Mock Draft Preview

Oct 7, 2014; St. Louis, MO, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw walks to the dugout during game four of the 2014 NLDS baseball playoff game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Over the last month, I have putting out projections articles on a lot of players. Some with a lot of upside, others with bust candidacy. This was all in preparation for mock drafts. After looking at a bunch of projections and rankings, I believe participating in several mock drafts in the best way to prepare for the regular fantasy baseball season. You can try out different strategies, pick from different positions, etc.

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I participated in my own mock draft, using Fantasy Pros’ draft simulator tool. You can pick the size of your league, what positions you want and decide if it’s a mix, AL, or NL only. I chose 10-team mixed with 25 rounds. The roster construction is C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, 5 OF, UTIL, 9 P and 3 BE.

The fact that there were five outfield spots per team (50 total) made that position very shallow. The same could be said for the infield positions. A maximum of two 1B thinned out an already-thin position. Some leagues will obviously be set up differently, which means you need to adjust your rankings accordingly.

The league would have been scored based on a 5×5 Rotisserie league. The five categories for hitters are runs, home runs, RBI, average and stolen bases. The five pitching categories are wins, ERA, WHIP, saves and strikeouts. When I set up my actual league, I will swap out batting average for on-base percentage. It allows those who walk more or get on base by other means to have more fantasy value.

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Entering this draft, I had a couple of strategies in mind. I wanted to avoid all San Diego Padres hitters. Petco Park is not hitter friendly, which means low home run totals for those players. I also wanted to wait a couple of rounds to draft a pitcher. After the top few names, they all tend to be the same.

This post is just an explanation for the articles that will follow for the rest of the week. Use those and the summary article at the end to construct your own rankings whenever your draft takes place. Obviously, Mike Trout was the No. 1 pick, but the rest is up to you to read.

Note: This mock draft took place on Saturday, Feb. 28, before any injury news or information was released.