Ralph’s 2016 Couchmanagers.com Expert Mock Draft

Ever get an invitation to a party you shouldn’t have been invited to? You know, like that IQ party you got invited to junior year of college, because you dated way outside your social circle, and spent 6 months with the hot girl from the rockets and brain surgery school. You had no idea how you got there, but there you were, with the future rocket scientists and Ben Carsons of America. Hopefully you wore your largest belt buckle to protect you from the brain surgeon’s steely knives, and also steered clear of any conversations involving jet propulsion, or other “rocketry”. So why am I asking you to dig through the painful cobwebbed recesses of your brain? Because I found myself in a similar position just a few short weeks ago, and was hoping to draw upon your ability to feel empathy. I know, look at me treating you like a fully developed well rounded adult. What can I say? I think highly of you. But why this long diatribe, begging for empathy? Because I somehow weaseled my way into the Couch Managers Expert Mock with some rather reputable names. People like Adam Ronis, Mike Gianella, and you know yada, yada, yada, I’m in the draft. Me!….Ralph, the Prospector, or whatever I am, so here’s my team…

I suppose you need a little foreplay before I give you my team ect. Well okay, here’s the setup, it’s a 15 team 5×5 Roto 23 round snake draft. The roster setup was 2 C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, MI, CI, 5 OF, 9 P, no bench. Why no bench? It’s a mock, that’s why! Below I’ve listed my team, as well as a link to a sortable spreadsheet of the draft. I’ll break the draft into a couple of tiers and discuss the highlights, and lowlights, of that batch of rounds, and discuss my logic or lack thereof. The draft took place on March 2nd, so I’ve had a couple of weeks to digest my picks and only one seems way out of whack. Anyway, here’s my squad.

2016 Couchmanagers.com Expert Mock Draft

The Early Rounds (1-4)

I picked from the two spot, and seriously debated taking Goldschmidt there, but alas, HE WENT FIRST OVERALL, and I ended up with Mike Trout. The guy at three must have been a bit shocked to see Harper available there, but I take Trout over Harper 100 times out of 100, sue me! Why? Because I said so, but really it’s the track record, I don’t take for granted what he’s done over the last four years. As for the rest of the first round it was pretty standard with the exception of Giancarlo dropping all the way to 13th! Maybe it’s me but this just seems way too low, but looking back on the picks preceding Stanton, nothing seemed like a huge reach. Moving into the second and third rounds, it seemed like outfielders were flying off the board, as 8 of them went between picks 13 and 25. I was hoping to pair a second higher end outfielder with Trout and forget the position for about 9-10 rounds. My top choices Springer, Marte, and Bautista went off the board, and sitting at 29 I was staring at Yoenis Cespedes, thinking should I take Cespedes, Chris Davis, or J.D. Martinez. I took Cespedes, and in retrospect I think I’d do the opposite now. Thank god for the guy that took Prince Fielder at pick 27 over Joey Votto and Chris Davis, otherwise I would have been the second round dunce. Then again, I probably shouldn’t have passed on both twice but you live and learn. I’ll blame it on being early in draft season.

In round three I stuck to my hitter, hitter, pitcher approach in the first three rounds and took Gerrit Cole. I picked Cole over Jacob deGrom, and Matt Harvey. Reviewing it a hundred times I take Cole because he’s got a tick more upside, without some of the durability concerns with Harvey, and maybe unfairly deGrom.

My fourth pick at 59 was preceded by a run on starters, a snipe in Heyward at 52, and a head scratcher in Robinson Cano at 54. I needed a corner guy of some sort and Hosmer seemed like a good fit, giving me sold across the board production, and a safer floor. Maybe Hosmer’s floor isn’t as safe as it feels, but I trust his ability to hit for average and drive in runs in a prime spot in the Royals lineup, even if the power is a tick less than what I usually want from my 1b.

The Late Early Rounds (5-9)

Over the next five rounds my focus was adding three hitters and 2 arms. I took Adrian Gonzalez, Maikel Franco, and Rougned Odor at 62, 89, and 92, as a huge run on young upside players took place with the biggest surprise being Addison Russell at pick 88. I was happy to have Hosmer, A-Gon, and Franco after waiting so long on my corners. Odor gave me some speed to start building off of once I jumped into hitters again in rounds 10 and 11, but my next two picks were reserved for starters.

Beware my next pick most of you will hate, but it was with a purpose. Reading the draft room I knew I would be able to grab Rodon with the bottom half of my sandwich pick and I wanted to add a high floor starter to pair with the second year lefty. My initial thought was to grab Wacha, but alas Wacha went one pick before me at 118, an I felt my best option was Jose Quintana. I’ve had some debate with some of my colleagues here at Razzball about this pick and taking Quintana over Jake Odorizzi, and I seem to be in the minority about Quintana. He’s silly consistent, and he is a lock for 200 innings, 30 starts, and he’s a lefty. I’m a leftist! Luckily my hunch was right and I was able to pair Quintana with Rodon. Now onto closers and outfielders!

The Middle Rounds (10 -16)

This is the tier of closers, outfielders, and upside. Starting in the late 9th round the second tier of closers started to go, and I needed to act quick to make sure I wasn’t left without someone. So at pick 149 I took closer for a month Andrew Miller, because at this point Aroldis Chapman, notwithstanding, Miller was the best reliever available. I followed that up in round 11 with Brad Boxberger to give me a second slice of high K/9 bread on my sandwich.

Next up was my outfield where I already had Trout and Cespedes, so power wasn’t much of an issue, but I didn’t really have any speed outside Odor. So at pick 179 I took Grey darling Delino DeShields, this gave me the speed I so desperately needed, while still offering some upside. I followed that up with one my favorite value picks Stephen Piscotty, he gave me solid four category production in a lineup known for racking up the counting stats. Not too bad for pick 182. I followed those two picks with a closer sandwich in upside bread. The first two picks aren’t overly exciting as I took Andrew Heaney, an upside arm I like quite a bit as a fourth or fifth starter this year, and Jake McGee a closer with nice K/9 upside, but you know, Colorado, so he dropped.

The pick I want to discuss a little is Trea Turner at 239. Much has been made about first year Nationals manager Dusty Baker’s of vets, but as Grey pointed out in the comments just yesterday, Joey Votto and others have broke into the majors with Baker at helm, so a rookie making a significant impact isn’t unprecedented. I love Turner and he gave me huge upside as a late round middle infidel, once again this as my draft strategy coming together as I had my eye on Turner as my first MI target after I felt comfortable with my corners, outfielders, starters, and pen. If you don’t know Turner’s profile he’s a future top of the order bat with upside in steals, runs, average, and eventually a little pop. Going into the finals rounds I was happy with what I had.

The Final Rounds (17-23)

As I usually do going into the final 6-7 rounds of the draft, I’m thinking upside. Now that could be up and coming players, but could also be players coming off of breakouts that many turn a skeptical stink eye toward. One such player is Danny Valencia. Now it’s easy to look at last year and dismiss Valencia’s breakout, but he’s always hit lefties, and last year he finally hit righties. Now I’m not going to say this continues because his .881 OPS against RHP was a career best, and more than 200 points higher than his career average. He gives you roster flexibility as he’s eligible for four different positions on your roster. It was a two catcher league so I had to take a couple and I took Wilson Ramos and Gary Sanchez. I’m not sure either one does much, but they’re catchers so who cares. The biggest folly of my draft might have been thinking Avisail Garcia was a steal at 269. At that point the White Sox had not signed Austin Jackson and the thoughts of pairing an Avisail breakout with Trout, Cespedes, Deshields, and Piscotty.

With my final two picks I took a middle infielder with some upside in Eugenio Suarez, and a starter I love as a stash in NFBC and deeper formats Lucas Giolito. The chances are Giolito starts the year in AAA, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s up and making an impact by June 1st, especially if there are any injuries in the Nats rotation.

In closing I tried to build my team around hitting and high upside players, with hope for some rookie nookie and some breakouts.