Staff Fantasy Baseball Draft: Analysis of Our 12-Team Head-to-Head League
Round 1
| Pick | Overall | Player | Position | Fantasy Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Mike Trout | OF | Alex Gutjahr |
| 2 | 2 | Clayton Kershaw | P | Jacob Adler |
| 3 | 3 | Andrew McCutchen | OF | AJ Weinberg |
| 4 | 4 | Paul Goldschmidt | 1B | Kyle Stanzel |
| 5 | 5 | Giancarlo Stanton | OF | Matt van de Merlen |
| 6 | 6 | Jose Abreu | 1B | Dale Redman |
| 7 | 7 | Jose Bautista | OF | Jeff Hicks |
| 8 | 8 | Miguel Cabrera | 1B | Nick Friar |
| 9 | 9 | Carlos Gomez | OF | Jim Sannes |
| 10 | 10 | Anthony Rizzo | 1B | Cory Rindone |
| 11 | 11 | Adam Jones | OF | Scott Barrett |
| 12 | 12 | Edwin Encarnacion | 1B | Peddle/Barry |
In my opinion, there are no big surprises here. Jeff Hicks elected to go with Jose Bautista at seventh over Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Gomez, a pick that hinges on Bautista matching his 155 games played in 2014.
Adam Jones goes to Scott Barrett at number 11, which is too high for my tastes, and our nF Fantasy Score tabs Jones as the 25th-most-valuable hitter this season. As you’ll see, Barrett focuses on power-speed combo players.
My pick: Clayton Kershaw
I decided I would either go big or go home with pitching in a relatively shallow league like this one, and plugging the league’s scoring settings into a few different auction calculators led me to the conclusion Kershaw was even more valuable than Trout, probably because we only start three outfielders.
I have written on Kershaw before on the advantage he provides, and was fine forgoing a slugger in the first round.
