The 2026 MLB season is almost here and that means you’re likely prepping for your fantasy baseball draft. One of the best ways to prepare is to do as many mock drafts as possible. Of course, sometimes it’s tough to find an accurate representation of your league settings by using the public mock draft lobby.
Not to fear! If you’re a Yahoo Fantasy+ subscriber, you have access to the Instant Mock Draft tool, allowing you to practice your draft in seconds. You can test different strategies, pick from various draft slots and experiment with roster construction as many times as you want, anytime, instantly. Now is a great time to subscribe to Yahoo Fantasy+, so you can use the wealth of tools for your draft prep.
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In this series, we’re going to be using the Instant Mock Draft tool to pick from each of the 12 slots in a 12-team fantasy baseball league. In this piece, we’ll be drafting from the No. 7 overall pick.
I’m not revealing my strategy up here — because it’ll give away my first pick.
More Mock Drafts
Note: We’re using Yahoo’s default points league settings for these mock drafts.
Full Roster
C: Cal Raleigh, Mariners
1B: Bryce Harper, Phillies
2B: Brice Turang, Brewers
SS: Willy Adames, Giants
3B: Austin Riley, Braves
OF: Randy Arozarena, Mariners
OF: Seiya Suzuki, Cubs
OF: Jo Adell, Angels
UTIL: Daulton Varsho, Blue Jays
UTIL: Spencer Torkelson, Tigers
SP: Paul Skenes, Pirates
SP: Luis Castillo, Mariners
RP: Raisel Iglesias, Braves
RP: Daniel Palencia, Cubs
P: Ryan Pepiot, Rays
P: Andrew Abbott, Reds
P: Shane Baz, Orioles
P: Ryan Weathers, Yankees
Bench: Kyle Teel, White Sox
Bench: Willi Castro, Rockies
Bench: Matt Wallner, Twins
Bench: Jake Cronenworth, Padres
Bench: Justin Verlander, Tigers
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STRATEGY REVEAL! It was HeroSP.
I recently read an article by Chris Towers about the starting pitcher dead zone. I believe it won him an award, so may be worth checking out. Anyway, it talks about how, as a draft progresses, the value of starting pitchers slowly declines until things flatten out. The idea is to take a high-end starter early in the draft and then employ a “HeroSP” approach, similar to a HeroRB strategy in fantasy football. So I took a pitcher in the first round and didn’t think about the pitcher position until the 10th round.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball league for the 2026 MLB season]
As you can see, we landed on Paul Skenes as our “hero” in this exercise. Tigers SP Tarik Skubal, whom I’ve dodged in every mock so far, was already off the board when I came up at No. 7. So it was between Skenes and Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet. The Pirates should be a bit better this season, which could lead to a few more wins for Skenes. I don’t think you can really go wrong with any of that trio as your top arm.
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Investing in bats early: After we nabbed Skenes, it was all offense until the later rounds. Raleigh fell to me in the second round and hadn’t had the opportunity to draft him yet in this series. Most projections have him between 34-45 HRs this season. But what if there’s a world where he doesn’t regress much? If that’s the case, I’ll buy the potential that Raleigh duplicates — or comes close to — the season he had in 2025. If that’s the case, you’re getting first-round value after the fact.
I also waited a bit on outfield (not by design) but it worked out fine by me. The position is still pretty deep and you’re going to be able to find power sources in the later rounds. We were able to get a solid group of Arozarena, Suzuki and Adell, players I’ve been targeting frequently. Wallner regressed in 2025 but has upside coming off the bench.
Building out my staff: Okay, back to the pitcher strategy. So my first SP pick after Skenes was Castillo in the 10th round. I’ve pubbed my colleagues quite a bit in this series but we can never link out too much — Fred Zinkie has Castillo as one of his safest picks based in a 10-team draft. This is for a 12-team league but what does that matter in this context? “According to Relative Range data via Yahoo Fantasy Plus, Castillo is the 27th-safest starter in baseball,” writes Zinkie.
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I was also able to grab a few reliable closers in Iglesias and Palencia. The Braves closer has at least 29 saves in three straight seasons. Palencia will get the first crack at closing on what should be a good Cubs squad. I’ll reiterate that you should always be proactive on the waiver wire when it comes to relief pitching. There will almost certainly be relievers who emerge due to opportunities injuries or poor performance present, who can help you out.
Let’s look at the rest of the SP staff. Abbott is a polarizing name this season. With Hunter Greene sidelined for up to four months after elbow surgery, Abbott is the de facto ace for Cincinnati. He’s entering his prime years and is coming off his best MLB season with a 2.87 ERA and 5.6 WAR, finishing top-10 in NL Cy Young voting. As a groundball pitcher, he isn’t going to miss many bats, so the K numbers aren’t ideal. While his ERA should go up, you aren’t going to find many Opening Day starters this late in your draft.
Lastly, we took a flier on the Verlander farewell tour. The future Hall of Famer should give everything he’s got at 43 years old in what should be his final MLB season. He pitched well last year for the Giants and could pick up some more wins on a better Detroit team. Verlander was my last pick, so you’re basically getting him for free. Why not?
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Takeaways with drafting No. 7: In points formats, I really like this approach of waiting on SP. Maybe it isn’t going full ZeroSP or HeroSP, but some iteration where you’re not spending too much of your high draft capital on the position. Obviously, there’s positional scarcity but based on projections, pitching is less valuable. But if you’re going to miss out on one of the top bats (Judge, Ohtani, Soto, Witt), then it makes sense to shift gears to SP in the first round. There won’t be as much of a difference between that second tier of bats.