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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…

Pick Rd. Name Team Pos Owner
1 1 Mike Trout LAA OF Paul Sporer
2 1 Mookie Betts BOS OF @Tim_Heaney
3 1 Kris Bryant CHC 3B Mike Maher
4 1 Clayton Kershaw LAD SP DerekCarty
5 1 Manny Machado BAL 3B rotoman
6 1 Nolan Arenado COL 3B ToddZ
7 1 Jose Altuve HOU 2B Tim McLeod
8 1 Anthony Rizzo CHC 1B genemccaffrey
9 1 Paul Goldschmidt AZ 1B [email protected]
10 1 Josh Donaldson TOR 3B Captain Hook
11 1 Bryce Harper WSH OF Joelhenardbddr
12 1 Charlie Blackmon COL OF RayHQ
13 1 Max Scherzer WSH SP MikeGianella
14 1 Carlos Correa HOU SS Doug Anderson
15 1 Corey Seager LAD SS lawrm

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.

 

Pick Rd. Name Team Pos Owner
16 2 Starling Marte PIT OF lawrm
17 2 Miguel Cabrera DET 1B Doug Anderson
18 2 Joey Votto CIN 1B MikeGianella
19 2 Chris Sale BOS SP RayHQ
20 2 Xander Bogaerts BOS SS Joelhenardbddr
21 2 Trea Turner WSH OF Captain Hook
22 2 Madison Bumgarner SF SP [email protected]
23 2 A.J. Pollock AZ OF genemccaffrey
24 2 Freddie Freeman ATL 1B Tim McLeod
25 2 Edwin Encarnacion CLE 1B ToddZ
26 2 Robinson Cano SEA 2B rotoman
27 2 Brian Dozier MIN 2B DerekCarty
28 2 Francisco Lindor CLE SS Mike Maher
29 2 George Springer HOU OF @Tim_Heaney
30 2 Daniel Murphy WSH 2B Paul Sporer

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.

 

Pick Rd. Name Team Pos Owner
31 3 Trevor Story COL SS Paul Sporer
32 3 J.D. Martinez DET OF @Tim_Heaney
33 3 Rougned Odor TEX 2B Mike Maher
34 3 Giancarlo Stanton MIA OF DerekCarty
35 3 Jonathan Villar MIL 2B rotoman
36 3 Corey Kluber CLE SP ToddZ
37 3 Noah Syndergaard NYM SP Tim McLeod
38 3 Justin Verlander DET SP genemccaffrey
39 3 Jean Segura SEA SS [email protected]
40 3 Jake Arrieta CHC SP Captain Hook
41 3 Jon Lester CHC SP Joelhenardbddr
42 3 Buster Posey SF C RayHQ
43 3 Jose Abreu CHW 1B MikeGianella
44 3 Jonathan Lucroy TEX C Doug Anderson
45 3 David Price BOS SP lawrm

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.

 

Pick Rd. Name Team Pos Owner
46 4 Yoenis Cespedes NYM OF lawrm
47 4 Carlos Carrasco CLE SP Doug Anderson
48 4 Wil Myers SD 1B MikeGianella
49 4 Billy Hamilton CIN OF RayHQ
50 4 Hanley Ramirez BOS 1B Joelhenardbddr
51 4 Johnny Cueto SF SP Captain Hook
52 4 Kyle Schwarber CHC OF [email protected]
53 4 Yu Darvish TEX SP genemccaffrey
54 4 Ryan Braun MIL OF Tim McLeod
55 4 Dee Gordon MIA 2B ToddZ
56 4 Nelson Cruz SEA OF rotoman
57 4 Ian Desmond COL OF DerekCarty
58 4 Kyle Seager SEA 3B Mike Maher
59 4 Chris Archer TB SP @Tim_Heaney
60 4 Christian Yelich MIA OF Paul Sporer

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.

 

Pick Rd. Name Team Pos Owner
61 5 Gary Sanchez NYY C Paul Sporer
62 5 Todd Frazier CHW 3B @Tim_Heaney
63 5 Stephen Strasburg WSH SP Mike Maher
64 5 Aroldis Chapman NYY RP DerekCarty
65 5 Gregory Polanco PIT OF rotoman
66 5 Carlos Gonzalez COL OF ToddZ
67 5 Jason Kipnis CLE 2B Tim McLeod
68 5 Adrian Beltre TEX 3B genemccaffrey
69 5 Zach Britton BAL RP [email protected]
70 5 David Dahl COL OF Captain Hook
71 5 Evan Longoria TB 3B Joelhenardbddr
72 5 Matt Carpenter STL 1B RayHQ
73 5 Justin Upton DET OF MikeGianella
74 5 Mark Trumbo FA OF Doug Anderson
75 5 Andrew McCutchen PIT OF lawrm

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.

 

Pick Rd. Name Team Pos Owner
76 6 Carlos Martinez STL SP lawrm
77 6 Chris Davis BAL 1B Doug Anderson
78 6 Kyle Hendricks CHC SP MikeGianella
79 6 Anthony Rendon WSH 3B RayHQ
80 6 Addison Russell CHC SS Joelhenardbddr
81 6 Andrew Benintendi BOS OF Captain Hook
82 6 Danny Duffy KC SP [email protected]
83 6 Matt Kemp ATL OF genemccaffrey
84 6 Aaron Sanchez TOR SP Tim McLeod
85 6 Ian Kinsler DET 2B ToddZ
86 6 Jacob DeGrom NYM SP rotoman
87 6 Jose Bautista FA OF DerekCarty
88 6 Adam Jones BAL OF Mike Maher
89 6 DJ LeMahieu COL 2B @Tim_Heaney
90 6 Kenley Jansen LAD RP Paul Sporer

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!