Every year I stress to fantasy owners the importance of drafting in tiers. With the GSI House League draft this week and my big money draft coming up. It's time for me to start providing some good fantasy baseball takes. We will start by looking at some tiers. While Cheat Sheets and rankings are great, I often find it more valuable to come up with my own rankings based off of a research and place players by position in tiers. I am a big believer that balance is what wins, especially in fantasy baseball.

Without any further ado, here are my Tiers for first baseman heading into the 2009 season...

TIER 1 - Albert Pujols (STL), Miguel Cabrera (DET)

TIER 2 - Mark Teixeira (NYY), Ryan Howard (PHI), Lance Berkman (HOU), Justin Morneau (MIN), Prince Fielder (MIL)

TIER 3 - Kevin Youkilis (BOS), Adrian Gonzalez (SD), Adam Dunn (WAS), Joey Votto (CIN), Carlos Pena (TB), Derrek Lee (CHC), Conor Jackson (ARI)

TIER 4 - James Loney (LAD), Carlos Delgado (NYM), Garrett Atkins (COL), Pablo Sandoval (SF), Billy Butler (KC), Jorge Cantu (FLA)

TIER 5 - Todd Helton (COL), Adam LaRoche (PIT), Paul Konerko (CHW), Casey Kotchman (ATL), Carlos Guillien (DET)

TIER 6 - Gaby Sanchez (FLA), Jason Giambi (OAK), Ryan Garko (CLE), Lyle Overbay (TOR), Chad Tracy (ARI), Mike Jacobs (KC)

Drafting Strategy: There is depth at first base, but you need to be sure to get some power at the position, especially in 5x5 formats. You must get a Top 3 Tier player and I would recommend two from the top three tiers in some formats. The dropoff in talent and production gets greater at each tier. First base is good spot to take a late flier from the lower tiers though. For example, Ryan Garko could provide some decent pop in the later rounds. Still, he shouldn't be your top first baseman.

Final Take: I would recommend having first base locked up in the first six picks if at possible, if not sooner.

Fantasy Baseball fantasy advice, tier rankings, fantasy 1b