Major League Baseball may have been delayed but we still get 60 games and many of you will be drafting this weekend. For those of you are drafting, I wanted to provide you my updated cheatsheet. When I took this job four years ago, friends and family members alike commonly expected me to sit down and talk about their draft prep for two hours. While I would love to do that, the lead up to fantasy baseball season is a mad rush with over 60 articles and 100,000 words written in the past two months plus over 20 podcasts. There just isn’t enough time in the day so I started building this cheat sheet and just giving it to them when they asked for advice. I decided to make it a public article awhile back so here it is for the 2020 fantasy baseball season. I hope you all enjoy it! For any more specific questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter.
You can find my full rankings at the bottom of the article
Mock in minutes (free) with our fantasy baseball draft software
My Favorite Targets by Position
- Catcher (J.T. Realmuto 5th rd, Salvador Perez 14th rd, Wilson Ramos 14th)
- 1st Base (Mark Canha 18th rd, C.J. Cron 20th, Howie Kendrick 25th)
- 2nd Base (Rougned Odor 19th rd, Starlin Castro 20th, Daniel Murphy 21st)
- Shortstop (Adalberto Mondesi 4th rd, Marcus Semien 7th, Carlos Correa 9th)
- 3rd Base (Rafael Devers late 2nd rd, Justin Turner 13th, J.D. Davis 17th)
- Outfield (Juan Soto 1st rd, J.D. Martinez 2nd, Luis Robert 8th, Marcell Ozuna 9th, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. 13th, Danny Santana 14th, Avisail Garcia 18th, Nomar Mazara 20th, Ryan Braun 22nd, Corey Dickerson 23rd, Yoenis Cespedes 24th, Domingo Santana 25th)
- Starting Pitchers (Tyler Glasnow 6th, Corey Kluber 8th, James Paxton 10th, Shohei Ohtani 11th, Julio Urias 13th, Kenta Maeda 14th, Carlos Martinez 15th, Lance McCullers Jr. 16th, Luke Weaver 17th, Josh James 20th, Rich Hill 21st, Brendan McKay 22nd, Freddy Peralta 24th, Elieser Hernandez 25th, Daniel Ponce de Leon 25th)
- Relief Pitchers (Ken Giles 11th, Nick Anderson 13th, Keone Kela 16th, Ryan Pressly 22nd, Hunter Harvey 24th, Ryan Helsley 25th, Austin Adams 25th, Jose Alvarado 25th, James Karinchak 25th)
My Favorite Targets by Round
- 1st (Christian Yelich 1st, Juan Soto 5th, Trea Turner 7th)
- 2nd (J.D. Martinez 13th, Bryce Harper 15th, Rafael Devers 21st)
- 3rd (Devers, Stephen Strasburg, Yordan Alvarez, Adalberto Mondesi)
- 4th-5th (Mondesi, George Springer, Ozzie Albies, Manny Machado, J.T. Realmuto, Jonathan Villar)
- 6th-7th (Tyler Glasnow, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcus Semien, Josh Bell, Luis Robert, Corey Kluber)
- 8th-9th (Robert, Kluber, Carlos Correa, Eddie Rosario, Marcell Ozuna)
- 10th-12th (Correa, Ozuna, James Paxton, Ken Giles, Zac Gallen, Dinelson Lamet, Franmil Reyes, Jesus Luzardo, Justin Turner, Nick Anderson, Julio Urias)
- 13th-15th (Anderson, Shohei Ohtani, Danny Santana, Kenta Maeda, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Salvador Perez, Carlos Martinez, Wilson Ramos)
- 16th-18th (Ramos, Lance McCullers Jr., Scott Kingery, J.D. Davis, Luke Weaver, Keone Kela, Avisail Garcia, Rich Hill, Nick Senzel)
- 19th-23rd (Garcia, Hill, Mark Canha, Starlin Castro, Nomar Mazara, C.J. Cron, Ryan Braun, Josh James, Brendan McKay, Daniel Murphy, Dylan Carlson)
- ADP 275+ (Ryan Pressly, Corey Dickerson, Ryan Helsley, Freddy Peralta, Howie Kendrick, Yoenis Cespedes, Hunter Harvey, Domingo Santana, Elieser Hernandez, Daniel Ponce de Leon, Jose Alvarado, James Karinchak)
Players I’m Avoiding Near ADP
- Mike Trout 1st
- Gerrit Cole 5th
- Jacob deGrom 7th
- Fernando Tatis Jr. 18th
- Jack Flaherty 24th
- Jose Altuve 30th
- Austin Meadows 45th
- Aaron Nola 46th
- Josh Hader 56th
- Anthony Rizzo 58th
- DJ LeMahieu 60th
- Bo Bichette 66th
- Brandon Woodruff 86th
- Andrew Benintendi 104th
- Edwin Diaz 118th
- Carlos Carrasco 125th
- Oscar Mercado 132nd
- Tommy Edman 137th
- Craig Kimbrel 139th
- Brandon Workman 140th
- Will Smith (catcher) 156th
- Sean Manaea 159th
- Byron Buxton 173rd
- Giovanny Gallegos 181st
- Marcus Stroman 191st
- Christian Walker 197th
- Aristides Aquino 224th
- Jo Adell 238th
General Strategy
- Get one of the top 7 catchers
- Don’t worry about reaching at any other position
- If you can’t decide between two players and one is an outfield, take the non-outfielder
- Load your league settings into our auction calculator and use it for rankings
- Practice from your spot in the draft using our 5-minute mock draft tool
- Know your league settings and adjust your rankings/targets accordingly
- Decide if you are using a strategy (see below) and stick to your guns
- Don’t drink too much at your draft
- Don’t shy away from boring players or those who have burned you in the past
- Be careful in auctions to avoid bidding wars or bidding someone up
- Get your guys. It is more fun that way.
- Make sure to draft Corey Kluber and Rich Hill
My up to date rankings
(this will update nearly every day until the 23rd)
The Perfect Roster
- C – Wilson Ramos (15th)
- 1B – C.J. Cron (22nd)
- 2B – Starlin Castro (20th)
- SS – Adalberto Mondesi (4th)
- 3B – Manny Machado (5th)
- CI – Howie Kendrick (23rd)
- MI – Carlos Correa (9th)
- OF – Juan Soto (1st)
- OF – J.D. Martinez (2nd)
- OF – Luis Robert (7th)
- OF – Marcell Ozuna (10th)
- OF – Avisail Garcia (18th)
- UTL – Yordan Alvarez (3rd)
- SP – Tyler Glasnow (6th)
- SP – Corey Kluber (8th)
- SP – James Paxton (11th)
- SP – Julio Urias (13th)
- SP – Kenta Maeda (14th)
- SP – Lance McCullers Jr. (16th)
- RP – Nick Anderson (12th)
- RP – Keone Kela (17th)
- RP – Ryan Helsley (24th)
- B – Rich Hill (19th)
- B – Josh James (21st)
- B – Austin Adams (25th)
My Strategies for Re-Draft Leagues
My Podcast
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | SoundCloud | Stitcher | TuneIn