2023 Fantasy Baseball Mock Draft 3.0: Where do you pick Shohei Ohtani?

The Yahoo fantasy baseball analysts — Andy Behrens, Scott Pianowski and Dalton Del Don — took part in a three-round mock draft. Each analyst gets four picks in the first round (to represent a 12-team league). You can see the first-round mock here and the second-round mock here.

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Now, on to the picks:

Round 1, Pick 1: Ronald Acuña Jr., OF, Atlanta Braves

Given his age and power/speed upside, Acuna remains comfortably atop my fantasy board. — Del Don

Round 1, Pick 2: Trea Turner, SS, Philadelphia Phillies

Turner actually saw a downgrade in parks moving away from Dodger Stadium but remains in a terrific situation in Philadelphia. — Del Don

Round 1, Pick 3: Julio Rodriguez, OF, Seattle Mariners

I'm closer to moving him up than down. Still just 22, J-Rod is probably the current favorite to be 2024's top fantasy pick. — Del Don

Round 1, Pick 4: Aaron Judge, OF, New York Yankees

Even with inevitable regression and more games missed, Judge shouldn't fall further than this. — Del Don

Round 1, Pick 5: Jose Ramirez, 3B, Cleveland Guardians

Five-category stat grabber who covers a thin position. — Pianowski

Round 1, Pick 6: Kyle Tucker, OF, Houston Astros

Upside is AL MVP, though check on the ankle injury before committing. — Pianowski

Round 1, Pick 7: Mookie Betts, OF, Los Angeles Dodgers

More floor than upside at this point, but I like picks unlikely to fail. — Pianowski

Round 1, Pick 8: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B, Toronto Blue Jays

Fences coming in, and the Vlad Jr. arrow is still pointed up. You want shares of this destination offense. — Pianowski

Round 1, Pick 9: Shohei Ohtani, UTIL, Los Angeles Angels

This is the ideal spot from which to land both the hitter and pitcher versions of Ohtani, so we'll see if that works out. Ohtani the batter has already given us a 46/26 season and the new shift rules should help him. — Behrens

Round 1, Pick 10: Bo Bichette, SS, Toronto Blue Jays

He's a five-category hitter entering his age-25 season. Bichette is a year removed from going 121-29-102-25-.298. — Behrens

Round 1, Pick 11: Yordan Alvarez, OF, Houston Astros

You shouldn't need a hard sell on a guy who offers average, run production and top-of-the-charts power. Alvarez is getting healthy just in time for Opening Day. — Behrens

Round 1, Pick 12: Juan Soto, OF, San Diego Padres

Soto is lightly dinged at the moment, a clear concern. But he also might just be the best hitter in the game. — Behrens

Round 2, Pick 13: Manny Machado, 3B, San Diego Padres

When the draft gives you the chance to take Pocket Padres at the top, I think you gotta do it. Machado fills one of the messiest roster spots, too. — Behrens

Round 2, Pick 14: Freddie Freeman, 1B, Los Angeles Dodgers

Freeman is a perennial batting title contender who's led the NL in run-scoring for three straight years. — Behrens

Round 2, Pick 15: Mike Trout, OF, Los Angeles Angels

Sure, the base-stealing is gone and might never come back, but Trout still hit 40 bombs in just 119 games last season. — Behrens

Round 2, Pick 16: Pete Alonso, 1B, New York Mets

Elite power, bubbly personality; I'm in. Alonso clearly has the potential to be the overall leader in multiple fantasy categories. — Behrens

Round 2, Pick 17: Corbin Burnes, SP, Milwaukee Brewers

The safest strikeout bet in the majors, and still in a comfortable age pocket. — Pianowski

Round 2, Pick 18: Austin Riley, 3B, Atlanta Braves

Turned into a superstar the last two years, and Atlanta lineup is stacked top to bottom. — Pianowski

Round 2, Pick 19: Gerrit Cole, SP, New York Yankees

A pitcher this great has to win a Cy Young Award sometime. — Pianowski

Round 2, Pick 20: Bobby Witt Jr., 3B/SS, Kansas City Royals

The free-swinging approach is a modest concern, but if Witt falls this late, I'll gladly take his category juice. — Pianowski

Round 2, Pick 21: Fernando Tatis Jr., SS, San Diego Padres

I have Tatis as a top-10 player this year, so he was an easy call here. — Del Don

Round 2, Pick 22: Rafael Devers, 3B, Boston Red Sox

Third base is relatively thin, and I actually prefer Devers over Machado and Riley. — Del Don

Round 2, Pick 23: Spencer Strider, SP/RP, Atlanta Braves

Strider is the real deal and has crept into Round 1 of some NFBC Main Event drafts. — Del Don

Round 2, Pick 24: Jacob deGrom, SP, New York Mets

deGrom is the best pitcher alive — and the biggest boom/bust fantasy pick. — Del Don

Round 3, Pick 25: Aaron Nola, SP, Philadelphia Phillies

Nola continues the pitcher run and sort of begins a new SP tier here. — Del Don

Round 3, Pick 26: Max Scherzer, SP, New York Mets

A beast in the best park; age is the only question with Scherzer. — Del Don

Round 3, Pick 27: Justin Verlander, SP, New York Mets

Not quite as elite as others at age 40 but remains plenty good. He's also in a terrific situation and still in the honeymoon TJ phase. — Del Don

Round 3, Pick 28:, Brandon Woodruff, SP, Milwaukee Brewers

I mostly target aces and bases early in fantasy drafts, and Woodruff qualifies as the former. — Del Don

Round 3, Pick 29: Shane McClanahan, SP, Tampa Bay Rays

Skills are elite, just a matter of how many innings we can expect. In the third round, yes please. — Pianowski

Round 3, Pick 30: Marcus Semien, 2B/SS, Texas Rangers

Didn't hit for about six weeks, then was a top five fantasy producer the rest of the way. Market has undersold him all spring. — Pianowski

Round 3, Pick 31: Jazz Chisholm Jr., 2B, Miami Marlins

Assuming he's not harried over positional change, we're looking at a possible 20-homer, 40-steal season. — Pianowski

Round 3, Pick 32: Francisco Lindor, SS, New York Mets

If he merely matches last year's return, we make a profit. And given his age and supporting cast, it's possible we haven't seen Lindor's best season yet. — Pianowski

Round 3, Pick 33: Shohei Ohtani, SP, Los Angeles Angels

I'm not typically someone who drafts pitchers near the top, but if you're gonna give me two scoops of Ohtani, I'll take it. This man struck out 219 batters over 166 innings last year, which is just obscene. — Behrens

Round 3, Pick 34: Randy Arozarena, OF, Tampa Bay Rays

He's coming off a legendary WBC run, plus he's gone 20/20 in each of the past two seasons. My great preference is to get steals from players who aren't single-category specialists. — Behrens

Round 3, Pick 35: Corey Seager, SS, Texas Rangers

After a monumentally unlucky season (.242 BABIP) in which he still managed to hit 33 home runs, we should expect a massive bounce-back. Seager is likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the limitations on defensive shifting. — Behrens

Round 3, Pick 36: Paul Goldschmidt, 1B, St. Louis Cardinals

This was a long, awkward fall for Goldy. You'll almost never get him this late. He doesn't need to match last year's production to earn this draft price. — Behrens