If you can’t tell, I’m itching for baseball season to start. Yesterday pitchers and catchers reported and soon, but not soon enough, Opening Day will be here. And as that most wonderful day of the year approaches so does something else I’ve recently (in the last year) been introduced to: Fantasy Baseball.
Last season was my first playing Fantasy Baseball and leave it to me to win in my rookie year. And don’t go telling me it’s beginner’s luck because I worked my butt off all season for that win! (And by working my butt off, I mean I sat on the couch and pondered who to put in my line-up, who to take out, who to drop and who to pick-up.) You wouldn’t go telling Buster Posey that his rookie season was a fluke now would you? (Yes, yes I did just compare myself to Buster Posey.)
Now, you may be asking “Why should I take Fantasy Baseball advice from you? What do you know?” And honestly, who knows how much I know. I’m just a girl who had a Fantasy Baseball team called “Pitch Slap” in 2015 and ended up taking the championship in our league. So if you would like to know my insight for drafting this season, here you go.
Have a plan… offense or pitching
Most leagues are set up the way mine was last year, which consists of five offensive categories and five pitching categories. Half of your weekly score will come from the offensive production of your guys in the field, while the other half will come from the players you have toeing the rubber throughout the week.
Other than my first round pick in the 2015 draft, I was focused on offense. I waited three rounds to pick up another pitcher. Which meant that for the first half of the season, my pitching staff was horrible. Like, my pitching staff was terrible. Absolutely despicable. Towards the middle of the season, I made some good pick-ups which allowed my staff to move up to halfway-decent status. But because my offense was so strong, and I could usually pick up a win in at least one category on the pitching side, I was able to come away with wins most weeks of the season.
This was my plan. I stocked up on offensive guys and saved the pitching category until later, and was still able to pick up some halfway decent guys that got me some halfway decent numbers. But, because I didn’t have a few really good offensive players and a few really good pitchers (like my opponents did), I was able to almost always come away with all five offensive wins.
Know your “sleepers”
Sleepers are players that you don’t draft high, but that you know will give you good, consistent numbers throughout the season. Usually, these players come from teams that you follow and know about more than the people you’re playing against. I’m a Bay Area fan, Giants and A’s. This means that Matt Duffy (SF third basemen) and Stephen Vogt (A’s catcher) are guys that I’ll keep in mind if I need someone to fill those positions or bench positions. Same with Stephen Piscotty, outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals. Make sure you don’t pick a team of all sleepers, meaning don’t take these guys in the first, second, third round. But think of some guys who will give you average production throughout the season that others probably won’t know of and keep them in mind.
Don’t pick with your heart, pick with your head
This was one of the hardest aspects that I had to force myself to accept. As much as I love the Giants and as much as I hate the Dodgers, I knew that I had to use my first pick of the draft last year on Clayton Kershaw. He was the guy. He won the Cy Young and MVP and Mike Trout had been picked first overall and Giancarlo Stanton was second and how was I going to pass up Kershaw?
I ended up with a few Dodgers on my team, including Adrian Gonzalez, who put up great numbers for me every week. And I hated every second of it. But I got the wins and the championship and still hated the Dodgers week in and week out.
Draft anyone who used to be an Oakland A
If you take any advice from me (and in turn my dad because we talk about this all the time), take this advice. If you don’t really know what you’re going for because it’s late in the draft, take my advice: draft someone who used to be an Oakland A. Always. Josh Donaldson, last year’s AL MVP- ex Oakland A, and a guy I picked up semi-late in the draft. Chris Carter, who’s now with the Astros, put up decent numbers last season for a guy in my league (who took him two picks before I was going to). Ex-A. Have your eye on Scott Kazmir early in the draft because he’ll go in the first few rounds. Ex-A. (My tactic this year may be to create a team of all ex Oakland A’s players and see what happens.)
Last, but certainly not least…. make sure you have a good team name, something witty and clever. (If I’m able to draft Buster Posey again, my name will be Ring Ring Ring Around the Posey. Get it?)