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UPDATE (2/19 10:20pm): I added two different links for the mock draft results. They should be fine now. See below.
Late Sunday evening, I participated in the Fantasybums.com mock draft that included some industry experts over at RTSports.com. It was a 12 team, 25 round, mixed league fantasy points draft, with the following participants:
@TheTonyM - Tony Mauriello, FantasyTrade411, FantasyPros
@TheFantasyBums - Ryan Hodge and Jon Aisner
@Davidgonos - David Gonos
@HeHaithMe - a handicapper/poker player from 3030sports.com
@FantasyAlarm - Al Williams
@RotoAnalysis - Moe Koltun
@fantasyTrade411 - Nick Raducanu
@RotoBuzzGuy - Howard Bender
@WiseGuySports - ?
@DSE_BaseBall - Chris Rampe
@FakeTeams - Ray Guilfoyle
dh- a friend of a friend of a friend of someone. Twitter follower. I think. And his picks were somewhat questionable in lots of cases. See the link below.
Here is a link to the full draft results.
or try this:
And here is my draft, by position, with the round in parentheses. You can find the complete draft results by round in the link above.
C - Miguel Montero, ARI (Rd. 9)
C - Brian McCann, ATL (Rd. 18)
1B - Ike Davis, NYM (Rd. 8)
2B - Robinson Cano, NYY (Rd. 1)
SS - Hanley Ramirez, LAD (Rd. 2)
3B - Aramis Ramirez, MIL (Rd. 6)
CI - Ryan Howard, PHI (Rd. 10)
OF - Jason Heyward, ATL (Rd. 3)
OF - B.J. Upton, ATL (Rd. 4)
OF - Nick Swisher, CLE (Rd. 11)
OF - Norichika Aoki, MIL (Rd. 14)
OF - Alfonso Soriano, CHC (Rd. 17)
OF - Coco Crisp, OAK (Rd. 21)
OF - Garrett Jones, PIT (Rd. 22)
OF - David Murphy, TEX (Rd. 23)
OF - Oscar Taveras, STL (Rd. 24)
SP - Zack Greinke, LAD (Rd. 5)
SP - Yu Darvish (Rd. 7)
SP - Doug Fister, DET (Rd. 13)
SP - Jake Peavy, CHW (Rd. 15)
SP - Josh Beckett, LAD (Rd. 19)
SP - Tim Hudson, ATL (Rd. 20)
SP - Chad Billingsley, LAD (Rd. 25)
RP - Rafael Soriano, WAS (Rd. 12)
RP - John Axford, MIL (Rd. 16)
I had the fourth pick in the draft, and was tempted to take Matt Kemp at 4, but decided to take Cano instead, as I wanted to test Chris Rizzo's draft strategy of drafting middle infielders ahead of outfielders. So that was a good start. With my second pick, I opted for Hanley Ramirez, but was hoping that Troy Tulowitzki would fall to me there. Tulo did last until the fourth pick in the second round, 16th overall, and four picks ahead of me.
Moving on to round 3, I considered several guys including Allen Craig, Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce, but ultimately I selected Braves outfielder Jason Heyward, he of the 25-90-20 talent. In the fourth round, I was eyeing up Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, but again, he went five picks ahead of me, so I grabbed B.J. Upton. As I have stated previously, I wanted to test the middle infield strategy, but Upton was too much to pass up here. I see him reaching the 30 home run level in 2013.
In the next few rounds, I opted for starting pitchers, as I wanted to get at least one "ace-level" starter, so I grabbed Dodgers starter Zack Greinke and Rangers starter Yu Darvish, in rounds 5 and 7. I love both of them this season, possibly because I own them in a few keeper leagues, but I think both can be better than they showed last season. In between rounds 5 and 7, I grabbed one of my faves, Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez. He might be one of the more undervalued power hitters in the game, as he is always good for a solid BA, 25+ homers and 90+ RBI.
In round 8, I was targeting White Sox underrated first baseman, and former Dodger, Paul Konerko, but he went three picks ahead of me. I wanted to fill my first base slot here, so I grabbed Mets first baseman Ike Davis. I like Davis to exceed his 32 home runs he hit last season, and he will be healthy to start the 2013 season.
I have to be honest, in the middle of this draft, I was uncertain as to the type of league we were drafting for, as your roster reflected 12 "starting" slots, with just one catcher, and 13 "bench" spots. It was my fault I didn't ask, but learned mid-draft that it was a 5 outfielder draft. With all that said, I drafted Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero in the 9th round, where I usually would be looking to grab another outfielder here.
With that said, from this point forward, I looked to grab power (Ryan Howard and Alfonso Soriano) and speed guys (Aoki and Crisp) and fill my starting pitchers with high strikeout starters and another closer.
So how did I do?