In fantasy baseball when should you draft pitchers?

Question

i was just wondering when everyone here starts taking pitchers? what round should Johan Santana be going?

my only concearn with drafted a pitcher at the top is that he's not an everyday player like an albert pujols. Albert's someone that can produce for you 5 times a week when a pitcher can only do it about 1-2 times a week.

Answer 1

It depends on what your league is focused on, but in the real world pitching is everything. I almost always draft a closer first, then work on starters.

Answer 2

In standard 5x5 roto leagues, If I chose not to take Santana in the first round, I wait until the 6th ot 7th round to take my first pitchers and they are almost always closers.

I think starting pitching is fairly deep this year. You can wait around until the 9th, 10th rounds to start taking starters and still get high ceiling starters like Brett Myers, Cole Hamels, Daisy Matsuzaka, and the likes.

Since 2003, I have owned approx. 100 fantasy baseball teams on Yahoo, ESPN, and CBS Sportsline and only 4 times has the team with Johan Santana won the league.

In head to head leagues with no transaction limits or high transaction limit thresholds, I wouldn't consider taking a starter until all of my offensive positions are filled. I learned the hard way with this. I had Santana, Carpenter, Oswalt, and Pedro and thought there was no way I could lose. Turns out that streaming pitchers is the way to go and blew me out of the water in pitching.

Answer 3

I've found in my experience that Pitchers in particular will either make or break your team. Case in point, I had an average head-2-head team, traded a solid batter for Mariano Rivera, and my team eventually road Rivera to the title.

There are only a handful of truly dominant pitchers, and Johan is most certainly at the top of that short list. He should definitely be one of the top 5 players chosen in any draft.

Answer 4

Johan should be going within the first 5 picks of the first round. if Johan is gone i usually won't draft a pitcher till round 4 (maybe round 3).

Answer 5

i usually dont draft a pitcher until the 8th round, make sure my lineup is solid. Thats because my league is 14 people deep and you need a lineup to get going. Theres always some young pitcher that comes out of nowhere that isnt drafted. wait awhile or draft Johan early.

I wouldnt do it but if you want him you have to take that chance.

Answer 6

Johan Santana is a top five overall draft pick in mixed league formats and top two or three in AL only leagues. He is often touted as the #1 pick for AL only drafts due to his incredible consistency in a position (pitching) that is known for its inconsistency.

Generally I will try to get one ace pitcher in the first three rounds, but my focus is usually on rarer stats like stolen bases, and big bats with solid averages. That means players like Carl Crawford, Jose Reyes who can dominate SB's for you and also provide great stats in average and runs scored.

Answer 7

Pitching is the hardest to draft this year. You have the first pick take santana. In the second round take Carpenter, Webb, or Zambrano. If you dont want that stack up on hitting and then take sleeper pitching like shawn marshall. Closers are hard to draft also K-ROD is the best take him 3rd round if he is there he wont be im some leagues depends on how desperate pitching is in the league.

Answer 8

properly searching at your league, it is clearly tousled because for some reason you've factors in myth baseball, Yeah i'd bypass with a pitcher; Johan(3), Jakey(10), and then Bedard(15) in that order BTW, it is basically for the league settings that you're in