2018 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: 15-team Rotisserie Mock Draft

For the first time this preseason Heath Cummings fell behind in steals and he didn't like it.

By Heath Cummings

Mar 16, 2018 at 5:23 pm ET • 1 min read

Draft Prep Tiers: C | 1B | 2B | SS | 3B | OF | SP | RP
Heath's Sleepers | Breakouts | Busts |
Scott's Top 100 prospects | Sleepers | Breakouts | Busts

I am not the guys who gets left behind in steals. I've designed my rankings to make sure of it. Until this time.

In a 15-team Rotisserie league it's hard to guarantee anything, and this is just another example. It's also an example of what can happen when you get too greedy. After Nolan Arenado fell to me in Round 1, I came to my second pick with Dee Gordon and Starling Marte at the top of my queue. Anthony Rizzo was right behind them.

Forget for a moment that I may be the only guy in America with those two ahead of Rizzo, because I took him. I assumed one of Gordon or Marte would make it back to me. Chris Towers ruined that by taking both of them, I took Brian Dozier, and I was officially scrambling for steals.

A few thoughts from this experience:

Don't get too greedy. Get the guys you want.
There are plenty of steals guys late, you just have to go get them... I just barely missed Delino DeShields.
Those late steals specialists also hurt you in home runs and average.
I'd rather have steals early.

For what it's worth, I still found enough steals to be fine in the category. I may even be good. But I think I sacrificed too much in the other offensive categories, and that's not part of my typical Roto strategy. My plan involves steals and average early and power late. That can lead to domination in the offensive categories and couple with a reliever-heavy pitching strategy can put you in good position for the stretch run.

That plan went awry today.

The experts who participated in this draft are: