Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft: Fernando Tatis, Jeimer Candelario, Nolan Arenado, Yoshinobu Yamamoto

It’s March and draft season is in full swing. The best way to prepare for your drafts is to practice with FantasyPros’ Draft Wizard. Syncing your league’s settings and draft order gives you the most realistic mock drafts to practice different strategies. Here I completed a fantasy baseball mock draft focused on starting pitching early. Below we dive into a few of those draft picks.

Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft

1.09 (9 Overall): Fernando Tatis (OF – SD)

Spencer Strider was already off the board and it’s hard to pass up on a player of Fernando Tatis’ caliber. He can truly be an elite source of R, HR, RBI and SB, with a solid AVG.

4.04 (40 Overall): Yoshinobu Yamamoto (SP – LAD)

With two starter foundation pieces, I decided to take a gamble on Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the ninth pitcher off the board. He’s never pitched an inning in the MLB but still got a 12-year deal from one of the best organizations in baseball. Eno Sarris wrote a great article for The Athletic about Yamamoto summing it up as his numbers are comparable to Kevin Gausman‘s fastball and splitter, Chris Bassitt‘s curveball, and Zach Eflin‘s control. There may be an adjustment period but he should settle in just fine.

8.04 (88 Overall): Nolan Arenado (3B – STL)

Nolen Arenado was being drafted as early as the second round in some drafts a year ago. He had a down season but still finished with 26 HRs and 93 RBIs. The entire Cardinals offense should bounce back this season.

15.09 (177 Overall): Jeimer Candelario (1B – CIN)

Jeimer Candelario had a great season last year split between the Nationals and Cubs. He had a career-high 22 HRs and .807 OPS. He signed with the Reds in the offseason and should get everyday at-bats, whether at first, third or DH. According to Statcast, he would have had 30 homers if he played every game in Cincinnati last season.