Negro League Overview - First Base

This is an ongoing multi-part series on the new ATB Negro Leaguers that will be available in our next draft.  See here for the other parts.

Four first basemen looked good enough on paper to give them a look within the 500 resims.  Clarence Smith (1922) and Willie Bobo (1924) don't appear to bring enough offense to warrant any real interest on draft day, though Bobo is at least good enough to pinch hit (.250 / .319 / .374).

That leaves two viable second tier options in Ben Taylor and Edgar Wesley.  Taylor enjoyed a long career from 1914 through 1929, bouncing around both the Negro Major and Negro Independent leagues.  He was at his best earlier in his career, and his rookie and sophomore campaigns of 1914-1915 were used for ATB purposes.  He's a speedster, averaging 44 stolen bases against just 15 caught steals during the resims.  His batting average and on base percentage is well above the league average, though not particularly stellar for a power position.  He did average 46 doubles and 11 triples a season and I roughly rank him as the 14th best first basemen.  His line: .274 / .349 / .447 with 7 home runs and a .797 OPS.  His closest comp is Bill Terry, not too shabby.

Taylor was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006; he batted over .300 in 15 of his first 16 years in baseball.

Wesley on the other hand is more of a traditional, power hitting first basemen.  Comparatively little is known about Wesley.  After brief stints in the Independent league, Wesley moved to the Majors at 29 years of age.  His best years for ATB purposes were 1925-1926, his age 34/35 seasons in real life, where he recorded an OPS over 1.000 and hit 33 home runs in 497 at bats.  In the preceding combination seasons of 1924/1925 and 1923/1924, Wesley also recorded OPS scores between .930 and .950.

The underrated fielder (in real life anyway, for ATB he is almost perfectly average) brings more power than Taylor, but it comes at a cost of 15-20 points in on base percentage.

His final resim line: .269 / .332 / .465 with 26 home runs and 17 doubles.  He's akin to Dick Allen (1972) with a bit higher batting average.  I rate him as the 16th best first basemen in ATB.