2018 Prospect Draft Recap (Rounds 1-4)

In a follow-up to my Major League Draft Recap (Rounds 1-5) I’m posting the results of the first 4 rounds in our 18-team inaugural minor league dynasty league. My earlier article gives a full recap of the rules, but it’s a rotisserie league with 20-man minor league rosters. My picks are in bold. I hope this recap helps give you some insight into how prospects are being valued in a relatively standard fantasy format.

Round 1

1 – Ronald Acuna OF ATL
2 - Shohei Ohtani P/OF LAA
3 - Vlad Guerrero Jr OF TOR
4 - Gleyber Torres SS NYY
5 - Victor Robles OF WAS
6 - Eloy Jimenez, OF, CWS
7 - Nick Senzel 3B CIN
8 - Kyle Tucker OF HOU
9 - Willie Calhoun 2B TEX
10 – Forrest Whitley P HOU
11 – Bo Bichette SS TOR
12 – Brendan Rodgers SS COL
13 – Fernando Tatis Jr SS SD
14 – Michael Kopech P CWS
15 - Scott Kingery 2B PHI
16 - Alex Reyes P STL
17 - Francisco Mejia C CLE
18 - Brent Honeywell P TB

My Pick: The draft went almost exactly according to my rankings, with the exception of me having Tucker over Senzel at #7. That made my pick pretty straight forward. I’m adamant about spending top picks (Top 25-50ish) on hitters and avoiding risky SPs. I wish Tucker was a little further along in his development, but I’ll be ready for his production in 2019.

Best Value Pick: Love Brendan Rodgers at #12. An offensive-minded SS that will play in Coors Field? Yes, please. I was between Rodgers and Tucker at #7 and was surprised to see him fall that far. Tatis is also great at #13, but his distance from the Majors was the tiebreaker.

Worst Value Pick: Forest Whitley coming off the board before Michael Kopech was interesting. Personally, I would avoid all SPs in Round 1, but the Whitley pick certainly seems like a reach. Mejia in Round 1 was also a little surprising. I understand positional scarcity is more important in an 18-team league, but he’s not a Top 20 fantasy prospect in my opinion.

Round 2

1 - Juan Soto OF WAS
2 - Lewis Brinson OF MIL
3 - Walker Buehler P LAD
4 - Luis Robert OF CWS
5 - Willy Adames SS TB
6 - Ryan McMahon 3B COL
7 - Mitch Keller, P PIT
8 - Taylor Trammell OF CIN
9 - Royce Lewis, OF, MIN
10 - Jorge Alfaro C PHI
11 - Leody Taveras TEX OF
12 - Jesus Sanchez TB OF
13 - Mackenzie Gore P SD
14 - Hunter Greene P CIN
15 - Kolby Allard P ATL
16 - Josh Hader P MIL
17 - Kevin Maitan SS LAA
18 - Triston McKenzie P CLE

My Pick: Hand up, I made this pick on a road trip from Chicago to Bloomington, IN and panicked with the selection. I’m very high on Taveras, but 10 minutes of due diligence would’ve shown me Franklin Barreto was still on the board. Regardless, I’m excited to have Taveras and Tucker to build a high-upside farm system around.

Best Value Pick: Walker Buehler is a steal in the second round. He’ll be in the Majors this year for the Dodgers and is a special arm. He’ll be dirt cheap in this league format and will contribute to the MLB roster right away.

Worst Value Pick: Kolby Allard is an intriguing prospect but he’s not even the best ATL pitching prospect and two better options were still on the board in Kyle Wright and Luiz Gohara.

Round 3

1 - Franklin Barreto SS OAK
2 - Keston Hiura 2B MIL
3 - Luis Urias 2B SD
4 - Mike Soroka P ATL
5 - AJ Puk P OAK
6 - Kyle Lewis OF SEA
7 - Kyle Wright P ATL
8 - Luiz Gohara P ATL
9 - Jahmai Jones OF LAA
10 - Estevan Florial OF NYY
11 - Austin Hays OF BAL
12 - Anthony Alford OF TOR
13 - Michel Baez P SD
14 - Alex Verdugo OF LAD
15 - Sixto Sanchez P PHI
16 - Alec Hanson P CWS
17 - Jorge Mateo SS OAK
18 - Jesse Winker OF CIN

My Pick: Luiz Gohara - I went light on starting pitching in the major league draft and hit relievers hard to lock down ratios. I needed a pitcher like Gohara with some upside and a high likelihood of throwing MLB innings in 2018. I really like Gohara and the brief sample we saw from him last year.

Best Value Pick: Alex Verdugo could’ve easily gone in the first round and I wouldn’t have thought twice about the pick. Him falling into the second half of the third round is a steal.

Worst Value Pick: I prefer Jo Adell over Jahmai Jones and seeing Jones go in Round 3 seems like a stretch. He’ll be an interesting speed/AVG prospect but he would’ve been available next round and similar player profiles available every round of the draft.

Round 4

1 - Dustin Fowler OF OAK
2 - Austin Meadows OF PIT
3 - Adrian Morejon P SD
4 - Jo Adell OF LAA
5 - Jake Bauers 1B TB
6 - Tyler O'Neill OF STL
7 - Jack Flaherty P STL
8 - JP Crawford SS PHI
9 - Jose Siri OF CIN
10 - Heliot Ramos OF SF
11 - Franklin Perez P DET
12 - Jon Duplantier P ARZ
13 - Michael Chavis 3B BOS
14 - Miguel Andujar 3B NYY
15 - Chance Adams P NYY
16 - Yordan Alvarez HOU 1B
17 - Monte Harrison MIL OF
18 - Jason Groome P BOS

My Pick: Upside pick here with Perez. I think he can develop in to a frontline starter. Held his own at AA while only 19 years old.

Best Value Pick: Austin Meadows is a great pick here. Upside and proximity to the big leagues is tough to find outside the Top 50 picks. Love him at 56.

Worst Value Pick: Adrian Morejon. I’ll be honest I didn’t really remember this name when he was drafted. An 18 year old in Low-A carries a ton of risk and it still feels too early to be making those picks. I did like everything I saw on my research once he was picked, but he’s not a Top 100 guy for me.

For any questions or recommendations for improvement please don’t hesitate to reach out via Twitter (@BrianCreagh) or via email (bcreagh119@gmail.com)