Mock, Mock, Mock For Fantasy Baseball Dominance

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So, hopefully you’ve studied the stats, including projections for 2016, made your own rankings, and maybe even watched a few early spring games. With about two weeks until most fantasy baseball drafts are held, it’s usually a good idea to practice drafting in one of any number of mock draft sites.

I’ve played in leagues in the past that have used CBS Sports, ESPN, and Yahoo. My longest standing league uses CBS Sports and their mock drafts are OK. While I don’t currently play in any leagues on ESPN, I do like their mock drafts the best. The point here though is to find a site (or more) that you like and spend some time mock drafting.

Why Mock Draft?

There are several good reasons for you to mock draft. There is, after all, that old adage that practice makes perfect and it doesn’t cost you anything (not that I would ever advocate playing for money in a fantasy league – wink). But most importantly, mock drafting gives you the opportunity to see how other owners are evaluating talent.

For the most part, studying for any fantasy sports draft is a solitary exercise, pouring over numbers, reading projections, setting up rankings, combing through the data. After a few weeks of that, you’ve begun to convince yourself of certain “truths.” You may have discovered a scarcity of power bats and want to load up early. You may think you’ve spotted a sleeper that no one else in your league is going to know about. Or, you may have a particular strategy you think will be effective. The way to find out if you’re correct before it actually counts is in a mock draft.

In all the years that I’ve been playing fantasy baseball (and also fantasy football), I’m always surprised in mock drafts to see either players I like slip or players I’m not interested in go early. In a mock draft a few days ago, some dude took Clayton Kershaw, the stud three time Cy Young award winner for the Los Angeles Dodgers, SECOND. I would never take pitching in the first round. There’s just not enough offense these days. He obviously felt differently. So, we don’t all value every player the same, whether it’s the totally anonymous strangers in the mock draft room or your buddies at your league’s draft. Internalizing that lesson is one reason you should mock draft.

To be fair, the Kershaw guy could also have been doing something I like to do in mock drafts – tinker with lineup construction. What does happen if you anchor your staff with arguably the best pitcher in baseball in the first round? What does your hitting then look like? Can you take advantage of the fifth and sixth rounds when most of you opponents will be taking their first pitcher by snagging some value at the plate? Or, the exact opposite. What if you wait until round six or seven to take a pitcher and load up on offense? What about a best available player strategy? You won’t know the answers to these questions unless you mock draft.

What if My League Uses an Auction?

If you’re like me and you prefer the purity of an auction, all the same sites have that as an option too. Now having said that, I almost never mock in an auction online. Why? They aren’t a very accurate simulation of what will happen around the table over pizza with your friends.

In my experience, online mock auctions tend not to fill up consistently until very close to the beginning of the season, leaving several of the slots open for automation. Unlike a human, the AI bids players up to closer to their calculated value than a human would. So, unlike Harry in your league who always looks for bargains and never pays full price, the AI will continue to bid against you until you’ve arrived at the perceived full price.

And even in those instances when an auction starts off with a full complement of flesh and blood owners, inevitably after four or five rounds people drop out and the AI takes over for their team, creating the same market discrepancies described above.

So mock auctions aren’t for me, even though I play in an auction league, but that shouldn’t dissuade you from giving them a shot. Just know some of the pitfalls and, who knows, your experience may be much better than mine.

Get in There and Mock It

Whether your league implements a snake draft or an auction, you need to practice in advance. It allows you to get out of your own head, away from your spreadsheets, and see firsthand what others are thinking. You can experiment with strategies and see which ones suit you best, while observing others to see what tactics they may employ.

Opening Day is Sunday, April 3rd. Your draft is sooner. Get in there and mock it.

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