2021 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: AL-only Head-to-Head (H2H) points mock draft

You better make a play for pitching early.

By Scott White

Feb 10, 2021 at 10:06 am ET • 2 min read

You think there's a demand for pitching in mixed leagues? It's nothing compared to AL-only.

Our first look at that half of the player pool was eye-opening in that way.

It makes sense when you take the time to break it down. Yes, Gerrit Cole and Shane Bieber play in the AL, and they're two of the top three pitchers drafted overall. But it turns out 12 of the top 15 pitchers are in the NL. The one exception apart from Cole and Bieber is Lucas Giolito, who's typically the seventh starting pitcher off the board.

He was the fifth player taken in this draft -- pitcher, hitter, whatever.

Our desperation only grew from there. Tyler Glasnow went with the very next pick. Jose Berrios was somehow a first-rounder. By the time I could make a play for an ace in Round 2, being the knucklehead who took Mike Trout with the third pick in the draft (Cole and Bieber going one and two, of course), the best I could do was Zack Greinke.

Well, what was I going to do, not take one? Chris Towers managed to hold out until Round 6 before dipping into the pitcher pool. His ace is (gulp) Corey Kluber.

It didn't help that this was a Head-to-Head points league, the format most known for elevating starting pitchers. Maybe if it was a Rotisserie league or some other format with traditional 5x5 scoring, we wouldn't have strained so much for the top arms, instead diverting our attention to stolen bases in the early rounds.

But I actually think it's more critical to invest in those high-end hurlers in a 5x5 league. In a points league, you could plug in anyone who piles up innings and get something out of it. In a 5x5 league, those same pitchers would just drag down your ERA and WHIP.

Some other things I noticed about the AL-only player pool:

It's kind of amazing how lacking it is in high-end talent everywhere. Going by FantasyPros ADP, 17 of the top 24 players are in the NL.
Apart from starting pitcher, the weakest positions are probably first and second base. Even in a 10-team league, I didn't feel like there were enough quality options to go around.
Some of the hitter shortages at each individual position are countered by there being so many worthwhile DH-only types between Nelson Cruz, J.D. Martinez, Yordan Alvarez, Giancarlo Stanton, Jorge Soler, Franmil Reyes and Willie Calhoun. You'll want to think long and hard about filling your utility spot with someone who can play some other position, especially since those DH-only types tend to slide.

Here's who took part in this draft:

1) Nick Mimikos, Stack Attack podcast (@NMimi)
2) Kayla Van Horn, former Podcast League participant
3) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
4) George Maselli, CBS Sports
5) Jeremy Latzke, lucky reader who got to join in
6) B_Don, Razzball (@RazzBDon)
7) Chris Towers, CBS Sports (@CTowersCBS)
8) Rhys White, Six Man Rotation (@RhysBWhite)
9) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
10) Andy Spiteri, Fantasy Alarm (@gasdoc_spit)