Round 1, Pick 7: Manny Machado (3B/SS-BAL)
Manny Machado is the best SS eligible player in fantasy. He’s right near the top of the 3b heap as well. He’s hit over 35 bombs and scored over 100 runs for two consecutive seasons. Yet there are some concerns over what you’re getting here.
The 24-year-old Oriole is one year removed from a 20 steal season but stole 0-in-3 attempts in 2016. That kind of regression is something that catches fantasy owners eyes.
Also, Machado drove weekly league owners crazy last year with his inconsistency. Check out his June/July splits below:
| Monthly | HR | R | RBI | SB | AVG |
| Jun | 5 | 20 | 21 | 0 | .370 |
| Jul | 4 | 13 | 8 | 0 | .204 |
Machado is a great real life and fantasy baseball player. It just seems like he should be even better. For that reason, you may want to wait until around the #10 pick to draft him in 2016.
Round 1, Pick 8: Paul Goldschmidt (1B-ARZ)
Paul Goldschmidt is a solid, consistent performer that fantasy owners can plug into their lineup every day or week and forget about. That’s exactly what you want from your first round pick
Draft him and at the end of the year look up. You’ll either the 25 homer .300, 30 steal Goldschmidt or the 36 homer .320 20 steal Goldie. Either one is awesome.
There are six or seven really good first baseman this year. Owners looking for value in every pick can probably wait until the second or third round to get one with a better return on investment than Paul Goldschmidt. However, if you’re an owner who prefers a sure thing, draft Goldie, pencil him in for 30/20 100/100 or 20/30 100/100 and start thinking about your second round pick.
