Fantasy Baseball strategy

[rockyct]

My main fantasy baseball group at Yahoo is drafting in a week, so I'm going over some pre-draft rankings and such right now. I've played for a few years now and I usually do ok, but I'd like to hear about draft strategies from others out there.

BTW, if anyone needs another player for a Yahoo league, send me a PM. I'm looking to join a second league this year.

 

[dman]

I played a few years ago and won. I think the main strategy was to rotate your bench onto the roster who'd get the most playing time, so you could build up stats. Of course, some could cause negative stats to go up too, if they are being used in your league.

I'd check the last few weeks to see who was streaking a bit.

Other thing is to see when strong players would be up against weak teams / pitching and rotate them in.

I found it takes too much time to do right though, but I did enjoy my baseball knowledge moved beyond that of my fav team, made the whole sport a bit more interesting. Have fun.

 

[rockyct]

Yeah, I already do most of those tips, but thanks though. Last year someone drafted hitters in the top 75% of the draft and basically used the waiver wire to get the pitching he needed. It actually worked pretty well for him too, but this year there's a transaction cap of 100. That's plenty for almost everyone, but he got around 200 transactions last year with the waiver wire.

 

[Jschmuck2]

Can I join your league?

 

[rocadelpunk]

draft offense (batting) early.

don't draft closers till late.

 

[Me Llamo Hefe]

Like others have said, draft offense early. Pick people you can just leave in the lineup all year and not worry about substituting for.

In the middle rounds, draft two or three top of the rotation pitchers. The key is not to chase wins as those can vary greatly from year to year. Draft pitchers with high strikeouts and low ERAs.

Then add one or two second or third tier closers. It is too costly to take K-Rod or Papelbon early but you can get someone like Francisco Cordero, Jose Valverde, or Rafael Soriano in the middle rounds.

The rest of my pitching is always filled from the waiver wire with 2 start pitchers for the upcoming week since my league is head-to-head.

This strategy lets you put off pitching until later so that you can focus on your offense early. My pitching always has a couple starters that stay in regardless of how many times they're pitching, a couple closers, and a couple 2 start pitchers from the waiver wire.

It has always worked for me.

 

[interchange]

98% of winning fantasy baseball has nothing to do with the draft. I usually target certain guys and never overpay for pitching. Pitching is much more difficult to predict. The best bet there is to draft undervalued high K starters. Only start your pitchers when they have a good matchup. Then pick up some middle relievers with great ratios. I usually look for some 2/1 type trades to clear up roster spots for WW players. There's always someone useful on the waiver wire.

One thing I look for are people with big time left/right splits. Guys like Chris Duncan, Josh Hamilton, etc. are very useful contributors. Just only play them against righties and you have a free Pujols.

 

[Marinski]

I usually mix it up when I do it depending on who is available. The year i won my first three picks were - 3rd base, starter, starter. After that it was a mix of position players and pitchers. Then I added a couple free agents.