Fantasy Baseball Draft: 10 Last-Minute Tips to Perfect Your Player Rankings

Perfecting your rankings in preparation for your fantasy baseball draft is far more important than you may consider.

Most fantasy managers, including myself, often think their knowledge trumps any inadequacies in their rankings, draft strategy and draft position. This, however, is most likely never true.

Being well prepared will never hurt you, and it will almost certainly broaden your chances of playoff glory.

In addition to tips on finalizing your rankings, I will also incorporate using your rankings within the draft along with draft strategy.

Utilizing the Right Resources

For those of you participating in live drafts, this is even more important. Those drafting online will have the Internet at their fingertips, but you still need to know what resources to use.

First, and far most important, are rankings. Rankings may differ from source to source, but they will relatively remain similar. You will alter your rankings to best fit your strategy anyways.

Most popular fantasy baseball leagues give you the ability to produce rankings based on your league's settings. If not, you need to understand how your league may differ from a particular ranking and the scoring it incorporates.

If the ranking you selected does not include ADP, you will need to obtain a separate ranking of ADP from the same source is possible.

After you have your rankings, you will need a cheat sheet. A cheat sheet is normally a compilation of non-specific rankings, 2011 statistics and projected 2012 statistics. When selecting which cheat sheet to use, make sure it is from a reliable source with years of fantasy baseball experience and experts' input. There are many inexperienced websites claiming to have viable cheat sheets and projections.

Last, but far from least, you need an updated injury report. There is nothing worse than calling out a name just to hear others chuckling at your selection.

ADP Is Your Friend

I cannot stress enough, time and time again, how important ADP is. ADP is a player's Average Draft Position, usually derived from a very large sampling of mock drafts.

When sculpting your rankings, and deciding what players in what round hold the best value, ADP is exactly what you will take into consideration. A player with an ADP of 125 that is available with your 175th pick tells you that the majority of fantasy baseball managers drafted him much earlier.
Granted, ADP is not always going to hold truth to the value of a player, but in most cases, the masses are right.

When deciding between two players, I advise drafting the player with a considerably better ADP, as he will most likely produce at the higher level.

When you use ADP as a draft tool, be careful not to take it too seriously. Often, players that are over-hyped will result in a higher draft position than they are worthy of.

With that said, ADP will not constitute the option to research players poorly. Do your research and form your own opinions; average draft position rankings are only a tool and should not shape your entire draft.

Learn the Lesser-Known Players

Chances are that every person will know the players within the first 15 rounds of your draft—at least they should. If not, try joining a more serious league next year.

For that reason, the hours leading up to your draft should be devoted to the lesser-known ball players. Not necessarily sleepers, but consistent players that will serve as a quality backup.

When drafting these backups, do not concentrate on any specific category such as power or speed. Concentrate on stability and reliability.

A player with a .275 average and even numbers across the board serves as a much better backup rather than a player with a .220 average and 10 more home runs. Odds say that the home runs will come while he sits obscurely on your bench, while his average hurts you the few times he plays. These players are not worth the risk unless your team is severely lacking in the power department.

Study the Ballparks

Knowing the specifics of the ballparks in which the players play is often widely overlooked. Although it may seem minimal, ballparks can have devastating effects on your fantasy team.

For hitters, avoid the pitcher-friendly parks they call home. For pitchers, avoid the short walls and humid air of hitter-friendly parks.

In addition to just avoiding the hitter-friendly parks for pitchers, you can dig even deeper. Don't be afraid of drafting a pitcher in the late rounds that plays half of his games in a pitcher-friendly park—despite his high ERA.

By using splits in statistics, you will find great value in the late rounds. For example, look at San Diego pitcher Tim Stauffer. In 2011, Stauffer finished the season with an ERA of 3.73—not exactly desirable. When looking further into his statistics, you will see that his home ERA was 2.97 in 15 games played. By slotting him into your rotation only when he plays at home, you have a dominant pitcher.

For your reference, here are the best hitter's parks and pitcher's parks.

Hitter's parks:

Coors Field (Colorado Rockies)
Rangers Ballpark in Arlington (Texas Rangers)
Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Great American Ball Park (Cincinnati Reds)
Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)

Pitcher's parks:

AT&T Park (San Francisco Giants)
Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays)
Petco Park (San Diego Padres)
Angel Stadium of Anaheim (Los Angeles Angels)
Safeco Field (Seattle Mariners)

Be Wary of Mid-Round Upside

One of the favorite topics prior to any draft is sleepers.

Although sleepers are fun to predict and study, they are quite a risk when ranking them highly or drafting them. Often, the players that arise through the ranks as viable fantasy options were not on most lists of sleepers.

Drafting and ranking sleepers is more of a lottery than it is anything else. When taking players with a lot of upside, you need to make sure that the risk does not outweigh the round you draft or rank them.

Avoid drafting sleepers until the 15th round. Sure, they may be worth the pick and turn into a top five pick, but the majority of the time they find the waiver wire sooner or later, wasting a valuable pick.

If you must draft a sleeper earlier than the 15th round, try to draft one of the few that have a floor underneath their upside. If you insist on the risk of getting burned, at least try to lessen the hurt.

Obey Your Ranks, Not Your Open Roster Slots

Of course, you do not want to finish your draft realizing you have left a position forgotten. On the same note, you do not want to spend much time on specific picks, targeting a single position.

Often, you will find that you build a much better team by drafting the best available player. Unless you already have an abundance of players at a position, there is no harm in selecting another if your league has a utility or DH roster spot. Not only are you getting the best value for your pick, but you are setting up your roster to have trading potential.

Certain positions have a lot of depth, such as first base and outfield. This depth often means that better players are available when other positions offer weaker options in the same round. If you find yourself selecting three outfielders in succession based off your rankings, there is no reason to worry your other positions will be weak.

If you find yourself falling short within certain positions, do not scramble to take a player earlier than he would normally be drafted and that is lower on your rankings. In the end, there is always the waiver wire.

Don't Be a Homer

Normally, we think of the term homer in regards to home runs. In this case, it refers to a person that selects players from his favorite team for no other reason than the team he plays on.

Most fans have blinded hopes and expectations for their team, making it very easy to select or rank players too early because of favoritism.

When compiling ranks or drafting a fantasy team, you must have an unbiased outlook. As a Red Sox fan, it pained me to call the name of CC Sabathia. But I know as a fantasy manager that CC is a very good second-tier pitcher that makes my rotation far better than Josh Beckett or John Lester would.

Along the same lines, fans tend to know a lot more about their team's young stars and late-round targets. This may not hurt a fantasy team as often, but drafting a young star simply because he plays for your team when there is a far better up-and-comer on another team can hurt you in deeper leagues.

Remember, your fantasy team and rankings should be a compilation of the best overall players, not the best hometown players.

Pay Attention to Trends

When ranking your team in accordance with how you would like to draft, paying attention to trends is a must.

While you know exactly what you will get out of the consistent hitters and the young stars who hit the scene quick, trends will help you decide what players are flukes and what players are on an upward climb.

When looking at pitchers, pay special attention to strikeouts and ERA. A pitcher with a steady ERA and rising strikeouts over at least a few years is more likely to produce at the same or a higher level rather than a pitcher who had his career season out of nowhere.

In regards to hitting, a steady average and rising power numbers are ideal. Some players will never have above-average power, but they should show progression in on-base percentage and runs.

Pitchers and hitters reaching the wrong side of 30 years should always have a caution flag unless they have shown zero regression and injury risks.

Position Eligibility Is Key

Rankings should always take position eligibility into consideration.

You may see players with less impressive numbers ranked above some power players, but these position gurus play a pivotal role in any league format.

During the weeks of the regular season, there are usually two to three days when you will find numerous empty slots amongst your roster. This is where position eligibility comes into play.

Players like Michael Young may not have the most eye-pleasing stat lines, but he will find a spot in your roster at numerous positions every day—allowing you to utilize your other players.

The lack of production is not much of a factor when you consider the idea that without these players, you may find an empty slot in your roster. This counts more for leagues with transition limits.

Lack of production from a utility player is always better than no production from an empty position.

Embrace the DL

The disabled list strikes fear into fantasy team owners every year.

When ranking your players for draft day, your decisions should not be altered by short DL stints to start the season. Keep injured players ranked where their history and projections put them.

You will often notice managers shying away from players starting the season on the DL. This could work to your advantage immensely.

As long as a player's injury is not putting the majority of his season in jeopardy, and he is only expected to miss a month or less, you should have no fear of finding great value in these ignored players.

Most fantasy baseball formats, especially head-to-head, are played by a week-to-week basis. Losing a minimal amount of production for a few weeks by drafting these great injured players is well worth the stats they will put up when healthy.

Pitchers must be monitored closely, though, as they often find injuries to lengthen their woes, causing you to lose ground early.

Follow me on Twitter for more fantasy advice @mitchcharette.