https://theringer.com/2017-mlb-draft-first-base-prospects-brendan-mckay-...
"If the best bet at the top of the draft is the college position player in general, the worst bet is the amateur first baseman. That list of 18 players drafted from 2011 to 2015 includes 12 players who spent significant time in college at an up-the-middle position, four third basemen, and Conforto and Naquin, who were corner outfielders. Nobody on the list was a first baseman at the time of the draft.
"According to Baseball-Reference, only two players listed as first basemen at the time of the draft have gone in the top 15 since 2010: Dominic Smith to the Mets in 2013 and Josh Naylor to the Marlins in 2015. The last college first baseman to go that high was Brett Wallace in 2008. He went two picks after Justin Smoak, who went four picks after Yonder Alonso, who went four picks after high school first baseman Eric Hosmer. With a career 107 OPS+ and 10.8 WAR in 945 career games, Hosmer is the best first baseman taken anywhere in the first round in the past decade, but despite his starting role on Team USA and playoff reputation, he isn’t that good. The last indisputably good first baseman to go in the first round was Prince Fielder in 2002, and he effectively retired nearly a year ago."
Interestingly the safest pick in the draft used to be college first basemen. That changed basically in The Great First Baseman Draft of which Smoak was a part. Since then it's been a slog of mediocre guys on the right corner of the diamond (Goldschmidt excluded). But Goldschmidt didn't go until the 8th round. None of the college guys (who came into the league as first basemen) have panned out in a big way. Smith's hitting ability I think will translate even if his power isn't great, and he's a good defender. I sort of view him as a 3B-to-1B position switch based on how he plays, so maybe that will work out better for him. Evan White hopes to be in the same boat.
It's definitely a weird draft, though.