Fantasy Baseball Mock Drafts (and other assorted fantasy baseball bits)

Sure - I hate looking at my own mock drafts. I can never get beyond my own prejudices and be objective. But I can tear anyone else’s apart all day long! Don’t go by position - go by round.

Cool thanks.

I was going 4th (my draft position in the league). I also have the full draft rounds including what everyone else took, but this is the team that I have liked best so far, and still I don’t think I am getting all that I can out of it. What makes me more worried is that I am only able to do 12 team drafts on Yahoo even though my team is 14 deep. I am going to look into the site you linked to earlier tomorrow.

My goal has been to have as balanced a team as possible while focusing on pop and average where I can and trying to maintain average in pitching.

  1. Miguel Cabrera (Det - 1B)
  2. Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B)
  3. Matt Holliday (StL - OF)
  4. CC Sabathia (NYY - SP)
  5. Martín Prado (Atl - 2B,3B)
  6. Vladimir Guerrero (Bal - OF)
  7. Elvis Andrus (Tex - SS)
  8. Mike Stanton (Fla - OF)
  9. Ben Zobrist (TB - 1B,2B,OF)
  10. Rajai Davis (Tor - OF)
  11. Ted Lilly (LAD - SP)
  12. Wandy Rodríguez (Hou - SP)
  13. Miguel Montero (Ari - C)
  14. John Danks (CWS - SP)
  15. Hiroki Kuroda (LAD - SP)
  16. Brett Myers (Hou - SP)
  17. Aroldis Chapman (Cin - RP)
  18. Jason Frasor (Tor - RP)
  19. Travis Snider (Tor - OF)
  20. Yunel Escobar (Tor - SS)
  21. James Loney (LAD - 1B)
  22. Peter Bourjos (LAA - OF)
  23. Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Min - 2B,SS)

Here is another where I changed my approach to pitching a bit, shooting for one big ace early and trying to nap Soria in the middle rounds because of all the injuries to closers right now. I think I did ok through the first 10 or 11 rounds and then it sort of becomes a bit of a mess.

  1. Miguel Cabrera (Det - 1B)
  2. Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B)
  3. Cliff Lee (Phi - SP)
  4. Adrián Béltre (Tex - 3B)
  5. Jayson Werth (Was - OF)
  6. Álex Ríos (CWS - OF)
  7. Joakim Soria (KC - RP)
  8. Colby Rasmus (StL - OF)
  9. Roy Oswalt (Phi - SP)
  10. Ted Lilly (LAD - SP)
  11. Brett Gardner (NYY - OF)
  12. Gio González (Oak - SP)
  13. Mike Aviles (KC - 2B,SS)
  14. Hiroki Kuroda (LAD - SP)
  15. Carlos Ruiz (Phi - C)
  16. Brandon Lyon (Hou - RP)
  17. Rajai Davis (Tor - OF)
  18. Hong-Chih Kuo (LAD - RP)
  19. Manny Ramírez (TB - OF)
  20. Scott Rolen (Cin - 3B)
  21. Gaby Sánchez (Fla - 1B)
  22. Marco Scutaro (Bos - 2B,SS)
  23. Ryan Theriot (StL - 2B,SS)

Let me stop you right there. Your focus shouldn’t be on balance, but rather on getting the best players possible. Balance is something to worry about in July. It is far easier to fix a team that is dominating half the categories and last in everything else than one that is mediocre all over. Besides you probably won’t end up strong or weak quite everywhere you expect.

Also, if you are going to focus on individual categories, I would give averare the least weight of all the offensive ones, as it tends to have the highest variance from year to year. Better to focus on home-runs and steals.

Guerrero seems way early. He faded badly down the stretch last year and he figures to have a less friendly park and less playing time. I also think you could do better at 3rd then Prado.

On the other hand I really like your midrounds picks. There are a lot of good arms there and I love Montero.

Be careful with that logic. An alternate way of thinking about it is that closers get hurt and change frequently, so it is best not to invest too much in them. You can find more during the year.

My main thought on the 2nd draft is that you want to go for more upside at the end of the draft. Scutaro and Theriot are what they are and someone like that will always be available if you need them. Better to get guys who are less of a sure thing, but have the potential to be a huge contributor.

Yup. It took me three years of fantasy baseball to internalize this lesson. My first few years I had teams that were in the upper middle of the pack in every category. It was impossible to improve, because I could only gain a point or two in any given category with a given move, and usually it would be at the cost of a point or two in a different category.

That is a *really *good point. Thanks.

Unless it is a deep league, with more than 12 teams, I completely ignore closers until the very end of the draft. There are so many teams who constantly change their closer or use closer by committee. Plus too many of them tend to get traded midseason and end up as set up men, which don’t have value in most leagues.

I’m almost at the point of treating them like a kicker in fantasy football.

It’s a 14 team league (though it may have just dropped to 13, I need to check and see what happened there), I am only doing 12 person drafts right now because I am trying to get used to the Yahoo live drafting format and they only go up to 12 teams.

One thing I’ve been doing in 12 team leagues is paying closer attention to players with multiple position eligibility. I’ve found it an advantage to be able to switch around players on my own team without having to hit the waiver wire as often. There’s nothing more annoying than having several players with the day to day tag on them and knowing I can’t make a quick lineup change.

  1. Miguel Cabrera (Det - 1B)
  2. Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B)
  3. Matt Holliday (StL - OF)

Great top of the draft, though I’m not a fan of Pedroia quite that early. There’s a lot of talent in the middle of the pack at 2B that’s being overlooked. Holliday is really quite a steal there - his power/AVG combo will be on a lot of winning teams this year.

  1. CC Sabathia (NYY - SP)
  2. Martín Prado (Atl - 2B,3B)
  3. Vladimir Guerrero (Bal - OF)

I don’t like it. CC in the 4th isn’t terrible, and looking at your rotation you need a top starter, but I still don’t like it. I’m always opting for Price over CC in mocks I’ve done (usually a round or two later), and feel good about it. And Prado’s a terrible pick - you already have Pedroia, why reach for Yahoo’s 8th ranked 2B? He’s your 3B - that’s even worse. What other 3B were still on the board at the time? Vlad’s way too early as well - power is scarce this year, but he’s going to fall.

  1. Elvis Andrus (Tex - SS)
  2. Mike Stanton (Fla - OF)
  3. Ben Zobrist (TB - 1B,2B,OF)

A third 2B isn’t what you need coming out of the top 10 rounds. I like Elvis - he’s going to grab a ton of SBs, but he’s been overpriced and you can get the same SBs later in the draft from players that might actually hit a HR. Stanton is a solid pick - he’ll produce for you.

  1. Rajai Davis (Tor - OF)
  2. Ted Lilly (LAD - SP)
  3. Wandy Rodríguez (Hou - SP)

Elvis, Rajai and Zobrist are going to lock you in for the SB title - and you’ve squandered Holliday’s talent because your power is incredibly thin. HR/RBI are at a premium this year, and SBs are cheap. If you’re going to roster 3 speedsters, do it with picks from the 20s. I love the pitchers - Wandy and Theodore always end up on my teams, and they’ll produce.

  1. Miguel Montero (Ari - C)
  2. John Danks (CWS - SP)
  3. Hiroki Kuroda (LAD - SP)

More good pitchers - Kuroda looks great this year, and is getting tons of praise. Great value. I don’t like taking a catcher this early unless someone fell really far for you.

  1. Brett Myers (Hou - SP)
  2. Aroldis Chapman (Cin - RP)
  3. Jason Frasor (Tor - RP)

And your first two relievers are…someone who won’t be getting saves and someone who’s in a 4 man race for the job. Great picks if they’re #22 and #23. But I have a feeling this was the last of the bunch - if so, good job on holding off until the end. Never pay for saves (I hate Matt Berry, but he’s got that right).

  1. Travis Snider (Tor - OF)
  2. Yunel Escobar (Tor - SS)
  3. James Loney (LAD - 1B)

Loney’s a great pick. Snider could be fantastic if he remembers how to play the game. Yunel is a second SS. I’d rather have a super-utility guy instead of Yunel - maybe you can trade one of your 3 2Bs for one.

  1. Peter Bourjos (LAA - OF)
  2. Tsuyoshi Nishioka (Min - 2B,SS)

Whoops, make that 4 :). I actually like Nishioka, especially as the last pick. In a 14 team league, you can get away with grabbing someone like that late (though I wouldn’t wait too long) as your starter. With a strategy like that, you can solidify your top picks, grabbing proven value without reaching for any of it.

  1. Miguel Cabrera (Det - 1B)
  2. Dustin Pedroia (Bos - 2B)
  3. Cliff Lee (Phi - SP)

Really love Pedroia, don’t you? :slight_smile: It’s too early for Lee. Way too early. Unless you feel in your heart of hearts that he’s going to win 25 games and strikeout 275 batters, it’s way too early.

  1. Adrián Béltre (Tex - 3B)
  2. Jayson Werth (Was - OF)
  3. Álex Ríos (CWS - OF)

Lot’s of high upside/downside players here. Which BeltrAAA shows up? Does Werth have anything to play for? Will Rios face the right direction in the outfield? See - lots of questions here. At their peak, this group could win you a championship. But you don’t draft for a player’s peak, you draft for their perceived value. I don’t think it’s that high.

  1. Joakim Soria (KC - RP)
  2. Colby Rasmus (StL - OF)
  3. Roy Oswalt (Phi - SP)

The Mexicutioner is one of my favorite players in the league (I’m a Royals fan), but you just can’t take a reliever this early in a 14 team league (or 12 team draft). There’s too much volatility in the closer position. That’s not to say that Soria will be losing his job or getting hurt - I think he’ll dominate. But that means that there will 15-18 closers emerge during the season that you don’t have to spend a draft pick on at all. Rasmus is a good pick, as is Oswalt. Good value picks.

  1. Ted Lilly (LAD - SP)
  2. Brett Gardner (NYY - OF)
  3. Gio González (Oak - SP)

More good picks, but I think you’re focusing on categories (SBs) too soon. Go back through these drafts, and see if there are any SB-only guys taken in the last 5 rounds, and then see who else was taken in round 11 that you’d rather pair up with that guy. (In other words, would you rather have Gardner+Scutaro or Beltran+Tabata?

  1. Mike Aviles (KC - 2B,SS)
  2. Hiroki Kuroda (LAD - SP)
  3. Carlos Ruiz (Phi - C)

Carlos Ruiz is a last round catcher. If you’re the last person to take a catcher, be the LAST person to take a catcher.

  1. Brandon Lyon (Hou - RP)
  2. Rajai Davis (Tor - OF)
  3. Hong-Chih Kuo (LAD - RP)

See how far Rajai is falling to you?

  1. Manny Ramírez (TB - OF)
  2. Scott Rolen (Cin - 3B)
  3. Gaby Sánchez (Fla - 1B)

Interesting picks. Manny’s a great gamble, because it costs you nothing. Rolen I could do without, but you never know. Gaby’s a great sleeper.

  1. Marco Scutaro (Bos - 2B,SS)
  2. Ryan Theriot (StL - 2B,SS)

These guys will go undrafted, and you know their ceiling. I’d rather go with a lottery pick.

Hey, since this is the most enthusiastic fantasy baseball thread I’ve seen in a while over here, and since for some reason I couldn’t possibly be more excited about fantasy baseball this year (in spite of the fact that I have anemic keepers in a really competitive league- whatever, it’s baseball, it’s awesome), anyone have any interest in talking on a position-by-position basis? I think there’s a lot of interesting stuff in the various rankings I’ve been seeing lately, and frankly I need all the input I can get, because again, I have anemic keepers in a really competitive league. I could start a separate thread or a separate discussion within this one, depending on munch’s preferences.

Do it here - let’s keep it going. Too-specific threads seem to water the discussion down.

One more draft result for me and then I will stop for a bit. I tried to put what you guys were saying to work in this draft going for power over everything, taking one ace pitcher in the top five rounds (not something you guys were saying, but part of my general strategy) then waiting for pitching.

Around round 10 (again) things went sideways, I think I could have waited longer on pitching and I probably should have grabbed a shortstop sooner, but I think I did well in the top of the draft.

  1. Evan Longoria (TB - 3B)
  2. Nelson Cruz (Tex - OF)
  3. Dan Uggla (Atl - 2B)
  4. Ubaldo Jiménez (Col - SP)
  5. Jayson Werth (Was - OF)
  6. Álex Ríos (CWS - OF)
  7. Jered Weaver (LAA - SP)
  8. Paul Konerko (CWS - 1B)
  9. Max Scherzer (Det - SP)
  10. Ted Lilly (LAD - SP)
  11. Aubrey Huff (SF - 1B,OF)
  12. Adam Lind (Tor - 1B,OF)
  13. Gio González (Oak - SP)
  14. Starlin Castro (ChC - SS)
  15. Hiroki Kuroda (LAD - SP)
  16. Jeremy Hellickson (TB - SP,RP)
  17. Kurt Suzuki (Oak - C)
  18. Hong-Chih Kuo (LAD - RP)
  19. Ike Davis (NYM - 1B)
  20. Coco Crisp (Oak - OF)
  21. Justin Smoak (Sea - 1B)
  22. Kyle Farnsworth (TB - RP)
  23. José López (Col - 3B)

I have a question about waiting on pitching. I did a draft last night where everyone was waiting on pitching and Roy Halladay fell to the third round and everyone else fell to the fourth and fifth round.

My question is, if I went aggressively after pitching in the first three rounds and picked up Halladay, Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee as my top three pitchers…is that a good strategy if I know others are waiting on pitching? I would miss out on the biggest power players, but if power is scarce to begin with and I am sucking up the best pitchers, and *some *power batters are still going to be around in the fourth round.

Is it better to avoid the battle for power and maybe focus on crushing the categories that others are ignoring early in favor of power, or is everything else just too deep for that to be effective?

Your offense will be too shitty to compete if you don’t wait on pitchers. I expect to field winning teams scooping up offense in the early rounds and targeting Gallardo/Lirano as my first SP. If everyone else waits on pitchers too, that’s fine, you’ll get the pitchers you want a round or two later than expected.

I’m drafting second today in a 5x5 12 team keeper league.

I’ve got Huff, Kelly Johnson, Aramis Ramirez, Aaron Hill, Ichiro, and Bourn as my offensive keepers.

Who should I pick 1st? I’m considering Michael Young or Carlos Lee. Also available are Bobby Abreu, Derrek Lee, Torri Hunter, Vernon Wells, and Carlos Pena.

Oof. It looks like you’re in a league with some very strong players, who really do focus on developing talent (otherwise your keepers would be a lot better, or there’d be more players available). None of those players are going to be all that valuable to you next year - and you’re going to want to focus on the future rather than the present right now.

Yeah, the league is very strong and I’m also in a fantasy football league with the same bunch.

The players that I didn’t list that are still left in the draft are even older and more useless such as Vlad and Ortiz.

I’m leaning towards grabbing Michael Young. He’s having a good spring training and I think he wants to get off to a hot start to either force a trade or get back into full time status with the Rangers. Depending on how the Rangers use him, I could get some position flexibility with him as well.

Have you seen ESPN’s Top 250 Keepers list? That might help out.

Edit: Also keep in mind that that list factors in value for 2011. If you’re willing to write this year off for some continued dominance, keep that in mind. Don’t be afraid to reach way too early for Bryce Harper. Is anyone keeping Strasburg even with the injury? What about Pedro Alvarez (I think he could hit 40 HRs this year)?