Fantasy Baseball Tools

by Todd Lammi

If someone handed you the fantasy baseball stats for the 2009 season right now, would you win your league, assuming it was a one year draft from scratch league? What if every team in the draft had the exact same stats as you did before the draft, how confident would you be that your team would still win the league?

There are so many web sites, magazines and talking heads out there that the information for fantasy baseball nowadays is almost as much “noise” as it is “news”. After awhile, all of the information tends to get lumped together. You have to assume that whatever projections for stats you have, the rest of the guys in the league have pretty similar projections also, minus a counting stat or two. The key then becomes knowing when you can obtain each stat.

A great way to do this is to have a mock draft; in fact several mock drafts.  You can go to a site like Mock Draft Central and join for a free a mock draft, review expert drafts that have already taken place or check out the results from previous drafts in their ADP (Average Draft Position) section.

Once you know the draft position of where you will be drafting, doing a mock draft gives you a great idea of what players will be available when it is your turn to pick. With so many of the online drafts now using a timer for each draft pick, it is critical to have a good idea of who you like once your choice is up so you don’t end up making an unwise hasty selection before the timer goes off, or even worse, the timer expires and the computer auto-drafts for you.

After you complete the mock draft, total up your team stats and compare them to the previous years standings to see where your team ranks in each of the categories. You should have a target goal of third place or better for each of the categories in order to finish in the top third of your league. By reviewing the stats, it will shed some light on categories you might be lacking in based on your draft position so you can adjust your strategy going into the real draft.

Remember though, that the real draft will in reality most likely differ quite a bit from the mock draft. Depending on who you do the mock draft with, people are less likely to pick their “sleeper” picks, instead letting them slide to see where another owner takes them to try and assess how other owners value a particular player they like.

I have heard many an owner after a draft exclaim something like, “wow, I cant believe so-and-so went in the 13th round, he went in the 19th round or later in all of the mock drafts that I did”. Be prepared to adjust throughout the draft as players you were hoping slide to to you don’t. There is no such thing as “sleeper” anymore in fantasy baseball. If you do your due diligence before the draft, you will be prepared come draft day.

The draft is not won in the first half of the draft; all of the teams look pretty similar on paper at that point. It is the last half of the draft where championship teams are built (in addition to the waiver wire and trades if your league has them). Understanding where the depth may be at a certain position late in the draft or where the second closer run will start midway through the draft is knowledge that can only be gained through doing a mock draft.

So give yourself a step up on your competition and start fantasy baseball mock drafting today. It will give you great insight into your drafting style and fantasy baseball draft strategy and puts you one step closer to bringing home your leagues fantasy baseball championship in 2009.