2024 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft results, recap for 12-team Rotisserie: The one where all the closers fell

Slow drafts for The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational are happening as we speak. For those unfamiliar with TGFBI, it's a contest involving hundreds of Fantasy Baseball analysts who have been sorted into a couple dozen 15-team Rotisserie leagues. That's 15 teams as opposed to the 12 that comprised our latest Rotisserie mock draft.

The differences between a 12-team league and a 15-team league are often more than they're made out to be, and one of the clearest distinctions is the valuation of closers. There's a finite number of pitchers who figure to contribute to the saves category, and when that number is stretched between more teams, the scarcity is greater and the cost goes up.

But the contrast between how closers were drafted in my 15-team TGFBI league and how they were drafted in this 12-team mock goes far beyond the difference in league size. In Round 7 of the 15-teamer, people were drafting Tanner Scott and Clay Holmes. In Round 7 of this 12-teamer, people were drafting Josh Hader and Edwin Diaz. You hear me? Where one league was starting in on closers, the other was running out. That's completely bonkers.

So which approach is more likely for your league, presuming you play in the more common 12-team (or even 10-team) format? Maybe split the difference. According to FantasyPros ADP, which combines data from various sites, Hader and Diaz are being drafted in Round 5 of a 12-team league while Scott and Holmes are being drafted in Round 11.

My broader point, though, is that where relievers are drafted is entirely up to your league. Scarcity only emerges when someone makes the first move ... and then the second ... and then the third. You're mainly drafting relievers for saves, after all, and you only need so many saves. What do you gain by jumping in before you have to?

So I guess my takeaway for drafting saves in Rotisserie is ... play it by ear. Just because they're usually drafted within a prescribed range doesn't mean have to be, and you don't need to force the issue. Simply take what you need when the time comes and load up on everything else in the meantime.

Here's who all took part in this draft:

1) Darren "Doc" Eisenhauer, Scout the Statline (@DocHollidayDyna)
2) Jake Holland, The Toss Up podcast (@jakebaseball17)
3) Tim Kanak, Fantasy Aceball (@fantasyaceball)
4) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
5) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
6) Anthony Tucker, Pitcher List (@AnthonyTucker81)
7) George Kurtz, Sportsgrid (@GeorgeKurtz)
8) Raymond Atherton, Fantasy Aceball (@RaymondAtherton)
9) Kayla Walz, former Podcast League participant
10) Ryan McLaughlin, Ryan and Mike Love Pitching (@LDeePee)
11) Chris Towers, CBS Sports (@CTowersCBS)
12) R.J. White, CBS Sports (@rjwhite1)

Before we get to the results, I'd like to draw your attention to three teams in particular:

1. Our own Chris Towers wanted to test how his team would turn out if he used his first two picks on the top two pitchers, Spencer Strider and Gerrit Cole. We all agreed afterward that he wasn't quite able to make up for the statistical shortages incurred by passing up the MVP-caliber bats found early in drafts (all of which were gone by the time his third pick came up), but you can judge for yourself.
2. Darren "Doc" Eisenhauer, who was blessed with the first overall pick, of course, used it on Ronald Acuna, but at the 2-3 turn, he chose to double up on hitters, grabbing Pete Alonso and Marcus Semien. As a general rule for this year, I also prefer to begin hitter-hitter-hitter, but Acuna specifically puts you so far ahead in all the hitting categories at the start of the draft that you might as well enjoy the luxury of an elite pitcher on the way back. You need to dominate in all the categories, after all, not just the hitting ones. And because passing in Rounds 2 and 3 as the owner of the top pick means waiting until Pick 48 to draft your ace, well, it may be a stretch to call that guy an ace.
3. As for my team, I think it's a good representation of what I'm looking to do in Rotisserie drafts this year -- i.e., grabbing up high-end outfielders for the short while they last and building a pitching staff around strikeout artists. I wasn't thrilled with the way the middle rounds played out in this draft, meaning I kept missing out on some of the players I wanted most, so I wouldn't call this team the best I could build with this approach. But it is representative of the approach.