Fantasy Basball Mock Draft – Darft Pick Positions 1-3

I decided to do a series of 3 posts on who you should target for each round of the draft.  Since I usually don’t do my draft strategy until a day before the draft, this is my way of going through the motion earlier this year.  Maybe it’ll give me a leg up on the competition, maybe it’ll give away my strategy, who knows?

There are several things I do when drafting, I have a series of rules that I always follow and I always finish in the top three in rotisserie leagues.  This is not for head to head leagues as the play is more random on a week to week basis.  I generally don’t do well in those leagues.  Here is my list of rules that I always follow:

• Never, ever take a player older than 31 years old – these players are past their peak (generally), all look for a player who is progressing never regressing.
• Never take a player coming off a major injury in the first 15 rounds, and never take him as a starter – It never fails, draft a guy who had off season surgery and he is bound to be average or less in the next season.
• Always take a starting pitcher in the first 3 rounds – You need one ace of the staff.  One guy who eats innings and strikes out lots. He is going to be a huge part of how your pitching categories fair.
• Always have 4 starting closers – It never fails if you have 4 at least 2 will either get injured or lose their jobs. That leaves you with 2 top shelf closers.
• When deciding between a hitter and a pitcher of equal value, always select the hitter – Year to year hitters are more consistent than pitchers.
• Infield is always more important than the outfield – Especially the 2B and SS positions.
• Catchers are worthless – Just like kickers in football, find out with a good average, that’s all you need from them.
• Don’t be afraid of rookie pitchers – They’ll do great in their first round of the league, then dump them around late May / early June.

So you have the first through the third pick, who should you take?  Here is my guide, hope it helps you out.

Round 1. Hanley Ramirez / Albert Pujols / David Wright – You can’t go wrong with any of these guys, plus they are all monster guys in the peaks of their careers.

Rounds 2 and 3. Jake Peavey / Prince Fielder / Longoria / CC Sabathia / Cole Hamels / Jon Papelbon

Rounds 4 and 5. Dustin Pedroia / Adrian Gonzalez / Brandon Webb / Kevin Youkilis / Nate McLouth / Joakim Soria

Rounds 6 and 7. Jermaine Dye / Mariano Rivera / Dan Uggla / Jacoby Ellsbury / Brad Lidge / Adam Dunn / Rich Harden

Rounds 8 and 9. Joey Votto / Russell Martin / Cliff Lee/ Hunter Pence / James Shields / Corey Hart / Bobby Jenks

Rounds 10 and 11. Troy Toluwitzki / Xavier Nady / Jay Bruce/ JJ Putz / Chris Davis / Mark DeRosa

Rounds 12 and 13. Howie Kendrick / JJ Hardy / Jose Lopez / Scott Baker / Matt Cain / Carlos Marmol / Matt Capps

Rounds 14 and 15. Clayton Kershaw / Matt Garza / David Murphy / Steven Drew / Ryan Doumit / Brad Ziegler

Rounds 16 and 17. Huston Street / Denard Span / Ryan Zimmerman / Jon Broxton / Shin Soo Koo / Lastings Millegde

Rounds 18 and 19. Alex Gordon / Jed Lowrie / Chris Ianetta / Kevin Slowey / Jason Kubel / John Maine

Rounds 20 and 21. Casey Kotchman/ Gavin Floyd / Pablo Sandoval / Mike Aviles / Jered Weaver / Kosuke Fukodome

Rounds 22 and 23. Adam Jones/ Fred Lewis / Max Scherzer / Wandy Rodriguez / Heath Bell/ Adam Lind

Round 24. Ken Griffey Jr. / Jeff Baker / Chris Volstad / Cameron Maybin / Joey Devine / Jeff Samardzija

As I was typing this out I realized that once you get to rounds 8 and 9 all the rest can work with any draft position so for the next post I will concentrate more on the first few rounds.  Good luck with your draft and if you want to join one more league we have openings in my free one, just let me know.