Fantasy baseball best ball draft review: MLB 12-team Classic draft at DraftKings

Baseball’s regular season is on the horizon. This means that redraft fantasy baseball leagues are also starting. While you can play many different variations of fantasy baseball, one of the less time-consuming methods is by playing best ball.

In these types of drafts, you draft your team with a deep bench, and players with the most points during the given time period are automatically slotted into your lineup. So if it is season-long, you will complete your draft and then check back in at the end of the regular season in October to see how your team did. There are no trades, no waiver wire and no setting daily lineups.

The best thing for strategy in best ball is that you can take the draft however you want. Yes, you will have some positional minimums to ensure you have to draft pitchers, but you can load up on power hitters, guys that will swipe a few bags, or pitchers you think will be competing for the Cy Young.

For me, I utilized a 12-person best ball draft at DraftKings Daily Fantasy. They have drafts as small as three players and as big as tens of thousands; it all depends on what you are looking for. Forwarning, keep an eye on the draft once you join it. The platform is great and easy to use, but the biggest downfall is that it doesn’t make a sound or let you know you are on the clock, so pay attention to avoid auto-drafting!

I went with 12 because it was the closest to a typical fantasy baseball league. The draft started once all 12 spots were filled. I was given the 10th draft pick, which was randomly assigned. It was a snake draft meaning that I picked 10th in the first round and then third in the second round.

Best picks

10. Mike Trout
15. Freddie Freeman
39. Matt Olson
63. Robbie Ray
106. Joey Meneses
111. Nestor Cortes
154. Jesse Winker
183. Josh Bell

I love the power that I took with my first two picks. I locked down a great outfielder and arguably the best first baseman in the league. Throw in my third pick of Matt Olson, and my team is going to mash baseballs this season. I got back on track with my pitchers with Ray. He didn’t recapture his Toronto dominance in his first season in the Pacific Northwest, but I think he returns to form in 2023.

Even if Cortes starts the year banged up, I think he is still a great player with upside making him a worthy selection. Meneses, Winker and Bell also project as high-power guys. Looking back, I should have maybe added some extra contact hitters along the way, but I don’t hate being heavy on the power scale.

Worst picks

58. Corey Seager
82. Christian Yelich
87. Ozzie Albies
202. Jeffrey Springs
226. Wil Myers
231. Mike Yastrzemski

I have to be honest, Seager was an auto-pick. Looked away for just too long and paid the price. I don’t hate the player or the situation in Texas, but I really needed to take a reliable pitcher here. Even if I wanted to go with a position player, Alex Bregman or Teoscar Hernandez would have been my pick over Seager here.

Yelich was fine, but it just made me feel icky. Harper and Castellanos went back-to-back in front of me, and I was scrambling. I could have gone with Hunter Greene or Steven Kwan and felt better about where my team was at this stage. Albies is ranked No. 78, so getting him at No. 87 looks like a steal. It just depends on which version of him I am getting. If he stays healthy the whole year and plays to his potential, it is a steal. If he falls to the bottom of the order and deals with injuries, it will be an average selection at best.

I realized around Round 17 that I wasn’t bringing in enough pitching. Yes, I had nasty Nestor, Framber Valdez and Robbie Ray, but all I added after that was Jose Berrios. I took Springs, who is fine but doesn’t move the needle for me as much when I could have taken Carlos Carrasco, Tyler Anderson (my next pick) or Eric Lauer.

My final two picks of Myers and Yastrzemski aren’t the best. I do think Myers has a solid year in Cincinnati playing at Great American “Small” Park. He is ranked No. 406, and I took him at No. 226. You likely can get a better outfielder here, or if you don’t take someone like Berrios earlier and take an outfielder, then I could have had Nathan Eovaldi in this spot. With my last pick, I wish I would have taken someone that could play both infield and outfield as a utility player for lineup versatility.

My team

IF

Freddie Freeman, Los Angeles Dodgers
Matt Olson, Atlanta Braves
Corey Seager, Texas Rangers
Ozzie Albies, Atlanta Braves
Joey Meneses, Washington Nationals
Max Muncy, Los Angeles Dodgers
Anthony Rendon, Los Angeles Angels
Josh Bell, Cleveland Guardians

OF

Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels
Christian Yelich, Milwaukee Brewers
Cody Bellinger, Chicago Cubs
Jesse Winker, Milwaukee Brewers
Wil Myers, Cincinnati Reds
Mike Yastrzemski, San Francisco Giants

Pitchers

Framber Valdez, Houston Astros
Robbie Ray, Seattle Mariners
Nestor Cortes, New York Yankees
Jose Berrios, Toronto Blue Jays
Jeffrey Springs, Tampa Bay Rays
Tyler Anderson, Los Angeles Angels