IMO- Fantasy Baseball

Yes, I do play fantasy baseball I have since I was 12 years old. I am a 2x champ since that time. One of those years was when Alex Rodriguez came back after suspension and had a solid year. The next was just back in 2017. Its been a grind. Fantasy Baseball is honestly one of the hardest fantasy sports to play. I highly enjoy it, but not for the weak. The game itself is a daily task and is about making quick moves to the next guys and knowing who the next man up is. The fantasy baseball season is truly a chess match. I am currently in two Leagues, and I wanted to share my teams with you guys and keep you updated on what I am doing. For Fantasy Baseball, there are only two right platforms to play on. Yahoo and ESPN. There a few different types of scoring you can use for each. There are a few different roster setups you can you. There are even different ways to draft. Currently, in my ESPN league, which I have been in for many years now, we do an auction draft every year with five keepers. How these format works are during the offseason, each member selects five players on his team to keep going into the next year. The types of players that are saved are players who don't cost a lot. I look for players at my team and players who will be just as good as the year before, if not slightly better. I never keep a player who costs more than $5. The amount for the five players is taken out of your draft budget. Side note, we do not play with any real money. During the draft, each team nominated a player every round to bid. The team with the highest bid gets the player. My way to go about the selection is to look for value; I go after players who had a down year and seem to be on the upswing. For example, I drafted Giancarlo Stanton and got him for $19, which is worth it because I expect Stanton to have a good season. I also keep as much as I can for as long as I can so I can win bids on players I want in the later rounds after all the stars have gone. For scoring, it's a Head to Head system whoever wins that stat category gets the point at the end of the week. Then your overall record determines where you stand in the league. The next league I play in is a Yahoo, redraft league. I have been in this one for about three years. I love the people in the league. We have some true die-hard baseball fans, which I love, and it makes the league more competitive because you have people who care. With this league for the draft, its a snake format, so every team picks 1-8 the next goes 8-1. We do have more than eight people, however. The points for this format works differently as you have a weekly opponent, but you are scored on a basis where the record doesn't matter. The scoring is a sliding scale as daily it changes by what categories you are leading or loosing in. Some of my tips for Fantasy Baseball are as follows: find people who enjoy baseball and know baseball. The league itself will be more fun and engaging with trades and even talking about players. Hold your draft with audio; I wish we would do this year to start the trash talk. The selection is also a great time to catch up with league members, so make sure you attend and don't auto draft. NEW players try different platforms and find the one you like better and within that platform, find the format you want. For me, it took my league about five years to work out all the kinks. Be an active member, send trades, and talk trash. BE aggressive on the waiver wire daily to make sure you are getting the most out of your team. DO NOT go after your favorite players and DO NOT be afraid to go after players on a rival ball club of your beloved. DO NOT be scared to drop said player from your team if he isn't performing. DO NOT settle for average when there is always better available, don't get caught with big names who don't produce. TAKE your chance on rookies and guys who get called up. USE those short stints and spot starts to your advantage. If the player sticks on the team and does well, then you just scored. Lastly, remember that your team's foundation is built during the draft; the rest of the house is done through the season. Here are my teams for you to look at, but remember, I am NO expert. ESPN Team- C- Mitchell Garver, Salvy Perez, Wilson Contreras. 1B- Eric Thames, Joc Pederson. 2B- Starlin Castro, DJ LeMahieu, Cavan Biggio. 3B- Miguel Sano, Josh Donaldson. SS- Tim Anderson. OF- Bryce Harper, Giancarlo Stanton, Luis Robert, David Dahl, Yoenis Cespedes. DH- Kris Davis SP- Kyle Hendricks, Mackenzie Gore, James Paxton, Nate Pearson, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Johny Cueto. RP/CP- Taylor Rogers, Kirby Yates, Kenley Jansen. Yahoo Team- C- Salvador Perez. 1B- Jose Abreu. 2B- Whit Merrifield. 3B- Vald Guerro Jr., Matt Chapman. SS- Javier Baez, Xander Bogeartes, Jorge Polanco. OF- Mookie Betts, Tommy Pham, Jorge Soler, Yoenis Cespedes. DH- Shoei Ohtani. P- Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Julio Urias, Carlos Carrasco, Chris Paddack, Patrick Corbin, Corey Kluber, Marco Gonzalez. I am always making moves, and more than likely, these teams will look a lot different in a month. Like I said- its the foundation.