Fantasy baseball first basemen #8: Christian Walker
Christian Walker had his best season last year. He hit .242/.327/.477/.804, good for an OPS+ of 126. He hit 36 homers, 25 doubles, drove in 94 runs, and scored 84. The Diamondbacks have some young, fast, exciting players like Corbin Carroll and Alek Thomas who will probably hit in front of Walker, so expect him to have plenty of opportunities to drive in runs. One thing to work on is hitting for a little more contact, which he’s done in the past, but he is still a very solid first base option in any format. He’s also a candidate to get traded at the deadline, so he could find himself in a better lineup by early August.
Fantasy baseball first basemen #7: Anthony Rizzo
Anthony Rizzo used to be a fixture at the top of these lists, but he’s significantly changed his playing style as he’s aged, so he’s slid down a bit. Last year, Rizzo slashed .224/.338/.480/.817, good for a 131 OPS+. He hit 32 homers, 21 doubles, drove in 75 runs, and scored 77. He’s become a boom-or-bust slugger, foregoing the contact skills he used to display for light-tower power. Thankfully he still has a good eye, with his walk and strikeout rates staying relatively close to his career norms. He’s been working on keeping some of the balls that he used to pull foul fair, so if he can straighten some of those out, expect more homers to the high-school-distanced short porch.