After drudging through an Andy Dufresne-type tunnel for the top 20 catchers for 2010, I find myself with a group that actually really hurt or helped your team depending on how you drafted. If you went wrong with your 1st baseman, it could kill your season. If you went right, you might’ve won. Here’s my preseason Top 20 1st Basemen for 2010 for reference sake. Also, to recap, this final ranking is from ESPN Player Rater with my comments. The Player Rater allows me to be impartial while looking at how I ranked them in the preseason. Anyway, here’s the top 20 1st basemen for 2010 fantasy baseball and how they compared to where I originally ranked them:
1. Albert Pujols – Proves once again if you have the first pick of the draft, you shouldn’t overthink things. Preseason Rank #1, 2010 Projections: 110/40/120/.337/10, Final Numbers: 115/42/118/.312/14
2. Joey Votto – In my preseason rankings, I put Votto in a tier called, “Yes, please.” In my December Joey Votto keeper post, I said, “If Votto continues to progress, you’re looking at a guy that could easily give you 32 homers, 10 steals and a .300 average. If you buy into Joey Votto for 2010, I’ll also throw in a climbing walk rate and OPS for absolutely free!” And that’s me quoting me! If you didn’t know I wanted you to draft Votto, you weren’t reading Razzball. Preseason Rank #10, 2010 Projections: 90/30/105/.305/7, Final Numbers: 106/37/113/.324/16
3. Miguel Cabrera – About as consistent as they come. Be forewarned, I’m strongly considering Miggy for the number one spot in all of fantasy baseball next year. What was that about not overthinking things? Preseason Rank #3, 2010 Projections: 105/35/115/.320/3, Final Numbers: 111/38/126/.328/3
4. Paul Konerko – Konerko’s one of those late round corner men that is always welcome in deep leagues and always ignored in shallow ones. He falls between the cracks like C+ students. This year, he took pitchers to school. Will be really hard for me to expect anything along these lines next year from Konerko and he’ll probably surprise me again. Preseason Unranked, 2010 Projections: 55/24/75/.260, Final Numbers: 89/39/111/.312
5. Adrian Gonzalez – Well, I’ve seen better seasons. Miggy for one, that was a better season. But it’s hard to hate too much on A-Gon. At least he wasn’t Prince Fielder. Or Justin Morneau. Or Teixeira. Preseason Rank #6, 2010 Projections: 90/38/100/.280, Final Numbers: 87/31/101/.298
6. Aubrey Huff – I didn’t have high hopes for him moving to a pitchers’ park/division. Yeah, I was wrong. Hey, even Spielberg made 1941. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 100/26/86/.290/7
7. Ryan Howard – I wanted the 40 homers from Howard and you did too. So it’s hard to not look at this season as a slight letdown. Really the whole Phillies offense this year was a letdown. It’s Citizens Flank, hit some homers before some fans hit you. Preseason Rank #5, 2010 Projections: 105/47/140/.275, Final Numbers: 87/31/108/.276/1
8. Nick Swisher – Swisher was the kind of pick that helped you win your league. You draft a random schmohawk in the last rounds, you slot him at corner and he ends up better than your 1st round pick. I’m farting in your general direction, Fielder. Preseason Unranked for 1st Basemen, 2010 Projections: 80/30/90/.255, Final Numbers: 91/29/89/.288/1
9. Mark Teixeira – PABST: Post-All-Star Break’s Stats Teixeira looked more like PBS BS: Post-Break Stats Before September, which left him looking like a charity case most of the season. Am I being tough? Prolly. Really only his average killed you. I expect he’ll have a nice bounce back next year. Preseason Rank #2, 2010 Projections: 100/37/120/.305, Final Numbers: 113/33/108/.256
10. Martin Prado – This is one of those ESPN Player Rater glitches that ranks someone high because of a good average and Runs. Prado was no 1st baseman. He was a good corner infidel. Preseason Unranked for 1st Basemen, 2010 Projections: 70/8/60/.305, Final Numbers: 100/15/66/.307/5
11. Adam Dunn – And, on the hottest day of the year, he blew clouds over your house when your AC went out. You’re welcome. Preseason Rank #14, 2010 Projections: 80/40/100/.250, Final Numbers: 85/38/103/.260
12. Billy Butler – I didn’t like him going into 2010 and told people to avoid him. And his stats still came in way under where I even thought he’d be with only 7.5 homers per moob. He still wasn’t as big a moob as Kung Fu Panda who didn’t even make the top 30, let alone top 20. Preseason Rank #18, 2010 Projections: 85/25/100/.295, Final Numbers: 77/15/78/.318
13. Prince Fielder – Where do I start? Okay, how about the fluky nature of RBIs? You really can’t blame Fielder for having less RBIs than Juan Uribe. Then only 32 homers? Yeah, you can blame that on the Chubbster. He’s looking like the raison d’etre for Saberhagenmetrics. One year good, one year bad and so it goes with Fielder. And so it goes… Preseason Rank #4, 2010 Projections: 100/42/115/.285, Final Numbers: 94/32/83/.261/1
14. Victor Martinez – Went over him in the top 20 catchers for 2010 post.
15. Luke Scott – Luke, you are my waiver wire fodder. In a few leagues where I had Scott, I had him for, like, three weeks and had 12 homers from him. Doode gets hotter than a junebug’s belly. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 70/27/72/.284/2
16. Kevin Youkilis – His low ranking is deceiving. Assuming you had the fortitude and gumption (gumpitude?) to grab a decent 1st baseman when Youuuuuuk went down, you did okay. Preseason Rank #8, 2010 Projections: 95/27/105/.295/5, Final Numbers: 77/19/62/.307/4
17. Michael Cuddyer – He’s not exactly ranked high here, but it’s still scary how high he is considering how terrible his final stats are. I mean, 14 homers? Really? Crimey a river, JT. I think it’s pretty clear the steroid era is over and if someone can get you 30+ homers you must draft them high. Preseason Rank #21, 2010 Projections: 85/24/95/.275/5, Final Numbers: 93/14/81/.271/7
18. Howie Kendrick – Huh? At first base? I’m gonna go over him in the next post on top 20 2nd basemen because this doesn’t make any sense to me. Preseason Unranked for 1st Basemen, 2010 Projections: 85/12/70/.310/12, Final Numbers: 67/10/75/.279/14
19. Gaby Sanchez – He was in the 2nd Buy/Sell of the year as a lukewarm Buy and he never really moved beyond that. Was a good pickup for NL-Only or very deep mixed leagues, but if you had Gaby anywhere but the corner infidel spot, you were in trouble. Preseason Unranked, Final Numbers: 72/19/85/.273/5
20. Adam LaRoche – He actually had a decent first half this year (for him) that seemed like it would naturally turn into a career year because he’s always been such a better 2nd half player. Too bad no one told LaRoche about any of this. Preseason Rank #24, 2010 Projections: 70/27/80/.265, Final Numbers: 75/25/100/.261
