Free Fantasy Baseball Draft Advice: Rotisserie Draft
Free Fantasy Baseball draft advice for a standard, round-robin rotisserie draft. We here at Fantasy Baseball Bastards have developed time-tested fantasy draft strategies that have proven to kick our opponents' collective ass. And to be fair, not only have we each implemented fail-proof draft strategies, we've also watched others in our leagues over the years fail miserably in their fantasy drafts, then watched their crappy teams go down in flames. Truth be told, we've all had those drafts where nothing went right and anyone you actually had on your team who you wanted ended up spending the year on the DL. We've all been there, but we're here to tell you the best ways to dominate your league.
Free Fantasy Draft Advice Step 1: Draft Solid Starting Pitchers Early
We all remember the days when we made sure we drafted the hard-to-fill positions first: a power-hitting Shortstop; a Catcher who hits for a high average, etc. These days, great pitching rules real baseball, and great pitching also rules Fantasy Baseball.
The best, free fantasy baseball advice we can give you is to draft the best pitchers you can as early as they're available. There's nothing worse than watching your offense mash the ball all week, only to watch your scrubby, 4th-tier pitchers stink up the joint. You need reliable starting pitchers first - we're talking drafting the best pitchers in the first 3-5 rounds, depending on how early everyone else drafts pitchers.
Once you see that the only starting pitchers left all have an ERA over 3.50 and a WHIP over 1.20, that's when you want to back away...
Keep an eye on your opponents' rosters, and keep an eye on the starting pitchers still available in the draft. Once you see that the only starting pitchers left all have an ERA over 3.50 and a WHIP over 1.20, that's when you want to back away from the starting pitchers. At this point, you may want to draft a reliable, non-injury prone, top-tier reliever who racks up Strikeouts and Saves (if there's one available after the starters are gone). Regardless, starting pitchers with an ERA approaching 4.00 and a WHIP at or above 1.20 are a dime-a-dozen. You can draft more pitchers later on in the draft.
Sample Pitching-Heavy Draft from the Early Rounds of 2012
Using the above, pitcher-heavy draft strategy, one of my teams ended up with the following players in the first 10 rounds:
(5th pick in the draft) 1. Clayton Kershaw 2. Jacoby Ellsbury 3. Cliff Lee 4. Matt Cain 5. Michael Young 6. John Axford 7. Jonathan Papelbon 8. Rickie Weeks 9. Michael Bourn 10. Adam Wainwright
I also drafted Ricky Romero in the 12th round and Brandon McCarthy in the 23rd round - my pitching was as solid and as reliable as pitching can possibly be in fantasy baseball.
As a sidenote, I was also able to pick up Chris Sale and a handful of excellent relievers along the way, which allowed me the freedom to trade Cliff Lee and John Axford (thank God!) for Prince Fielder, Carlos Gonzalez and Kenley Jansen... worked out pretty well, I must say.
Keep in mind, the above draft was in a private league that we've kept pretty consistent for the past 20 years. In public leagues (i.e.: Yahoo, CBS Sports, ESPN, etc.), I was even more hawkish on starting pitching, which caught all the other morons in the league off-guard.
The best part about drafting for great pitchers early is that, once your opponents in the league start to 1) see your loaded pitching staff, and 2) start to see that there are only a couple of elite pitchers left, it throws them off their game and they end up drafting their teams out of a panicked reaction rather than sticking to a gameplan. Once they panic and start drafting pitchers out of fear that the only pitchers left will be meat-throwing, 4.00+ ERA-having scrubs who couldn't strike out a blindfolded Mark Reynolds, that leaves you to draft plenty of position players that they're suddenly forced to neglect.
Last season, while my opponents were scrambling to find quality pitchers (thanks to me hogging them all up), I was able to draft Joe Mauer, Jimmy Rollins, Freddie Freeman and David Freese in the later rounds, so it all worked out well.
The first player ever drafted in our fantasy baseball league was none other than Howard Johnson, the former shortstop for the New York Mets. He was a power-hitting shortstop with speed - a legitimate 30-30 guy back before everyone was able to do it. Truly an invaluable asset, and, at the time, totally worth the #1 overall pick in 1992 (even though he stunk up Shea Stadium and the Disabled List all season, but at draft time, he was mathematically totally worth it).
Then along came steroids, HGH, expansion and watered-down pitching, and suddenly every second baseman was launching home runs like they're freaking Dave Kingman.
These days, baseball players have evened back out - at least with the resurgence of great pitching over the past 4-5 seasons. So when do you draft those hard-to-fill positions: catcher, shortstop and second base?
While pitching is ruling fantasy baseball (and real baseball), we're still recommending that you draft all the great pitchers you can as early as you can get them. Nonetheless, there are some players you just have to grab. For instance, taking Jacoby Ellsbury last season in the second round was something I just couldn't pass up. A guy who hits for a high average, suddenly learned how to hit for power, and steals 50+ bases (let alone 30+ bases!) - getting him in the second round was a total no-brainer. Of course, I got burned by the injury bug with him, but still, like HoJo in 1992, Ellsbury was totally worth the look-what-I-got draft pick in the second round.
Fantasy Second Basemen and Catchers Are Loaded Right Now...
Honestly, the hard-to-fill spots of second base and catcher are so loaded right now that you can actually afford to wait to draft either one.
The catcher position is absolutely jam-packed with offensive talent right now. Buster Posey should go in the first two rounds, for sure, and after that, there's a huge field of quality catchers who can help your fantasy team on offense. Check out the quick list (in no particular order):
Buster Posey Joe Mauer Yadier Molina Miguel Montero Carlos Santana Mike Napoli Victor Martinez Matt Wieters
Now check out the emergency list of catchers who you can draft when the guys above are all gone:
AJ Pierzynski (good luck having a year like that again) Ryan Doumit (29 walks to 98 strikeouts makes us nervous) Carlos Ruiz (suspended) Brian McCann Jarrod Saltalamacchia (.222, 25 HR, 59 RBI) Wilin Rosario (this guy may be a top-3 catcher this season) John Jaso (Watch this guy: more walks than Ks is a good sign)
That's 15 catchers that are all good enough to start for just about any fantasy baseball team, and there are a few more who will get a fantasy roster spot, too.
Quality fantasy second basemen are everywhere these days, too. As Buster Posey is to catchers, Robinson Cano is to second basemen. And like the catcher position, if you don't get the #1 guy, don't worry. We're counting roughly 100 more second basemen who can start for just about any fantasy baseball team. We'll let you do your own research on the second basemen, but we'll just throw some quick names out there:Aaron Hill, Marco Scutaro, Brandon Phillips, Dustin Pedroia, Ian Kinsler, Jason Kipnis, Danny Espinosa, Dan Uggla, Chase Utley, Jemile Weeks, Rickie Weeks, Gordon Beckham... there are more, but you get the point. Second base may not be as loaded as the catcher position, but you still have a lot to choose from come draft day.