2012 Fantasy Baseball: First Base Rankings

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Opening Day is just a few weeks away and Athlon Sports has all the fantasy baseball rankings you need to get ready for the upcoming season.

Athlon Sports has combined nine fantasy baseball big boards from around the web to compile an updated consensus Top 200 as well as positional breakdowns.

At first base, not much has changed in the updated positional rankings. Miguel Cabrera, who's moving to third this season, and Albert Pujols flip-flop places atop the first base rankings, followed by Joey Votto, Adrian Gonzalez and Prince Fielder, the reason why Cabrera is moving over to the hot corner.

The biggest changes are all injury or illness-related as Ryan Howard (Achilles), Ike Davis (lung infection), Justin Morneau (concussion-related symptoms and numerous surgeries) and Mark Trumbo (stress fracture in foot) all dropped in the rankings. Howard is out until at least May, if not longer, which is the main reason why he has fallen in the rankings. Davis and Trumbo were both limited early on in spring training by their situations, but appear to be back on track, while Morneau has struggled to find his timing and power at the plate.

There has been some positive news on the injury front, however. Kendrys Morales, who last played on May 29, 2010 due to a severely fractured ankle, has been making slow, but steady progress during spring training. He is scheduled to make his long-awaited return to game action later this week.

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Rank – Position ranking
OVR – Overall ranking on The Big Board
LR — Last Ranked, where player was ranked on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012
NR — Not Ranked, means player did not appear on The Big Board that was published on Feb. 20, 2012

AS – Athlon Sports (updated 3/19/12)
CBS – CBSSportsline.com (as of 3/16/12)
ESPN – (updated 3/13/12)
FOX – FOXSports.com (updated 3/7/12)
MLB – MLB.com (as of 3/15/12)
RC – RotoChamp.com (updated 3/18/12)
RS – RotoSummit.com (updated 2/27/12)
USA - USAToday.com (updated 2/13/12)
Y! – Yahoo! Sports (updated 2/24/12)*

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*Yahoo! ranked only 120 players on their list, while Athlon's Big Board contains 200. The aggregated scores of the other eight big boards were used to extrapolate Yahoo!’s rankings to 200 players.

Athlon Sports Fantasy Rankings**: Big Board | C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | OF | SP | RP

**Positional rankings will be updated throughout the week


Rank	OVR	LR	Player	Team	Pos	AS	CBS	ESPN	FOX	MLB	RC	RS	USA	Y!
1	1	3	Miguel Cabera	DET	1B	2	1	1	4	4	1	4	3	1
2	2	1	Albert Pujols	LAA	1B	1	3	2	3	2	3	3	4	3
3	9	7	Joey Votto	CIN	1B	16	12	10	12	9	5	9	10	7
4	10	9	Adrian Gonzalez	BOS	1B	7	13	14	7	11	11	13	9	9
5	17	16	Prince Fielder	DET	1B	17	26	18	15	12	7	18	18	14
6	23	21	Mark Teixeira	NYY	1B	22	33	24	23	24	18	27	31	23
7	36	33	Carlos Santana	CLE	C/1B	52	17	52	30	35	32	46	40	41
8	38	38	Mike Napoli	TEX	C/1B	57	43	47	27	39	30	41	36	53
9	39	48	Pablo Sandoval	SF	1B/3B	34	54	33	44	68	27	38	69	39
10	46	42	Paul Konerko	CHW	1B	70	97	36	37	40	38	35	65	47
11	52	49	Eric Hosmer	KC	1B	41	106	45	39	74	43	40	60	68
12	59	53	Michael Young	TEX	1B/2B/3B	74	56	95	43	101	26	57	75	61
13	69	72	Kevin Youkilis	BOS	1B/3B	58	45	98	59	77	105	76	68	60
14	70	79	Michael Morse	WAS	1B/OF	103	83	71	53	82	42	70	83	62
15	77	76	Joe Mauer	MIN	C/1B	43	48	131	58	66	77	85	93	95
16	83	87	Lance Berkman	STL	1B/OF	105	78	59	77	96	52	77	99	86
17	90	90	Howard Kendrick	LAA	1B/2B/OF	85	119	118	79	84	88	91	101	72
18	98	98	Billy Butler	KC	1B	55	111	102	129	153	37	121	85	123
19	109	107	Freddie Freeman	ATL	1B	81	147	120	76	143	81	127	97	115
20	112	120	Michael Cuddyer	COL	1B/2B/OF	96	152	92	123	156	139	98	121	70
21	115	113	Mark Reynolds	BAL	1B/3B	120	98	156	107	111	101	123	124	128
22	141	149	Nick Swisher	NYY	1B/OF	163	170	150	146	115	137	158	114	153
23	142	143	Paul Goldschmidt	ARI	1B	136	-	182	150	117	126	192	113	98
24	145	136	Adam Lind	TOR	1B	158	-	135	142	133	110	115	195	142
25	158	183	Gaby Sanchez	MIA	1B	156	182	162	133	200	154	175	115	161
26	160	118	Ryan Howard	PHI	1B	159	126	196	171	187	-	160	150	94
27	161	137	Ike Davis	NYM	1B	157	149	208	172	152	-	168	140	111
28	165	153	Justin Morneau	MIN	1B	59	191	-	176	181	-	-	126	151
29	172	200	Carlos Lee	HOU	1B/OF	161	-	-	147	-	150	183	123	175
30	182	190	Kendrys Morales	LAA	1B	154	-	-	-	168	122	-	-	176
31	207	NR	Lucas Duda	NYM	1B/OF	-	-	-	-	-	173	-	143	190
32	209	155	Mark Trumbo	LAA	1B/OF	-	-	-	155	-	-	177	-	185
33	210	NR	Brandon Belt	SF	1B/OF	-	197	-	190	186	192	-	154	-
34	218	NR	Carlos Pena	TB	1B	-	-	192	-	182	180	-	178	-
35	223	216	Yonder Alonso	SD	1B/OF	181	-	-	-	-	176	-	-	-
36	232	NR	Mike Carp	SEA	1B/OF	-	-	-	-	-	166	-	-	-
37	236	NR	James Loney	LAD	1B	-	-	-	-	-	168	-	-	-
38	253	NR	Adam Dunn	CHW	1B/DH	-	-	-	-	188	-	-	-	-

Other names to consider (in alphabetical order): Chris Davis (BAL, 1B/3B), Todd Helton (COL, 1B), Aubrey Huff (SF, 1B/OF), Garrett Jones (PIT, 1B/OF), Adam LaRoche (WAS, 1B), Mitch Moreland (TEX, 1B/OF), Daniel Murphy (NYM, 1B/2B/3B), Justin Smoak (SEA, 1B), Ty Wigginton (PHI, 1B/3B/OF)

— by Mark Ross, updated on March 21, 2012

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