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How high should Mookie Betts be picked in fantasy drafts?

In the Yahoo Fantasy baseball podcast, Scott Pianowski is joined by Rotowire's Scott Jenstad who examines the Dodgers outfielder's draft stock ahead of the 2020 season

Video Transcript

[ROCK MUSIC]

SCOTT PIANOWSKI: Mookie Betts obviously moving to LA. We'll see if he ever plays a game with the Dodgers. I sure hope so. That's there park, of course, but that lineup is really loaded. It'll be interesting to see if he runs anymore in Los Angeles.

They're like a lot of teams. They get a slow-pitch softball team. They don't need to run. Betts has always been a guy who can steal really as much as he wants. It's just a matter of what that interest is.

How early are you taking Betts? He landed on this list, so that must mean that you're probably top half of the first round at least willing to consider him?

SCOTT JENSTAD: For sure. He's a guy that I was actually-- NFBC does a KDS-type draft. You can order your spots that you want to pick. And you pick you out a hat, and you get their highest spot left. So you can kind of figure out where you want to pick if you get little bit lucky.

And he's a guy that I love to get picked sixth, seventh, eighth. And I would take him right away. I would take him for sure as high as four, probably not as high as three. I think I'd still go Yelich, even though the back scares me a teensy bit. I just think that Betts is another guy, kind of like Baez, not as extreme with falling down.

But Betts was the first or second pick last year. And all of a sudden, he only has 29 homeruns and 16 stolen bases. He doesn't hit .346, and we drop him down to the eight, nine, ten in drafts. I love him at that spot. I think, in this lineup, the runs and RBIs will be-- if he leads off, the RBIs will be a little down.

But the runs are gonna be insane, hitting in front of Turner and Bellinger and all the guys that the Dodgers slot in and out of there every day. And I just love all his stuff. I mean, the guy walked at 14% last year and struck out at 14%. He had a few more strikeouts than walks.

But you're talking about a power hitter that does that. I mean, he's just a special player. Swing and strike rate is crazy low. It's 5.1%. I always like guys like that who aren't pure "Punch and Judy" guys, who still never swing and miss and have some pop.

He's probably my favorite player to watch that's not an Oakland A. So it's someone that I'm not biased on. The bat, it fell way down to .309. I think that'll pop back up a little with his speed. I think you're gonna get everything across the board from Betts.

How many stolen bases he gets is maybe a little bit up in the air. I would've gone about 20 in a full season. So will have to-- maybe you get 12 in a shortened season.

But I think I'd rather have him than Bellinger, although I do like Bellinger. I'd rather have him than one of the pitchers. So for me, obviously, everybody likes Mookie Betts. I'm just probably a little bit higher than most on him this year.