Worth noting Trout's stated he intends to run more this year.

I'd like to draft the final spot.

ok in, your #10

Make sure after you pick to pm the next guy up.

1.2 Clayton Kershaw (SP)

No pitcher in the first 10 pitchers will be taken who is worth their ADP except this one who is not only the only one who will exceed it but is also probably the only player where there is a true argument to be taken over Trout. Unfathomable numbers year in year out with no true health risk you expect from a pitcher with his stuff and caliber. The gap between him and even the #2 pitcher is utterly monstrous

Kershaw's interesting. I've always been a hitters-first advocate, but the assorted Fangraphs systems price him so ludicrously highly and the rest of the pitching elites are so shaky that I'm actually considering taking him pretty highly, though maybe not this high. I've considered him for 7 and even for 5 (skipping over Bryant and Arenado because of the ludicrous 3B depth).

Example: for a standard 12-team ESPN league, the Fangraphs auction calculator (ATC) prices trout at 38.9 and Kershaw at 49.7 (Scherzer @ 35.1) That's tough to ignore.

My one real concern with him is the back. Backs don't strike me as often miraculously returning to 100% for ever after. I have a touch of corn about drafting him because of that.

Man I totally forget to include entire sentences in my train of thought

The FG calculator had Kershaw as the #5 overall player (and #2 pitcher, marginally behind Scherzer and $4 ahead of a couple of Cubs) using 2016 stats where he only pitched 149 innings. Insane.

A huge element of his ownership (assuming health) is you can keep him through mid-July, trade him for mega-offence and still be assured of a high ERA/WHIP finish because he's so far ahead of the field.

Ok so GTB takes: 1.3 Jose Altuve

1.4 Mookie Betts

This is pretty simple for me here. Despite Arenado being very tempting, I like my later options at 3b. I also want to get to 100 HR and 100 SB as early as possible in roto, and Mookie is a great foundation to build off.

Pm sent to iwreck

Another Kershaw thought: I've been really inclined towards Jansen, Chapman and Miller this year, but having Clay makes me feel like drafting them isn't necessary. Adds some value in that flexibility.

In a roto league where every inning is precious I really think anyone but kershaw at 1 is a mistake

Surprised to see Altuve go before Betts. I thought Betts was the consensus #2 hitter?

I have tiers like:

SSS - Trout
SS - Kershaw + Betts
S - Altuve + ...

I guess we'll see in this mock. I feel like Trout + getting your first pitcher at 24/25 is better than Kershaw + getting your first hitter at 24.

Excuse me for trying something different in a mock draft lol

I don't think it's a spew pick or anything like that -- I was just hoping to spur up some discussion on Altuve vs. Betts. Both provide pretty similar stat profiles IMO, with Altuve a bit more on SB/AVG and Mookie a bit more on HR/RBI. I was an Altuve denier last year and he proved me tremendously wrong

I thought the whole point of a mock draft was to mock people's picks

Was I mistaken?

Was everything I ever knew wrong?

Fair enough.

Standard Pick was Betts no doubt, I just wanted to try something different. The added bats in Houston could bolster his run totals even further. But mostly just using this as an opportunity to try out some different stuff.

Nope. The idea of the exercise is for each of us to try to draft the optimal team, then learn from the ensuing discussion. I don't think Altuve over Mookie is egregious (ESPN has Altuve #2 and Fangraphs has posted articles arguing for Altuve @ #2) but this isn't the draft to try out totally random **** either. Draft what you know guys.

I have #3 pick in one of my redrafts and I'm assuming I will get Altuve so I wanted to take him to simulate that as well.

Agree

Depending on Scherzer's finger, there may not be a pitcher I'd take at 24.

Id feel more than comfortable taking Madbum or Thor there. With that said I havnt seen any of them drop there.

For me the tiers are:

Tier 1: Kershaw

Tier 2: Sherzer, Madbum, Thor

Tier 3: **** Tier 3