When entering your 2017 fantasy baseball draft, remember to stay away from these five players. They’ll destroy your entire season.

Before I get started on this list, just remember something: there is a reason why these players are listed. It comes down to value. A lot of it has to do where these players are being drafted and who they are being drafted in front of.

Any player can be valuable on your team; it just matters on where you drafted them. There will always be a situation in a draft where someone drafts a player and immediately regret it because there are other players on the board who are better.

Do not draft a player early in the draft because of the position they play.

Too many players will reach for a closer or a second baseman because they think the position isn’t equipped with solid depth. You can always find depth in drafts. Be patient and draft the best available players.

Before your drafts, I would highly recommend doing a bunch of mock drafts so that this problem doesn’t happen to you. You can practice through mock drafts on every site that offers fantasy baseball. Most of you know where your draft position will be and when you sign up for a mock draft you can choose what number you want in the draft (I would pick the same number you have in your draft coming up).

Having said that, it will be almost impossible to draft your exact players on your team. What I do in this situation is, if I kept, for example, two outfields and two start pitchers, in my draft, for my first four picks, I would draft two outfielders and two start pitchers. Your mock picks should resemble the same caliber players as your keepers and then when round five comes, you can start your real draft.

Most keepers are going to be going in the top four or five rounds and this is one of the ways that I help myself prepare for my upcoming drafts. The more mock drafts you execute, the better. Always over-prepare for your drafts.

At the end of every mock draft, go back and see where the players were drafted and make adjustments to the way you draft your team. Let me know who I got wrong on the list or some players that you are looking to avoid this year.

Here’s the list of five players to stay clear of in your fantasy baseball drafts this season:

Closers

I know I’m cheating here because this isn’t technically a player, but closers are always drafted way too high in every draft.

There are very few closer who, year in and year out, you can depend on. Closers start going in rounds nine or 10 and for a one or two category player, that is way too high. Saves are very unpredictable and closers lose their job often during the long MLB season.

You can find good value closers late in the draft or during the year because of an injury or poor performance. Instead of being one of the first to draft a closer, just wait. Being the first to draft a closer is like being the first guy to draft a defense or kicker in fantasy football. Don’t be that guy. You can draft players such as

Don’t be that guy. You can draft players such as

You can draft players such as Aaron Sanchez, Miguel Sano and Gary Sanchez instead. Again, be patient for when it comes to drafting a closer this year.

Brian Dozier

Projected to be drafted as the fifth second basemen

Brian Dozier is going to be on every “do not draft” list that you read this year. It’s not because he’s not a good player, rather that he’ll be drafted way too early in drafts.

Flying off the board as the fifth second basemen is just way too risky. You can draft a second baseman later in the draft who can provide value just as clean.

I would much rather wait for players such as Rougned Odor (who you can draft two or three rounds later) or Dee Gordon (who you can draft multiple rounds later). Odor and Gordon will give you tremendous upside and if you don’t draft Dozier you can draft players going around the same round such as Jake Arrieta or Giancarlo Stanton.

Arrieta can finish as the No. 1 starting pitcher and Stanton can lead the league in home runs and RBIs if he stays healthy. Don’t reach on drafting Brian Dozier this year.

Andrew McCutchen

Projected to be drafted as the 20th outfielder

Andrew McCutchen’s numbers took a hit last year and his expectations were too high going into last season. The home runs stayed around the same but the runs, RBIs, SB and average all took a big hit. 2016 was the first year in his career where he didn’t steal double digit bases and his batting average was 30 points lower than it has ever been in his career.

What this tells me is he is losing speed which is hurting his average, stolen bases and run-scoring categories. He was never an elite source of home runs (31 was his career high) and if he isn’t producing great numbers in the other categories, he isn’t worth the risk as the 20th outfielder.

He is projected to be drafted ahead of players such as Mark Trumbo and Gerrit Cole, who both can be atop or near the top at their positions by season’s end. If you have McCutchen, look to move him now.

Felix Hernández

Projected to be drafted as the 33rd starting pitcher

The 2010 AL Cy Young award winner has been throwing a lot of innings in his career and it is starting to take a toll on his body. He was 19-years-old when he made his big league debut in 2005. Since 2007, he has thrown 190+ innings in every year, except for last year.

Last year he fell off of a cliff, throwing only 153 innings and the number that stands out the most is the strikeouts. He only had 122.

This is the second straight year where his strikeout numbers have gone down. When you draft King Felix you do it for the strikeout totals.

Stay away from King Felix this year, he is on a downward trend and it is better to be a year early on getting off of a player than a year late.

Jay Bruce

Projected to be 49th outfielder taken in drafts

As many Mets fans know, this guy really isn’t that good.

He hit much better at home than on the road with the Reds. In 50 games for the Mets last year he hit .219 with 14 runs scored, eight home runs and 19 RBIs. Those numbers are bad any way you look at it. He shouldn’t be drafted as a starting outfielder in 10 or 12 team leagues.

Bruce is more of a name now in fantasy leagues and he needs to start being drafted for his production and not his name. He is being projected to be drafted over players such as Jonathan Schoop, Evan Gattis and Yasiel Puig. All three of those players are more talented, will put up better numbers and have much higher upside.

Stay away from Bruce this year and you will thank me during the season.