With fantasy baseball drafts in full swing,
the Docs want to be sure you keep your focus and have a successful draft
and fantasy baseball season. With that in mind, we have dished out our Top Five Tips for
Fantasy Baseball. These tips will help you field a competitive fantasy
baseball team and make sure your fantasy baseball draft is a boom rather
than a bust. Whether you are a fantasy baseball expert or new to fantasy baseball,
this article has something for everyone. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the following fantasy baseball
article...
Know Your League. This
simply cannot be understated, particularly when it comes to fantasy baseball.
Fantasy baseball player rankings are significantly affected based on league
setup. Leagues that require a middle infielder start in addition to
more traditional 2B and SS starts will bump up the value of middle infielders,
while leagues that require a corner infielder start in addition to more traditional
1B and 3B starts bump up the value of the corner positions (it’s all about
supply and demand). Leagues that penalize hitters for strikeouts will
bump down traditional windmills such as Adam Dunn and Alfonso Soriano, while
leagues that do not penalize for strikeouts will bump up their value a little.
Some leagues allow only one utility position start while others allow multiple
utility position starts (A utility position is where you can start any hitter
for any position). For leagues that allow only one utility start, it
bumps the value of a pure DH like Travis Hafner down a little as you
have to use your utility start to even be able to play a DH at all, which costs
your fantasy baseball team valuable flexibility regarding what can be started
each week at your utility position. Bottom line is that there is a
lot of variation out there depending on your league setup, and a little preparation
and thought can go a long way prior to your fantasy baseball draft and season
long strategy.
Draft Hitters Early and Often.
We have tried just about every draft strategy you can think of through the
years, and there is one strategy that consistently yields good results year
in and year out. It’s very simple: Draft hitters early and often.
In fact, we would recommend that 7 - 9 of your first 10 picks need to be
hitters. There is a time to draft pitchers -- just not in the early
rounds of your draft. Pitchers are more likely to be injured and more
sensitive to injuries than hitters (There isn’t a whole lot
that can be hurt when you are a pitcher other than your arm. Once your
arm gets hurt, you are in trouble). There is simply better quality
control when drafting reliable hitters than “reliable” pitchers, and a solid
pitching staff can be put together in your mid-to-late rounds of your draft
in conjunction with a quick trigger on the waiver wire, which leads us to
our next point…
Work the Waiver Wire. This
particularly applies to pitching, while some key acquisitions on hitting
can help as well (i.e. grabbing emerging players to help supplement a particular
category where your team is weak and needs help, such as SB, HR, RBI, whatever
the case may be). Every year there is quality pitching to be had off
the waiver wire; however, you need to have a quick trigger. Typically
pitchers that throw well in the month of April seem to carry that momentum
throughout the season (and may very well lose it the following year, which is yet another reason
to not draft pitchers in your early rounds).
Scooping up a couple of hot prospects off to fast starts can really give
your fantasy baseball team that winning edge needed to bring home the championship
hardware. If you are not lucky enough to grab one of these emerging
pitchers, your next window of opportunity occurs in the summer when young
prospects are called up from the minors to fill a need due to an injury to
a starter in the rotation. Also, keeping a close eye on relief pitchers
throughout the season is a must, as closing situations for many MLB teams
are almost always in a constant state of flux as closers get hurt, lose their
job, or simply are replaced by better prospects.
Look for the Right Stats.
There are a ton of stats in baseball, and it is easy to become overwhelmed
when deciding what stat to use when evaluating potential draft picks.
However, we have found a couple of stats in particular to be very helpful
when evaluating prospects for your fantasy baseball team. For hitters,
we recommend looking at R.B.I.’s first and average second. While we
do not recommend drafting hitters solely on R.B.I. production alone, we do
think letting it factor into your decision a little more than you may have
otherwise will help you build a more reliable, competitive team (i.e., if you need a "SB guy", then lean torwards a SB guy that gives a little better R.B.I. production than comparable players). Do
not get carried away with the homerun. Sure, we all know chicks dig
the long ball, but you do not need to win the homerun category outright to
win your league. For pitchers, we look at strikeouts and W.H.I.P.
High strikeout totals with a low W.H.I.P. can help expose raw talent at the
pitching slots. While it is a good idea to at least keep an eye on
E.R.A., we definitely recommend placing a little more weight on strikeouts
and W.H.I.P.
Play the Position. Position
eligibility is often a key factor overlooked, particularly for fantasy baseball
rookies. A player eligible for 1B, OF, and SS brings a load of options
to the table that can help your team in several ways. First, it gives
you more flexibility when making moves on the waiver wire, as a multi-position
player can help you juggle your line-up when acquiring that much needed specialist
off the waiver wire for a category where your team is weak (HR, SB, RBI,
whatever the case may be). Second, it helps you make-up starts during
the season. If you are in a league where roster space is tight with
few bench players available, a multi-position player can help maximize your
roster starts. This can be a big help on days like Monday when only
a few MLB teams see action. The more you can move your line-up around
to squeak in an extra start or two for your team each week, the better
off you will be by the end of the season. An extra RBI, run, or SB
each week may not seem like much, but over the course of a 162 game MLB season,
it can make a big difference by September. Last, a multi-position player
can help you make a key trade late in the season by giving you flexibility
in whom you can offer and still cover the position that was traded with a decent player.
In summary and all things being equal, a player that has eligibility at more
than one position brings more value to your team than an equivalent player
eligible for the same position but only eligible for one position (Careful
– please read what was said in that last sentence again. To help drive
that point home, here is an example: Say Player A is eligible at 3B
and OF, while Player B is only eligible at OF. Assuming Player A and
B are expected to have similar statistics, Player A has more value.
However, if Player A is eligible at 3B and OF while Player B is only eligible
at Catcher rather than OF, then it is not an apples-to-apples comparison
anymore since Player B plays a different position than Player A. In
this case, all bets are off and Player B could have more value even though
he only plays one position. In fact, for this particular case and for
the same player statistics, Player B would have more value than Player A
since Catcher is a weak position in fantasy baseball – similar to TE in fantasy
football. If you have the option to acquire stud RB numbers at a TE
start, you will take it any day of the week over the option for position
flexibility).
Keep these five tips in your back pocket during your fantasy baseball draft and during the regular season of fantasy baseball. They will help make you a little better at fantasy baseball, and hopefully you were able to learn an extra nugget or two along the way. Good luck to all, and here's wishing a very successful fantasy baseball season.
