First base

[louisvillec271]

Anyone have a list of the top 5/10 fielding first baseman? Just a quick look at the AH would lead one to believe that Goldy is the best glove over at first. Who else is worth mention here?

[cavacom]

Mark Grace

[atabakin]

The best defensive first basemen will be tall players at other infield positions you train at first base.

[DonkeyKongSr]

Here's the top 25 of players defensively at 1B. I think only Brandon Belt is a natural 1B, so the rest will probably need to go through 1.5-2 seasons to reach their max. You'll notice pretty much 3B and tall SS dominate this list. The number next to their name is the overall rating, not defensive rating.

Cal Ripken Jr - 96
Scott Rolen - 96
Troy Tulowitzki - 75
Troy Tulowitzki - 91
Cal Ripken Jr - 87
Bobby Crosby - 77
Alex Rodriguez - 97
Tim Wallach - 72
Cal Ripken Jr - 95
Carlos Correa - 93
Corey Seager - 89
Brandon Belt - 75
Cal Ripken Jr - 89
Alex Rodriguez - 95
Andrelton Simmons - 79
Kris Bryant - 94
DJ LeMahieu - 69
Didi Gregorius - 81
Carlos Correa - 79
Corey Seager - 85
Marty Marion - 60
Kris Bryant - 81
Corey Seager - 83
Ryan Zimmerman - 81
Hanley Ramirez - 89

[DrTobiasFunke]

From my experience in the base game, if a guy has 50-60 range and 60+ error for his infield ratings he'll train up to an elite 1st base (arm and DP are rather useless for a 1st baseman). So really, the vast majority of infield players can become a great defensive 1st baseman. But I don't really think it's all that worth it to invest in top most defense in 1st base, just because of the small fielding sample sizes they have to work with.

Here's a little math from my league using an extremely unscientific metric I call Missing Outs, where you add up all the outs they "could've" got, as scored in the expanded fielding stats on the player page. The unmarked players have played 140-150 games, while Goldy's and Vidro's stats are prorated to 140 (from 80 and 89 games respectively).

Scott Spezio 6.7 ZR / 222 chances / 31 Missed outs (8 Impossible)
Antony Rizzo 5.4 ZR / 223 chances / 34 MO (12 impossible)
Rod Carew 3.9 ZR / 207 chances / 39 MO (9 impossible)
Ryan McMahon 3.2 ZR / 238 chances / 49 MO (18 impossible)
Luke Voit 2.2 ZR / 204 chances / 39 MO (12 impossible)
Paul Goldschmidt* 4.2 ZR / 187 chances / 36.75 MO (14 impossible)
Jose Vidro* -0.4 ZR / 202 chances / 40.75 MO (8 impossible)
Max Kepler -4.8 ZR / 214 chances / 58 MO (14 impossible)

So, in the course of a typical season the an abysmal 1st baseman, compared to one having a golden glove season, might net you about 1 games worth of outs, which isn't nothing, but if you're comparing the best 1st baseman to my slightly below average 1st base-in-training Jose Vidro (who's also 5'10", so I'm kinda dubious on height really being a requirement for 1st), the difference comes out to 9 outs. And 9 outs over 200 chances, well even the highest rated guy can have 9 errors in that span.

This is all a really long way of saying you should probably be asking for a list of the best hitting 1st basemen, because you can probably easily add 9 outs worth of offense over most of the super elite 1st basemen and probably for less PP as well.

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by DrTobiasFunke

From my experience in the base game, if a guy has 50-60 range and 60+ error for his infield ratings he'll train up to an elite 1st base (arm and DP are rather useless for a 1st baseman). So really, the vast majority of infield players can become a great defensive 1st baseman. But I don't really think it's all that worth it to invest in top most defense in 1st base, just because of the small fielding sample sizes they have to work with.

Here's a little math from my league using an extremely unscientific metric I call Missing Outs, where you add up all the outs they "could've" got, as scored in the expanded fielding stats on the player page. The unmarked players have played 140-150 games, while Goldy's and Vidro's stats are prorated to 140 (from 80 and 89 games respectively).

Scott Spezio 6.7 ZR / 222 chances / 31 Missed outs (8 Impossible)
Antony Rizzo 5.4 ZR / 223 chances / 34 MO (12 impossible)
Rod Carew 3.9 ZR / 207 chances / 39 MO (9 impossible)
Ryan McMahon 3.2 ZR / 238 chances / 49 MO (18 impossible)
Luke Voit 2.2 ZR / 204 chances / 39 MO (12 impossible)
Paul Goldschmidt* 4.2 ZR / 187 chances / 36.75 MO (14 impossible)
Jose Vidro* -0.4 ZR / 202 chances / 40.75 MO (8 impossible)
Max Kepler -4.8 ZR / 214 chances / 58 MO (14 impossible)

So, in the course of a typical season the an abysmal 1st baseman, compared to one having a golden glove season, might net you about 1 games worth of outs, which isn't nothing, but if you're comparing the best 1st baseman to my slightly below average 1st base-in-training Jose Vidro (who's also 5'10", so I'm kinda dubious on height really being a requirement for 1st), the difference comes out to 9 outs. And 9 outs over 200 chances, well even the highest rated guy can have 9 errors in that span.

This is all a really long way of saying you should probably be asking for a list of the best hitting 1st basemen, because you can probably easily add 9 outs worth of offense over most of the super elite 1st basemen and probably for less PP as well.

Thank you for the advice. This is a real eye opener. Bye bye Brandon Belt.

[the_mad_monk]

I've trained 2018 Machado to 95 OVR at first base (so far). This is after training 2018 Donaldson there (then selling his a$$ because he couldn't hit RHP).

[screamingpalm]

Didn't see this one mentioned (Brooks Robinson):

[grall1126]

I think Keith Hernandez was the best defensive first baseman ever.

[the54effect]

Mark Teixeira is only an 80 defensively (which feels low based on the YES network mentioning he was elite defensively roughly... every telecast, ever) but he's been great for me in the low levels as a platoon bat/backup/defensive sub.

Roughly .300/.400/.500 for me over 500 ABs over bronze and silver, WHICH WAS NOT THE QUESTION YOU WERE ASKING.

[mess]

As everyone else has said, the best 1B don't even play 1B... it's the way the defense algorithm works.

Most of the existing 1B with good bats are absolutely atrocious but shouldn't cost you any games.

[louisvillec271]

Originally Posted by mess

As everyone else has said, the best 1B don't even play 1B... it's the way the defense algorithm works.

Most of the existing 1B with good bats are absolutely atrocious but shouldn't cost you any games.

The reason for the posting was to find a first baseman that could possibly win a GG. We're aiming for every position earning a glove award.



Sifting through all of the various different players to locate someone who fit would have been quite time consuming. Having that list made it much easier to come up with a player.

[taz20075]

While "Missed Outs" is looking at the value of the first baseman only, I wonder what impact that player has on the rest of the infield. More errors for everyone else, fewer DPs turned...

[BidPro]

Keith Hernandez is highly regarded as the best defensive first baseman.

[OMGPuppies]

Originally Posted by BidPro

Keith Hernandez is highly regarded as the best defensive first baseman.

i used Keith in bronze and he hit well for me.

[Janks]

Teixeira and Hernandez make a good team.

Cant go wrong with Tex-Mex

[DrTobiasFunke]

Originally Posted by taz20075

While "Missed Outs" is looking at the value of the first baseman only, I wonder what impact that player has on the rest of the infield. More errors for everyone else, fewer DPs turned...

That was something I was considering, and while that's a whole lot harder to tease out of the engine, I can say anecdotally that while my defense was training (specifically at 1st and 2nd) my Bud Harrelson (75/80 SS rating) had 9 errors and a negative zone rating in April of my first bronze season.

So that might be a concern, but I would think it would balance out as players got their experience rating filled out. Anecdotally, again, but Harrelson bounced back to finish the season with nearly 8 ZR.