It’s that time of year again.
Another Major League Baseball season begins on Sunday, and with it another year of fantasy baseball. This will be my 18th consecutive season playing fantasy baseball, but my first as a fantasy baseball writer.
All season long, my colleague Drew Champlin and I will be bringing you fantasy baseball tips, strategies and information on AL.com. We’re not promising to help you “dominate your league,” but we hope you can learn some things or pick up some ideas here you might not otherwise.
Though many leagues have already held their drafts for 2015, there are still plenty of stragglers out there (one league I play in is drafting Saturday morning). In that spirit, here are a few pre-draft/draft day tips to keep in mind:
• Try out some different formats to see which are the best fit: I am playing in two leagues this year. One is a typical 5×5 rotisserie-style league with standings that calculate throughout the season. The other is a head-to-head league, where you face off with a different owner each week and are awarded standings points based on winning different categories. Both leagues conduct pre-season drafts where each owner makes a pick in turn, though in the past I have played in and enjoyed auction leagues. Daily fantasy sports is an exploding market as well.
• Know your league’s rules: This cannot be stressed enough. Does your league start one catcher or two? Three outfielders or four? Does it use batting average or on-base percentage? Does it allow disabled list slots? Do “negative” categories, such as batter strikeouts and pitcher losses, count against your point total? Is it a keeper league or re-draft every season? Knowing what counts and what doesn’t in your league will not only enhance your enjoyment, but give you a better chance to win.
• Write/type up a list of players you want to specifically target: Particularly in on-line drafts, lesser-known/sleeper-type players may not pop into the default queue. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten deep into a draft and forgotten about that hot rookie or bounce-back candidate I wanted on my roster before someone else took him. The various fantasy baseball sites have lists that you can print out and keep handy during the draft. Or you can hand-write/type one yourself, dividing them into categories such as “stolen base guys,” “injured/do not draft” or “saves sleepers.”
• Keep mental/written notes on who other owners in your league have drafted: It’s not always about drafting the best player available, but getting the best value. For example, you might find yourself 10 rounds into a draft and realize you need a shortstop. If you notice that everyone else already has that slot filled, maybe you can wait an extra round or two to grab a middle-of-the-pack option like Jhonny Peralta or Erick Aybar. It’s easy to get caught up in the inevitable draft-day runs — there’s always one on closers in about the 10th round of my league — but knowing what your opposition is up to and reacting accordingly is key.
• Draft players you’ll enjoy watching/pulling for, but don’t go overboard: To have success at fantasy baseball, you need to find the sweet spot between fan and mercenary. Don’t draft a bunch of players from your favorite real-life team at the exclusion of better options elsewhere, but don’t make yourself miserable by drafting players you won’t want to root for. Certain guys — Yasiel Puig and Billy Hamilton come to mind — are just more fun to have on your team, there’s no getting around it. Others are less so (I’m not naming any names, but you know who they are). This is not to say don’t draft Giancarlo Stanton if you’re an Atlanta Braves fan whose team will be hurt in the standings if he performs well, but make it easy on yourself by not drafting three or four of his Miami Marlins teammates as well.
• Keep in mind that baseball has changed in the last 3-4 years: MLB is currently in the midst of a low-offense environment not seen since the early 1990s, so build your roster accordingly. Certain offensive skills — notably on-base percentage and power/home runs — are at a premium in the current era. In other words, it’s probably a good idea to reach a few rounds early for that 30-home run bopper, even if his other skills aren’t anything special (Chris Davis and Chris Carter are two examples). On the flip side, pitchers with a lot of strikeouts and a low ERA come pretty cheaply these days. So just because you don’t get Clayton Kershaw or Felix Hernandez to anchor your staff doesn’t mean there aren’t 5-10 guys still available who can give you 85 percent of the same production.
Most importantly, remember these two things:
1. Baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. Just because you don’t like your team on draft day or suffer some early injuries doesn’t mean you can’t be near or atop the standings by September.
2. To paraphrase the great ESPN fantasy guru Matthew Berry, play to win, but don’t let fantasy baseball run your life and affect your personal relationships. That’s not always as easy as it sounds, but worth keeping in mind.
Good luck this season. Check back this weekend and all season long for more fantasy baseball content on AL.com.
