One of the best ways to prepare for your fantasy baseball season is to do some mock drafts, which are essentially practice drafts that you can do for free anytime on ESPN.
Because of the delay to the 2020 season, mock drafting can be taken to the next level. Here are some tips so you're more than passing time when mocking.
Find a group of serious drafters
Obviously, mock drafting
Try different strategies
This is an obvious approach, but with more time to experiment, use even more out-of-the-box thinking when assembling your roster. Instead of drafting one starting pitcher earlier than normal, double down with a pair of aces and determine the quality of offense you can build around them. If you usually take an elite arm early, wait a few rounds before drafting one.
Holding off on closers, especially in 10- and 12-team mixed leagues, is commonplace. See what happens when you double-tap saves in the early to mid-rounds.
If you generally wait on a catcher, grab J.T. Realmuto early and see if that weakens the rest of your roster. In two-catcher leagues, mix it up: Pick a good one and then wait awhile for the second; grab a couple of middle-tier options; use two of your final picks on backstops.
One of the most important elements of draft preparation is the handling of stolen bases. Try drafting players with limited speed early, then decide when it's time to pick someone like Mallex Smith for balance. Did you wait too long and get sniped? Did you cave too soon to make sure you didn't miss out? Alternatively, start your team with a stolen base specialist or two. Are you able to find enough power the rest of the way?
Navigate uncharted waters
The idea is to get out of your comfort zone. Falling into a routine, be it with players or a strategy, restricts research, in turn limiting options. Use mock drafting to learn the player pool inside and out so you're prepared for whatever the room gives you.
We all have our pet players. Be it in previous mocks or real leagues, there are probably a few names populating multiple rosters in your cache. Deploy some discipline and eschew selecting them, even if you cringe at how far they've fallen. Not only are you forced to consider other players when you would normally take your "binkie," but you may get a better feel for how the market ranks the player.
Employing non-conventional strategies, as discussed previously, also helps get you off course so that you must tack wisely through choppy waters before returning to smooth sailing.
Win the league, not the draft
This is especially directed to "target drafters," or those constantly checking the real-time standings. Target drafters have a preset goal in each category, track each in real time and do their best to eclipse the objective. Others toggle to the standings after each pick or at the end of a round to see their stead, often plotting their next selection to make up the most points. The pros and cons of this approach is a story for another day.
For now, try this. Go through an entire draft blind. Don't track stats and refrain from peeking at the standings. When it's over, before succumbing to temptation, give your roster an honest appraisal. Are you better set up than usual to win the league, assuming a season's worth of trades, pickups and in-season roster management? Maybe you lack steals, but you sense ample excess power that will allow you to make up the steals via trade. Perhaps you're short on saves but are confident they'll be available on the waiver wire.
It's OK to check out the standings. Just remember, the idea is to win the league, not the draft.
Expand your horizons
Earlier, I suggested to mock in the same style of your regular league(s). While that's paramount, this is the perfect time to explore other formats or scoring systems. Is there a push in your league to add more teams or change the categories? Give those different formats a shot. Is it more fun or challenging? Maybe play around with a change in roster construction, adding a second catcher or cutting down to one, converting that roster spot to another utility player.
Another approach is completely changing scoring systems. Are you in a points league and always wanted to give rotisserie a shot or vice versa? Take the time to prep for the new format and try it out.
Draft position
One of the many advantages to having extra time to mock is the ability to do all the above from multiple draft positions. Here are some pointers, depending how your league runs:
Predetermined
If you know where you'll be drafting in your real league, arrange it so you mock from the same spot. Granted, the flow will be different, but if you undergo multiple mocks from the same starting point, you can try different strategies and get an idea of which approaches may work better and which approaches result in weaker rosters.
If embracing this and undergoing several trials, be sure to mix up whom you take. The idea is to be prepared for as many pathways as possible. That is, you don't want to be blindsided if someone else scoops your target, with Plan B at the ready.
Random or choose your spot
Either way, mix it up. Do multiple mocks with different starting points. This way you're ready for any eventuality. If you're allowed to choose, determine where you're most comfortable.
Spoiler alert: Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to undertake this exact exercise, setting up and running 10 mocks on the ESPN platform, using the standard ESPN rules. I'll start each at a different draft spot then follow up with another piece, sharing observations. The focus will be which draft spots I like best, how pitching plays out from each spot, and if certain players of interest were better picks from one area or another.
If you'd like to be part of this project, follow me on Twitter @ToddZola. I'll be posting instructions on how to sign up for the mocks. Of course, I'll be happy to answer questions in the chat -- though beware, it'll take some doing to get me off my game.