Expert Mock Draft #1 is up on MDC.com
MockDraftCentral.com plows us with great content every preseason. I tend to hang out there a lot January-March for baseball and July-August for baseball. I even got the chance to participate in one of their Expert Football Drafts last season, which was a blast. MDC assembled an impressive list of experts for this draft – Brandon Funston from Yahoo, Alex Cushing from MLB.com, Doug Anderson of RotoExperts, and others.
Here is the link to the draft results.
As usually happens, pitchers really fell in this draft. Only three were taken in the first four rounds. Lots of teams look really weak in the pitching category. The most balanced team, and the favorite to win this league imo, is Brian Pelowski’s team. He’s got Peavey, Harden, Sheets, Verlander, Weaver, and Carpenter for his Starters. He got good value at RP, with Lidge in the 9th round and Sherill in the 19th. Couple that pitching crew with Cabrera, Holliday, and Ellsbury and this team is set.
Notice that Papelbon was taken in round five and then not a single RP was taken until Nathan in the 8th. The RP run started in the 9th, with Rivera, Rodriguez and Lidge going. Usually a run gives someone bad value, but I love the value here for all three of these guys. I think this is a phenomenon just in this expert draft – expect closers to be more spread out in the 5th-10th rounds in average drafts.
There are lots of interesting sleeper picks here. Supersleeper Nelson Cruz was no secret here – Doug Anderson took him in the 12th round. You can probably wait on him a bit longer in your drafts but this could be the kid to reach for. There was a flurry of sleeper activity in the 16th round with Denard Span, Shin-Soo Choo, and Cameron Maybin going in a series of four picks. Pitchers Joba Chamberlain and David Price went in the 11th and 12th rounds. That seems about right for these potential breakout stars.
Commentors, which teams do you like best?