Fantasy Baseball Time

I know the season is about to start but its still not too late to get your fantasy baseball team or teams in my case up and running.  I have always loved baseball and I try to do anything I can that is baseball related, which is exactly why I love playing fantasy baseball.  To be able to pick your own team, to deal with other fantasy baseball GMs in trades, and to bench a guy when he just isn’t performing is every fans way of dreaming about being a real GM.  So here I want to offer some ways to play, some helpful tips and even ways to make fantasy baseball a bit more personal and fun.

Ways to Play

There are two types of fantasy leagues, keeper leagues where each team can keep a few players from their previous years team, and the regular fantasy leagues where you draft brand new teams each year.  I personally play the regular leagues that change each year simply because the guys I like to draft can change from year to year and I will explain more about that later in the ways to make fantasy baseball a bit more fun.

There is also a couple different types of drafts.  The first draft type is the snake.  This is the normal draft pattern where each team gets to pick a player each round in a specific order.  This can often create pretty evenly matched teams during the season if all players stay active and actually know anything about baseball.

The second type of draft is the auction draft.  This draft type can allow you to spend a lot of money on a few high profile players, buy a lot of second tier players or have a nice spread of players at all levels.  I personally like the auction draft because I have ability to go out and get the specific guys I want and wouldn’t get in the snake draft because they may all be drafted in the same round.

Tips and Hints

My tips and hints aren’t going to be any mind blowing information that will make you a champion in every league but they will help.  Go into the draft with a plan of what areas you want to focus on, and even what players you want, and just as importantly, which players you don’t want.  This year I made every and all attempts to avoid players that I felt were going to have some struggles this year. (Michael Pineda is my avoid at all costs pitcher this year, even though I think he is great I see bad things for him in New York).

My next tip is maybe the most important, check the injury lists.  Nothing worst then drafting a closer who will be your main guy for saves and then find out that two days earlier he was put on the disabled list to have Tommy John surgery.  David Aardsma was my closer last year and he didn’t play at all that season.

Make it Fun

A good way to make fantasy baseball fun is to pick your favorite players.  If you keep track of specific players stats all season long, might as well let the computers do it for you and play fantasy baseball.

For me I only pick players that I have an autograph of.  Now when I tell other fantasy players that is what I’m doing they think that I’m going to be an easy team to beat.  However, when you have three Cy Young winners you can pick (Tim Lincecum, Clayton Kershaw, and King Felix), four potential MVP candidates (Matt Kemp, Andrew McCutchen, Justin Upton, and Adrien Beltre) and a cast of All-Stars (Michael Young, Brandon League, Nelson Cruz, and others) you can have a pretty dangerous team.

Regardless of what type of league you play in, or how serious you take it, the main thing is to enjoy it.  Fantasy baseball should make the season even more enjoyable as you not only root for your favorite team, but also for the players that will help you win your fantasy league.