- Tuxedo Cat is dressed and ready for the draft.
If you haven’t noticed, I’m a blogger by convenience. Apparently I also say gay things, or so says a bunch of people who worship a purple team, have a sex slave as their avatar and someone who can’t stop thinking about wanking it. Not to mention the hottest blogger in Blogfrica! Pffttt. That’s like being the best suicide bomber at Pearl Harbor. I digress, my fantasy baseball season is about to begin with a draft on the Ides of March so I needed to do research. Which would make a good blog post. So you’re welcome, Internet.
There are many websites and experts in fantasy baseball with a lot to say and “keys to winning your league”, which you probably have to pay for. It’s really aggravating. Just like how Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay have jobs. I heard McShay in an interview, and he said don’t take Suh with the first pick…/sigh
Fantasy experts are retarded. I don’t even begin to beg you to take my advice, let alone pay for it like Matthew Berry. Hell, the guy has 200k followers on Twitter. I didn’t think rapidly balding dorks were “in”? The main difference between me and him is simple, I don’t encourage taking my advice. Actually, I encourage quite the opposite. I usually do miserable. I can’t predict injuries worth a crap. I had Grady Sizemore and Cole Hamels last year. In football, I had Peyton Manning on his worst year since his rookie season. Even when I draft perennial talent, they do bad. There is nothing you can control. This isn’t like being the banker in Monopoly. However, here is the strategy I’m going to follow this year:
Draft an infield first: Last year, I took two OF’s first. Grady Sizemore at 12th and Matt Holliday at 13th overall. It didn’t work out well. It was also my first year of fantasy baseball, so don’t kill me just yet. After this year, if I don’t improve…then kill me. Actually, I’ll commit seppuku. Well, the thing with taking outfielders as high picks is that the lower picked outfielders worked out better for the other guys. For instance, guys who drafted Ryan Braun, Carl Crawford or Jason Bay were much happier with their results than I was. This year, rather than reaching on guys like Ryan Braun, Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp (my top 3) why not draft a guy like Sizemore or Josh Hamilton coming off a down year? Or wait for a Zobrist or Adam Dunn. Those guys didn’t just lose their talent. Everyone is entitled to a down year. Also, See: Upton, BJ.
Enough about OF though, the reason you really draft infield and catchers first, is that there aren’t many top tier talents out there. Think about the significant drop off from A-Rod, Pujols, Mauer, Ramirez and Utley compared to Outfielders (Braun, Kemp, Crawford, Holliday, Ellsbury) [Top 5 via Bleacher Report] or Pitchers (Lincecum, CC, Verlander, King Felix, Halladay) [Top 5 via Open Sports].
Closers are like kickers. I’ll come at you if you draft them high: After the obvious great closers like Mo, K-Rod and Papelbon…I think it drastically falls off. Maybe throw Broxton in there, but the rest are all kind of mediocre. The thing is, the mediocre closers can suffice. Don’t waste your early picks on a closer when Saves is just one category you can win and the innings, strikeouts, ERA, WHIP won’t affect you nearly as much as a starting pitcher would. I had a great year in a league with 2 closers. I got by with, Trevor Hoffman and Huston Street last year. I drafted Hoffman but I also could’ve picked up Fernando Rodney, Kevin Gregg or JP Howell who all were pretty decent for their squads. Street and Hoffman actually turned out to be All-Stars which was a plus, but I didn’t waste picks. So why waste an early pick on Mariano Rivera who won’t really affect your team THAT much, but if he sucked, he could ruin you?
Keep an eye on young talent: This might be kind of a no-brainer, but I’d like to point out some notable guys that really came on last year. For example, Andrew McCutcheon was probably my biggest pick up because of the Sizemore injury and Holliday slump until the trade. Other than him, Gordon Beckham impressed many with his performance as well. Who’s going to be the one to draft Stephen Strasburg?! There are a lot of questions with rookies. Let me throw a few out at you, will Austin Jackson start and be successful in Detroit? Will Matt Wieters become what Baltimore hopes? The key is to check out where the stars have moved. For example,Nate McClouth got moved to Atlanta and McCutcheon became the starter. I understand that was during the season, which is why this is very important to monitor throughout the season.
Don’t be a homer: This should be Fantasy rule #1, really. I’ll give you a good example. Wanna know how I suck at fantasy baseball? I was the guy who drafted Joba Chamberlain last year. Yeah. During the “Joba Rules” season. That’s how bad I suck. I’m a Yankee fan, I’m sorry. Rather than stretch on Sabathia and Teixiera like my friend did…I took Swisher, Joba and AJ Burnett. Nice job, Logic. It’s okay though. I was in a league with 8 Mets fans last year. It should’ve been easy money…
Bounce Back Years!: I’ve mentioned this quickly but bounce back years are key. You think Christmas Ape was happy with his Tom Brady pick this year in fantasy football? What makes you think guys like Grady Sizemore, Josh Hamilton and Cole Hamels can’t have amazing years again? Is there something I am unaware of where when a guy has one bad year, he is done forever? Like one of Newton’s Laws or something? I don’t know. I’m not a scientist but I don’t think those exist. Don’t read this wrong, though. These picks aren’t early picks! Read some Mock Drafts and see where these guys are going first. You may be able to grab Hamels in the 7th round, like the Mock Draft I am going on from “Open Sports”. You are also looking at the dude who drafted Chris Carpenter, so I must know what I’m talking about. /mouthfart.
Don’t get scared if your player starts in a slump: This is a MUCH bigger aspect of the fantasy world in baseball than football. That’s where I fucked up last year. In football, you have 17 weeks to tear it up. In baseball you have 6 months. For example, a guy in my league dropped Derek Lee last year. That pick up could’ve made my entire season turn around but for some reason the waiver wire wasn’t in tune with draft position. I should’ve had the first waiver Pick up because I had the last draft pick. That is something I needed to look into. The point is, that idiot should’ve have dumped D-Lee in May and he really helped out the dude who picked him up.
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FIN
Ok, and approaching 1,500 words I will cut it short. The real key to playing fantasy sports is in the waiver wire or drafting guys who get mysteriously hot out of no where. For example, last year if you drafted Zach Greinke, Nick Swisher, Ian Kinsler and Jason Bay… I bet you didn’t lose a game until June or July. I guarantee you that no one predicted those years for those guys because NONE of them went in the first 3 rounds. Zach Greinke was out of baseball a few years ago with mental disorders, for Christ’s sake.
So good luck and take my advice, don’t take my advice…Hell, take the opposite of my advice! Just don’t buy anyone’s stupid advice or you become just as stupid as them and I really would prefer it if you got castrated by two bricks. In conclusion, reproduction won’t be in your future, man.
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I think you slightly undervalue closers and relief pitching. Guys like Broxton are more than 1 cat players, Brox specifically helps you in Saves, ERA, Ks & Whip. A good reliever will help you in Ks, ERA & Whip, while also vulturing W or Saves.
The best fantasy advice works for all sports: don’t draft on what a player did last year, draft what you think he’l do in the coming year. I hate players who defend a pick with “he did _______ last year” and then are surprised when he can’t repeat that. Idiots.
Not really. If you have 5 starting pitchers plus a bench of another 2-3, and let’s say that 3 p those pitchers go twice a week…you could be looking at close to 100 innings. At best a closer will get you 7 innings with an era of 0 WHIP of 0 and 7 saves with 21 strike outs. Now, no closer can go 7 days straight. So cut those stats in half and it barely effects the stats. The only one you are looking fr out of them is Saves. But my main point is that Dont waste a 5th round pick on a closer because the 13th best closer isn’t far from the 4th but the 13th ranked infielder is light years from Robinson cano or Reynolds
I’d agree with Logic here. Closer is a more fluid position, and you’ll be able to pick one up off the street during the season.
5 SP & 2-3 on the bench implies that there are 75ish fantasy worthy SPs out there, or roughly 2+ per team. That almost defaults your SP Era to close to 4.00. Yes youllikely compete in Ks and Ws, but your tradeoff is a higher ERA & WHIP.
I’m not saying ignore SP, but taking (for example from 2-3 years ago) Webb as a SP, then 3 closers, then a Sp (felix H before he was FELIX!) And then relievers like Pat Neshak in MiN (70ip, 2.00 era, 75k, 1.00 whip) and Broxton (when he was setting up Gagne: 75ip, <2.00 era, 100k) helped me win whip, era, saves and finished 3rd in Ks. Also allowed me to get hitters in 8/10 rounds and won hr, r, rbi, obp (used 6 hitting cats & 5 pitching cats).
2 good/very good middle relievers are better than 1 good SP.
Question: I’m in an AL-only $260 cap 14 hitter/9 pitcher keeper league. We’re probably going to keep Matt Garza, Kevin Slowey, and Alexei Ramirez. Anyway, why was my doughnut that I got off the tray labeled “Lemon-filled” strawberry filled?
Probably due to Minnesota’s schooling… Or your parents.
haha
I should ask, ido you play H2H leagues or roto leagues? The strats are a little different then.
I play head to head with 5 SP and 2 RP. Should have mentioned that in the post. My bust