Fantasy Baseball - Who should be the first pick in 2023 drafts?
Yahoo Fantasy analysts Scott Pianowski, Andy Behrens and Dalton Del Don look at a few players to consider with the No. 1 pick in 2023.
Video Transcript
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SCOTT PIANOWSKI: One of the trickiest parts of 2023 fantasy baseball is what to do with the number-one pick. I see five different players who are all getting some sort of consideration in that slot, and we have three Yahoo analysts who don't agree. Andy Behrens, I give you the number one pick, what do you do with it?
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, first of all, if you gave me my choice of where to draft, it would probably be four or five because, as you say, I see four or five players where if they go number one, I don't even blink. It makes sense to me. I've got Trea Turner atop my ranks. He's a former batting champ, right? He's somebody who could steal 50 bases, especially in this environment that's going to be more friendly to base stealers.
So I know I'm getting speed. I know I'm getting batting average. I'm pretty sure I'm getting 20-plus homers, too, and I know I'm getting run scoring. This is legitimately a guy who could lead the National League in as many as three separate categories. So for me, that upside, plus the steals, makes him the number one.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Yeah, totally reasonable pick. I have Turner certainly high on my board, but Aaron Judge would be my pick at number one. And I get it. Look, he's going to regress from last year. But what if he regresses to his 2021 level or his 2017 level? And he also stole 16 bases last year, so he's become a contributor in the stolen base category.
And outfield I don't think is as deep as shortstop. As great as Turner is, shortstop is a position where I feel like I can do well at any draft slot. I don't feel that way about the outfield anymore. So if I have that first pick, I'm going to pound the gavel, and I'm going to take the Judge. Dalton thinks we're both wrong. What are you doing with the number-one pick?
DALTON DEL DON: Yeah, it's Ronald Acuña for me. Steals are a priority. He had 29 of them in fewer than 120 games last year. The power's going to return. He suffered some bad luck with home runs per barrel. A whole year removed from that knee surgery. So Acuña is going to be a monster.
I worry a little about Aaron Judge's buying high. He averaged missing more than 40 games over his last three full seasons before his contract year that included an abnormally high usage of those Goldilocks balls. Judge is a beast, but I'm not taking the 30-year-old with his injury history, who doesn't steal typically, first off the board. But you can't really go wrong here.
SCOTT PIANOWSKI: We did not mention Julio Rodríguez or José Ramírez. They'll go number one in some Yahoo fantasy drafts. Why not sign up for a league today, beat your friends, win some money, win a championship.