TotalZone on First Base Prospects

Rally and Sackmann have given us TotalZone stats for minor leaguers, which can be found at position players' pages at Minor League Splits. Sackmann provided the data, Rally created TotalZone, which he has long used with major league players. To find out more about these stats and how they translate to the majors, I'll refer you here.

Here are the positions we've looked at so far:

SS  |  CF  |  2B  |  3B  

We'll look at the top first base prospects now before finishing off with corner outfielders. Remember, as with any fielding metric, the usual caveats apply.

• Lars Anderson was -4 at two levels last year and -18 the previous. There were concerns about his defense when he was drafted, but the scouting reports say he drastically improved, and TZ agrees.
  
• Same story for Logan Morrison; he improved upon a -11 last season. 
• Angel Villalona rates out as pretty neutral. Scouts like his hands and agility, yet at the same time they give the big fella a 0% chance of returning to third base.
  
• Kyle Blanks is a massive human being, but he's shown some surprising fielding ability and the Padres believe he could possibly handle a corner outfield position. That may be a little wishful thinking on their part, but you can't blame them for wanting to get his bat into the lineup. 
• Gaby Sanchez was the favorite to win the Marlin's first baseman gig, but he missed most of spring training after a collision with Lasting Milledge and struggled after coming back. Sanchez will go down to AAA, while the Marlins moved Cantu over to first and will start the light-hitting Emilio Bonaficio at third. Not only was Sanchez solid at first last season, he was also +8 runs at third. 
• Salt in the wound --  Mike Jacobs was a -18 defender in TZ last year. -18! Kila Ka'ailhue may stink at 1B, but he can't do any worse than Jacobs. For Ka'ailhue's career ('05-'08) he's +8.
  
• Travis Ishikawa came out of nowhere last year, not only on offense but also with the glove. Counting AAA, he was worth 13 runs. For now it looks like he will be the Giants' every day first baseman.  
• Scouts say Nick Evans needs to work on defense, but through '05-'08 he has been worth +22 runs.