2016 Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: Mock Draft Review

By foxsports
Published

On February 29, Fighting Chance Fantasy hosted a 23-round, 12-team mixed mock draft with a group of smart fantasy analysts (and me). Here's a link to the results.

My team is below, with round and overall pick noted after each player's name. I had the 12/13 wheel.

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Interestingly, Tim McLeod picked Paul Goldschmidt first, ahead of Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. Clayton Kershaw went fifth with Carlos Correa sixth, and the rest of the first round went about as you'd expect.

I didn't have a detailed master plan. Basically, I wanted one starting pitcher in the first five or six rounds, maybe a closer with one of my Round 8/9 picks, and go from there.

Passing on options such as Andrew McCutchen, A.J. Pollock and Mookie Betts, I went with Altuve and Miggy at 12/13. Altuve was a no-brainer there, but some people seem a bit skeptical about Cabrera after he (finally) missed some time with injury last season. Considering the players already taken, my duo would probably be the chalk for most drafters in that spot.

When 36/37 came along, I liked Blackmon, and OMG ENCARNACION WAS STILL AVAILABLE. Screw position scarcity and the fact that I already had a first baseman. E5 ranks third in the majors in homers and fifth in RBI over the last three seasons; I couldn't pass him up. His NFBC ADP is 22, by the way.

At the 60/61 spot, I wanted a starting pitcher. But, they went fast, with Dallas Keuchel, Stephen Strasburg, Carlos Carrasco, Noah Syndergaard and Felix Hernandez coming off the board in Round 5. I didn't like the value of the remaining starters, so I took Tulo and Adam Jones. Jones has declined a bit lately, but he's still a top-20 outfielder for me.

Five more starters were among the next 23 picks, but I had only one (Jon Lester) ranked higher than the one I took - Cole Hamels. I followed Hamels with Aroldis Chapman, assuming the risk of a suspension. Chapman was the fourth reliever taken, and even with his 30-game absence, I'd be fine with that.

I'll stop here with the blow-by-blow, as you can check out the mock draft for yourself. Instead, a handful of notes:

* Sure, the world hates Hanley Ramirez these days, but at the end of Round 15 his rebound possibilities were too good to ignore (his NFBC ADP is 125).

* Send me a tweet (@jhalpin37) or comment below to let me know if my rotation of Hamels, Tanaka, McCullers, Pineda, Walker and Gonzalez is good enough to compete in a league of this size. All are ranked among my top 41 starters, and Walker is probably my favorite value based on the rankings and ADPs I've seen. My January article on breakout players explains why.

* Kyle Schwarber went at 4.47, which is lower and much more reasonable than his NFBC ADP of 33.

* Marcell Ozuna at 21.248 was probably my favorite late-round pick from the other team rosters. He's going to hit 25 homers - watch.

I'll be doing more mocks and drafts as March as the season approaches, and will share results here whenever I can.