Sunday Smoke: Doc Does a Moc(k), Part 1

Howdy, folks!

I'm hoping y'all are in at least one competitive position on this fine Sunday. I have two H2H leagues that will come down to the wire, and I have a few weeks left to see if I can elevate some of my roto squads to championship glory.

This article is typically written with the major leagues in mind, but since I'm sure some of you are in a dynasty rebuild (I went young on a few recent startups), or you may have gotten bounced in your H2H leagues (it was a fluke, I know), this week's article will focus on dynasty prospects.

Sunday Smoke - Prospects Live

Prospects LiveDarren Eisenhauer

While I’ve gained some middling notoriety online as a prospect guy, I haven't published a proper list since December...as with all outdated ranks, there are some stinkers (Painter at #1 was a choice), but my honest aggression paid off elsewhere (Thomas White, Agustin Ramirez were way ahead of the pack).

But as I mentioned on a recent episode of Prospect Live's Dynasty Podcast, the offseason is for prospects, and it's where dynasty championships are built.

I've had some unofficial mental rankings during this time, but I wanted to give a shoutout to The Welsh for inviting me to a prospect mock and forcing me to figure out where to place my chips against other minds of our little industry.

For reference, there were four total mock draft rooms to create a sense of ADP, so I'll be reflecting on how some of my picks look versus those alternate universes.

My philosophy in this one was to go for the best available player while trying to balance hitting with pitching whenever it was a close call, and finding a blend of upside with picks that have a solid MLB floor.

I came away falling in love with the prospecting game once again, as I believe ALL of my picks are firmly within the top-100, including the final pick of the draft at pick 180!

So, why should you care?

Well, this wasn't a mock draft against AI, or a few of my equally dumb buddies from a Yahoo home league. This mock features some great minds from Prospects Live (Alex Jensen, Matt Thompson), along with some fine gents from outlets like CBS, Baseball America, and other well-known publications.

In other words, this is more or less an idea of where you could expect prospects' value to land if the entire industry were all set to drop its ranks by the beginning of September!

I decided to split this one into two halves of the draft, and although the second half is arguably more fun (that's where the flag-plants come into play), the first half is critical as it shows where some of the more well-known prospects are valued heading into an offseason where you may be looking to acquire some of them.

Oh, and Doc is apparently a major Joshua Baez believer all of a sudden.

1.12 Walker Jenkins, OF, MIN

Despite his golden-boy looks, Jenkins' days of being viewed as a potential #1 overall prospect appear to be fading as far as the dynasty industry is concerned - despite the 6'3/210-pounder only being 20 years old.

While some folks are referring to Jenkins as more of a contact hitter, I'm not going to paint a well-built kid into that corner just yet. Home run game power is often the last element to show up - I just need to see him stay on the dang field.

The Twins are now infamous for their inability to keep stars healthy both in the major leagues and in the minors. At some point, can it still be attributed to bad luck? It's a tricky situation, but if Walker Jenkins can develop on the field over a full season, I think there is at least 25 home run power in the profile.

The speed appears to be sticking around longer than I thought, so we could see 15 SB or so at the major league level.

2.13 Colt Emerson, SS, SEA

Man, could you imagine if this were last year's mock? While their shine has faded a little, Jenkins and Colt Emerson are two of the best true hitters in all of the minor leagues, and the bedrock of any dynasty should be as close to "sure things" as possible.