Late January means we’re treading ever closer to pitchers and catchers reporting, but more importantly, it means we’re wading ever deeper into the mock-draft waters for the fantasy baseball season.

RotoBaller recently held its first mock draft of the season, and now we’ll give all participants a chance to share their notable picks.

If you want to just read my thoughts on my respective experience, you can click here.

Featured Promo: Get any MLB Premium Pass FREE ($119 value) AND up to a $200 deposit match when you sign up with Rival Fantasy. Rival offers 6 and 12-team Best Ball, weekly and daily contests, for as little as $3 per entry. No roster management, just draft and Rival sets your best lineup automatically. Playing fantasy baseball has never been easier! Sign Up Today!

 

Draft Results

Here’s the draft board so that you can identify your own steals/reaches before hearing our answers (click to enlarge):

 

Expert Mock Draft Reactions

Responses presented in order of draft position, Ben couldn't be reached for comment:

Ed Sutelan (@redsguy1869) –

My Favorite Pick: Andrew Benintendi (9.01), batting second in that incredible lineup plus I think he hits .290+ with 20/20 season

My Least Favorite Pick: David Dahl (4.12), looking at who was selected after him, I probably could've waited a few more rounds before adding him

Steal of the Draft: Nomar Mazara (16.08). It’s easy to forget that 20 homer, .266/.320/.419 season was his age 21 season. The best is still to come and he could break out in 2017.

Reach of the Draft: Hernan Perez (13.01). It’s tough to see him even starting this season let alone replicating his 2016 season. I probably would've drafted him in 20s if at all

 

Bill Dubiel (@Roto_Dubs) –

My Favorite Pick: Greg Holland (21.02). I’m convinced he's going to go somewhere and notch 35-40 saves, so that kind of roto value that late is absurd.

My Least Favorite Pick: Chris Carter (18.11). No idea where he'll land yet or what his role will be, and I could have gotten some safer talents there. Could be a cheap source of power, but who knows.

Steal of the Draft: Aaron Sanchez (8.12). A lot of options here, but I'm going to go with Ed’s pick here. Assuming last year was a preview of things to come, a fully-unleashed Sanchez could be a top-seven arm.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12). That's just too early for a relatively unproven commodity, especially given some of the talents he passed on.

 

Harris Yudin (@hayudi18) –

My Favorite Pick: Michael Brantley (12.10). Round 12 for a 20-20 potential in a loaded lineup? I'll take that chance.

My Least Favorite Pick: Tyson Ross (14.10). Don't think I would take this risk in a real draft-- at least not this early.

Steal of the Draft: Dellin Betances (17.10). Honestly, because of the format of the mock -- SP and RP were grouped into same category -- I only looked for relievers by sorting through saves and didn't realize Betances was on the board so late.

Reach of the Draft: Brian Dozier (2.12). Fully expect a regression, and definitely seems like a reach with Daniel Murphy and Robinson Cano still on the board.

 

Brad Johnson (@BaseballATeam) –

My Favorite Pick: Yu Darvish's (4.09) elite strikeout rate made him a borderline first round pick back when he was healthy. Now he's heavily discounted despite performing at his usual standard over his 17 2016 starts. Sure, there's a little extra risk, but the same is true of Noah Syndergaard. He went in the third round.

My Least Favorite Pick: Matt Kemp (6.09). I don't actually like Kemp even though he's a mostly reliable source of power and RBI. I should have drafted another pitcher there like Carlos Carrasco.

Steal of the Draft: Xander Bogaerts (4.02). There’s no way Bogaerts will last into the fourth round of your draft. It's a travesty that he wasn't selected in the top 25.

Reach of the Draft: It was a surprisingly mellow draft in terms of reaches. Andrew McCutchen (6.11) was the earliest guy to be drafted out of place, but RTS' ADP had him #24. I thought Starlin Castro (19.2) getting picked at all was a little incongruous considering the quality of players we left on the draft board. Neil Walker was still available, and nobody picked Ryan Schimpf or Kolten Wong.

 

Andrew Bua (@Andrew_Bua) –

My Favorite Pick: Matt Harvey (12.08). Say what you will about his chances of a full recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome, but the opportunity to take a pitcher of (potentially) his caliber in the 12th round was one I couldn't pass up. Runner-up here is Didi Gregorious in the 18th.

My Least Favorite Pick: Starling Marte (2.08). I've never been a huge Marte fan and probably should have taken Corey Seager, especially given that I drafted some other who could swipe bags later on in the draft.

Steal of the Draft: Devon Travis (17.12). When healthy over the last two years, Travis has done nothing but hit. To get a likely top 10 second basemen that late is crazy great value, nevertheless the fact he could potentially be top five.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12). I love Dahl as much as the next guy, but regardless of what you're projecting for him, you could probably get him later than taking him as the 16th outfielder (by my count) of the board in the fourth round. My choice here is relative to where he could have been drafted instead of what his production will be; I'm a huge Dahl fan.

 

Kyle Bishop (@amoralpanic) –

My Favorite Pick: Garrett Richards (22.07). I'm not even a huge fan of the guy, but I will gladly take a flyer on Richards in the 22nd round. Serious profit potential there.

My Least Favorite Pick: Kenley Jansen (7.06). Several of us had at least one instance where we were on the clock without realizing it. One of my brain farts was in the seventh round. By the time I noticed it was my turn to pick, I didn't have much time to react. Seeing that Aroldis Chapman was the last player off the board, I grabbed Jensen in anticipation of a closer run that never materialized.

Steal of the Draft: David Peralta (21.08). Yep, doubling down on driving the Peralta bandwagon in 2017. #sorrynotsorry.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12). I love Dahl and look forward to watching him in person many times now that I call Denver home, but 48th overall is just too soon. Ed paid a seriously expectant price in grabbing him at the end of the fourth round, leaving several more established outfielders on the board.

 

Max Petrie (@Max_Petrie) -

My Favorite Pick: Clayton Kershaw (1.08). He is soundly ahead of Max Scherzer as the No. 1 pitcher, in comparison to Mike Trout --> Mookie Betts. I would have taken Kershaw #2 in this draft and had zero qualms about it. Considering my team was ranked No. 1 by FantasyPros (humble brag), led by my pitching, I think I made the right decision.

My Least Favorite Pick: Alex Reyes (14.05). I LOVE Reyes this year, but I felt I reached considering Marco Estrada, Marcus Stroman, Dallas Keuchel, Kevin Gausman, and Carlos Rodon were still on the board. In hindsight, I would have grabbed Jose Peraza or a 2nd catcher and selected Reyes in rounds 17-20.

Steal of the Draft: Cole Hamels (8.11). I've been a Hamels fan throughout his career and he continues to put up 200 Strikeouts in Texas. He's accrued 200 K's in 5 of the past 6 years (he missed by 2 K in 2014) and is soundly a top-12 pitcher in fantasy. To grab him in the 8th round is robbery.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12). There is tons of hype surrounding Dahl going into 2017, with this being the highest I've seen him selected. Excellent hitter in the best possible park, but the crowded outfield makes me hesitant to expect full-time at-bats from Dahl. I want sure things in the first five rounds.

 

Cameron Kell (@Cam3r0n) -

My Favorite Pick: Lance McCullers (14.04). I really liked my Hanley Ramirez pick at the time, but looking back at it now, I'd prefer to just get Adrian Gonzalez in the 12th round. So I'll go with grabbing Lance McCullers in the 14th. Trust me, I'm aware of the risks involved in a McCullers pick — his health is a concern, and through 81 innings last year he allowed 45 walks to the tune of a 1.56 WHIP. But McCullers ended the season with a FIP of 3.00, an xFIP of 3.06, and a K/9 of 11.78. One word: upside, upside, upside. And given that I already had three stable starters in Corey Kluber, Jose Quintana, and Kenta Maeda, I'm all in on McCullers as a fourth starter.

My Least Favorite Pick: Ian Kinsler (6.04). This one's easy, because I immediately regretted taking Ian Kinsler ahead of Rougned Odor in the 6th round. Important lesson, folks: always pay attention to your league's scoring system! I was in a few leagues last year, but the one that demanded most of my time was an OBP league. And in that scoring system, Odor's 2016 BB% of 3% is...really not good, and his OBP of .296 paled in comparison to Kinsler's mark of .348. But that was 2016, and it's probable that Odor's plate discipline will improve in 2017. Meanwhile, Kinsler had a career year and will likely regress, making Odor more offensively valuable basically across the board.

Steal of the Draft: Matt Shoemaker (18.01). It was just announced that Matt Shoemaker's been cleared to resume normal pitching activities, so I'd imagine that, should the reports of his health remain positive, we'll see his ADP rise as the preseason goes on. But getting Shoemaker in the 18th round represents amazing value. After a dismal 2015 campaign, Shoemaker made real progress back towards his stellar 2014 debut — his BB%, K%, and HR/9 all trended positively, while he generated less hard contact and fewer fly balls than any season prior. And should his BABIP regress to a slightly more reasonable number, it's likely we'll see his ERA lower than last year's figure of 3.88. So yeah, huge value here.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12). I'll start this off by saying that David Dahl could very easily put up a super valuable season in 2017. And after Ryan Braun, Gregory Polanco, A.J. Pollock, Yoenis Cespedes, and Justin Upton all went off the board in the 4th, it makes sense to nab a valued outfield commodity. But Dahl has played all of 63 games at the MLB level, and he managed a bonkers .404 BABIP while striking out in 25% of his plate appearances. Meanwhile, the outfield situation in Colorado is kind of a logjam, and Dahl might be the odd man out at the start of the season. There are just too many question marks to justify taking Dahl ahead of options like J.D. Martinez, Christian Yelich, or even Andrew McCutchen.

 

Nick Mariano (@NMariano53) -

My Favorite Pick: Kendrys Morales (15.10). He isn’t the flashiest pick, but if you’re telling me that I can get a guy who just hit 30 homers at Kauffman Stadium in the power environment of Toronto this late, I’ll bite. I didn’t respect Morales enough in my first round of 2017 rankings, but Round 15 is ridiculous to me.

My Least Favorite Pick: Carlos Santana (10.03). It wasn’t a crippling pick, but looking back I could’ve waited on 1B and gotten a better SP3 or RP2. Between that pick and my next one, 13 pitchers went compared to only five batters. The relative talent left with hitters wasn’t worth biting on.

Steal of the Draft: J.D. Martinez (5.03). He was great value for Harris. JDM is only 29 years old, and if he stays healthy (read: doesn’t smash into the wall) then he’s a solid four-category stud. Don’t sort by 2016 stats and miss this guy. He should definitely not be going behind Jackie Bradley Jr. and this next fellow. Khris Davis (8.6) would be my second choice.

Reach of the Draft: Buster Posey (3.08), since I’m writing this and know Dahl’s been covered to death already. I realize this was a two-catcher format, but #32 overall is still too high an opportunity cost for me – especially when you’ve drafted Kershaw in the first round. That means I need raw offensive stats, which I won’t get from Posey, even if his value at C relative to others is strong.

 

Pierre Camus (@pfunk00) -

My Favorite Pick: Jeff Samardzija (14.02) - The Shark isn't known for his consistency, but I believe he'll be better in year two as a Giant. If he can revert to 2014 form, when he made the All-Star team with a 2.99 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 202 K, he'll be a steal this late in the draft.

My Least Favorite Pick: Alex Bregman (6.02) - Instead of waiting two more rounds to get Evan Longoria, Anthony Rendon, or Jake Lamb, I pulled the trigger too early on an unproven player at third base. He ended the season on fire after a huge early slump, but ultimately he was a .264 hitter in his first taste of the bigs. This pick could pan out, but didn't need to be made so early.

Steal of the Draft: Rick Porcello (10.05) - I know everyone is expecting him to pull a Dallas Keuchel and regress big time this year after his AL Cy Young award. That inflated run support won't go down much, but he won't just collect wins. His 1.3 BB/9 was the best of his career as was his 21.2% K%. At worst, he'll be a solid #2 starter, yet he went after pitchers like Jose Quintana and Aaron Sanchez who are also regression candidates.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12) - Buying into small sample size as a rookie burned many Miguel Sano owners last year (myself included). Although Dahl has Coors Field on his side, he never hit as much as 20 HR in a season throughout the minors. The average will be good, but a 20/20 season is probably his ceiling given his power/speed limitations.

 

Alex Chamberlain (@DolphHauldhagen) -

My Favorite Pick: DJ LeMahieu (9.12) - I'm not sure I believe fully, and he was still 2B8, but I was able optimize by waiting a round or two longer.

My Least Favorite Pick: Hernan Perez (13.12) - Not guaranteed a full-time gig and will be a very risky asset heading into 2017. He's a good gamble but at a much later point in the draft.

Steal of the Draft: Ben Zobrist (15.08) - It lacks pizzazz, but a practically guaranteed 15/5/.270 with 160 R+RBI for the equivalent of, like, $6 is a big deal.

Reach of the Draft: David Dahl (4.12) - To me, he's somewhere between the proven Stephen Piscotty and a glorified Dexter Fowler -- aka somewhere between the 7th and 13th rounds, not top-50.

 

More Mock Drafts & Analysis