Where the Mock am I?

It is getting to be crunch time.

Later today I get to participate in the League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR), and The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational is currently ripping right along. During the coming week, I have three more drafts, then off to the east coast for the XFL, and then north to New York City for Tout Wars, 2018.

Mind you, I am not complaining. In fact, I am sure a lot of you participating in multiple leagues can relate, though maybe with a little less travel. But, the thing is, mock or no mock, the draft season for 2018 baseball is here.

Had you been following my “mock-sploits,” there is likely a gaggle of recognizable players I favor this year familiar to all: Joey Gallo, Daniel Mengden, Cory Spangenberg, Khris Davis.

So, as suggested last Sunday on the Tout Wars Hour, my partner Justin Mason suggested taking on a mock where I took all new players. In fact, Justin noted that he might do the same, but I actually participated first in a CBS 12-team H2H (21 players including five reserves). Then later in the day I was in a a 12-team standard roto 5×5 (29 players including six reserves), and I did indeed draft as best I could, where I had not gone before.

The exercise proved to be illuminating for the following reasons:

• First, and most important, two new paths to roster construction using a different set of variables became evident.
• Though my “interest” in Gallo et al certainly did not change at all, surely almost all the players I like were indeed available a few rounds later than I had been grabbing (and, to be fair, one league boasts just a 16-man active roster).
• Finally, players I thought either too expensive relative to what I sought at the time, or not necessarily ones with as much of a track record as I would prefer, became fun alternatives in essentially much younger lineups.

Again, the depth of these leagues — 10 and 12 — as opposed to even 15 keeps a guy like Davis from becoming vulnerable in a snake sooner, so all of this must be taken contextually. Similarly, we can get a sense of an auction price, but nothing concrete, and, again, that always depends upon where you are in the draft, who has how much, and so on.

In this new deconstructed universe, Robbie Ray was replaced by Luis Severino, and the likes of Trey Turner and Charlie Blackmon became my #1 picks, players new to me, and two of whom — Blackmon and Severino were among my first selections in the Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational.

You can check out these last exercises by clicking either CBS Sports or RealTime Sports, respectively, but, to close out, I will note seven favorite players of mine. Noted too, is the average taken in three mocks where I collected the players in most instances, the two where I avoided said players, and then compared relative to the five total mocks. (A “0” indicates not drafted.)

Obviously, I may well have jumped the gun some on Davis, although if picking at the 12 slot in a 12-team league means had I not taken him by then, the Oakland power hitter would have been gone.

Otherwise, the picks are enough below/over the three-mock mean that again we walk away knowing a couple of things.

• Nothing is written.
• Draft the team you think will work, not the one you think you are supposed to.

Post mortems on the week to follow next week and good luck with your drafts!

Tune into the Tout Wars Hour on the FNTSY network, hosted by me, with Justin Mason and featuring Lord Z every Sunday, 2-4 PM ET/11 AM-1 PM PT, and you can follow me @lawrmichaels.