2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Prep: Latest Rotisserie mock draft emphasizes the need for speed

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Can we for once have a mock draft where Mike Trout goes No. 1 overall?

That's the consensus, obviously, for the player universally regarded as the best in the game since his rookie 2012 season. Mookie Betts had a season of Trout-level production last year, making him the 1b to Trout's 1a, but there isn't a great argument for taking him instead of Trout, is there? Well, not everyone feels the same way.

Betts over Trout actually wasn't the weirdest pick of Round 1, though. For much of the offseason, the debate over who should go third overall has focused on two players: Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor. So to see one of them go fifth overall was an affront to my sensibilities.

Trea Turner was the player who went out of turn, and seeing him go fourth overall in the standard Rotisserie format, which heavily rewards stolen bases, wouldn't have been so odd a year ago. Of course, we were also thinking he might have 70-steal potential at that point. He stole 43 bases in 162 games last year.

Still, the fact some Fantasy Baseball experts consider him deserving of a top-five pick says a lot about the scarcity of stolen bases in today's game. My hope that Jose Altuve rebounds with 30 or so after playing much of last year with a fractured kneecap had me pushing to grab him eighth overall, higher than I actually rank him. Stolen bases are the reason Ronald Acuna sometimes gets the call in Round 1 despite a limited track record. It's why Adalberto Mondesi is worth an early-round gamble (Round 4 again) and Garrett Hampson gets drafted in Round 12 even though it's not so clear he has a full-time job. They're a big deal.

Incidentally, this was the first draft in which I made use of my positional Tiers for 2019, which illuminated for me the need to fill first base and second base early. I already mentioned I took Altuve in Round 1. Well, pairing him with Paul Goldschmidt in Round 2 seems like an ideal way to start the draft for those who don't have one of the first four picks. Scooter Gennett being available for me in Round 6 is something I don't expect to happen again, but I didn't mind taking a little batting average to counterbalance my Khris Davis pick three rounds earlier.

The drafting of closers was a little more orderly in this one, helped by the Rangers, Angels and Cardinals clarifying their ninth-inning situations in the days leading up to it. The Archie Bradley and Corey Knebel picks seemed a little too confident for Round 14, and it's worth noting both Greg Holland and Jeremy Jeffress both went later in the draft.

So who was making these picks? Only my bestest of friends:

1 - Heath Cummings, CBS Sports (@heathcummingssr)  
2 - Chris Towers, CBS Sports (@CTowersCBS)
3 - Phil Ponebshek, Patton & Company
4 - Tim McLeod, Patton & Company
5 - B_Don, Razzball (@DitkaSausagePod)
6 - Al Melchior, RotoGraphs (@almelchiorBB)
7 - Kevin Jebens, Baseball Prospectus (@KevinJebens)
8 - Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
9 - Jeff Zimmerman, RotoGraphs (@jeffwzimmerman)
10 - Adam Aizer, CBS Sports (@AdamAizer)
11 - Chris Mitchell, Fantrax (@CJMitch73)
12 - Matt Williams, Fake Teams/Turn Two Podcast (@MattWi77iams)  

And now, the results ...

So which Fantasy Baseball sleepers should you snatch in your draft? And which undervalued pitchers can help you win a championship? Visit SportsLine now to get Fantasy Baseball rankings for every single position, all from the model that called Scooter Gennett's huge breakout last season, and find out.