Fantasy Baseball Today crew's bold 2018 predictions
Our last mock draft of the season just happened to be my favorite format, and the rest of the league was kind enough to allow me to use my favorite strategy.
In a head-to-head categories leagues with seven pitcher spots and no distinction between SP and RP, I love using a reliever-heavy strategy. Just to be clear, this is NOT an all-reliever strategy, which is why I took Gerrit Cole as my ace in the seventh round. Chris Towers thinks Cole could win the Cy Young and I don't think he's wrong. Cole, Lance McCullers and James Paxton are my favorites to employ with this strategy.
But, of course, this is more about the relievers (and building an elite offense by not taking starting pitching early). Here are the relievers I drafted and the round I took them:
Kenley Jansen (5)
Aroldis Chapman (6)
Brad Hand (11)
Andrew Miller (15)
Shane Greene (16)
I'll let you judge below whether I accomplished my goal of building an elite offense (I'm pleased), but the final part of this strategy is loading my bench with high-upside starting pitchers. Eventually, you'd like to compete in all five pitching categories instead of consistently winning three of five. Here are the late round starters I targeted:
Sean Newcomb (17)
Jordan Montgomery (18)
Matt Harvey (19)
Carlos Rodon (21)
The participants in this mock draft were:
Chris Mitchell, Roto Experts
Chris Towers, CBS Sports
George Maselli, CBS Sports
Heath Cummings, CBS Sports
Igor Mello, CBS Sports
Jamey Eisenberg, CBS Sports
Jeff Tobin, CBS Sports
Matt Williams, Fantasy Pros
Mike Kuchera, The Fantasy Man
R.J. White, CBS Sports
Scott White, CBS Sports
Sergio Gonzalez, CBS Sports
Here are the full results: