Fun with Brandon

Yahoo! Sports – Fantasy – One-Man Mock Draft

Brandon Funston is a fantasy veteran and I have no doubts about the preseason utililty for fantasy players with time on their hand to have a One-Man Mock Draft. Thinking through the different processes each team owner would have to go through to make his optimal pick has got to be good exercise, and will certainly help you familiarize yourself with all the draftable players.

But Funston’s talk about “runs” is pretty silly. The whole concept of the run is based on teams going all emotional because they fear all the good players at a position will be taken before their next pick. So they take a lesser player in the run rather than the best available player. When you’re drafting by yourself the psychological pressure shouldn’t play a role, and if you try to simulate it you’re likely to do yourself a disservice.

The other thing he says is that he designed his mock to reflect this year’s tendencies to draft pitchers later and more hitters earlier. Needless to say, if you can pick up Jake Peavy (3rd), Rich Harden (6th) and Roy Halladay (6th) in rounds 3 to 6, the right way to play your mock draft is to do it. When there is a lot of pitching and prices fall, as seems to be happening this year (as it did last), load up.