The time us fantasy baseball fanatics have been waiting for is finally here. It's draft season! With many of us starting drafts as early as this weekend, it is time for a quick refresher on basic draft prep. Run through these five simple steps to make sure you are ready.
1. Know Thy League Settings
Many of us fantasy owners do many different types of leagues. 5x5 Roto, Auction, Snake, Points, Head to Head, Scoresheet--you name it, we play it. With so many different types of leagues it's important to make sure you know exactly what the league settings are.
For example, Yahoo! leagues require hitters to play 10 games at a position to have eligibility, while ESPN requires 20 games. This can make a big difference if you want to draft someone that may have dual position eligibility (like Pablo Sandoval), or someone changing positions (like Alexei Ramirez). Think of the RP and SP settings, too. If there are designated slots for Relief Pitchers and Starting Pitchers it may pay to draft someone like Joel Hanrahan a little earlier, someone who can get you saves from the SP position.
Is the league Head to Head? Then you can’t really count on getting all your wins every week so concentrate instead more on the other pitching categories like strikeouts and saves. Are you in a points league with a deduction for strikeouts? Make sure you stay away from those high strikeout guys like Ryan Howard and Jack Cust.
I think you get my point: know your league settings and plan your draft accordingly.
2. Learn Your Player Pool
Hopefully you have been reading up the last few weeks on the players you may be drafting. If you haven't, the FantasyPros911 Draft Guide has profiles to read. Now is the time to narrow down your player list.
If you are doing a 12 team league with one catcher position, don’t waste time on trying to figure out who your #16 catcher is, because you won't be needing to pick that deep. Instead, figure out which players will fit your league and your normal in-season playing style.
Know who the closers are as of draft time. Know who is next in line. Check for injuries that have occurred in spring training that will limit your player pool.
If you are the type of fantasy owner that makes tons of trades during the season, make sure you target safer guys that others may want, like Johnny Damon. Taking a safe player instead of a riskier pick at the same draft slot (say, someone who could flop like Elijah Dukes) ensures you can still find trading partners later on for that pick.
3. Do Your Own Prep Work
I am not saying don’t use the cheat sheets and draft tools that this site and other sites offer. What I am saying is augment these tools with your own knowledge. If you are using projections from our own Mike Podhorzer or maybe Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA, make sure you have familiarized yourself with them and determine how they help you make decisions at draft time. Do mock drafts based on the projections you are using, and tweak them accordingly to fit your personal drafting style.
If you are not going to pick a pitcher in the first 10 rounds then make sure you spend the time figuring out which pitchers will produce for you that will be available in the second half of the draft.
Make your own cheat sheet or tier guide based on ADP, or, if you want to use one that someone else made, don’t treat it as the bible. It's your draft prep. If you like Alex Gordon better than Ryan Zimmerman that is OK. You have your own reasons to pick a player, so be sure to use your own knowledge and insight. Don’t rely solely on what some random expert tells you.
4. Keep it Simple Stupid
Don’t get overly complex! Make sure you don’t get to your drafting location--whether it be a friend's house, your man-cave, or even Vegas--loaded down with too many materials. If you think you may need one, have a book or magazine that you can use to reference player information, but don’t plan on being able to rely on it. Most experts will only have a one- or two-page cheat sheet in front of them in a draft. I would recommend you arrange it in tiers or custom-make it for your particular league based on the research you did (See Rule #3) in the weeks prior to the draft.
These days many people are starting to use fancy draft software. If you are doing an online draft, are you really going to be able to refer to or update the software and still get your pick off? Most people can't handle the extreme multitasking it takes to interpret those draft results and still pick in time. Make sure you know your limitations, because if you rely on too much outside help it can only spell disaster for your draft--what if something happened like, say, the software crashes? This is why I recommend keeping it as simple as possible.
5. Relax and Have Fun
Finally, make sure your draft is fun. Don’t draft with your kids running around or your spouse asking you to help with something during your draft. Try not to rush to your draft. Spend a little time getting comfortable. Fill up a drink, prepare a sandwich, go to the bathroom, whatever you need to do so you can draft in the best setting possible. You spent all this time preparing, so don’t go into your draft overly tense and ready to make mistakes.
Have a conversation about something completely unrelated to baseball shortly before your draft whenever possible. It will help clear your head. Maybe you are out with the guys, or maybe it’s a workplace draft--chat it up. The draft is a fun place. Remember we play Fantasy Sports for the fun, so don’t make the draft feel like work.
In conclusion, these Five Commandments will make sure you have a successful draft that you personally can be proud of. I am not guaranteeing you will win your league, but I will guarantee you will feel good about your draft and be ready to enjoy the long season ahead.
I'm never a big fan of Beckett because he always seems to have some injury, whether it's serious or not, it's always an excuse for why he wasn't the best guy out there.
+0
... written by Yogi,
March 07, 2009
Never let Matthew Berry and the "Evil Empire" dictate your choices. If the Beckett rank v Lackey ESPN ranking are correct, take advantage. That's just crazy. I like them both, but there is a ton of value taking Beckett (based on that difference in ranking). Do your own work, don't let anyone else tell you what they think someone is worth. Let the lazy guys rely on those rankings. You'll win more leagues that way, and even if you miss, long term you'll be a better fantasy player. BOL. Yogi
+0
... written by SeanAgranov,
March 07, 2009
Neil - sounds like you are letting the draft control you instead of you controlling the draft. My advice is two fold. 1) try a mock where you purposely don't wait and pick those players you want a half a round early. see how it turns out. email me if you want after, I would be more than happy to follow-up 2) don't let the designated value for a draft room control your draft. if you feel the guy is a worthy pick then pick him where you think he valued. you are always going to value players differently than the other owners so you might as well have the players you value highly. just be reasonable. if you love beckett don't go picking him in the second round if you think you can get him in the 5th, but if its important enough to you pick him in the 4th to make sure you get him. Same advice for an auction draft. spend the extra dollar if you really want the guy. I prefer to lose with my own guys then to look back and realize i let the guy i liked get away.
+0
... written by Neil,
March 06, 2009
As an example to my question above, I really like Beckett and Shields after the top 10 pitchers are off the board. I personally feel that Beckett will have a better 2009 than Lackey. ESPN ranks Lackey #46 and he gets drafted at around #50. Beckett is ranked #85 and gets drafted around there. If I have the 75th pick in the draft and there are 12 teams and Beckett is my favorite pitcher left, do I grab him or do I wait 12 more picks to see if he is still there? If I take Beckett with the 75th pick, I feel like I jumped the gun by 10 picks. This seems to happen every round...the guy I like the most is ranked 5-10 notches worse than my pick #. I feel like I draft "upward" instead of "downward," meaning that I feel like I am reaching for players each round instead of scooping up the players that are being left over longer than they should.
+0
... written by Neil,
March 06, 2009
Hi, My question is with regard to #3 - prep. I've done mock drafts on ESPN (my platform for my league) and via Mock Draft Central. Everyone on ESPN drafts acc'd to how ESPN ranks the players, so a guy like Scott Baker goes super early on ESPN compared to Mock Draft Central. Jeter/Beltre/Polanco/Kendrick go very late on Mock Draft Central, but MUCH earlier on ESPN. How should I best prepare for my ESPN draft when I know that everyone basically follows ESPN's rankings when they pick? I know that I should avoid guys that ESPN likes a lot more than I do, but with regard to the guys I like more than ESPN, how do I know when to draft them without feeling like I "reached" or took them earlier than I had to?
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
