Well, folks, pitchers and catchers are just about to start reporting to spring training, Ray Flowers’ 2017 MLB Draft Guide has been absolutely crushing it with fantasy baseball coverage and the Mock Draft Army has been in full swing for a few weeks now. That means it’s time to start exploring some Average Draft Position (ADP) numbers and take a look at what’s happening in some of these mock drafts. This is going to be an ongoing series throughout the spring and will be done in conjunction with pieces you will find in the Draft Guide as well as in mock draft discussions I will have on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio.

Each week, I will highlight a particular draft done by the Army and analyze some of the trends and strategies you should be studying. I will highlight my particular strategy in the draft, examine the draft strategies of some of the other competitors and show how these drafts match up with the overall ADP numbers of the both the Mock Draft Army and the NFBC. You will also get, as part of this series, an ADP Trend Report where we will track ADP risers and fallers, rookie ADP and more.

That being said, let’s get to it…

The following draft took place on February 8, 2017 at 10pm ET

12 teams, 5x5 standard roto scoring (that means AVG instead of OBP)

23 starters – 2 C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, CI, MI, 5 OF, UT, 9 P

2 reserves

Industry Participants:

Howard Bender (Fantasy Alarm), Rick Wolf (Fantasy Alarm), Lawr Michaels (Mastersball), Lisa Ann (SiriusXM), Tim Wagner (Fantrax)

Link to Draft Board

My Pick: 12

Strategy:

Considering I’m not a huge fan of the choices you usually see at the end of the first round in a 12 or 15-team draft, I wanted to see what would happen if I just took the two best starting pitchers with those first picks. Picking from the wheel, I like to pair up my selections each time – 2 OF, 2B/SS, 1B/3B, 2 closers -- something like that. Obviously it depends on the flow of the draft, but I want to try and adhere to the pair-ups as much as possible.

Thoughts on My Team:

While I’m not as fan of taking starting pitching early, I have to say, I actually really like this team. After grabbing Max Scherzer and Madison Bumgarner, I figured my focus would be offense over the next several rounds. Starting pitching is always deep, particularly in a 12-team draft, so with this pair of aces, I wasn’t concerned about waiting significant time before I attacked the starter pool again. Going with my thoughts on Target Speed Late in the Draft Guide, my next move was power, but also grabbing guys who contributed in both departments.

For me, Jose Abreu and his consistent power were no-brainers. The position gets thin quickly, so I wanted to make sure I attacked it as early as I could. Going with my pairing philosophy, I figured I’d also add my corner infielder as well. Wil Myers qualifies as that power/speed combo and the selection may also cause other owners to panic by the lack of bats at the position. At least that was my thinking. From there, as you can see on the draft board, I maintained my pairings while also maintaining my power/speed criteria – Andrew McCutchen/Ian Desmond, Jason Kipnis/Evan Longoria. OK, so Longo doesn’t have speed, but with the way third basemen were being drafted, I opted to go 2B/3B instead of 2B/SS. Still a pair of infielders, right?

In any event, for the ninth and 10th rounds, I decided to double-tap the closers. They were flying off the board in the previous rounds and I figured if I landed two, each with relatively strong job security, I’d not only lock down a strong spot in saves, but get the added help for my ratios. Two aces and two strong closers? I could wait on starting pitching forever at this point.

The pairing of picks took a detour after that as I began to examine the depth and value of players at each position and what my team needs were looking like at this point. I added some nice speed in guys like Jose Peraza and Ketel Marte, some added power in players such as Hunter Renfroe, Carlos Gomez, Salvador Perez and Tom Murphy, and even some bargains at starting pitcher. Come on….Felix Hernandez in the 15th? Given the base of Scherzer and MadBum, I can take the chance that King Felix finds some way back to his old form. Doesn’t have to be Vintage Felix, but something a few ticks better than last season’s debacle. I even added some position flexibility, not just with Peraza, but with Ben Zobrist and Yulieski Gurriel as well. Not to mention some upside arms in Jharel Cotton and Jose Berrios.

Overall, I was pretty happy with the way this team ended up. I would even be so bold as to say I would happily go to war in a 12-teamer with this crew. There is good balance between power and speed while, to me, the pitching could be absolutely phenomenal if a few things break right.

Notes About the Rest of the Draft:

Lawr Michaels was ready to go to war with Rick Wolf about halfway through this draft as the Wolfman sniped pick after pick after pick. The two drafted against each other in the FSTA Draft just a few weeks ago, right next to each other in fact, so obviously they were in-tune with each other’s preferences and tendencies. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – knowing your opponents in the draft room can be just as important as your knowledge of the player pool.

Lisa Ann certainly has some explaining to do this Saturday (3-5pm ET on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio) about her decision to wait on pitching for as long as she did. I’m all for the concept, but with her first arm being an 11th-round Rick Porcello, a player everyone expects to regress, she is likely to have some issues in the pitching categories. She also left a lot of power on the table with early selections of Jonathan Villar and Dee Gordon, so I’m curious as to how she felt about her team at the end. Again, tune in Saturday to find out.

Maine Event’s draft out of the 1-spot was an interesting mirror of mine. He went with the two aces atr the top and then loaded up on a ton of power over the next several rounds, though he did also sneak in a closer there which I like. He mixed his picks up after that, but what I really love is the speed run he went on in Rounds 16 through 19, followed by more cheap power and then a speed cap-off at the end with Jarrod Dyson. I like the way he went through this draft and could see this being a solid team if all the speed and mid-to-late pitching pans out.

Michael K did a nice attack of speed and position scarcity to kick things off while James B, who picked right after him, went all power early. Both waited on pitching and seem to have solid rotations. A few risky picks, but that’s the game, isn’t it?

Noticeable closer run in the eighth round and then I nudged it along more in the 10th after I double-tapped the position.

Noticeable catcher run in the 12th with another one in the 19th round.

ADP Thoughts:

We’re still pretty early in the game for full ADP analysis with regard to this draft, but to me, there were really no major reaches or drops. I noted King Felix in the 15th as a bit of a drop for him and you should definitely monitor the ADP of the 9th-round old folks home that opened with Matt Kemp, Troy Tulowitzki, Jose Bautista and Adam Jones. Beyond that, again, everything seemed fairly normal.

Here is a current look at the most recent Mock Draft Army ADP, which can also be found in the MLB Draft Guide. It includes all drafts done from January 12 through February 4. As mentioned above, the next installment of this series will be an ADP Trend Report in which we compare the overall ADP numbers from week to week once all the data from this week’s drafts is entered. That’s where we will look at some of the risers and fallers as well as some other notable players to watch.