As I had promised in my intro post here I am to drop off a few tips if you are interested in fantasy baseball pools or are looking for tips on how to have a better fantasy baseball team. For the record, baseball pools are something I do in my spare time. It's one of my biggest hobbies. I'm not a pro scout, I don't work for any baseball team in any capacity, I'm just a baseball fan. For my first post I'll start with just an intro to getting into a league, getting a team drafted and making your way through a season. I'll talk a bit more about strategy in a later post.
I guess the first thing you need to do is join a league. There are plenty of leagues available every year and while most leagues start at the beginning of the season (or shortly before to get the league teams drafted) sometimes leagues start in the second half as well. If you don't know where to start all you really have to do is type "fantasy baseball" into Google (or whichever search engine you prefer) and a long list of options shall appear. While I am not here to plug any league or website I've been playing in Yahoo baseball pools for the last 4 years or so.
When choosing a league the first and maybe most important thing to be aware of is the point structure. If you do not understand the point structure you are doomed from the beginning. Basically you are going to encounter 2 types of leagues. You will have a points based league or Head to Head league. (H2H) Head to head leagues are basically when your team goes up against another team in your league and whomever has the better day kind of gets the win. I have little interest in these leagues and don't care for them too much, although I have considered joining one next year just to get a little more perspective and experience in them. The points leagues are where I love to play in. Points based leagues shall earn you points every day based on your batters and pitchers performances.
Basic points for batters will be for batting average, runs, rbis, stolen bases and home runs.
Basic points for pitchers are normally innings pitched, wins, saves, strikeouts and ERA.
Some leagues also go with some more advanced statistics as well, and it's important to be aware of these before picking your league. Here is where I'm going to be a little honest with you. One of my leagues I've been playing in for quite some time and I understand the rules and point structure very well and because of this I've finished in first place every single season. The other league I'm in, I'm the new guy and I just figured to myself well there is just a few more teams, how hard can it be? Well the point structure isn't quite as simple (i.e. 1 point for a single, 4 points for a home rune, 2 points for a strikeout) and because I don't have a firm grip on exactly how I'm going to get my points I'm doing very poorly. However, it can be expected when you join a new league to maybe not meet your expectations. It can be a learning curve. Sometimes a key player gets into a fluke accident and misses a huge chunk of the season. Just remember, baseball is a war of attrition. You have to pay attention every day to what is happening. Is someone injured and needs to be put on the DL? Is one of your superstars on a cold streak and needs to be put on the bench for a while? Just a few things to consider.
Team structure. Some leagues have a set number of batters and a set number of pitchers. The one thing in common is a couple of bench players. This can be the key to your season right here. Is your bench full of batters or pitchers? Every league I've personally encountered so far will have an innings pitched limit and a games played at each position limit (normally 162 except for the outfield which will be 3x162 for 486 games played. Most often there is also 1 or 2 utility spots as well for the batters) I would advise you to pick some bench players that are eligible for multiple positions. If you can have someone on your bench that is eligible for 1B,2B and SS or 1B, OF you will have room to juggle your roster on a daily basis in case a player is going to miss a few days due to the flue or a slight muscle pull that will have him miss 5 games or so but not make the DL. You will need manage that carefully. If your team looks like 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, OF, OF, OF and your bench looks like 1B, OF you could be in a lot of trouble only a week into the season. Yes those are the positions to be filled but most importantly it needs to be managed. The same goes for your pitching side. Yes you will need 4+ starting pitchers and 2+ relief pitchers. But on that bench if you can find a couple that are eligible as SP, RP you will have flexibility that you will require.
The disabled list can be a problem for a lot of people. It has caused me grief for sure this year with the introduction of the 10 day DL as opposed to the 14 day DL. So many guys are getting put on the DL because of a mild sprain or hamstring pull instead of just a few days off. Pitchers that managers think maybe need a bit of rest instead of just getting skipped in the rotation will get put on the DL so the team can call up a young guy from the farm and not disturb the regular pitchers rest cycle. Most leagues have only 2 or 3 spots available for your disabled list and while that seems like a lot trust me it isn't. It gets crowded really quick sometimes. The disabled list is great for 1 reason only. Your superstar outfielder just tore his thumb ligament and has to have surgery to repair it and will be out for 6-8 weeks. What do you do now? Well he goes on the DL and you get to pick up a free agent to fill his space. This is important because now he isn't filling your valuable bench space! You can pick up the guy that maybe you almost drafted or that hot rookie that you'd like to test drive for a little while and then drop him when your superstar is back in action. Leaving a guy that is on the disabled list in your lineup can lead you to getting behind on your games played at that position and can cripple your chances of winning or finishing in the top 3 at the end of the season.
Trading is a very important part of fantasy baseball as well. Personally for me it can be both my greatest strength and achilles heel at the same time. Structuring a trade can be very difficult though. Do you have an open dialogue with the other manager? Is he your biggest competition and doesn't exactly want to trade with you? Is he willing to move the player you want? Maybe you think you are offering a great trade, 3 players for 1....but then your trade may be putting him over the limit of players allowed and would have to drop players just to accept your trade. Maybe that works for him maybe it doesn't. Maybe your trade will leave the other manager with extra infielders but a shortage of outfielders. Trades have to work for both managers in order to be successful, otherwise you could be just wasting your time throwing out a bunch of trade offers everyone rejects.
I will leave you with a few of these opening thoughts for now. If you are new to fantasy baseball this alone will be enough to digest. In my next post I will talk about drafting a team, and more specifically how to pick pitchers and batters. Getting to know your competition. I'll even talk a little bit about in season strategies. I like to go with themes!
I hope you enjoyed reading my first real post. If you did , hopefully we will get to talk a bit more. I've always loved baseball since I was a little boy and that kid inside of me will never grow up!