Drafting Advice for Fantasy Baseball?

Question

Hello,

I am new to the fantasy baseball draft thing and I was wondering what advice you would give to help me build a great team. Focus on Hitters or Pitchers?

Other Notes:
NL-Only League with 5x5 Roto Scoring
$260
12 Teams
2 Catchers,1B,2B,SS,3B,MI,CI,UM,5 Outfielders, 9 Pitchers, 6 Reserves

Thanks!

Answer 1

I've been in several mock drafts this year and your best best in the first three rounds is to focus on 2 40 home run players, and one player with 30/30 potential. I generally grab 2 1B and one OF - ideally an OF like Sizemore or Beltran. In the next couple rounds, I also try to target one of the top SS's, either Furcal or Rollins is generally available around the 4th/5th rounds.

Wait to take pitching until after the 5th round, but try to get 3 of them before the 12th. You can end up with Jake Peavy, John Lackey and Brett Myers - focus on those with good strikeout numbers.

Don't even think about 2B or C until the end of the draft - once you get past Utley, there isn't a huge difference between most of them. Victor Martinez and Joe Mauer are usually drafted in the top 5 rounds, but they aren't worth that. Grab someone like McCann or Ramon Hernandez 5/10 rounds later.

Answer 2

Focus on hitting and pitching. But mostly focus on making deals. Pitchers like John Maine can be had in the last part of the draft because they fly under the radar - if you know guys like this and save your money no one can out bid you on them and you'll get a deal. Being new to fantasy - you just jumped into an advanced format. NL only Auction draft.
You need to focus on deals to make your team, knowing when too much is too much to spend on a player. On the other side, knowing how to get other players over spend.

You need to start by seeing what the optimal team would be. Then take a look at some average auction values of players. Set budgets for positions. When you go to draft you should know what average auction values are for at least the top 15 people of each position. You should also know where values can be found and when to throw them into the ring. Tossing in a second tier 2B early can cause a few people to bite and over spend. I'll give you some links for ideas on auction values, but as far as building your team - a lot can change depending on how much you leave yourself to spend. These are based on AL&NL availability, so prices will vary for NL only.

Here is the basic top 100 with avg auction values:
http://fantasysports.yahoo.com/analysis/news?slug=bf-aav_022707&prov=yhoo&type=lgns&league=fantasy/mlb

This may give you some ideas and thoughts about bidding:
http://www.kffl.com/article.php/64902/451

Answer 3

You need to focus on hitters with speed, for one thing. A guy like Alphonso Soriano is very valuable in 5x5. In NL only, a guy like Dave Roberts of SF is too, as he steals a ton of bags. Ditto for Juan Pierre.
A great outfield sleeper candidate (to me) is Chris B. Young of AZ - he could steal 20+ and hit 20 Hr too. Try to draft hitters with good batting averages. And draft starting pitchers who get lots of K's. Zambrano, Peavy, Chris Young of SD,etc. Look up stats from last year to see who else had lots of K's. Buy a book called 'Baseball Prospectus'. It's the best publication I've found for playing fantasy baseball.
Finally, in 5x5 roto, you can't focus on either hitters or pitchers. You need both. You can't give up on any one category, because you won't win in roto doing that. And if by some luck you wind up with one of the first 3 picks in the draft, you'll wind up with either Pujols, Ryan Howard or Soriano. Plus, there's Chase Utley from Philly. Good luck.

Answer 4

Gotta disagree with the last answerer a bit. Targeting speed is probably the worst thing you could do. Steals is ONE category, and you can usually pick up a no-name bag-grabber as the season wears on. Did anyone (aside from fantasy gurus) know who Hanley Ramirez was early last season? Quite frankly, no.

You want to target pure hitters. Hitters that will bat for average and drive in runs. There's two critical categories right there. Of course, if you can nab a power hitter that hits for average, that's the triple whammy. But of course guys like that will be gone early in the draft. Key is to target guys that have the potential to hit for average, drive in runs, and potentially hit 25+ HRs. Josh Willingham comes to mind. As does Austin Kearns. Two young sluggers hitting cleanup for their respective teams because quite frankly, no one else can.

Also must disagree - to a point - with the first answerer. While his answer is generally spot-on and well thought-out, I must say that targeting a well-rounded offense should be most important. Look, a starting pitcher only contributes to your stats once (or sometimes twice) a week. If you're in a head-to-head weekly league, this is of paramount concern. Your hitters play EVERY DAY in most cases. They have the most potential to make or break your week. As the first answerer noted, guys like John Maine or Ted Lilly can come cheap, late in drafts. Why burn a top pick or oodles of dollars on Chris Carpenter, when he's only going to give you 7 +/- innings' worth of fantasy stats... when you can pick a solid hitter, who will give you 20 +/- at-bats.

Answer 5

alright, the first pick u get, just take the best ranked player (that is constant, so stay away from arod, derek lee, or players u just dont feel will have a good year), second pick if people start grabbing pitchers, u want to check out and see if theres any stand out pitchers, if not just wait, now say u take jose reyes with the first pick, use ur second pick for someone with a lil more power, try to avoid picking players back to back that excel in the same stats...if theres nobody that really stands out, or if u just want to, I'd take joe maurer, he's pretty much the only consistant catcher that u can count on to having a great year again...third pick, I'd take a pitcher, someone dont worry so much about how they were, are, or should be, get guys that are on goods teams, cause in a salary game, every win helps a lot more than K's, and loses hurt less then giving up hits and walks...try and get the average pitchers that are not likely to get injured, and u might even want to check and see who is in the last year of there contracts, cause they always step in up so they get better offers the next year, also look at pitchers who switched leagues, or even divisions, when opposing teams don't do enough scouting, those pitchers usually get off too a good start, if not a good year, then the opponents catch up the next year... Pick teams to stay away from (just for pitching) the devil rays, royals, pirates, indians, nationals, those are teams that I think seem like they are atleast another year from being contenders, and as good as roger clemens was the last two years, he stunk in fantasy baseball cause he never got any wins, some other pitchers who had decent amounts of wins actually benefited more cause there stats were up...last couple things: find a preview of expert opinions on how defenses rank for the teams, better defense means less hits, and most likely better pitchers...if u get down to the end and need some more spots filled, find guys who were traded last year or this year, who u have heard of but didn't really shine, when they get the chance to start fresh they usually have a damn good first year with new teams...players im talking about are all mariners:gil meche (royals), joel pinerio (red sox, may work out as closer), chris snelling and Ermando Fruto (Nationals, fruto will defenitly be in the bullpen and is a flame throwing 22 year old, if he learns more pitches he'll be good, and for snelling, he's amasing but he's a risk, the mariners finally gave up on him...we called him up every single year to the bigs, and after about 4 or 5 games with a couple homers, batting .500 he'd get hurt and be out for the year, the mariners were tired of it, and gave him up, if he stays healthey, he'll be the nick swisher of this year) Rafeal Soriano (Braves i think, noone in seattle knows why we traded him, he has been lights out the last couple years, last year he hurts his abs, came back after a month, then got hit in the head with a linedrive, but if he is set in the right role, i say he'll be the adam wainwright of this year) lastly in Shin Soo-Choo (INDIANS) the m's called him up 2 years ago, and fans just dug him, he was the most athletic looking asian/korean and he was very clutch, plus its fun to say his name...anyways, we traded him last year, and after or 300 at bats for the mariners, he had only one homer, IT IS A PITCHERS BALLPARK, his first game on Cleveland he hit a walk off grand slam, and they love him, he really could be a consitant base hit OF for ur team....