Fantasy Baseball 12-Team Categories Mock Draft with Eighth Pick

Morgan takes part in his fifth mock draft of the season, selecting from the eighth slot in a 12-team setup on ESPN.

It’s time to add another mock draft to the mix. This 12-team mock draft was done through ESPN, with my team selecting from the eighth spot to kick things off.

The scoring type was roto, with five scoring categories for hitters and six for pitchers. The hitting categories were runs, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases and batting average, while the pitching categories were strikeouts, wins, saves, holds, ERA and WHIP.

There was one starting spot for catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base and a utility spot, three outfield spots, seven pitcher slots and three bench spots.

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Pitching Options

With the extra pitching scoring category, I put a little more emphasis on pitchers than usual. I liked the end product for the most part, but again failed to land enough relievers/closers. My plan would be to use my bench spots to rotate in some relievers to try and help me out in the hold department.

For starting pitchers, I landed Kevin Gausman, Pablo Lopez, Aaron Nola, Jesus Luzardo, Bryce Miller and Nathan Eovaldi, in that order. I got Josh Hader and Andres Munoz for relief options. 

Using ESPN’s projections, my pitching staff was second in the league for projected strikeouts. My staff was third in projected wins, seventh in saves, second-to-last in holds, ninth in ERA and fifth in WHIP.

While I liked my final collection of pitching options, the projections didn’t really make me all that confident in the season ahead. But, with some good top-end starting pitchers, I could flip one of them for a mid-level starter and solid reliever. It wouldn’t hurt me much in the strikeout, win, ERA and WHIP categories, but it could improve my holds and saves in a big way.

Hitting Options

With my final collection of pitchers being a bit underwhelming by the end of things, you might expect my roster of hitters to be pretty strong. I got some decent options, but also left the draft pretty underwhelmed with those guys too.

William Contreras was the lone catcher I drafted. The plan would be to stream a catcher for the few days Contreras isn’t in the lineup. In hindsight, I probably should have passed on Contreras and added another position instead.

I finished with three options at first base, led by Matt Olson. Rhys Hoskins and Andrew Vaughn are other options that I drafted to bench spots, but the thinking in drafting those two was to package them in a larger deal to upgrade at another position.

My second baseman was the multi-positional Mookie Betts. A trade thought I had was to package either Hoskins or Vaughn and one of my outfielders for a second baseman, then move Betts into one of the outfield spots (you’ll see why in a little bit).

At third base, I only drafted Jake Burger. He’s a great power option, but also only has one year of success at the big league level, so this is a massive risk. If he’s able to replicate last year’s numbers, then I’m likely going to fare better than I expect to.

At shortstop, I only have Anthony Volpe as an option. He’s another player with not a ton of MLB success, so I’m feeling extremely worried about the left side of my infield. I reached a bit on Volpe, but decided on him over others simply because he played nearly every game last season. If he’s able to improve his average a decent amount, my fantasy team is suddenly looking a lot better.

I drafted four outfielders. I had Nick Castellanos, Evan Carter and TJ Friedl for the starting spots and then Masataka Yoshida in the utility spot. Apparently, this was my draft to take chances on one-year wonders, because Carter, Friedl and Yoshida all fall under that category too. Again, the hope would be to add a second baseman by combining maybe Friedl and Hoskins/Vaughn in a deal, then move Betts into an outfield spot.

As you can probably guess from this collection of hitters, my projected hitting numbers weren’t pretty. I was projected to have the third least runs, RBIs and stolen bases. I was seventh in projected homers and fifth in average, at least.

Final Thoughts

This mock draft probably was my least favorite of the ones I’ve done so far. I didn’t even leave the draft room with a good feeling, which was a first. 

If I had to redo things, along with passing on a catcher until later, I probably would replace one of the first few SP picks with a position player at second, third or shortstop. I’d feel much better about the end product with those couple tweaks.

With the sour taste in my mouth from this mock, you can bet I’ll revisit a similar mock draft setup in the future to try to end up with a better product by the end of things.

That’s the fun of mock drafts and why I have a series dedicated to it. Be sure to utilize the FantasySP fantasy baseball draft tools - Average Draft Position, Mock Draft Simulator and Draft Genius - to make sure you iron out all the kinks before your actual fantasy drafts.

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