Couch Managers 2017 Industry Mock Draft Recap, Rounds 1-6

Greetings, friends. I hopped over to the football side of things once last year’s baseball season ended, but now I’m back. And apparently, I am such a disturbed individual that I am doing fantasy baseball mock drafts in early January. And, I am writing about them. And, well, I just wanted to start another sentence with and because it feels so wrong but so right at the same time. Anyway, moving on.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Couch Managers 2017 Industry Mock Draft, and we’re going to recap it here. This mock was for a 15-team, 5×5 roto, with 23 roster spots made up of 9 pitchers (9), 1 spot for each position (8), a second catcher (1), 2 more outfielders (2), one corner infielder (1), one middle infielder (1), and one utility position (1). As long as I did that math correctly, that is 23 spots.

Below, I will provide the results for the first six rounds and a give my thoughts for each round. I’ll do the same for rounds 7-12, 13-18, and 19-23 in subsequent posts. I’ll try to keep it brief. All we really care about are the results here, right? Feel free to tell me how awesome or crappy you think my team is, along with what you think were the best and worst picks of the draft or the different rounds…

Round 1 thoughts: I picked third and took Kris Bryant, and I think the first three picks were pretty predictable. I definitely do not like taking Kershaw that early at number four, and I am not even particularly crazy about Scherzer at 13, though I hate a pitcher at 13 much less than I do one at four. I would have taken Goldy over Rizzo, even though my dad knows Rizzo’s uncle and got me a signed Anthony Rizzo rookie card.

Round 2 thoughts: The pick that stands out to me here is Xander Bogaerts. I don’t love him at 20th overall, and I don’t like taking him before Francisco Lindor, either. I say this as a Red Sox fan who loves Bogaerts. I also say it as someone who was able to grab Lindor eight spots later, so maybe I am biased. Or reverse biased? I have Bogie at 31 and Lindor at 25 in my rankings right now.

Round 3 thoughts: I loved being able to get Odor at 33, which meant locking up most of my infield with elite talent in the first three rounds (Bryant, Lindor, and Odor). I thought this was a little too early for Price, too. And again, I say that as a Red Sox fan who watched most of this games last season. Not a terrible pick, obviously, and he is on the wheel and felt he needed to grab a pitcher before the draft snaked back to him. So, I get it.

Round 4 thoughts: Wil Myers is going to be an interesting guy to follow this year. Was last year a breakout year for a young star who was finally able to stay healthy and productive for a full season? Or will 2016 be an outlier on his Razzball profile page? The Padres clearly think he’s a stud. After last year, there is a lot to like about Myers, especially as a first baseman who could steal a pile of bases (#SAGNOF). But holy shit does he scare me. I would also have taken everyone else in this round ahead of Hanley Ramirez except for maybe Christian Yelich. On my side of things, I was thrilled to grab Kyle Seager this late. I already had Kris Bryant, but this league has CI and Util spots for me to use Seager, plus Bryant has outfield eligibility and can move around a bit for me if needed.

Round 5 thoughts: Carlos Gonzalez at 66 could be the steal of this draft, and I like getting Kipnis and Carpenter this late, too. I think Andrew McCutchen has a bounce-back year, and round 5 in a deep league is a great spot to grab him. The Gary Sanchez pick was a smart grab since catcher has a pretty steep dropoff at catcher after the upper tier. We also saw the first two relievers taken, and the 5th round is wayyyyyy too early for me to start thinking about relievers, even in 5×5 roto.

Round 6 thoughts: I like almost this entire round except for Danny Duffy and, you know, the reliever. You could make the argument that this was a little bit early for Andrew Benintendi to go, but he wasn’t going to last much longer and is may very well hit near the top of Boston’s order (read: runs). Andrew B. Nintendo is another player I will be interested in watching during Spring Training. Will he offer enough pop or speed to entice fantasy owners to take him earlier? Also in this round, I like the bold move of taking Jose Bautista, a man without a team.

And (starting another sentence with and!) that wraps up the first six rounds. For those of you counting at home, I came away with Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor, Rougned Odor, Kyle Seager, Stephen Strasburg, and Adam Jones. I would sign up for those six every time in a 15 team league if you told me I could. I’ll be posting the remaining rounds and thoughts over the course of the next week.

I would love to hear your feedback on these teams so far. I feel great about the players I was able to grab. If I had to pick a team (other than my own stable of dreamboats, of course) that I liked the most after six rounds, I would go with ToddZ, who walked away with Nolan Arenado, Edwin Encarnacion, Corey Kluber, Dee Gordon, Carlos Gonzalez, and Ian Kinsler.  The team I like the least so far is genemccaffrey, who drafted Anthony Rizzo, A.J. Pollock, Justin Verlander, Yu Darvish, Adrian Beltre, and Matt Kemp.

Which teams do you like the most and least?

If you want to talk fantasy football or have players you want Mike to feature, hit him up on Twitter at @mikeMaher or post a comment below!