10 Tips For Winning Your 2009 Fantasy Baseball League

Drafting Hanley Ramirez will definitely help you win your fantasy baseball league, but you need to know more before you draft than who the best player is.

To help you prepare for the draft, here are my 10 hottest tips. Fantasy Baseball Dugout, the top site for fantasy baseball rankings, has a full list of 50 tips to win your league in 2009.

If you'd like to get 40 more FREE tips to win your league, check us out.

Pick established players over potential stars

Everybody likes to brag about picking up that sleeper, but the hype is often bigger than the stats.

Evan Longoria is great, but he might be overhyped in your league.

Don't reach for him just because he was great last year.

Make sure you have one more closer than your nearest competitor.

You might not want to be the first person to draft a closer, but if you have 3 closers while everyone else in your league has 2, you can guarantee wins in the saves category every week.

Pick a player early in positions that are light, like second base or shortstop

Chase Utley and Hanley Ramirez are the top two players at second base and shortstop, arguably the thinnest positions in fantasy baseball.

You shouldn't reach for top players at these positions, but don't wait too long to get one of the best guys.

There are no favorite players in fantasy baseball.

Draft with your head, not with your heart.

Don’t move a guy up in your analysis because he got hot in spring training.

Just because Ryan Howard will feast on the prospects and non-roster invitees at Spring Training doesn't mean he has more fantasy value than Albert Pujols.

Don’t give away any 5x5 categories.

Many fantasy experts will tell you that you don't need to worry about steals or saves in your draft, not so. It is possible to draft all outfielders who will steal 20 bases.

While saves can be picked up during the season, you can also draft three incumbent closers and use your waiver wire moves on improved starting pitching.

In traditional Roto stats leagues, some statistics don’t matter.

An out is an out, so don't worry about drafting Adam Dunn.

Avoid young pitchers in the very earliest rounds.

They're prone to arm trouble.

Know which ballparks give up the most (and least) homeruns.

A player who changes teams in the offseason can see his fantasy value go up (Mark Teixeira) or down (Matt Holliday) based on his new stadium surroundings.

If you're picking between two hitters and one of them plays for Colorado, take the Rockie

They play 81 games at Coors Field.