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Sports ArticlesFantasy Baseball Draft Strategies(By MDI of Sport Fanatics Fantasy Sports on 12-16-2006)
If you have been around fantasy baseball, or fantasy sports for that matter, everybody seems to have a favorite draft strategy that they follow. I will be discussing some of the more popular strategies that are being used in fantasy baseball today. Now before I begin, I will say that as odd as some of them may seem, all of these strategies are proven winners. How they are implemented, executed and the "expertise" of the other team owners will play a major roll in how successful each draft strategy is on the league you participate in. One other note, these strategies fit most scoring methods, but are being written with the typical 5 X 5 rotisserie baseball league in mind. Without further delay, here are some of the most popular fantasy draft strategies that are in use today.
The Position Scarcity Strategy - This strategy basically drafts the best players possible in the early rounds of the draft in positions that have few star quality players. Examples of position scarcity may include catchers, third base and second base. Once the positions with few star players have been chosen, the fantasy player usually looks for the best value picks, but always is looking at position scarcity of the remaining players that can be drafted. Positions like outfielders, first base and starting pitchers are often chosen later in the draft because there is a much larger pool of quality players at these positions.
The Balanced Team Strategy - This strategy is where you are drafting your team to be as balanced as it can be in all batting and pitching scoring categories. You are not trying to win any of the scoring categories, but you want to place in the top four of all of the scoring categories. You start out by drafting as many players as possible that score well in four or five of the scoring categories. You also try and blend in batters and pitchers, with the mix being slightly more batters drafted than pitchers, but not many more. You hold to this strategy through the first 8-10 rounds. The next five rounds are crucial to fill any holes in where you may be a little weak in a scoring category. After the holes are filled you then go back to drafting the best "all-around" players and shy away from players who only score good in one or two categories.
Highest Rated Player Strategy - This strategy takes a lot of preparation, in that you are ranking your players from highest to lowest regardless of position. Once you have done this, you draft the highest rated players on your draft board, without any care for what position they play (within reason). The theory behind this strategy is that you are drafting the very best players and you will trade with other owners after the draft is completed to fill any glaring holes at a particular position. Using this method you may have the best overall talent, but you may be deficient at a few positions.
Hitters Revenge Strategy - In this strategy you draft only hitting through the first 10 rounds of the draft. The hitters you are drafting during the first five rounds are 4 and 5 tool players. Rounds 6 through 10 you will be picking the best batters in a given category like steals or home runs, wherever you think you are the weakest. Once your offensive starters have been drafted at all offensive positions, you will then draft the best available pitchers concentrating on pitchers that have the best combination of ERA, WHIP and saves. You draft very few starting pitchers unless you see a starter with good ERA, WHIP and high strikeout total. By the 11th round you will not find many of these starting pitchers around, but if you do make sure to draft them.
Give Up or "Punt" a Category Strategy - Using this strategy you basically give up on one of the scoring categories and concentrate on the other scoring categories. For hitters, stolen bases are often the category that is "wasted" or given up. For pitchers, saves is often the category that is given up. We do not recommend that you start your draft using this strategy, but if by the middle of the draft you see yourself falling into this strategy, recognize it and use it to your advantage. Concentrate your remaining draft picks to strengthen the scoring categories you want to score high in.
These are some of the more popular strategies used today. If at all possible, try and join a few mock drafts prior to your leagues real draft. In these mock drafts try a few of the strategies that were mentioned above and see which one bests fits your style of play. Good luck with all your fantasy draft endeavors.
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