For those of you who play Fantasy Baseball, do you have any tried/true strategies when drafting in a snake draft?
I'm asking this because I just saw a mock three-round draft and had to shake my head. You may agree with their strategies and/or disagree with mine, but this is been an iron-clad strategy for me:
Never draft a pitcher in the first three rounds, ideally in the first five rounds. Let others rub themselves raw on the obvious five-star starters. There are plenty of 15-win, 150K+, avg.-to-better than avg. WHIP and ERA arms in the late early rounds to buoy your staff.
Always target middle infield and 3B early. It's not a case of getting the best player at 1B or OF. It's that the drop-off for MI and 3B tends to be much steeper than at 1B and the OF. Grab your 1B and lead OF with your 3rd and 4th round picks (being observant as to the available depth at each, you can flip-flop their order).
Don't sell out on relievers. So many relievers come out of the woodwork each year, and the fact they basically only impact one category in 5x5, taking a flier in the later rounds on a few relievers who had even low double-digit saves the previous year are usually in play to be closers for the current year.
Catchers, unless it is a top-tier backstop, are best in the middle rounds. They fill a necessary position, but the Fantasy value delta between 3.0 - 3.5 star catchers is usually minimal.
Take the 20/15 guy instead of the 30/5 guy, in most cases. Batting average and runs scored variations need to be accounted for, of course, but I'll take the 20/15 guy with a .255 average over the 30/5 .255 guy. If you end up taking the 30/5 guy, you may need to over-draft a no-power guy who can steal you 25-30 bases when you could have drafted a more complete player in that round. I've done this when I was smitten with the long ball and had an outfield of three mashers and two gazelles. It worked for me (with a lot of in-season gymnastics), but I don't advise it. Another thing to consider is the 20/15 guy will most likely have more infield hits, and as a result, a higher average.
Never watch the board if drafting in an on-line league. How many times have you screamed at your laptop when someone took a player you really wanted? Avoid all that by opening another window to play Sudoku until you hear the chime that it is your turn to draft. Setting up a real-time strategy can turn itself upside down when a player you were hoping you could steal gets swiped by someone who had the same idea as you. Just pick who is available when it is your turn and not who you hope will be available while others are selecting.
Don't make trades. I don't think I've made a trade in Fantasy Baseball since 1995 (and never in Fantasy Football). I get offered trades many times, but I always shoot them down. Some may say trades bring a lot more engagement and spirit to the league. Not for me. I'm in it to kill everyone else. That's one reason why I always join on-line leagues where I don't know anyone else.
Work the waiver wire constantly. The team you start with will be almost completely alien to the roster at the end of the season. That's just the way it goes with injuries, suspensions, and under-performance.
When looking at the waiver wire and who you start/bench in your lineup, for hitters, if you have a filter that looks at the last 7-, 15-, and 30-day slices, do the 7-day for hitters and 15-days for starting pitchers. For relievers, depending on their usage, look at both the 7- and 15-day filters.
For players on IR, don't activate them immediately once they rejoin the active roster unless you have an obvious void at a position. You may get a player who knocks three into the seats on his first game back, but more likely you'll get an 0-4 or 1-5. If the replacement player(s) is/are holding up their end, wait until the recently-activated player is putting up productive numbers before activating.
If a starter is throwing lights-out, and you have the ability to change the lineup daily, place him on the bench the day after he throws and activate another quality starter from the bench...and so on. Eventually, you'll re-activate that first starter again well before his next start if you are disciplined enough to carry through with it. If you are in an innings-limited league, remember pitchers generally are "ahead" of hitters earlier in the season. As your total innings add up, you may find yourself swapping out those inning-eating horses with 11 wins, a 4.50 ERA and 1.25 WHIP late in the season for a middle-inning or set-up guy who is in better shape to grab some Ws with more and more starters feeling the length of the season on their arms, and maybe can grab a handful of saves from those guys along the way. It may be handy to have one, perhaps two, of these guys on your opening day roster, as well, with pitchers needing time to stretch out early in the season.
Your mileage may vary, of course, but this has worked out remarkably well for me. I've been playing for a long time. I drafted a rookie named Frank Thomas with my last pick in a Roto league one year, Hell, I had Nolan Ryan on my roster once the same year I had some cheap ($0.40) erratic Expos starter named Randy Johnson, so I've been playing a long time and made a LOT of mistakes along the way. The above strategy coalesced over the years, and, injuries and rotten luck aside, should land you at least a top-3 finish.
If not, you can blame the next person who posts in this thread,
nypost.com
