It's been a while since we did good old snake draft for the Head-to-Head points format. We recently did a salary cap draft (formerly known as an auction) where everyone went bananas for starting pitching, but a snake you might say is a different animal.
We also recorded the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast live while drafting, so if you'd like a breakdown of the picks and our thinking behind them, you'll get a far more thorough one there than I can provide here. And if you'd prefer some visual stimulation along with it, you can catch it on YouTube as well.
I will point out, though, that I tried in this one to stretch my love for high-end pitching as far as it could go, mostly following through on an ambitious plan to draft nothing but starting pitchers until the good ones were all gone. I did deviate once late in Round 3 for Alex Bregman, seeing him as a first round-caliber bat in this format because of his superior plate discipline, but I used five of my first six and six of my first eight picks on starting pitchers. And I think my hitters turned out just fine.
What makes it justifiable in this format is that there are so few hitter spots to fill, no specific category needs to meet and (slight exaggeration here) no end to the number of hitters who could end up producing like early-rounders. My 11th-round pick, Mike Yastrzemski, averaged as many points per game as George Springer last year. My 16th-round pick, Clint Frazier, averaged as many as Kyle Tucker.
Even if I miss on some of those upside picks, I'm confident that over the course of six months, quality replacements will emerge on the waiver wire, and I'll be in a position to claim them because there won't be enough competition for their services -- not with only 108 hitter spots to fill between the 12 teams. My chances of scoring a comparable starting pitcher on the waiver wire, meanwhile, are much slimmer, with no end to the competition for their services. It's why I want to secure high-end pitching where I know I can, early in the draft.
Here's who took part in this one:
1) Kayla Van Horn, former Podcast League participant
2) Nathan Judah, Express & Star (@NathanJudah)
3) Phil Ponebshek, Patton & Company
4) Jake Wiener, Prospects1500 (@GatorSosa)
5) Chris Towers, CBS Sports (@CTowersCBS)
6) Brent Herzog, Exit Velocity Baseball Podcast (@ExitVelo_BH)
7) malamoney, Razzball (@malamoney)
8) Garrett Atkins, Fake Teams (@13atkins13)
9) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
10) Dan Gilbert, Fantasy Fisticuffs podcast (@DabberDanLit)
11) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
12) Chris Mitchell, FantasyData (@CJMitch73)
So which Fantasy baseball sleepers should you snatch in your draft? And which undervalued first baseman can help you win a championship? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy baseball rankings for every single position, all from the model that called Will Smith's huge breakout last season, and find out.
