Fantasy Baseball Today - Early Rounds of Our First 2026 Mock Draft! (11/13 Fantasy Baseball podcast)
Episode Date: November 14, 2025Juan Soto over Bobby Witt Jr. in 2026? Cal Raleigh and Nick Kurtz are now in the second round. How early should Junior Caminero go? Pete Crow-Armstrong and James Wood still wind up in the third round ...despite their rough second halves. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Let's recap the early rounds of our first mock draft for 2026.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome in to FBT Express on Friday, November 14th.
I am Frank Staple joined by Scott White.
And let's take a look at our first mock draft 12-team Roto.
I was picking fifth.
Scott was picking 10th.
We'll take a look at the early rounds here.
And I will pull up the draft board, the draft list for those watching on YouTube as well.
Scott, the top five picks.
no surprise here really in terms of the players drafted we had otani judge Soto j ram jrams and uh bobby whit
junior but i guess bobby would going fifth of the five is a bit of a surprise yeah mild surprise
uh i kind of view these first five picks as if there's a one and one a between otani and judge i actually
have judge first but you know it could go either way and then uh the next three are kind of like a
3A and 3B.
I do have Bobby Witt as the three, the first of them,
because I feel like we kind of saw his worst case scenario
or close to it anyway in 2025.
Clearly the best batting average bet of the three.
And I think the most likely to be a plus in all five categories,
maybe in the entire player pool,
the most likely to be a plus in all five categories is Bobby Witt.
So I'll take him third,
but I don't really blame anyone
if they prefer Soto and Ramirez instead.
Like I said, 3.3A, 3B for me.
All right, 6 through 12, we had Ellie Dela Cruz,
Corbyn Carol, Kyle Tucker, Ronald Ocuna Jr.,
Terrick Scouble, Garcrochet, and Julio Rodriguez.
Ellie Dela Cruz, maybe a touch high
based on our early rankings here on the podcast.
And Terik Scobel, Scott, 10th overall to you,
I'm not used to you drafting a pitcher in the first round.
No, no, I don't normally.
It's been a few years since I've been willing to pay the premium for the highest in starting pitcher,
the one that's going to cost you, in this case a first round pick.
But every year the player pool is a little different.
And I think what we're looking at with this year's player pool is a very clear top three at starting pitcher with scuba crochet and the one who slipped around two, Paul Skeins.
They are, I think, so clearly ahead of the next tier at starting pitcher,
I'm not even sure I'd draft from that next tier until like round four.
Clear advantage.
They've proven their durability.
And just in terms of what they're going to provide statistically,
so far ahead that I'm willing to take on the inherent risk of drafting a pitcher so early.
I mean, the main reason I don't like doing it is because they're so injury prone.
and so volatile relative to the hitters.
But, you know, hitters go wrong sometimes too.
I think the advantage that these particular starting pitchers
that trio gives you this year justifies the added risk.
All right, we are into round two.
And the top half of this round, we saw Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Paul Skeens,
Francisco Lindor went to you, then Cal Raleigh, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Nick Kurtz.
So two names that might stand out here, we are not used to.
to seeing them this early in drafts.
The big dumper, Cal Raleigh,
going at pick 13, 14, 15, 16,
and then Nick Kurtz at pick 18.
Big sluggers this past season.
Scott, are you all right with these guys going in the early
to mid-second round? Cal Raleigh, Nick Kurtz.
Well, Cal Raleigh went 16th,
and I rank him 16th.
Boom.
Nick Kurtz went 18th, and I rank him 17th.
So I guess I am okay with them going where they went.
Now, Vladimir Guerrero was taken ahead of him.
I have Vladimir Guerrero quite a bit behind.
That's probably the biggest eyebrow razor to me.
He's more like a late second rounder, certainly behind Kurtz,
because his home run production for a non-based dealer really isn't,
it wasn't this past year where he wanted to be for Vladimir Guerrero.
And, you know, you look at 2023.
He hit just 26 home runs that year.
So it's been a recurring problem for Guerrero.
But as for Raleigh and Kurtz, you know, there's some downside risk.
Obviously, they could take a step back.
Cal Raleigh almost has to, given that he hit a dozen more home runs than any other catcher ever.
But let's say he regresses from 60 to 48.
That's still probably worth the second round pick, getting that from a catcher.
So there's a lot of regression built into even taking him 16.
overall.
It could not work out, but, you know, that is true for anyone else I think you could take
at this point.
Yeah, I mean, who do you want to name?
Vladimir Guerrero, like I said, he didn't work out taking him where you took him last
year and people are still taking him at that spot anyway.
Yeah, and the massive postseason big world series obviously helped Fly Jr.
We did this draft two weeks ago while the World Series was going on.
Perhaps that was a little bit influential on the Vlad Jr. pick there as well.
Let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this.
Welcome back in, FBT Express, taking a look at the early rounds of our first mock draft for 2026.
We left off with Nick Kurtz at pick 18 there.
And that was followed up by Gunner Henderson, Jackson Trio, Ketel Marte, Junior Camerero, Kyle Schwerber, and Trey Turner.
So, Junior Camerero, Scott, obviously we talked about him a lot this year.
You wrote a song about him.
We were very excited about him.
People need to get used to seeing him in the second round.
And you know what?
Might even surprise people more.
Pick 22 in this draft,
the early ADP is actually closer to like 14, 15.
So it's more like a early second rounder on Junior Camerro.
Yeah, yeah, it is.
And I think it makes sense because you look at the state of third base right now.
And here you have a 21-year-old who just hit 45 home runs.
honestly, Junior Cominero's technically a sophomore season, it went far beyond anything any of us could have expected for him.
And there is probably the biggest element of uncertainty is that he's going from that spring training facility where the race were playing their home games in 2025, back to Tropicana Field, which isn't going to be as hitter-friendly of an environment.
Sometimes there have been complaints over the years about the batter's eye there, though not everybody seemed.
to be so impacted by that.
So that would be the biggest fear of
Cominero taking a step back.
But if you want a stud third baseman
and you want someone
who, you know,
for doing what he did at 21,
you kind of wonder just
what the final upside looks like.
It's the ultimate ceiling for Common Arrow.
I can understand taking him in round two.
And in fact, I would too.
I believe I have him in my own rankings just behind Nick Kurt's 18th overall.
All right, let's move on to round three where we saw Jazz Chisholm, P. Crowe Armstrong, P. Alonzo, James Wood, Yordon Alvarez, and Logan Gilbert.
So Gilbert is the SP4 here at pick 30. That means there was a 16 pick gap between pitchers with Paul Skeens at 14 and then Logan Gilbert as the fourth pitcher off the board at pick 30 there.
I think that's a bit surprising.
Pete Crow Armstrong and James Woods got two guys that scuffled to the finish line here,
really rough second halves,
yet they still find themselves in the early third round.
Do you think that makes sense?
Yeah, I do think it makes sense if you're not over-emphasizing their second half.
So in season, we made the mistake of over-emphasizing their first half, right?
Now in the off-season, you can make the mistake of over-emphasizing the second half.
Every season has peaks and valleys.
And generally speaking, you're better off looking at the full season line.
And having that is the baseline expectation.
And the full season line for both Pete Crow Armstrong and James Wood is worth at least a third round pick.
Plus they're young.
They may still have growth ahead of them.
I'd be worried if we were investing like an early second round pick in them,
passing up other maybe safer options.
but here early in round three,
they kind of form the barrier between the surefire early round hitters
and then those that pretty clearly don't have that kind of upside.
So Crowe Armstrong would I think do have that kind of upside,
a little riskier.
So it makes sense that they form that barrier there.
And Jordan Alvarez, who's going a couple of picks behind them, obviously.
He is, he slipped to round three more for health,
but it's the same sort of thing. He has that early round upside just with a little more risk.
The back half of round three we saw Muki Betz, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Christopher Sanchez, Matt Olson,
Bryce Harper, and Raphael Devers. If you want to hear more about this draft, then you can do so
on our full-late podcast, Fantasy Baseball Day. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or anywhere else
podcasts are found. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball Today Express, and we will be back again
next week. Bye-bye.
Mount Podcasts.