Don’t postpone first order of business
MOST fantasy pundits will tell you it doesn’t matter who you take in the first few rounds of your fantasy baseball draft. They’ll tell you it is about “best player available,” personal preference and your initial draft strategy.
To a certain extent, that is true, but even a cursory glance at each position’s tiers of talent and overall depth will tell you if you don’t have your first baseman locked down within the first few rounds, you’re doing it wrong.
You’ll hear the phrase “position scarcity” thrown around quite a bit during draft season. It refers to the lack of available options at a given position in relation to the percentage of starting major league players drafted. Many fantasy writers will use the terminology, but what they really are discussing isn’t “scarcity,” it is the drop-off in talent from the upper tiers, and that is exactly what we see at first base.
At first base, you want big-time power. Home runs and RBIs are the primaries, and runs scored and batting average immediately follow. There are seven first basemen who do all of that for you — Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Rizzo, Miguel Cabrera, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Abreu, Freddie Freeman and Joey Votto.
When you draft any of them, 30 home runs, 100-plus RBIs, at least 90 runs scored and an average that sits above the .290 mark can be expected. They are fantasy gold, and they’re the only ones who do it all.
You can find power as you go down the list. Chris Davis, Carlos Santana and Mike Napoli are great examples. However, their batting averages are terrible. Look even further down the list, and Eric Hosmer, Han- ley Ramirez and Brandon Belt show decent production, but the numbers don’t touch those of the top seven. Go even further and, well, it gets pretty ugly fast.
First base is not a position you want to wait on. Regardless of who else you draft in the early rounds, you still will be lacking without one of the top seven. Invest early. Secure the position. Everything else will fall into place.
Howard Bender is the managing editor at FantasyAlarm.com and host of“Fantasy Sports Tonight” on Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio( Saturday sat 2 p.m. and Sundays at 8 p.m.). Follow him on Twitter@ ro to buzz guy.