I’ve done a fair share of real drafting and mock drafting this season and I always seem to get a bit mixed up in the early half of the middle rounds. The first round is easy enough because who you draft is pretty much dictated by where you draft. The later rounds of drafts are where my stockpile of value picks come into play. In between those areas is a weird grey zone where it feels like there’s a void of elite talent. We’re in a world with a declining amount of great hitters in a league that is dominated by pitching and it has made these early middle rounds a bit odd. In order to help anyone afflicted with the same dilemma, I’ve laid out a draft guide for those crucial rounds of two through ten.
For roto leagues, I looked for the best value at each position in comparison to what is left at that position after a particular round. Based on my research where I noted that HR and AVG are the most important roto categories, I also looked at the best contributors in those two areas for each round. Without further ado, here are the most valuable players in each round (in a 12-team league) according to Fantasy Gameday‘s ADP data:
Round 2
Best value relative to their position:
Edwin Encarnacion (1B), Adrian Beltre (3B), Yasiel Puig (OF), Troy Tulowitzki (SS)
Best AVG+HR (WERTH values in parenthesis) contributors:
Troy Tulowitzki (1.8 AVG / 1.1 HR), Adrian Beltre (1.8 AVG / 1.4 HR)
Round 3
Best value relative to their position:
Dustin Pedroia (2B), Cliff Lee (SP)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Freddie Freeman (1.0 / 0.7), Jose Bautista (-0.5 / 1.8)
Round 4
Best value relative to their position:
Buster Posey (C), Shin-Soo Choo (OF), Hunter Pence (OF), David Price (SP)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Buster Posey (1.5 / 0.0), Albert Pujols (0.4 / 1.2), Eric Hosmer (1.4 / 0.4)
Round 5
Best value relative to their position:
Adrian Gonzalez (1B), Ian Kinsler (2B), Elvis Andrus (SS)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
David Ortiz (1.1 / 0.8), Adrian Gonzalez (1.2 / 0.7)
Round 6
Best value relative to their position:
Joe Mauer (C), Kenley Jansen (RP)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Mark Trumbo (-0.8 / 1.8), Joe Mauer (2.0 / -0.6)
Round 7
Best value relative to their position:
Wilin Rosario (C), Jose Altuve (2B), Carlos Beltran (OF), Alex Gordon (OF)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Carlos Beltran (0.3 / 0.9), Wilin Rosario (0.4 / 0.9)
Round 8
Best value relative to their position:
Anthony Rizzo (1B), Kyle Seager (3B), Homer Bailey (SP), Koji Uehara (RP)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Anthony Rizzo (-0.6 / 1.3), Jose Abreu (-0.4 / 1.3)
Round 9
Best value relative to their position:
Michael Cuddyer (OF), Starlin Castro (SS)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Michael Cuddyer (1.2 / 0.2)
Round 10
Best value relative to their position:
Pablo Sandoval (3B), Doug Fister (SP)
Best AVG+HR contribution:
Billy Butler (1.4 / 0.3), Pablo Sandoval (0.7 / 0.2)
If you target a mix of these players over those nine rounds then you should end up with a fairly solid team. For me personally, I laid out a roadmap based off of this in regards to who I would want in each round and then a couple in-case-of-emergency versions of that roadmap if my draft plan happens to fall apart based off of how other teams may draft.
As you can see here, most of the value in these earlier rounds is tied to hitting categories so it makes sense to put your focus on hitting given the weak hitting environment of baseball right now. In the later rounds after this, you can still find enough pitchers with high ceilings to guide your team. Heck, I wrote a post about finding those pitchers too.
For roto, I think you can’t go wrong keeping a keen eye on AVG and HR during these rounds because you won’t find many players after Round 10 that can contribute in either category. Try running through some scenarios for yourself to see how you can end up with a high AVG, high HR team by Round 10. From Round 11 on, you can grab some SB contributors and complete your roster with a stable of high-upside pitchers.
