Who to draft 1st

[cyrus]

Hey guys, was on dobberhockey when I saw that dobber had a site for baseball too...(can football be far behind?). Needless to say, I was pretty pumped.

Anyways,

Start a 10 man keeper league, would like to know, who would you draft first? Do you go tried trusty and true with Pujols? Do you shore up the SS with Ramirez/Reyes (who are 1,2 on a lot of lists)...or do you surprise everyone and go pitching?

Who would you take

[seoGuru]

Gotta be HanRam number 1.

[gui]

I would go with Hanley ... Would love to build a keeper team around him

[GoldenSeals]

Most of the board will say Hanley, and definitely nothing wrong with that. I myself prefer Pujols because of the RBI & batting average advantage. However you can\'t go wrong with either.

[mariotothehabs]

yeah...flip a coin, haha. Nice problem to have if you ask me. Don\'t go pitching, I can think of a half dozen or more hitters I would draft first in a keeper before any pitcher.

[jackalope]

Hanley or Pujols are it for me.

I would go for Hanley personally as 1B is deeper. Even if poor D moves Hanley off SS, 3B is likely his home. Still great numbers for a 3B\'er.

[seoGuru]

djkiang wrote:

Most of the board will say Hanley, and definitely nothing wrong with that. I myself prefer Pujols because of the RBI & batting average advantage. However you can\'t go wrong with either.

The thing about Pujols vs HanRam is that if you go with Ramirez, you\'ve still got plenty of 1B to choose from later in the draft. Fielder and Morneau will be there at 20. What kind of SSs are you going to be able to snag with that same pick? Ramirez, Rollins, and Reyes will all be gone, and you\'re looking at the Hardy and Tulowitzkis of the world.

I would think a good strategy would be HanRam 1st, and then go after a 2B with your 2nd pick. There\'s a pretty good chance that you could get Pedroia and a 1B on the swing pick. Whwn I say \"pretty good,\" I mean guys like Morneau and Fielder. An even better strategy would be to try and snag Longoria if he\'s there. Then you\'d have good young options at SS, 2B, and 3B. You can grab a 1B like Davis or Votto later.

If, however, you decide to go with Pujols first, I can promise you that HanRam will go second, and Reyes and Rollins will be gone in the first round. When it gets to you at 20, I\'d still suggest taking Pedroia and Longoria if he\'s there, since they\'re way better than the SS options at that same spot, and whatever SS you do end up with will be a much worse than HanRam than a guy like Votto or Davis would be than Pujols.

Basically, it boils down to depth. You can get solid first basemen late in the draft. The same can\'t be said of SS. You\'ve got a shot to get the top player at one of the shallowest positions. You won\'t be dissappointed with either Pujols or HanRam, but you might be dissappointed with the SS you end up with if you go with Pujols #1.

[cyrus]

Yea that makes a lot of sense....I don\'t have the first overall pick, but I was just curious as to what everyone thought I was having a friendly argument with a friend. I totally agree with HanRam....I figure if I can\'t get one of the big 3 of SS to put that off and try and shore up at 2B with Utley/Kinsler/Pedroia...

And I\'m definitley gunning for Votto \"The Swat-O\" in the mid rounds. He\'s a beast.

Thanks for the advice...karma to all.

[imported_ddp]

The decision should not be up for debate...in my books its like wayne gretzky or Roberto Luongo.
Obvious choice being Gretzky and Hanley.

[Gretz99]

Given scarcity at a weak position, Hanley should be #1. As another poster stated, I\'d be happy with any of the top 5-7 1B (Pujols,Howard,Cabrera,Teixeira, Berkman, Morneau, A. Gonzalez)