2014 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft #2

Happy #MockDraftMonday!

@AATH_Baseball @MLB No idea, but welcome!

— ESPN Fantasy Sports (@ESPNFantasy) March 10, 2014

I guess I was under a rock when ESPN announced today's impromptu fantasy baseball holiday where their experts occasionally hopped into the mock draft lobby with other users to draft alongside them. A few fortunate enough to join a mock league with one of them received pretty nice advice and had some good fun. I arrived late to the party, so I was not drafting against any notable experts.

Standings are based upon ESPN 2014 projections.

Once again I did not win the draft. In fact, my team is worst than my first mock draft attempt.

I took my own advice and waited on pitching, but I think I probably waited far too long. The majority of my pitchers came in rounds 13-25 aside from Jose Fernandez and Koji Uehara in rounds 5 and 11, respectively. Most of these pitchers in the later rounds of the draft have the potential to be good, but you might bring you might find yourself crossing your fingers too hard. Tim Lincecum, Brandon Beachy, Taijuan Walker, Ian Kennedy, and Josh Johnson all fit this description. Risking your draft on a few guys may result in a worthwhile investment, but what happens if they all tank? Well, there goes your season.

I was much more satisfied with my infield this time and I can thank Miguel Cabrera for helping me start the draft strong. There is some risk in Mark Teixeira, Jhonny Peralta, and Manny Machado given their background, but I feel their draft slots matched well. If Tex fails to perform, then perhaps Justin Morneau in a Rockies uniform will help fill first base instead. This outfield is strong, perhaps even stronger than my previous draft. It all depends upon Jose Bautista's health and the performances from both Hamiltons: Josh and Billy.

I find myself drafting a lot of the same players and that may be because everyone is referencing ESPN's ranking list while I am using my own. I probably should hop into a Yahoo mock draft for comparison's sake.

Once again, you can find a full list of all 300 picks in the draft at the end of this article. As always, I will gladly accept any criticisms you may have as it will almost certainly help out in my upcoming drafts.

2014 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft

Today, I fell victim to boredom and so I thought, "What better time to take my Overall Fantasy Baseball Rankings list for a test drive than now?"

I hopped into the ESPN mock draft lobby, joined 12-team snake draft, and this is what happened:

Standings are based upon ESPN 2014 projections.

According to ESPN I did not win the draft, and I tend to agree with them. If I compare their projected estimates to my Stat Targets in Roto Leagues, then I notice the scale is very close, which assures me my data is still prevalent even though it is two years old.

My outfield is solid, the core pitching staff is good, but my infielders scare me a lot. Corey Hart and Xander Bogaerts are the biggest question marks considering neither have seen much playing time at the professional level over the past year. I have some concerns with Everth Cabrera as well, but then again everyone who accepted suspensions last season have to something to prove us all.

The backend of my pitching staff doesn't keep me hopeful either. Huston Street is almost always prone to injury, Francisco Liriano was great last season but there's no telling if he will repeat, Neftali Feliz has not pitched in what feels like ages, Ubaldo Jimenez was only good toward the end of last season, and Kyle Lohse... I just don't trust Lohse, especially not with the Brewers who's running with a skeleton crew.

My best value picks were undoubtedly Matt Holliday in round 7 and Curtis Granderson in round 14. I have no idea why everyone seems to be so down on Holliday, but I will gladly capitalize off everyone else's error. The Grandy man is on the decline, he will probably hurt the team batting average, and Citi Field will likely zap a lot of his power; but I feel much better when I steal him as pick number 164 as compared to the consensus of the experts (110, round 10-11).

If I could do this draft over again, then I would have opted to take an infielder or two earlier than round nine. Maybe I could have swapped in Josh Donaldson or Allen Craig in the earlier rounds and wait on pitching until at least round six.

You can find a full list of all 300 picks in the draft at the end of this article. As always, I will gladly accept any criticisms you may have as it will almost certainly help out in my upcoming drafts.