Fantasy Baseball: Six Tips on Drafting a Competitive Team

Spring is in the air. Pitchers and catchers report this week, and most areas of the country are getting a bit of a thaw from the bitter cold that was the month of January. With sign-ups starting on various websites, fantasy baseball is getting into full swing.

After you get the gang back together for another year and come up with an insulting name that degrades a player, team, or league-mate (inclusive of sisters, brothers, or children as warranted), the most important thing you can do is begin to look at your draft. 

Draft day is the best part of any league. Sure, trades are fun, and we all get excited over free agent signings, but draft day is what it's all about. Magazines and websites would be out of business if not for the fun that a draft brings with it. Google "Fantasy Baseball 2009 Rankings" and see what I mean.

Everyone has an opinion. Some are right, some are less informed, but they all have a place in the fantasy baseball blogosphere.

How does an owner weed through all this information and draft a competitive team?

Let's take a look at some basic advice that every owner needs to know in order to start the season in a position to win.

Be Prepared 

Simple, but not any less true. Owners need to go into their draft understanding the rules of that specific league, as well as what positions they need to fill. Walking in without realizing you need two catchers or you need any nine pitchers (not necessarily SP vs. RP) changes your approach to a draft.

Every league when set up has a rules page. Read it over to make sure you understand exactly what's going on before making your first pick.

Second, rank your players.

Almost as important as knowing all the rules is preparing yourself with the information you need for a draft. Websites abound with rankings that give status by position and nearly any other breakdown you could want. Even better, there are very few gigantic swings in the top 50.

Sure, the latter piece to those rankings may differ slightly, but the top half is going to remain remarkably constant, with variation only coming by one to three slots. That helps develop your personal base. Take multiple rankings and synthesize them into your own personal list.

If you are using a website, many will allow you to load in your own rankings. It's a good idea to do this for at least the first 50 to 100 players on your own list, or the top 10 to 12 at each position. It will give you a quick reference guide when your turn is coming up as to what you should be looking to do.

I feel you can never read too much information. Check the web and look for outside-the-box thinking. Beyond your normal haunts and the major websites, there are some fantastic fantasy-based sites. Twitter is a fantastic resource to help find them in a collective.

Know Your League 

Personalities do a lot to dictate a draft. Whether you're in a seasoned league with owners that feel they know everything or filled with first-time drafters, owners are best to know their competition's tendencies.

How do you figure that out? There are a few ways.

Many owners have trouble leaving emotion at the door. Most of my friends are based in the Boston area. I can't tell you how many refuse to draft any Yankees. Certainly, there is sometimes a premium associated with drafting these players, but I've talked to several readers in the area that have seen Alex Rodriguez slide to seven because of his affiliation (prior to the 'roids accusation).

Remember, especially if there is more than pride involved, your ultimate goal is to win. There may be players or teams you don't like, but checking that emotion makes you a better owner.

I tell many people that even when a player is going against a favorite team, they can have success while your rooting interest still wins. Pitchers pitch well and sometimes get the loss or have the bullpen fail them. A batter can knock three hits without causing too much damage as well.

Another key can be the "lemming" mentality. We'll talk about runs on positions in a bit, but this relates directly to that. Some owners are very prone to following the crowd and not wanting to be left out. 

You know the first guy to draft a defense or kicker because "he wants to get the best one?" It's the same guy that will draft the first pitcher, catcher, and closer. You'll be able to tell pretty quickly.

Just know where to draw the line with yourself, and you'll have some success stealing players that others in your league just won't touch. 

Don't Take Chances Early

We'll break down tiers in drafts at another time, but owners need to understand the proper time to take a risk.

Whether you're drafting fantasy football, baseball, basketball, or cricket, the early rounds are not to be messed with. Approaching the draft, owners need to understand that the first five rounds or so should consist of sure things.

This is not the time to reach for a favorite player or take a flyer on an injury risk. Players taken early are the building blocks of any good team. There is, without a doubt, a measure of consistency to the top 60 players listed in most drafts.

Whatever you are looking to grab, whether it be wins, average, steals, or home runs, the first rounds have that for you. How do you know you're reaching or a player isn't a sure thing?

Simple.

When you go to say the name or click the draft button, do you hesitate? If you do, your gut is telling you that something is wrong. At least in taking that player as early as you are. Listen as much as you feel you can.

Pay Attention to Runs on Positions 

This serves both as a warning and a piece of advice.

We've discussed in different pieces that certain positions are thinner than others, and that some are prone to having "runs." What's a run? Think about it as a series of picks close together that focus on one of these positions.

Where do we tend to see them? Closers and starting pitchers are the most likely places, but there have been drafts recently that have seen them in the middle infield as well as at catcher (to a more limited degree).

Knowing this fact is one piece; the other is understanding how to use it to your own advantage. In discussing relief pitchers, we went over how it is possible to win saves without moving early on an elite closer. This is still very much the case, and it goes to the rules in your league.

If you can mix and match pitchers, you're at more of an advantage using minimal closers (who target mainly one category) and leveraging more starters (who put up enough innings to impact four of five standard pitching categories). Not just that, closers such as George Sherrill and Brandon Lyon are being found late in drafts.

Runs on closers need to be monitored so you aren't shut out from a top-15 player, but you don't have to overreact to them either. It doesn't make enough material difference to your weekly statistics. Convince yourself you don't need a top-five closer, and you bought yourself three to four rounds in your draft from having to think about it.

Elite starters go early, but the middle-tier starters tend to go in bunches. Since we advocate building a rotation in the middle rounds, these movements are more important in our estimation. Reactionary or anticipatory moves are often needed.

Entering somewhere around the eighth round, if you see two to three starters come off the board in a row, you should look at the next five to seven names once it comes to your selection.

Can you live with any of those guys? Do you like what rounds out the top 10 remaining? If you're concerned about some of the names, it's time to draft a pitcher (potentially two).

I have no issues with taking pitchers back-to-back in the middle rounds; that's how you get a decent rotation.

As far as the middle infield, remember that it's more shallow than you would expect. You'll see a few second basemen come off the board quickly, followed by a lull.

CrookedPitch.com put up a great piece on the depth at second base and some key players. Check it out. Also, tweet @jasoncollette and @fakebaseball for other perspectives on second base.  

Build Depth in the Middle of the Draft 

Once the stars are off the board, building overall roster depth should become a priority. As you explore rounds seven through 15 or so, keep a keen eye on positions you need to address. Even more important than positions, though, are categories. 

Categories can be addressed more through offense than through pitching. Certainly, there are pitchers that can address strikeouts or saves, but ERA, WHIP, and wins during any given week can fluctuate greatly. 

Hitters, though, tend to be more steady than not. A .300 hitter is usually a .300 hitter every month of the season. Sure, there are bound to be highs and lows to the trend, but the curve of a season is relatively stable across more hitters than not.  

Even more so, most historical data can serve as a reliable predictor of future success in terms of power numbers. 

We build depth at pitching by adding starters and relievers based on expected value in wins and historical data on average statistics coupled with injury risks, age, and other factors.

Depth is built in the lineup by drafting players that address specific categories or are expected to perform reasonably well across several offensive measures. Think players like Magglio Ordonez as someone that can fill power categories or a player such as Jacoby Ellsbury that would target more a single category. 

Neither is a star, but each will help you attack and build depth in your outfield. 

Value Versatility 

Positional scarcity drives players up draft boards as much as hype. What tends not to push players up as quickly is eligibility. Sometimes, that just doesn't make sense. 

Many leagues have a limited number of bench slots. Owners need to take advantage by maximizing the utility at each reserve spot. Mark DeRosa may not be the best second basemen, but he needs to be looked at differently because he's eligible at two, three, or, in some leagues, four different positions. 

Drafting a player such as this gives you the flexibility to add that extra outfielder for some power or that extra pitcher for a few more wins while maintaining some lineup integrity. Never a bad thing. In leagues with daily lineup changes, that can make a marked difference over the course of an entire season. 

Draft for Upside

This section may well also be called sleepers. I'm just not a fan of that term right now. All over the internet, there is talk about sleepers. Problem is, each site is identifying similar players (don't worry, we will too). Once a player is talked about enough, they no longer become a sleeper. 

In fact, some players are being talked about so much that there is no way they can live up to the hype and are now being over-drafted. That list can certainly consist of, at a minimum, Nelson Cruz and Matt Wieters.  

To get either of these players, you are now going to have to sacrifice a much safer or more conventional pick at a very early stage of the draft. For many owners, going this route isn't appetizing. 

So, drafting for upside becomes the way to go. 

Upside players are similar to those we have discussed that may have had a down year in 2008 for a variety of reasons. Others may be on a steady growth pattern and ready to take off. 

Regardless of the reason, these players should be explored in the latter third of a draft, basically in direct relation to the sleeper-type picks. Who fits this bill? Check out some answers here. Still others can be found here. 

Keeping these six points in mind will help you with the basics of drafting a competitive team. They can all be taken to any league with any type of owner. It's all in their application and your feeling as an owner that will help you best draft your own team. 

Collin Hager is the writer of The Elmhurst Pub Roundtable. You can get your fantasy questions answered by sending an email to [e-mail]. He's also on Twitter @TheRoundtable.