I get to play in some tough leagues, and the truth is, I really like it. I do admit it is frustrating to lose a league, but, when the competition is tight the satisfaction associated with winning is beyond description.
Similarly, as you know if you are a regular reader of mine, I am a big believer in mock drafts and I participate in The Mock Draft Army regularly, and I also coordinate the magazine Mock in Rotoman’s annual magazine. As it was I arranged the mock for last Wednesday, and though the results cannot be revealed until the magazine is on the rack next February, I can talk both about my draft and my thoughts in general.
I feel strongly that power is the path forward in 2018, and I mean serious 35-plus home run power, not 22-dingers that in the past were 11, but in 2017 twice that. To the point, in 2016 eight players banged more than 40 homers while last season, the “year of the homer,” only five players surpassed that mark and to me that says Khris Davis has real power but that Eduardo Escobar’s is much more ephemeral.
Anyway, each year I organize that magazine draft and each year I try to mix things a little, either by focusing on OBP in lieu of average and this year instead of the 15-team draft we have done the last few years, we went 12-team since there are a lot of Yahoo! and ESPN leagues that use that format.
The reality is I don’t think I play in any throwback leagues that are 12-team mixed (I do have NL and AL only formats that are 12-team, but they are completely different animals) so drafting in a shallower league was not only a blast for me, but for all the guys involved for none of us was used to the luxury of the hitting and pitching depth provided when there are three fewer teams sucking off the player pool.
As it was the randomizer placed my at the #1 spot so I was happy to grab Jose Altuve as my first pick thinking I would rather lean towards the average and swipes over Mike Trout, and I followed Altuve with J.D. Martinez, Oakland outfielder Davis, and then Alex Bregman before grabbing Zack Grienke in the fifth as my first hurler.
Up to that point five squads had already grabbed at least one pitcher, but four followed suit by nabbing arms after me and the quartet included Luis Severino and Robbie Ray (whose value I underestimated). From there I grabbed two more hurlers with picks six and seven–Aaron Nola and Gio Gonzalez–finishing off my starters with Jimmy Nelson in the tenth and then Mike Clevinger in round #14.
If there was a soft underbelly it was closers, for I selected Wade Davis and then Hector Neris with picks 12 and 13. Surely both pitchers had the saves last year, and both are pretty much in the cat-bird seat despite Davis free-agent status for he will initially be signed as a closer, but as witnessed last year getting the stopper job and keeping the same gig are two completely different animals.
Furthermore, I was also able to wait on catcher taking Evan Gattis and then Robinson Chirinos with my 16th and 17th selections, rounding out my roster with Starlin Castro (#20) before finishing off with a troika of crapshoots I really like pointing to 2018–Corey Spangenberg, Josh Hader, and Daniel Mengden–as my final selections.
Through the two -hour mock, though, the one thing that was clear to all of us was that names like Grienke, Davis, Castro, and most of the rest would not have been there when I got them in a 15-teamer, any more than Carlos Correa, Manny Machado, or Max Scherzer, all second round selections, would have held those spots in a shallower format.
The reality is we all know most of these players–and thus our respective rosters–would be radically different with three more teams nibbling at the player pool, but for a couple of hours, we all had the illusion of drafting All Star teams.
Then again all teams seem shiny and bright when they are drafted: It is only after the first pitch of the season that the reality–or joy–of what we got sinks in.
Catch Lawr every Thursday night for The Tout Wars Hour with Justin Mason (from Friends With Fantasy Benefits) on the FNTSY network from 9-11 PM, ET (6-8 PT)
