Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft Report: Who To Target/Avoid Rounds 10-12

Here marks the beginning of quite possibly the most important part of your draft and the reason you want to get a few mock drafts under your belt before game time. Everyone knows who to pick in the first five rounds, and there are a lot less misses. But now that you’ve filled some spots in the starting roster, it’s time to start identifying specific players even more so than at the beginning. You should go over the ADP report at Mock Draft Central and identify a player for each round that you like, pretty much what we’ve been doing this entire time. The difference is here your ability to predict the future becomes hugely important, as you will be trying to identify guys who are going to break out for their first big year. Now you separate the men from the boys. All the hard work you put into researching during the preseason will really pay off starting at this point. So let’s get psychic people.

Round 10

Target: Jose Lopez. ADP: 122.62

My first reaction to the Chone Figgens trade was: “Ahhhh!!!! Whose batting third for the Mariners?!?!?” While I’ve seen Franklin Gutierrez in the three spot in some places and Milton Bradley manning the spot so far in spring training, I think Lopez will end up batting there behind the massive on-base percentages of Ichiro and Figgens. My dyslexic Aunt Sheila could hit 80 RBIs with that many scoring opportunities. Plus his power numbers improved without an abnormally high HR/FB ratio. His batting average went down but so did his BaBIP so I’m expecting something more like a .290 average next year. Combine that with over 20 home runs and 100 RBIs and you got yourself a great value in the 10^th round.

Avoid: Alex Rios. ADP: 119.42

Alex Rios is one of those guys that just isn’t really good at baseball anymore, and for some reason his trade to the White Sox amplified that. After putting up very mediocre stats in Toronto the first 108 games of the season (52/14/64/.268), he was moved to the windy city and proceeded to bat an unbelievable .199 and record only nine RBIs in 146 at bats. Aunt Sheila could definitely bat .199. Some are predicting a rebound and I don’t completely doubt that, but his declining batting average and run totals are not worth the risk considering his current track record with his new ball club.

See rounds 11 and 12 here