Also called first sacker or cornerman, the first baseman is ideally a tall player who throws left-handed and possesses good flexibility and quick reflexes. From a recruiting standpoint it seems that many of the big time colleges want their first baseman to be a lefty.  In addition, to being a lefty they want their first sackers to be power hitting as well.  To to sum up, it looks like to play first base at a big time college and at the professional level you better be 1. big 2. lefty and 3. hit for power.

A first baseman, for the most part, is going to be relied on as a middle-of-the-order hitter who can drive the ball in the gaps.  First basemen are going to be expected to be RBI guys. That means that they, more often than not, are going to be hitting in spots in the lineup like the 4- or 5-hole, and they have to be able to drive in runs under pressure.  But does that power guy have to be left handed?

It is understood that a lefty has limited positions that they can play since they shouldn't be playing 2nd, 3rd, short or catcher.  That means there are only 4 others positions (4 of 8) they can play.  However, only 10% of all people are left handed.  That said 25% of Major League Baseball players are left handed and that has a lot to do with the first base position.

1st  base position require the least amount of speed/agility on defense, so that is another reason to put a "big" guy over there and since they are big guys over there they might as well be power hitters.  That part is understood, but do they need to be a lefty.  The list below shows that top ten home run leaders in the Major Leagues that played the first base position.  The numbers on the list represent that of those homeruns hit while the players played the firstbase position, not as a DH or anything else.  What will this list tell us?

3. Lou Gehrig (Left) 478

6. Jeff Bagwell (Right) 446

9. Carlos Delgado (Left) 425

There are ten players on this list and of those ten players 4 players that batted from the right side, 5 players that batted from the left side and 1 player that was a switch hitter.  Looking specifically at Eddie Murray (the switch hitter) he hit a total of 504 career homeruns and 365 of those were from the right side which makes 73% of his homeruns came from the right side.  For argument sake lets count him as a right handed hitter.  That would make the list even at 5 and 5.  

Next on the list we will look at the total number of homeruns (not including Murray) Righties 1956 and Lefties 2244 which is a difference of 288 homeruns.  Now add in Eddie Murrays 365 from the right side and the Righties take  category number 2.

Finally, look at the top 3 and the first and second place positions are occupied by right handed hitters, in fact righties have 3 of the top 5 position slots.  What does all this mean, nothing really............ But, one could conclude that you don't need to be a power hitting lefty to play firstbase at the next level.  It is time to give some LOVE and ATTENTION to the Right Handed hitting first baseman.