Either way, it’s good to familiarize yourself with players who might be deep down your cheat sheets. Even though they play the least taxing position and generally take their time on the basepaths, first basemen see their fair share of injuries. When one slugger goes down, you need another one. And you never know when someone is going to break out and hit 30-plus homers or take advantage of a bunch of RBI opportunities.
Our picks this year have mostly proven something at the major league level in terms of power, but whether it’s potential platoon situations or high K-rates, they all come with risks. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t fall low enough to be considered sleepers.
2017 RANKINGS:Catcher | First | Second | Third | Shortstop | Outfield | Starter | Closer
2017 Fantasy Baseball Sleepers: First base
Position eligibility based on Yahoo standard leagues.
Kendrys Morales, Blue Jays (also OF eligible). Morales hit 30 homers last season with the Royals and now moves to a much more hitter-friendly park and more potent lineup in Toronto. Still, it seems that many find Morales old, boring, and injury prone (or all three). However, he’s played at least 154 games in each of the past two seasons and he’s only 33. He might be boring, but he’ll produce.
Tommy Joseph, Phillies. Joseph popped 21 homers in 107 games last year, and even though he doesn’t bring much to the table besides power, that will play with a mid-to-late-round corner infielder. Ticketed for full-time duty this year, Joseph could approach or surpass 30 homers, as Citizen’s Bank Park is one of the most homer-friendly for righthanded hitters.
Eric Thames, Brewers (only OF eligible to start year but will play first base). Thames looked like a classic “Quad-A” player before washing out of the majors in 2013. He then went to Korea and absolutely dominated, posting a .349/.457/.721 line with 124 homers (and a 40-40 season) over three years. Now 30, he’s back in the majors with Milwaukee, and it’s anyone’s guess how he’ll fare. If given a full season worth of at-bats, Thames should hit homers with at least 10 steals, but his average could be a drag. If his Korean stats represent a legit improvement in approach, he could be this year’s biggest draft values.
Justin Bour, Marlins. Bour was on this list last year, but an ankle injury limited him to just 90 games. He still hit 15 homers and saw a big improvements to his BB-rate and strikeout rate, so clearly the 28-year-old slugger can get better. Perhaps even more enticing is that he’s already been announced as Miami’s “everyday” first baseman. The problem with Bour is that we’re not sure if he can hit lefties. In 110 major league plate appearances against southpaws, he has a .223/.273/.291 line with 36 strikeouts. To be fair, Bour was at least respectable against lefties in Triple-A in 2014 (.250/.300/.408 in 130 PAs), but if he struggles vs. LHPs out of the gates, expect another platoon situation.
Greg Bird, Yankees. A shoulder injury cost Bird all but 17 games at Rookie ball in 2016, but now healthy, he should open the season as the Yankees’ starting first baseman. The 24-year-old slugger blasted 11 homers in just 46 games with the Yankees in ‘15, totaling 23 between the minors and majors that year. There are obvious worries here, starting with the bum shoulder and continuing to the Yankees’ stockpile of 1B types who could platoon with Bird (Chris Carter, Matt Holliday). Fortunately, Bird would be on the “happy side” of the platoon, so he should supply around 20-25 homers, if nothing else.
SLEEPERS: Each team | Catcher | Second | Third | Short | Outfield | Pitcher
Lucas Duda, Mets. Limited to just 47 games last year because of a back injury, Duda wasn’t able to build off his stellar 2014 and ‘15 seasons (57 total homers). It’s tempting to just cast him aside as another injury-prone, homer-or-nothing veteran, but at 31, it’s likely Duda still has something in the tank. He’s much more valuable in OBP leagues because of his BB-rate, and the Mets’ trio of 30-HR OFs should help his run production.
Kennys Vargas, Twins. With Byung-Ho Park out of the picture, Vargas should be Minnesota’s primary DH, and given Joe Mauer’s injury history, he could also see time at first. He might already seem like a has-been, but he’s only 26, and he hit 25 HRs between Triple-A (15) and the majors (10 in 47 games) last year. Vargas was always a high-BB guy in the minors, but that never translated to the majors. It did last year, as he posted a solid 13.6 percent BB-rate. That came with an unsightly 33.2 percent K-rate, but that’s part of the deal. Like Duda, Vargas is much more valuable in OBP leagues, but he could be a cheap source of power and RBIs in all formats.
More (deep) 1B sleeper candidates: Yulieski Gurriel (HOU), A.J. Reed (HOU), Josh Bell (PIT), Dan Vogelbach (SEA), Mitch Moreland (Red Sox).
