Every year it’s beneficial to complete a one man mock. When completing a one man mock, I’d recommend not using your own rankings. The reason you don’t want to use your own rankings is to best estimate where players might fall on draft day. Instead look at several sources you respect to complete a solid draft. You can use reliable mocks, rankings, or Average Draft Positions (ADP) from mock sites to get a better indication of where players might be drafted.
The reason why you don’t want to rely on one or two mock sources are because there might be a so-called “expert” that makes a boneheaded pick like Matt Wieters in the fourth round, a forgotten player like Vladimir Guerrero slips nearly 10 rounds after he should have been drafted, or a pitcher that may not play until September call ups finding their way into the later rounds of a draft. A site might make a mistake and leave a player like Johnny Damon off of their rankings or purposely exclude unsigned free agents. ADP rankings are useful, but the people participating in them aren’t necessarily competitive owners and the ADP could be distorted by the common fan taking all their hometown players. In a competitive or money league you can’t afford to make any of those mistakes and the late picks can make or break your team.
Again, one thing you want to make sure of is not to use your own rankings in the mock as you want the draft to be as unbiased as possible to give you the best consensus “expert” mock draft. Below you’ll find the first 10 rounds of the mock I completed using these tactics and some pointers and comments to help you on draft day. Standard 5x5 roto categories were used and I went 25 rounds deep. (Each team consists of C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, 4 OF, DH, 5 SP, 2 RP, 2 P, and 4 bench spots).
ROUND ONE
1. Pujols, Albert STL
2. Ramirez, Hanley FLA
3. Rodriguez, Alex NYY
4. Braun, Ryan MIL
5. Lincecum, Tim SF
6. Utley, Chase PHI
7. Fielder, Prince MIL
8. Teixeira, Mark NYY
9. Longoria, Evan TB
10. Cabrera, Miguel DET
11. Crawford, Carl TB
12. Mauer, Joe MIN
This is pretty much what you can expect in the first round of competitive draft. Pujols and Ramirez will be 1-2 in virtually every draft. Rodriguez, Braun, Linceum, and Utley are virtually interchangeable in the 3-6 draft spots. The later half of the first round picks, are also interchangeable, with the early second round picks.
ROUND TWO
1. Howard, Ryan PHI
2. Wright, David NYM
3. Halladay, Roy PHI
4. Kemp, Matthew LAD
5. Hernandez, Felix SEA
6. Holliday, Matt STL
7. Ellsbury, Jacoby BOS
8. Tulowitzki, Troy COL
9. Greinke, Zack KC
10. Kinsler, Ian TEX
11. Rollins, Jimmy PHI
12. Sizemore, Grady CLE
Most of the hitters taken here could easily go in the first round. While Linecum figures to be the only SP taken in the first round you can expect Halladay, Hernandez, and Greinke all to be taken in the second round. Those 4 SP are the consensus top tier. I have seen players all the way down to Tulowitzki taken in the first round, so if you have a favorite among this group you’ll have to take them early in competitive drafts. Position scarcity or not I’m passing on Tulowitzki at that price.
ROUND THREE
1. Upton, Justin ARZ
2. Sabathia, C.C. NYY
3. Reynolds, Mark ARZ
4. Haren, Dan ARZ
5. Martinez, Victor BOS
6. Pedroia, Dustin BOS
7. Youkilis, Kevin BOS
8. Jeter, Derek NYY
9. Suzuki, Ichiro SEA
10. Gonzalez, Adrian SD
11. Verlander, Justin DET
12. Cano, Robinson NYY
The third round is where things start to get a little shaky. For the most part, players here have some question marks, but many of them have talent to be taken in the previous round. The first pick in this round is Upton who has excellent upside and potential, but he’s only 22 and could easily have some growing pains. His average does not figure to remain over .300 this season, but he has the speed and power potential to put together a 30 home run – 30 stolen base campaign. Arizona teammate Reynolds appears to be equally as risky after putting on a display of speed he hasn’t shown since playing college ball at Virginia (24 SBs in 2009). Jeter and Suzuki are the most conservative picks for this round.
ROUND FOUR
1. Zimmerman, Ryan WAS
2. Santana, Johan NYM
3. Morneau, Justin MIN
4. Phillips, Brandon CIN
5. Roberts, Brian BAL
6. Lee, Cliff SEA
7. Reyes, Jose NYM
8. Sandoval, Pablo SF
9. McCann, Brian ATL
10. Granderson, Curtis NYY
11. Hill, Aaron TOR
12. Lester, Jon BOS
A couple of break out candidates in Sandoval and Hill highlight this group. Sandoval nicknamed “Kung Fu Panda” might be one of the more popular young players in the game today. However, it’s hard to imagine him competing for a batting title again. Still Sandoval is a much better bet to have a solid year than Hill. The Toronto second basemen is one of the most overrated players this year and one I will be avoiding on draft day. A couple of consensus first rounders from a year ago also land in this group. Santana was the top rated pitcher a year ago and Reyes was a consensus top 3 pick with Pujols and Ramirez last season. Both Met players suffered major injuries and have rightfully fallen to this part of early drafts with their injury concerns.
ROUND FIVE
1. Bay, Jason NYM
2. Votto, Joey CIN
3. Wainwright, Adam STL
4. Markakis, Nick BAL
5. Carpenter, Chris STL
6. Upton, B.J. TB
7. Figgins, Chone SEA
8. Morales, Kendry LAA
9. Werth, Jayson PHI
10. Rivera, Mariano NYY
11. Ramirez, Aramis CHC
12. Lind, Adam TOR
Two of the off-seasons biggest free agents went in this round. I’m not high on either Bay or Figgins prospects. Figgins moves from the top of the second best scoring team in the majors to the worst in the American League last year. Even if Casey Kotchman and Ryan Garko can match the departed Russell Branyan’s 31 home runs and 76 RBIs, Milton Bradley isn’t going to knock in 200 runs all buy himself. That means Figgins will likely score around 90 runs this season instead of the 114 of a year ago. Hitters tend to struggle when they change leagues and Bay is also moving from a top scoring offense/ballpark in Boston to a bottom of the pack and more of a pitchers park offense in New York. The Carlos’ (Beltran and Delgado) are also missing from the middle of the Mets lineup. Unless you can get them a few rounds later, avoid these players on draft day.
ROUND SIX
1. Broxton, Jonathan LAD
2. Beckett, Josh BOS
3. Ramirez, Manny LAD
4. Johnson, Josh FLA
5. Ethier, Andre LAD
6. Dunn, Adam WAS
7. Nathan, Joe MIN
8. Vazquez, Javier NYY
9. Abreu, Bobby LAA
10. Gallardo, Yovani MIL
11. Zobrist, Ben TB
12. Cain, Matt SF
ROUND SEVEN
1. Hamilton, Josh TEX
2. Choo, Shin-Soo CLE
3. Papelbon, Jonathan BOS
4. Jones, Adam BAL
5. Lee, Carlos HOU
6. Berkman, Lance HOU
7. Victorino, Shane PHI
8. Lee, Derrek CHC
9. Hamels, Cole PHI
10. Kershaw, Clayton LAD
11. Cruz, Nelson TEX
12. Young, Michael TEX
ROUND EIGHT
1. Rodriguez, Francisco NYM
2. Hanson, Tommy ATL
3. Soriano, Alfonso CHC
4. Rodriguez, Wandy HOU
5. Billingsley, Chad LAD
6. Pena, Carlos TB
7. Soria, Joakim KC
8. Bell, Heath SD
9. Jimenez, Ubaldo COL
10. Lackey, John BOS
11. Hunter, Torii LAA
12. Nolasco, Ricky FLA
ROUND NINE
1. Ibanez, Raul PHI
2. Wieters, Matt BAL
3. Uggla, Dan FLA
4. Bourn, Michael HOU
5. Wilson, Brian SF
6. Butler, Billy KC
7. McCutchen, Andrew PIT
8. Street, Huston COL
9. Cordero, Francisco CIN
10. Pence, Hunter HOU
11. Shields, James TB
12. Jurrjens, Jair ATL
ROUND TEN
1. Bartlett, Jason TB
2. Bailey, Andrew OAK
3. Ramirez, Alexei CWS
4. Escobar, Yunel ATL
5. Jones, Chipper ATL
6. McLouth, Nate ATL
7. Beckham, Gordon CWS
8. Quentin, Carlos CWS
9. Fuentes, Brian LAA
10. Span, Denard MIN
11. Rios, Alex CWS
12. Posada, Jorge NYY
- Jason Aufderhaar - RotoKingdom Staff Writer
The founder of RotoKingdom.net has almost 20 years of fantasy sports experience. Jason is a two time winner of RotoKingdom's 20 Team Die Hard I baseball league, winning in 2002 and 2005. In 2006, Jason won RotoKingdom's 20 Team Die Hard I basketball league. That year he was also the individual champion of a 20 team website challenge baseball league versus competitors in the industry. Jason has written NBA, NFL, and NHL articles for OPEN Sports (FOX) and Fanball.