Every week on Wednesday on The Drive on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (7 PM EDT), Kyle Elfrink and I host mock drafts live on air (if you want to participate check out the @SiriusXMFantasy and @BaseballGuys Twitter accounts on Wednesday's). We change up the format each week, but for the sake of the first draft of the 2015 season we simply drafted for a 12-team mixed league. There were no reserve rounds, just don't have time for it on the show, so we just rostered 23 players and that was it (14 hitters, nine pitchers). Standard 5x5 scoring as well.

Now, honestly, while I'm on the radio and tweeting I'm not slavishly following my rankings while participating in the draft. I'm doing a little of this and that, so I can't be 100 percent involved in the minutiae of a draft. As a result I often try new approaches and see what happens. If I try to build around my infield, do I like what I see? What if I go all in and roster as many uber-talents in the outfield as I can at the top? If I go pitching early how does my team turn out? All things I have done at one time or another. But, in the current draft I did something most of you likely have never attempted. I simply didn't draft a pitcher until I had my hitters. One caveat. I didn't take all of my 14 hitters before I rostered a pitcher. I actually "only" took 13 hitters before I rostered my first arm as my second catcher was taken in round 23. 

With everyone screaming you have to take pitching early in a draft, what happens when you don't take any pitching early, or early-ish, or at all... how does that team turn out? Let's find out.

Once more... 

I rostered hitters round 1-13. Then in round 23 I selected my backup catcher.
I rostered my nine pitchers rounds 14-22. 

C: Evan Gattis, John Jaso
1B: Miguel Cabrera
2B: Brian Dozier - Player Profile
3B: Chris Davis - Player Profile
SS: Javier Baez
MI/CI: Dustin Pedroia, Anthony Rizzo
OF: Corey Dickerson, Starling Marte, Shin-Soo Choo, Gregory Polanco, Adam Eaton
UT: Desmond Jennings

PITCHING: Zack Wheeler, Ian Kennedy, Fernando Rodney Jered Weaver, Jose Quintana, Addison Reed, Neftali Feliz, Kenneth Giles, Danny Salazar

Look at that offense. You can agree or disagree with me on certain players, but you have to admit that's a pretty rock star group. I would take that crew into battle in any league knowing full well that I would be dominating the offensive side of the game. It's not a shock since all I did was roster batters. The real question is what happened with my pitching staff? Here are my thoughts.

Wheeler - Had a strikeout per inning last season and owns a 3.50 ERA through 285.1 career innings. If he cuts the walks (3.84 per nine) he takes a huge step forward in '15.

Kennedy - Gets very little respect. Last season he had a 3.63 ERA and 207 punchouts. Over the past five years he's made at least 31 starts each season and three of the past four years he's had 185 strikeouts. 

Rodney - Warts an all, Fernando gets the job done with at least 37 saves each of the past three seasons. 

Weaver - Had a high, for him, set of ratios in 2014 (3.59 ERA, 1.21 WHIP). He's won 18 games in three of four seasons and has a 3.28 ERA and 1.15 WHIP for his career. 

Quintana - Three solid big league seasons with ample growth the last two seasons. He will be someone folks are talking about in 2016. Expect an impressive season in 2015. 

Reed - Minor arm woes in spring causing some concern. No panic at this point with the D'backs and let's not forget that he has at least 29 saves each of the past three seasons or that he had a 10.47 K/9 and 4.60 K/BB ratio last year. 

Feliz - Lost some velocity in his return last season, and constant injuries make him a somewhat dicey play. Still, as my third closer, he's well worth investing in.

Giles - At some point Jonathan Papelbon is dealt and Giles will almost certainly become the closer. Could have an impact like that of Mark Melancon last year when Jason Grilli went down for the Pirates.  

Salazar - He's way better than you likely think. Check out his Player Profile.


I would bet most reading this think my pitching staff is awful. I disagree. Kennedy, Wheeler and Weaver, if healthy, form a solid if unspectacular trio. While Rodney and Reed don't impress, when you add in Feliz you have to respect that in a 12 team league I've got three closers, not to mention one of the best setup arms in baseball in Giles who has a strong chance to close for a significant portion of the 2015 season. There's also this. If this draft had gone into the reserve rounds, you had bet I would have focused on adding more arms to bolster my squad and that staff would have looked even better.

The staff isn't sexy, and many of you probably don't like it at all. But, and I'm being honest here (it's  the only way I know to be): I would willingly take this team into battle in a league that counted in 2015.


To view THE RESULTS of the draft, duh, just click on the proceeding link.

GET YOUR COPY OF THE 2015 FANTASY ALARM BASEBALL DRAFT GUIDE NOW --- AND FOR FREE!

 

NOTE: You can win a league without taking pitching early. Last year I won the SiriusXM Experts league and my first starting pitcher wasn't taken until the 11th round (for more read the report).