Fantasy Baseball 2022 Mock Draft: Strategy and Cheatsheet for Opening Rounds
After a long offseason that included a lockout, baseball is back. That means fans of fantasy will soon start gathering for their drafts, each looking to best their buddies and take home the league championship at the end of the season.
There will also inevitably be someone drafting for the first time, trying to figure things out while their friends talk batting average, home runs, on-base percentage and strikeouts.
Which players should be targeted early, and who might you wait on when looking to add value at the tail-end of the draft?
With so many players to choose from, so many opportunities to strike gold or wreck your entire time, gear up for draft time with this early mock draft and some tips to bring you and your squad closer to victory.
2022 Mock Draft (Standard Head-to-Head Scoring)
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- Trea Turner, 2B/SS, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B/DH, Toronto Blue Jays
- Jose Ramirez, 3B, Cleveland Guardians
- Gerrit Cole, SP, New York Yankees
- Juan Soto, RF, Washington Nationals
- Bryce Harper, RF, Philadelphia Phillies
- Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays
- Mookie Betts, 2B/CF/RF, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Corbin Burnes, SP, Milwaukee Brewers
- Mike Trout, CF, Los Angeles Angels
- Freddie Freeman, 1B, Free Agent
- Ronald Acuna Jr., RF, Atlanta Braves
- Max Scherzer, SP, New York Mets
- Kyle Tucker, RF, Houston Astros
- Rafael Devers, 3B, Boston Red Sox
- Shohei Ohtani, SP/DH, Los Angeles Angels
- Starling Marte, CF, New York Mets
- Manny Machado, 3B, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Ozzie Albies, 2B, Atlanta Braves
- Luis Roberts, CF, Chicago White Sox
Depth at Starting Pitcher
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There will inevitably be a desire to load up on starting pitchers, especially when you really need roughly eight to 10 on your team to compete. Gerrit Cole is a top-five pick, and players like Corbin Burnes and Max Scherzer are early picks.
They are the players who will dominate the Cy Young discussion and make headlines for their dominance on the mound. After that top-tier of starters, though, there is a wealth of starters who are similar in stats, any of which can help benefit your team without reaching for them.
For every Cole or Scherzer, there is a Frankie Montas of the Oakland A's, who won 13 games in 2021 and pitched 187 innings, or a Joe Musgrove out in San Diego, who won 11 games and went 181.1 innings—the exact number pitched by Cole.
Cole is the No. 1 pitcher, according to Fantasy Pros. Musgrove, who spent exactly the same amount of time on the mound, ranks No. 24.
By no means is that to suggest Musgrove is as good a pitcher as Cole, nor is it encouraging you to let the top pitcher in the draft pass you by. Cole tossed 40 more strikeouts than the San Diego starter and won five more starts. He earned that top spot.
The parity outside the top handful of pitchers, though, allows you to find a Musgrove later in the draft and still have depth on your roster. Take Scherzer or Corbin Burnes if they are available early, but do not be afraid to look at other positions and come back to find a Noah Syndergaard, Clayton Kershaw, Ian Anderson or Sonny Gray later.
Focus on Batting Average and on-Base Percentage over Power Until Later
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Heavy hitters who can deliver home runs will earn you points every time they send one out of the park, but in doing so, they prevent you from accumulating points for stolen bases or batting averages. While they may deliver more points per homer, they also strike out at a higher clip and put a definite ceiling on the number of points your fantasy squad can score.
Salvador Perez may have led the majors in home runs in 2021 with 48, but his batting average was a sub-par .273, and he struck out 170 times.
Compare that to Fantasy Pros' top-ranked player Trea Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers—who hit 28 home runs, had a batting average of .328 and an on-base percentage of .375—and it is no wonder Turner tops the overall rankings while Perez does not appear until No. 39.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is an anomaly, a rare player who is able to blast 48 home runs for an average of .311 and an on-base of .401.
Juan Soto, Bryce Harper, Starling Marte and Freddie Freeman are all more valuable players because of their ability to consistently hit and get on base as opposed to swinging for the fences every time they step to the plate. They are simply more dependable to rack up points and benefit your team.
Players like Jorge Soler, Giancarlo Stanton and Joey Gallo are players who can be found in later rounds and still deliver those home run points without risking missing out on those more complete hitters.
Sure, you absorb the aforementioned strikeout rate when acquiring those heavy bats, but you do so late, without adversely affecting your team's depth—a fair trade-off for being able to pick them up at that position in the draft.
There will be that one person in your league who lives and dies on their ability to amass home run hitters, looking at a much narrower picture rather than the grand scheme of things, and they will see their hopes of a championship diminish fairly quickly.
Those who do not and understand the value of the mix of batting average, on-base percentage and home runs will earn bragging rights by the end of the season.
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