yankees. Prolly because I literally made that exact comparison numerous times, but maybe it’s unfair because Yankee Stadium can help his declining power, the lineup is solid and maybe he can have a 24/7/.250 season with good counting stats. Not exactly prime Au Shizz, but worth his draft spot.
Michael Busch (ESPN 181, Yahoo 224, NFBC 246) Said like The Revenge of the Nerds, “We’ve got Busch!” And what does that mean we’re getting? 20/3/.225 is what projections are saying. To quote another old movie, not great, Bob! I’m much closer to NFBC around 240 then ESPN, but there might be some upside here, and, if there’s no upside, then all Dodgers’ prospects going forward need to come with a warning and an investigation into prospect writers.
Ryan Mountcastle (ESPN 198, Yahoo 195, NFBC 223) I’m so much higher than everyone else on Mountcastle. Listen, he helped me with The Mystery of Who Squeezed the Toothpaste from the Top. (It was Cougs; I should’ve figured that one out.) BBC’s favorite detective, Mountcastle, also is getting the fences back to where they were when he was a 33-homer hitter. How is no one else excited about this?
Michael Toglia (ESPN 248, Yahoo 200, NFBC 180) Don’t blame people for giving hope in all Rockies players. We’ve been burnt so badly by the Rockies that our asses are chapped. I don’t disagree. I’m still thinking about Josh Rutledge. Though, seriously, why couldn’t he come out of retirement and still be good? So, there’s a trail of tears for every Rockies sleeper, but Toglia went 25/10 last year in 399 ABs. Just repeat that and he’s worth his draft spot (and I expect more). Also, gave you my Michael Toglia sleeper.
Nolan Schanuel (ESPN 285, Yahoo 248, NFBC 376) He was 250th overall on the Player Rater last year at 22 years of age. I know, I know, his ceiling is so low Altuve would bump his head on it, but he’s also a .260 hitter neutrally, should play every day and had 10 steals last year (with one caught stealing) on a team where they might run him 20 times. Schanuel 20/20/.260 is outside of the realm of anyone’s idea of projections, but not completely outside of reality for, uh, fantasy.
Luke Raley (ESPN NR, Yahoo 265, NFBC 301) Since I was at the Player Rater, Raley was 190th overall last year. The reason I like to go back and look because I think it’s as good a gut check as you can find. Is (player name who isn’t great) great? No, hence the parenthetical. Could (player name who is rosterable in fantasy) be rosterable in fantasy? Yes, dur. That’s Raley. He went 22/11/.243 last year. If you gave him 80 runs and RBIs, he would’ve been a top 75 player.
Tyler Soderstrom (ESPN NR, Yahoo 275, NFBC 287) Can I be more honest with you than anyone’s ever been in the history of honesty? I don’t know how SacTown Park is going to play. Why I’m more honest than anyone ever? No one else is telling you this. People are guessing how the park will play, but no one knows. The most obvious difference is the lack of foul territory. The less obvious is the wind currents and weather and giant Brillo pad advertisements. I see no adjustment on BABIP for the Ath’s hitters and I can’t see how that’s true. They no longer have three football fields’ worth of foul territory. Soderstrom could hit 25 homers; could he also hit .250? Yes and yes. Will he? I honestly haven’t a clue.
Kyle Manzardo (ESPN 263, Yahoo 299, NFBC 484) Added him to the 1st basemen rankings late because Yahoo has him listed there. Go there and see what I said. (By the by, ESPN being so much higher on Manzardo is very puzzling.)
Deyvison De Los Santos (ESPN NR, Yahoo 308, NFBC 515) I love how aggressive Yahoo is on DDLS. Is it nuts? Oh, it’s batshizz crazy. So what? I say go fast and break things, especially when ranking for fantasy and less so when working as an emergency room doctor. When you’re late, go for the gusto, as my Italian ancestors once said. Go for broke, as they also said after investing in some guy named Ponzi. I don’t even know if De Los Santos will be playing this year with the Marlins, but he hit 40 dongers last year in the minors, so let’s freakin’ go! (Don’t mention his 45% chase rate at Triple-A, I can’t hear you.)
Nick Kurtz (ESPN NR, Yahoo NR, NFBC 619) As I ended the catchers to target, let me give you a 1st baseman to target who isn’t even in my top 500. Kurtz went AWOL, walling himself off in the middle of the jungle with nothing but clones of animal-human hybrids like He-ynas and Zebras, which is just zebras wearing bras–[finger to ear bud] Crap, I’m being told I’m confusing Apocalypse Now, The Island of Dr. Moreau and this 22-year-old top prospect with the A’s. I don’t fear the A’s anymore, and I think the fantasy community is slow to react to them being a good hitting team. Kurtz has light-tower power, and decent contact, when he’s not fitting zebras for bras.
