Fantasy Baseball n00b

[DaKCMan AP]

I've never played fantasy baseball before. Didn't want to this year. Nonetheless, I joined one of my customer's leagues and the draft was last night.

It's a 12 team, head-to-head league.

I have no clue what I'm doing but I tried to employ a strategy of building a team with stronger hitters and didn't draft a pitcher until the (I think) 9th round and then not again until the 12th or 13th. The pitchers I targeted using a K/IP ratio ranking.

This is what I ended up with:

C - Matt Wieters, Bal
1B - Carlos Pena, TB
2B - Ian Kinsler, Tex
3B - Mark Reynolds, Bal
SS - Asdrubal Cabrera, Cle
OF - Curtis Granderson, NYY
OF - Josh Hamilton, Tex
OF - Desmond Jennings, TB
Util - Michael Bourn, Atl
Util - Drew Stubbs, Cin
BN - Edwin Encarnacion, Tor
BN - J.P. Arencibia, Tor
BN - Justin Morneau, Min
BN - Rafael Furcal, Stl

SP - Brandon Morrow, Tor
SP - Anibal Sanchez, Mia
RP - Matt MOore, TB
RP - Sergio Santos, Tor
P - Kenley Jansen, LAD
P - Javy Guerra, LAD
P - Neftali Feliz, Tex
P - Tyler Clippard, Was
BN - Eric O'Flaherty

How garbage is this team?

[cookster50]

Not a bad team. Of course, everything depends on categories used, but that doesn't look like a bad team.

[KChiefer]

Hard to give much advice or rate your team without knowing how it's scored, however I have the same starting spots/roster size/teams playing.

One thing I'd say is: Don't make any rash decisions and drop a highly rated player because he's struggling early.

I generally load up on pitching rather than hitting because you can rotate pitchers just as they do in real life. It also makes for more of a "set it and forget it," since you only need to set your pitchers every 3 days of so, if that's what you prefer.

With extra batters you simply don't have spots for them every day. Being able to pick match-ups day-to-day with your batters is nice but can really sting when you make the wrong decision.

For example, just my opinion but: I would move Arencibia for a SP or closer. Wieters is the better hitter period and play 139 games last year. Sure Arencibia can fill in when he's starting and Wieters is off(which can be tricky with game start times), or he can go utility occasionally, but that spot could be used to earn you pitching stats whether it be 1-2 starts per weeks or saves. In the end I'll take the 20-30 pitching appearances over Arencibia's 20-30 games at bat.

Catcher is kind of like TE in football to me. The elite ones are great to have, but you can live without one, and having two average ones will not make it an elite position for you.

Also, max waiver/FA moves is a big deal. Last year I was in a league with no max, so I made 100+ moves. Find a good pitching match-up, and swoop 'em, or grab a hot bat for a monday/thursday and see how it goes. This year my league is 56 max, meaning my moves have to really count.

Anyways, this is my 3rd year of Fantasy Baseball and LOVE IT!!!

[Hoover]

Not horrible.

My team is really struggling

C: McCann
1st: Pujols
2nd: Zorbst
3rd: D. Wright
SS: Dee Gordon
OF: Hamilton
OF: Choo
OF: Markakis
U: Youkilis

Bench: Maybin

SP: CC Sabathia
SP: D. Haren
SP: J. Lester
SP: Strausburg
SP: Scherzer

SP Bench: Billingsley, Liarino

RP: Hanrahan, Putz

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by KChiefer

Hard to give much advice or rate your team without knowing how it's scored, however I have the same starting spots/roster size/teams playing.

One thing I'd say is: Don't make any rash decisions and drop a highly rated player because he's struggling early.

I generally load up on pitching rather than hitting because you can rotate pitchers just as they do in real life. It also makes for more of a "set it and forget it," since you only need to set your pitchers every 3 days of so, if that's what you prefer.

With extra batters you simply don't have spots for them every day. Being able to pick match-ups day-to-day with your batters is nice but can really sting when you make the wrong decision.

For example, just my opinion but: I would move Arencibia for a SP or closer. Wieters is the better hitter period and play 139 games last year. Sure Arencibia can fill in when he's starting and Wieters is off(which can be tricky with game start times), or he can go utility occasionally, but that spot could be used to earn you pitching stats whether it be 1-2 starts per weeks or saves. In the end I'll take the 20-30 pitching appearances over Arencibia's 20-30 games at bat.

Catcher is kind of like TE in football to me. The elite ones are great to have, but you can live without one, and having two average ones will not make it an elite position for you.

Also, max waiver/FA moves is a big deal. Last year I was in a league with no max, so I made 100+ moves. Find a good pitching match-up, and swoop 'em, or grab a hot bat for a monday/thursday and see how it goes. This year my league is 56 max, meaning my moves have to really count.

Anyways, this is my 3rd year of Fantasy Baseball and LOVE IT!!!

Thanks for the feedback.

The league is head-to-head with the following scoring categories:
Batters Stat Categories: Runs (R), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), Batting Average (AVG)
Pitchers Stat Categories: Wins (W), Saves (SV), Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP)

Max. acquisitions per week are 6.

I chose to devalue starting pitching. Your SP that you draft early may only pitch once per week and if he has a bad outing you're ****ed with so much invested in that guy.

Instead I chose to draft better relief guys later in the draft who will get me strikeouts and saves. I focused on grabbing better batters. I figure if I can win each week in strikeouts and saves then my batters will make up the difference in sacrificing ERA/wins/WHIP from quality starters on other teams.

[cookster50]

I lean towards taking batters early also, although, I've moved more towards auctions. Much better in my opinion. However auctions take longer than drafts, but I do much better in my auction leagues than draft leagues.

[KChiefer]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

Thanks for the feedback.

The league is head-to-head with the following scoring categories:
Batters Stat Categories: Runs (R), Home Runs (HR), Runs Batted In (RBI), Stolen Bases (SB), Batting Average (AVG)
Pitchers Stat Categories: Wins (W), Saves (SV), Strikeouts (K), Earned Run Average (ERA), (Walks + Hits)/ Innings Pitched (WHIP)

Max. acquisitions per week are 6.

I chose to devalue starting pitching. Your SP that you draft early may only pitch once per week and if he has a bad outing you're ****ed with so much invested in that guy.

Instead I chose to draft better relief guys later in the draft who will get me strikeouts and saves. I focused on grabbing better batters. I figure if I can win each week in strikeouts and saves then my batters will make up the difference in sacrificing ERA/wins/WHIP from quality starters on other teams.

Fair enough. Your league's scoring is more traditional than mine. Last year my league had 18 scoring categories(9B/9P). This year it's 20, though having players that hit for cycle as a category is STUPID! My leagues have always had a slot for complete-games and one for shut-outs. The chance to steal an entire category or 2 with a shut-out raises the bar for having quality pitchers. I'm hoping Cliff Lee has another season pitching deep into games. BTW I dodged a huge bullet yesterday when Matt Garza got yanked after 8 2/3 .

Triples are also scored in my league. Dexter Fowler just hit waivers in my league and he's hit 29 triples the last 2 seasons. IMO that's one of those knee-jerk reactions, that I hope to swoop up, and drop Ryan Roberts. Although, by the numbers, I should drop Jose Bautista or Miguel Montero ****ERS!

One thing's for certain, having those Texas Ranger bats is not..too...shabby. I'm facing Kinsler/Young/Hamilton this week and HATING IT!