Welcome to yet another spin on the mock draft train, because draft madness is the true March Madness. Today’s exercise will be a look into how we can go heavy on pitchers early and still turn in a league-winning squad. This is much more difficult than a hitter-happy approach, but we’re up to any challenge!
For this respective 12-team redraft mock, we’re using standard 5×5 roto categories with these slots: C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, CI, MI, 3 OF, 2 Util, 3 SP, 2 RP, 4 P, and 5 BN. To complete this mock, I used our Draft Wizard which is a quick and easy way to prepare for your fantasy baseball drafts. You can view the full draft board and analysis here.
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- 1.12 Max Scherzer, WSH
- 2.01 Miguel Cabrera, DET
- 3.12 Trevor Story, COL
- 4.01 Yu Darvish, TEX
- 5.12 Yoenis Cespedes, NYM
- 6.01 Stephen Strasburg, WSH
- 7.12 Seung-Hwan Oh, STL
- 8.01 Edwin Diaz, SEA
- 9.12 Jose Bautista, TOR
- 10.01 Kelvin Herrera, KC
- 11.12 Adam Eaton, WSH
- 12.01 Dustin Pedroia, BOS
- 13.12 Jake Lamb, ARI
- 14.01 Lance McCullers, HOU
- 15.12 Victor Martinez, DET
- 16.01 Tim Anderson, CWS
- 17.12 Jonathan Gray, COL
- 18.01 Shawn Kelley, WSH
- 19.12 Eric Thames, MIL
- 20.01 Kevin Kiermaier, TB
- 21.12 Tyler Glasnow, PIT
- 22.01 Joc Pederson, LAD
- 23.12 Jung-Ho Kang, PIT
- 24.01 Rajai Davis, OAK
- 25.12 Mike Zunino, SEA
- 26.01 Greg Bird, NYY
Early Rounds
We need a pitcher, right? Let’s go with Max Scherzer despite the stress fracture in his ring finger. While the possibility looms that he misses time to start the season, he’s already working on a three-finger fastball that’s allowing him to still throw (his secondary pitches are unaffected). 250+ strikeouts are hard to argue with.
I then debated going Chris Sale here but opted to grab at least one first-round caliber bat at the elbow with the reliable Miguel Cabrera. Miggy might feel old, but he’s only 34 and posted a resurgent .247 ISO last season after it dipped to .196 in 2015.
After a selection of Trevor Story grabbed us some serious power out of the middle infield, Yu Darvish now checks in as our SP2. I’m really enjoying this exercise.
The last time Darvish was healthy – as he is now – he turned in 277 Ks in 209 2/3 innings in 2013. So between he and Scherzer, I have roughly 550 strikeouts with roughly a 3.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP.
Considering what this strategy means in terms of opportunity cost, each early hitting selection has to offer power. Speed can be attacked more readily in the late game, but late power can leave you in last place with batting average.
With that in mind, I tabbed Yoenis Cespedes and his 35-homer bat to join the team. He has posted a .251 ISO in each of the past two seasons and could threaten 40 homers if he can avoid those pesky lower-body injuries.
After that, we went for Stephen Strasburg, who recently returned to the hill in Spring Training to work on pitching out of the stretch and minimizing the use of his slider – which he noted had led to the discomfort last season.
‘Tis the season for experimentation! With my first two pitchers being so strong, it felt like a great opportunity to gamble on Stras as my SP3 considering he’s an SP1 when healthy.
The next four rounds are where the strategy popped, as we used the seventh, eighth, and 10th round picks to select closers that are all RP1-caliber. Seung-Hwan Oh, Edwin Diaz, and Kelvin Herrera all posted K/BB ratios above 5.70, as they comprise three of the top-12 names in that category.
Their elite blend of put-away stuff with plus control makes them fantastic strikeout and ratio contributors alongside the saves. All three could finish inside the top-five of closers in 2017.
Sandwiched in between them was Jose Bautista because again, one needs the power upside when being selective. While injuries really zapped most of Joey Bats’ 2016, his Spring Training indicates that he’s feeling good (9-for-16, two HRs as of March 6) and manager John Gibbons wants him to bat third. Therefore, his counting stats rebound versus hitting leadoff, as it was only 2015 when he hit 40 homers with 108 runs and 114 RBI.
Middle Rounds
With six pitchers and four bats in tow, it was about time to bring some balance to the team. After all, you don’t want to just see a killer pitching team that’s pegged to finish sixth because it has no hitting. We turned Adam Eaton and Dustin Pedroia at the 11th/12th juncture, as both should provide plus averages alongside double-digit pop and very healthy run totals.
Jake Lamb came off the board to me next. One of 2016’s breakouts, Lamb should regularly find himself and his 30-plus homer potential batting cleanup in this dangerous lineup.
He was paired with Lance McCullers, whose 30.1% strikeout rate (Noah Syndergaard had a 29.3% mark) is gorgeous, but his 12.8% BB rate would’ve led all qualified SPs by over a full percentage point (Francisco Liriano’s’s 11.6% was No. 1). Even just a slight improvement there would allow that swing-and-miss stuff to truly play up and make him an SP2-type.
With four frontline starters and three top-10 closers, it was time to address the CI/MI slots with some great values in Victor Martinez and Tim Anderson. V-Mart’s 2015 was ugly, but 2016 yielded dividends thanks to a rebounded BABIP and HR/FB rate.
Health is a question mark at age-38, but we need to take on some risk with the bats in order to have a chance at a real offense. At the same time, the up-and-coming Anderson could swat 15 homers and swipe 20 bags at a bargain price to fill out my starting infield.
Grabbing Jonathan Gray and Shawn Kelley bring two more strong strikeout arms, as Gray’s 26% rate was 11th best among qualified SPs and Kelley’s was eighth among RPs (alongside the third-best K/BB rate of 7.27). Kelley has had the talent over the past couple of years, and now has a crack at the ninth.
Late Rounds
Eric Thames, Joc Pederson, Jung-Ho Kang (whose ADP will surely start to skyrocket now that his legal status is clear for 2017) and Greg Bird are all fantastic later gets, though the first two names will come off the board earlier in formats that call for more than three starting OFs. Kevin Kiermaier is a prime breakout candidate while Rajai Davis is my favorite late-speed option considering his full-time job in Oakland.
Bird is 6-for-13 with three HRs in Spring Training thus far. Mike Zunino will likely kill the average, but the power (.262 ISO last season) makes for a nice punt option at catcher.
The real prize here is Tyler Glasnow, who struck out 133 in 110 2/3 Triple-A innings last season before ringing up 24 in 23 1/3 MLB innings, but a combined BB/9 a hair above 5.00 made for a red flag. However, his first Spring Training outing resulted in two stellar innings with six strikeouts.
Unfortunately, his second start (1 2/3 IP, 3 hits, ER, 2 BB, 2 Ks) wasn’t as pretty. All is not perfect, but the six-foot-seven righty is a perfect lotto ticket.
All-in-all, risks have to be taken to have any shot at a competitive offense, but that is the price one pays for a pitching staff that could win Ks by triple digits. One can trade for a bat once the surplus starts to build, especially in rotisserie leagues with inning limits.
A viable strategy here is to abandon the pace car and use lots of innings early, then trade the arms for bats to maximize efficiency. Consider it food for thought — I’ve won plenty of leagues with that.
- Recent mock from the first pick
- Recent mock from the sixth pick
- Recent mock from the 11th pick
- Recent AL-Only mock
- Recent NL-Only mock
- Recent Auction mock
- Recent 15-Team mock
- Recent Hitter-Heavy mock
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Nick Mariano is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Nick, check out his archive and follow him @NMariano53.
