Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy: Complete Guide to Defeating Your Rivals

Before you dive into your fantasy baseball draft, there are a few things that you'll want to know in order to select a better team than anyone else in your league.

First of all, make sure that your first-round pick is all but a sure thing to produce in 2012. Players like Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera, Troy Tulowitzki, Robinson Cano, Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Joey Votto and Adrian Gonzalez are all pretty much guaranteed to put up big numbers, barring no freak injuries.

This should also hold true for the first four or five rounds as well. Don't worry about drafting players to fill positions until later in the draft, and make sure that you pick the best overall player until a specific position is starting to get picked frequently.

Also, make sure that you pick positional players earlier in the draft, as starting pitching is a very deep category, especially in today's age. Ace pitchers will still be on the board around rounds four and five, so it would be wise to snag all of the All-Star caliber positional players in the first few rounds.

And as far as pitching goes, one draft strategy that I have adopted is staying away from the closers whose jobs might be in jeopardy at one point of the season. Top-flight closers like Mariano Rivera, Heath Bell, Jonathan Papelbon, Jose Valverde, Carlos Marmol, Andrew Bailey and Brian Wilson will likely remain the closers for the entire season, regardless of the type of year they are having.

However, being the closer of an MLB team has very little job security. Closers lose their jobs mid-season all the time, so it's a very risky position to pick early in the draft.

If there are still some upper-echelon closers available in the eighth round, don't be afraid to draft them. However, it might be a wiser draft strategy to snag some of the setup relievers who are primed to take over the closer role if the original closing pitcher happens to struggle.

Plus, those setup men will likely be going in the later rounds, so it will allow you to draft other important positions instead of using those picks on closers.

Another key to drafting a good team is being aware of position scarcity.

There are very few shortstops who can put up big offensive numbers. Outside of Tulowitzki and Jose Reyes, the list of quality shortstops quickly drops off from there.

Some other positions that are scarce of talent are second base and catcher. It would be wise to draft quality players at these positions, and wait to draft first baseman and starting pitchers later in the draft, as those positions are extremely rich with talent.

But most importantly, always go with proven players over potential. There are always instances when it's better to go with the player with more upside, but it's always a risky decision to do so.

Unless your gut and brain both tell you to go with the unproven player with potential, always stick to the statistics and go with the player who has proven himself worthy in the past.