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 wait on selecting relief pitchers until the 15th round and still turn in a championship squad. This strategy is employed often, though it typically involves “punting” (ignoring) saves entirely. We will not go this route.
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.
Prepare for your fantasy baseball draft with our Mock Draft Simulator 
- 1.09 Manny Machado (3B/SS, BAL)
- 2.04 Charlie Blackmon (OF, COL)
- 3.09 Nelson Cruz (OF, SEA)
- 4.04 Trevor Story (SS, COL)
- 5.09 Carlos Carrasco (SP, CLE)
- 6.04 Jacob DeGrom (SP, NYM)
- 7.09 Kyle Schwarber (C/OF, CHC)
- 8.04 DJ LeMahieu (2B, COL)
- 9.09 Jose Quintana (SP, CWS)
- 10.04 Danny Duffy (SP/RP, KC)
- 11.09 Kendrys Morales (1B/OF, TOR)
- 12.04 Odubel Herrera (OF, PHI)
- 13.09 Victor Martinez (1B, DET)
- 14.04 Aaron Nola (SP, PHI)
- 15.09 Dellin Betances (RP, NYY)
- 16.04 Shawn Kelley (RP, WSH)
- 17.09 Sean Manaea (SP, OAK)
- 18.04 Kevin Kiermaier (OF, TB)
- 19.09 Cameron Bedrosian (RP, LAA)
- 20.04 Neftali Feliz (RP, MIL)
- 21.09 Daniel Norris (SP, DET)
- 22.04 Didi Gregorius (SS, NYY)
- 23.09 David Peralta (OF, ARI)
- 24.04 Domingo Santana (OF, MIL)
- 25.09 Eugenio Suarez (3B, CIN)
- 26.04 Corey Dickerson (OF, TB)
Early Rounds
Knowing I won’t have elite relievers in tow means needing a few extra above-average starting arms to really anchor my ratios in case I’m left with a scrap heap. This means getting power early, so I’m not left in the dust when I use more of those earlier rounds on the arms. Manny Machado, Charlie Blackmon, Nelson Cruz and Trevor Story should deliver a combined 100 homers as a rough baseline. Machado’s 3B/SS dual citizenship also provides a neat and flexible opening salvo with CI/MI slots in play. None of these guys are liabilities and do note that Rockies manager Bud Black has said that he wants to get a healthy Blackmon running more.
Here’s where the bigger picture jumps in, as Carlos Carrasco and Jacob deGrom were my next picks – I had hoped Chris Archer (5.05) or Stephen Strasburg (5.06) would fall to me. Carrasco’s decreased peripherals scare me, but he still has high-end stuff. The 30-year-old saw his SIERA jumps from 2.74 to 3.44 last season thanks to a swinging-strike rate that fell from 14% to 12% and a hard-hit rate that shot up from 27.5% to 36.4%. I’ll take a 3.40 ERA out of him and hope for health to hold. The same can be said for deGrom, but his surgeon said that his arm looks good so we’ll bank on drafting the arm that posted a 129-to-29 K:BB ratio in 133 1/3 pre-injury innings last season.
I can’t lose sight of hitting, though, so I turn back to Kyle Schwarber (who has catcher eligibility here) and then get an average anchor in DJ LeMahieu. Yes, I have three Rockies in my first six hitter picks. No, I’m not upset about investing in Coors since it’s a rotisserie format. Picks like these led to me being tied for second most in HR projections while also rocking the third-best average projection.
I followed up the two hitters with another two-pitcher “turn” with Jose Quintana and Danny Duffy. Quintana has been a consistent, albeit overshadowed, force for the ChiSox for four years now (3.35 ERA, 3.34 FIP) and makes for a solid SP3. Duffy will need to show he can hold up to the rigors of starting for an entire season, but he threw his fastball less (59.3% compared to 65.1% in ’15) in lieu of a killer changeup (17.1%, up from 10.7%) that yielded a 39.3% swinging-strike rate and a .172 batting average against. Believe in his SP2 abilities, people.
Middle Rounds
The next three rounds went back to the hitters, as I knew I had to set myself up somewhat well to get RPs as soon as when the gate was unlocked. If you’ve been following my mock draft series then you know Kendrys Morales is a favorite target of mine. His switch-hitting bat should slot right into the cleanup slot in Toronto’s righty-heavy lineup and has a chance at leading the bigs in RBIs. Victor Martinez is basically an older Morales, who should still challenge for 25 homers and 80-90 RBIs with a .280s average as his bat skills should allow him to age gracefully.
In between is Odubel Herrera, who had an insane first two months before a little regression came for him. He still hit .306 or higher in three of the six baseball months and an 85/15/50/25/.280 stat line should be reasonably attainable for Philly’s regular No. 2 hitter. It will only help him as that young squad starts to establish itself around him
Aaron Nola was my last selection before the RP barrier came down, as his gaudy 4.78 ERA and 1.31 WHIP masked gorgeous metrics in his 3.08 FIP, 3.08 xFIP and 3.29 SIERA. He had the 2.65 ERA through his first 12 starts to match – with a beautiful 85-to-15 K/BB ratio – but then the BABIP gods came down on him. His final eight starts before getting hurt yielded a hilarious .451 BABIP and 49.4% strand rate. These are not replicable, so buy in as long as you can take the health risk.
Now I can grab my relievers! Dellin Betances, Shawn Kelley, Cam Bedrosian and Neftali Feliz made up four of my next six picks, which was almost a bit disheartening considering how happy I’d have been with them as an RP corps in general. I really didn’t need to target higher SPs here, there was no counterpunch in waiting. I’m no Randy Levine, I know Betances and his pristine 1.94 SIERA and RP-leading 15.53 K/9 are absolutely worth paying for. I even managed to get three closers that I actually liked! In other words, I wasn’t stuck with a trio of Jim Johnson, Brandon Kintzler and Jeanmar Gomez.
Scattered in between was mid-round favorite Kevin Kiermaier, plus two emerging arms in Sean Manaea and Daniel Norris. Manaea was locked in throughout the second half, as his 2.67 ERA had a 12.6% swinging-strike rate that ranked 11th in the Majors — right ahead of Carrasco and Chris Sale. Norris was called back up on Aug. 9 and posted a solid 3.04 ERA in his 56 1/3 innings of work, but durability concerns loom large. A fine last arm, though.
Late Rounds
Feeling more than confident in my rotation despite our bearish projections, I rounded out my bench with five late-round flier bats in Didi Gregorius, David Peralta, Domingo Santana, Eugenio Suarez and Corey Dickerson. Perhaps Gregorius can make the power last in Yankee Stadium. Perhaps Peralta and Dickerson can stay healthy and be platooned against righties effectively. Perhaps Santana can cut down on that 32.4% K rate to deliver on his 38.5% hard-hit rate. Perhaps Suarez can put together a complete season in his second full year and deliver on his 25/10/.270 potential.
Overall, I wish I hadn’t tweaked my strategy so much in order to compensate for what I thought would be subpar relievers. It’s good to be prepared and the team is well-rounded, but I can’t help but feel a bit silly. Still, we’re projected to be strong contenders so I guess I can swallow my pride a bit, but I’d be interested to hear about similar stories where waiting on RPs led to a vast bounty regardless. Thanks for reading!
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
Recent Pitcher-Heavy mock
Subscribe: iTunes | Stitcher | SoundCloud | TuneIn | Google Play
Nick Mariano is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Nick, check out his archive and follow him @NMariano53.
