Fantasy Baseball 12-Team H2H Points Mock Draft

Morgan takes part in his first mock draft of the season, selecting from the sixth slot in a 12-team setup.

The MLB season might be a few months off yet, but it’s never too early to start getting prepped for the season.

I decided to partake in my first mock draft of the season on Wednesday night. It was a 12-team, 30-round live, snake online standard draft done through Fantrax. About half of the mock drafters were there for a majority of the mock, which I thought was pretty solid this far away from the season. 

While a full draft lobby would definitely have resulted in some different picks (instead of many players being autodrafted), it’s always good to have an idea on where players are going and being valued at.

The league setup had one starter at catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base, corner infield, middle infield and a utility. There were five outfield starting spots and nine pitcher spots, with eight bench spots. 

Attached is a screenshot of the scoring settings.

I was picking from the sixth position. Let’s dive into the draft, with some pick analysis included throughout. 

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Round 1 - Juan Soto, OF, New York Yankees

In round one, there were of course some great options available, but I took what I believe is the safest option in Soto. He hits for a good average and power, and should thrive in the middle of the Yankee’s order this season. 

Teammate Aaron Judge was another option I heavily considered, but I decided on Soto over him due to injury concerns. The same could be said about Fernando Tatis Jr. or Bryce Harper.

Round 2 - Trea Turner, SS, Philadelphia Phillies

I debated going starting pitcher in round two (Corbin Burnes, Kevin Gausman and Zac Gallen among the options), but elected to pick up an elite shortstop in Turner. It’s a bit of a risk given his lower batting average last season, but I see him being closer to his career .296 average than last year’s .266.

Round 3 - Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Toronto Blue Jays

I passed on pitching again in round three to land Guerrero. The league doesn’t have a ton of great options at first base, and a few caught my eye when I was on the clock. I chose Guerrero over Pete Alonso because of their batting averages a season ago.

Round 4 - Aaron Nola, SP, Philadelphia Phillies

After missing out on pitching early on, I made it a point to land some starting pitching for my next couple picks. I felt safest with Nola in round four, even after his 4.46 earned run average a season ago.

Round 5 - Framber Valdez, SP, Houston Astros

Getting Valdez this deep into a draft feels like a steal to me. His ERA was also up last year, but he started 31 games, won 12 and still had a sub 3.50 ERA. He was a better option to me over guys like Freddy Peralta, Max Fried and Logan Gilbert.

Round 6 - Nico Hoerner, 2B SS, Chicago Cubs

As you can probably tell, or will by the end of this article, I enjoy drafting players who hit for average - power hitters are great, but selecting contact guys has worked well for me in the past. Getting a guy like Hoerner, who should have middle infield eligibility all season feels like great value this deep into a draft.

Round 7 - William Contreras, C, Milwaukee Brewers

I sort of view the catcher position like the tight end one in fantasy football - if you can’t get a good one early, it’s usually better to just wait. I was planning on doing that until I saw Contreras pop up. He’s another contact guy and plays a ton - usually serving as the designated hitter on his days off from catching - so I love the value here.

Round 8 - Evan Carter, OF, Texas Rangers

This was my first big gamble of the draft. Carter had a .306 average last season, but only played in 23 games. I don’t expect him to have that high of an average this season, but I do think he’d be a steal if this would have been an actual fantasy draft. 

Round 9 - Tanner Bibee, SP, Cleveland Guardians

I took another gamble in round nine with Bibee. He was fantastic in his first season in the big leagues, and while he may not match his 2.98 ERA this year, he should be another great value pick for this point of a draft. After the picks in round eight and nine, it really felt like those two could be the difference in me being a top-end team or simply an average one in the league.

Round 10 - Seiya Suzuki, OF, Chicago Cubs

I decided to add another outfielder in round 10 with Suzuki. Injury issues concern me a touch, but hopefully the Cubs will have a better handle on those this season, and Suzuki can vault himself into the upper echelon of fantasy outfielders.

 

Other Highlights

I filled out my starting lineup of hitters with Noelvi Marte at third base (round 18), Josh Naylor at corner infield (round 11), Jeremy Pena at middle infield (round 19), Riley Greene (round 13) and Masataka Yoshida (round 14) at outfield and Byron Buxton at utility (round 20). My bench players were Shea Langeliers, Jeimer Candelario, Jeff McNeil and Austin Hays.

Taking a look back at things after the draft, I feel solid at catcher with Contreras and Langeliers and think those two would be in my lineups more often than not.

I also feel solid at first base with Guerrero, Naylor and Candelerio. If Guerrero is having a big season, and Naylor or Candelerio also were having nice campaigns, the latter two could be used to acquire some better pitching.

Hoerner and McNeil both have second base eligibility. I like Hoerner, but wouldn’t feel great if I had to roll with McNeil for an extended period of time. That probably means that second base would be an area of need during the season.

I love the shortstop trio of Hoerner, Turner and Pena. If those three were healthy all season, I’d like my chances of making the playoffs and competing for a title.

My third base position would make or break on Marte becoming at least an average everyday player. Again, I wouldn’t feel great if I had to roll with Candelario for an extended period.

I like the outfield I assembled with Soto, Carter, Greene, Suzuki, Yoshida, McNeil and Hays, with Buxton likely to add eligibility there at some point this season. There’s some injury concerns and the unknown of Carter, but I’d feel pretty confident in that bunch in being able to help carry my team to big things.

I decided not to take starting pitching early on, and was playing catchup as the draft went on.

Outside of Nola, Valdez and Bibee, I drafted Braxton Garrett, Kyle Gibson, Dean Kremer, Dane Dunning, Miles Mikolas, Taijuan Walker and Andrew Abbott. 

That group of starters definitely lacks many big names, but I was able to land several guys who can at least eat up innings and earn me plenty of points that way. After losing out on some of the fantasy studs, that’s the idea I decided to run with. As mentioned before, if my hitters panned out, I’d have some flexibility to add to my starting pitching if needed.

I ended up landing three strong closers in Andres Munoz, Jordan Romano and Paul Sewald. I expect all three to close for their teams this season, and 30+ save seasons for all three seems very reasonable. 

Final Thoughts

For the first mock draft of the season, I felt pretty solid in my end product. 

I definitely think hitting would be my strong suit, but that pitching could hold me back a bit. I feel like I’d either need some of these pitchers to surprise, or for me to need to hit the waiver wire or make a few trades in order to feel more confident about my pitching going into the postseason.

Be sure to check back in the coming weeks, as I’ll conduct more mock drafts as the season approaches and some players pick out their new teams. I’ll try out different site mock drafts and pick in different spots in the draft, along with taking some different strategies.

#mock-draft