Editor's Note: The Paths to Glory series is intended to serve as a starting point for your team. As we all know, baseball drafts become unpredictable as spring training progresses, but the three options provided here should put you on the right path.
When you take Paul Goldschmidt with your first pick, you're not only getting a hitter who could wind up being Fantasy's most valuable player. You're also taking care of a difficult position to fill early.
It's hard to build a potent offense with mediocre or poor production at first base, yet going into this season, there are only seven first basemen who have recently shown the ability to rank among the Fantasy producers. Two of the seven -- Joey Votto and Chris Davis -- have been inconsistent enough that owners will probably discount them on Draft Day. We could even exclude Davis from this already-short list because we could opt to play him in an outfield slot instead of at first base.
With a dearth of reliable high-end first basemen, it will behoove us Fantasy owners to take care of our first base slot within the first two rounds. You probably won't be able to do that with Goldschmidt unless you have one of the first three picks. But if you are fortunate enough to make him the centerpiece of your squad, you can breathe a little easier over the next few rounds because you have one fewer critical need to address.
An ideal haul through the first three rounds is to secure your first baseman and your No. 1 outfielder and starting pitcher. There should be plenty of good options available by the time you make your second and third selections, and the order in which you address these positions should depend on how quickly the pool of elites have been depleted in the picks leading up to yours.
You could just as easily go for an outfielder first and then a pitcher, but regardless of the order, you can feel pretty good about building your team around the core of Goldschmidt, Madison Bumgarner and Mookie Betts. If you are in a Head-to-Head categories league, as opposed to a points format, J.D. Martinez, Starling Marte or Ryan Braun would be a better choice than Betts.
Then you can still emerge from the first six rounds with two bona fide aces, two high-upside outfielders and a reliable must-start hitter. Not everyone necessarily sees Adrian Beltre in this light, but seeing how he bounced back from a thumb injury last season, I do.
If I were to pursue an outfielder instead of a pitcher in Round 2, my core could look like Goldschmidt, Nelson Cruz and Chris Sale. Not a huge difference between this trio and Goldschmidt, Bumgarner and Betts, but it's a bit of a different look.
When you head into the fourth round with a first baseman, outfielder and starting pitcher in tow, there are a lot of different possibilities for how you can approach the next three rounds. If you wait a little longer to pursue your second outfielder and pitcher, you can use your Round 4 pick to add a potential elite at another position. Xander Bogaerts should make it to this round, and remember, he scored more Fantasy points than any other player who is shortstop eligible to start 2016.
As mentioned above, Marte would be a superior alternative to Betts in a categories league, but if Betts is gone -- or if you simply don't trust his 2015 stats -- the Pirates' outfielder could be your choice here. You could also opt for Kyle Schwarber instead of Bogaerts on one side of the Round 4/5 turn, though Bogaerts could be more likely to slide to this portion of the draft.
In the first scenario, Michael Brantley was the choice for fill the No. 2 outfield spot, and he clearly comes with some risk due to his uncertain return date from shoulder surgery. Corey Dickerson has risks of his own, as he played only 65 games last season due to plantar fasciitis and fractured ribs. Even hobbled, Dickerson still hit over .300 and slugged over .500, so he's not a bad choice at a point in the draft where any available outfielder is going to be risky in some fashion.
