We're less than five full days away from Opening Day and I know you're keeping off your draft until the last possible minute to avoid suffering that stinging injury at the end of spring training. HNGN conducted another mock draft to help you out and this time we had the 12th overall pick.
The 12th pick isn't great, but it's cool since you get to make back-to-back selections and hash out your strategy while all of the other picks are going down. With our first two selections we decided to go with one of the top outfielders in the National League and perhaps the top pitcher in the American League.
We took Yasiel Puig with the 12th pick and you can check out the selections that came before him in the first round below:
Player | Position | Round 1 Pick/Yahoo! Avg. |
Mike Trout | OF | 1 (1.2) |
Miguel Cabrera | 1B, 3B | 2 (3.9) |
Andrew McCutchen | OF | 3 (2.6) |
Giancarlo Stanton | OF | 4 (5.7) |
Paul Goldschmidt | 1B | 5 (5.8) |
Clayton Kershaw | SP | 6 (3.6) |
Robinson Cano | 2B | 7 (14.7) |
Carlos Gomez | OF | 8 (8.5) |
Adam Jones | OF | 9 (10.8) |
Jose Abreu | 1B | 10 (7.6) |
Jose Bautista | OF | 11 (10.1) |
Yasiel Puig | OF | 12 (18.2) |
We did our mock through Yahoo! Sports and provided the average draft spot for each player selected in our first two rounds. As you can see, this first round was a bit unconventional with Miguel Cabrera, Clayton Kershaw, Robinson Cano, Jose Abreu and Yasiel Puig being taken out of their average spots in some capacity.
Here's why we took Puig:
According to both the ZiPS and Steamer projections, Puig (statistically) will be the fifth-best outfielder in 2015 and ranks only behind Mike Trout, Giancarlo Stanton, Andrew McCutchen and Jose Bautista, who were already selected in our first round. As for overall projections, ZiPS has Puig as the 10th overall player while Steamer has him at 11.
Additionally, Puig is one of the few (in addition to Trout and McCutchen) who will hit for average and power and maintain a good on-base percentage and steal a bunch of bags. Last time I checked, all of these measureable statistics will be a category in standard fantasy leagues. Puig is projected to finish with a .293/.373/.496/.868 stat line with 102 runs scored, 22 home runs, 85 RBIs and 15 stolen bases, according to ZiPS.
We understand outfield is a deep position and there's value in the later rounds, but all in all, there aren't many players who can deliver you statistics in a majority of the relevant categories on a nightly basis. Puig is that guy, and as you can see in the second round, there weren't many better options. We selected starter Felix Hernandez with the 13th overall pick.
Player | Position | Round 2 Pick/Yahoo! Avg. |
Felix Hernandez | SP | 1 (13.3 overall) |
Max Scherzer | SP | 2 (14.1 overall) |
Anthony Rizzo | 1B | 3 (12.5 overall) |
Edwin Encarnacion | 1B | 4 (14.1 overall) |
Adrian Beltre | 3B | 5 (20.9 overall) |
Troy Tulowitzki | SS | 6 (22.9 overall) |
Anthony Rendon | 3B | 7 (19.8 overall) |
Chris Sale | SP | 8 (24.3 overall) |
Hanley Ramirez | SS, 3B, OF | 9 (22.2 overall) |
Josh Donaldson | 3B | 10 (26.4 overall) |
David Ortiz | 1B | 11 (49.8 overall) |
Madison Bumgarner | SP | 12 (24.8 overall) |
It was no-brainer to grab Hernandez because he was the No. 2 overall ranked starter according to Yahoo! and we couldn't afford to go another 24 picks without a top-tier pitcher. So we figured we did a good job in grabbing Puig (who will undoubtedly provide solid top-to-bottom stats) and Hernandez (who has been one of the best pitchers in the game since 2009). To also tout our Hernandez pick, the Seattle Mariners added some offense to their lineup this offseason and will put him in a better position to earn wins.
But back to Puig. According to both the ZiPS and Steamer numbers, only Edwin Encarnacion, Joey Votto and Troy Tulowitzki rank above the Dodgers' outfielder in the overall projections. Tulowitzki is the only one who can best Puig in an all-around stats battle, but the Rockies' shortstop has averaged just 88 games over the past three seasons, which isn't a good investment with your first-round pick.
One could argue Joey Votto is a candidate to top Puig's projected numbers. However, the Reds' first baseman missed 100 games last season because of injury and could take some time to get used to game speed (.265 average with one home run in 14 spring training games). Additionally, in a total of 335 games over the past three seasons, Votto has only 44 home runs and 152 RBIs after belting 66 home runs and 216 RBIs in his previous 311 games.
As for the other draft picks after Puig and Hernandez...
Max Scherzer - not better than Hernandez and downgraded from Detroit's offense to Washington's.
Anthony Rizzo - a great talent, but first base is a deep position and I wouldn't take him that early.
Adrian Beltre - he's about to turn 36 and the decline could come soon, which is too risky for 12th or 13th overall.
Anthony Rendon - he's starting the season on the disabled list with a knee injury and is seeking his third medical opinion. Not good.
Chris Sale - broke his foot in spring training and won't be ready for Opening Day and could delay his ability to perform at the top of his game.
Hanley Ramirez - he's too inconsistent, on top of having injury troubles over the past two seasons.
Josh Donaldson - way too early to pick him.
David Ortiz - WAY too early to pick him.
Madison Bumgarner - an excellent arm, but we'll see how the workload from 2014 will affect his 2015 season. Also not better than Hernandez, yet.
That's our take on the first and second round if you have the 12th overall pick. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
