It’s draft day and you find yourself without the first pick. What do you do? If you can’t have Albert Pujols then what is the point of even playing right? Well maybe so, but there are other options and life isn’t over. How do you determine which first basemen to take? Well I put the question to three of our crack (or maybe crackpot) analysts here at AmateurGm.com. If given the choice between Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder or Justin Morneau who do you take as your starting first baseman?
Jeff Walter – In fantasy baseball you need power numbers out of your first base position, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a better power hitter in baseball today than Ryan Howard. Howard has been the most consistent power hitter since his first full season in 2006. Remarkably he has had at least 45 home runs and 136 RBIs in each of his first four full seasons (say that five times fast!). Over that same time period Howard has produced a total of 198 home runs and 572 RBI. Compare that to the other top first basemen: Justin Morneau- 118/465… Prince Fielder- 158/443… and even Albert Pujols- 165/491.In fact during the 2009 season Howard became the fastest player in baseball history to reach 200 home runs. Also consider career slugging percentage. Howard- .586… Morneau- .501… Fielder- .550… Pujols- .628. Ok, so Pujols wins the slugging percentage battle, part of the reason he’ll go number one in most drafts. Lastly, when ranking your first basemen for fantasy purposes, remember that Howard is part of one of the top three offenses in baseball. Yet one more reason why Howard should be taken ahead of Morneau and Fielder.
Ryan Oleniczak – After Albert Pujols, you can’t go wrong taking Prince Fielder as your first basemen of choice for your fantasy team. Last year, Fielder was one of only three players, MVP’s Pujols and Joe Mauer the others, with an OPS over 1.000 (1.014).Fielder also finished second among first basemen in total bases with 1,008. Fielder has proven to fantasy owners that he is a mark of durability over the past three seasons as he has not played in less than 157 games during that stretch. Last season, Fielder’s numbers compared favorably, if not better than Howard’s, as he finished with 46 HR (Howard – 43), 141 RBI (Howard – 141), 103 Runs (Howard – 105), and a .299 AVG (Howard – .279). If you think Fielder’s numbers were an aberration, look to his 3 year averages of 43 HR, 120 RBI, 99 Runs, and a .288 AVG for guidance. Considering his power and average, Fielder is a step above Howard as the No. 2 fantasy option at first base this season for fantasy owners.
Jason Oleniczak – I am a huge Justin Morneau fan. He is a good citizen and a model of consistency. That being said, it is a tough to justify Morneau as a better fantasy option than Ryan Howard or Prince Fielder. In fact, I won’t try to. He is generally not. What I would say is that if you have a choice between the three of these players and your current roster has a lot of high strikeout players then you might want to go with Morneau. His three-year average for strikeouts is 87 compared to Fielder’s 131 and Howard’s brutal 193. Also, if your league has a defensive category that would weigh in Morneau’s favor as his three-year error average is 4 compared to 13 for Fielder and 15 for Howard. To sum up, unless your fantasy league has a “least time spent at the Old Country Buffet” category, you will not take Morneau over Fielder and Howard.
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there is no way i would take prince fielder or ryan howard in the 2nd round if i could get morneau in the third. ps u forgot mark texeira (.299, 39 hr, 122 rbi) and adrien gonzalez (.277, 40 hr, 99 rbi) those guys are legit too. if adrien gonzalez aver get someone to hit in front of him his rbi number will go up.