Last Updated on February 4, 2026 9:52 am by Anthony Kates | Published: February 4, 2026

To kick off draft season, I’ve been participating in mock drafts with fantasy baseball analysts and fans from across the industry. My first of the pre-season was a 12 team, head-to-head, re-draft league. We drafted for 23 rounds (18 starters, 5 bench), with a standard 12 team setup.

Today I will share my draft board, adding in my thought process on some of my picks, plus observations on other picks throughout the draft.

Taking Ronald Acuna Jr. at ten feels like a pretty no brainer move. His full season pace for 2025 was that of a 100-30-70-15-.290 fantasy line and the steals were probably that low because of his return from the torn ACL. When know he is going to hit for power, steal tons of bases, score plenty of runs and drive in plenty, with a batting average that is more than respectable. Top-1 upside at pick 10? Sign me up. I grabbed Gunnar Henderson over Julio Rodriguez in the second mainly because I want to nab one of the top four shortstops in pretty much every draft. I was able to grab two of the top 10 fantasy players (in my eyes) and have a great base line in all five offensive categories. Second base is a waste land this year. I either want to grab one of the top three players or wait until the eighth round or later and grab a guy like Luke Keaschall or Brandon Lowe. Brice Turang is an elite producer, above average across the board, and further strengthens all five offensive categories for me. The next second baseman drafted was Nico Hoerner…in the eighth round.

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• About the Author
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Anthony Kates

I’m a husband, father and fantasy sports fanatic. I’ve been playing some fantasy sport or other since the fall of 1996, thanks to one of my childhood best friends, Brent. I enjoy watching all major sports, reading fantasy novels, watching TV shows and movies, playing video games and writing about fantasy baseball. I started at Sports Ethos in 2023, just writing one article a week and cutting my teeth in fantasy sports writing and I am now a co-lead of the Fantasy Baseball department, co-host of the Fantasy MLB Today podcast and the author of two weekly articles, our dynasty baseball rankings and a handful of random articles a year. I support the Houston Astros, Dallas Mavericks, Tennessee Titans and all things Texas Longhorns.

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