Greatest Showdown Players at Each Position : First Base

We return for week 2 of the discussion of the greatest MLB Showdown players at each position. Last week we looked at the catchers position. This week we will be looking at the first basemen, and there will be plenty of familiar names as 5 of the top 6 are from the original 2000 and 2001 sets. With the catchers the difference between the players could be found in speed or defense or power. We will be looking at the same categories but defense for a first basemen might just be an extra bonus because not many get the coveted +1 on their cards. John Olerud comes to mind from the 2000 pennant run set as a card that could be a defensive first basemen while providing a 10 on-base but not much more after that. Let's take a look at who came out on top of the best first basemen made.

T4 Mark McGwire '00 570pts

First up is 2000 Mark McGwire, and probably the only time he will lead off. Big Mac is a big reason as to why I became a huge baseball fan. When him and Sammy Sosa were on their home run record chase I was about 9 years old and my dad would always call me into the room when ESPN would do the live look ins at their at bats as it was getting closer. Enough about me, looking at this card what you are getting is straight power. Leading the categories of OB + HR and single plus and up even though he only has one double on the card it is strictly home run driven.  Weaknesses for this Big Mac is he ahs the most outs on his chart of the cards being looked at, and only having 1 double for players looking to get more pop other than a home run.

T4 Jason Giambi '01 570pts

Jason Giambi 2001, one of the first cards we ever saw get an 11 on-base, brings the high on-base chance with him, and on top of that is only out through 2. When you add those possibilities together he can drive in runs and also get on base to start the rally. of the 6 being evaluated, 5 of the players had speed Cs so you do not lose much with his speed in comparison to the others unless you want that speed A at every position. His single+ & up leaves him in last place for that category but for a player that gets on at 3 he will make up for it in extending innings.

T4 Jeff Bagwell '00 570pts

Jeff Bagwell 2000 is very unique to this ranking because he is the only non speed C, and to improve that he is a speed A. Also the only player in this evaluation with a single+ to accompany him on base. His speed is the only category that he leads but there really are no weaknesses to this card. He has the least amount of power of the group, but is second in many categories like walks, and out through. That's three different types of players all at 570 points. If you had 570 points left to spend on a first basemen which style would you want on your team.

3 Mark McGwire '01 580pts

Big Mac returns with his 2001 self which seems to be a slight improvement off of his previous 570 point card. You gain a better chart only being out through 2 instead of 5, end up receiving two more walks and an extra single. In comparison to the other cards he has the least amount of outs at 2 tied with Giambi, and tied with his 00' card in the power categories as the best. He also leads the most categories of cards listed leading 4 of the 9.

2 Albert Pujols '08 600pts

The St. Louis Cardinals sure know how to pick their first basemen having 3 of the top 6 showdown cards. Albert is the only non-original from the set but he sure fits right in with all of them. He was such a fantastic hitter bringing his 11 on-base, while also being the only player of the 6 with a defense +1. The two low categories for Albert are speed, having a C in which so do 4 others, and only having 5 walks. Those don't seem like weaknesses as he's only out through 3 so only 5 walks allows him to put the ball in play more and potentially getting the speedy runners on base to advance multiple bases. 

1 Carlos Delgado '01 610pts

Carlos Delgado '01 is the highest point valued first basemen and much like Albert Pujols there is plenty of opportunities to get the base runners on the move. He brings the most doubles to the table which tied him with the Mark McGwires for most chances at single+ & up, while being middle of the pack in all the other categories that weren't defense and speed. When it comes to him and Albert as the best two you have to decide is the extra double worth more than the +1 of defense or do you want to save 10 points to spend elsewhere.

First Base	Carlos Delgado	Albert Pujols	Mark McGwire
Points	610	600	580
Out Thru	3	3	2
Speed	C	C	C
On-Base	11	11	10
Defense	0	1	0
Homerun +OB	14	14	15
Single+ & Up	15-20	16-20	15-20
Doubles	3	2	1
Triples	0	0	0
Walks	7	5	10
Cat. Won	3/9	2/9	4/9

First Base	Jeff Bagwell	Mark  McGwire	Jason Giambi
Points	570	570	570
Out Thru	3	5	2
Speed	A	C	C
On-Base	10	10	11
Defense	0	0	0
Homerun +OB	13	15	14
Single+ & Up	16-20	15-20	17-20
Doubles	1	1	1
Triples	0	0	0
Walks	9	8	9
Cat. Won	1/9	2/9	2/9

After looking at these 6 first basemen, who do you want as your starting first basemen?

Personally I would probably choose Albert Pujols if I had the points to spend, I was a big fan of the 01 Todd Helton, 560pts just missed the cutoff, but I liked the +1 defense and if he was matched up with these 6 cards would have the highest single+ & up with 14-20 and was only out through 2. I think that shows the point values favor the high home run hitters because he was also a speed B and would stack up well in this debate. On top of who you would choose from this list, do you have any personal favorites that weren't this high in the points but always played well for you, or are there any first basemen that were your favorite that don't have a Showdown card yet?