Put me in coach, but spoonfeed the gameplan to me!

February 26, 2009 7:39 PM

Help a fantasy baseball n00b not embarrass himself while not drowning in information.

I'm a fan of baseball, but I don't really know the players beyond the stars and studs. I figure getting involved in fantasy baseball will help with that. But, I don't have hours and hours available every night to pour over statistics and sports news.

I certainly don't expect to win. But I don't want to be the laughing stock of the league either. I want to be able to tell whether a trade is fair; I don't care to go to the point that I know whether my pitcher does better if he has pancakes for breakfast.

What are the best resources for me to spend maybe an hour or two per week?

For what it's worth, my league is one of the freebie 5x5 rotisserie leagues on cbssports.com. It's autodraft, so my question is really geared toward the rest of the season.

posted by jknecht to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 comments total)

While it isn't as Fantasy Baseball oriented as some publications, I recommend picking up a copy of Baseball Prospectus. The 2009 should have hit the stores recently. More than anything, it'll help you familiarize yourself with the players and how to tell whether a player is "good" or not and how likely there are to repeat performances. Their projection system, PECOTA, is great.

There are some other publications out there geared more for Fantasy in particular - - loads of Roto magazines can be found at your local Borders and are good for general information. Most of them will be of about the same quality, too. Useful to give you an overall rundown of who is good in terms of scoring systems, who to draft, etc.

Still, as an overall guide to players in the game, BP is (in most circles) the biggest and highly respected. They have comments written for each player - and summaries of teams, too - that should give you a pretty clear understanding. Good luck!
posted by HonorShadow at 8:06 PM on February 26

There are way too many variables to begin to give you a good answer. How many players in the league? Is it NL and AL? What is the scoring system? Is it head to head?

Since you probably won't know the answers to all of those, I'll give you the best advice I can. The highest value guys in fantasy baseball are guys who produce in more than one stat column. A guy like Hanley Ramirez (who I have ranked as a consensus top 3 pick overall) is so valuable because he hits for high average, racks up runs because he's a top of the lineup guy, steals bases, and hits homeruns. Compare him to a guy like David Ortiz who will no doubt hit more home runs than Ramirez, but his average will be much lower, as will runs scored and bases stolen.

Pitchers are a whole other story. I wouldn't select a pitcher until the 3rd round, unless you go after a serious ace like Johan Santana or Lincecum. Basically, you're going to want at least 5 starting pitchers, and at least 2 closers since most leagues track both wins and saves.

You also want to make sure you don't take 2 players who play the same position (except OF since you can have a few of them) because you can only start one at a time.

Here's a pretty decent top 100 players list.

And remember, have fun! Good luck buddy.
posted by DrDreidel at 9:51 PM on February 26

You should get your hands on the Baseball Prospectus 2009. It's basically the baseball bible, but would also work as a quick reference for vital information on each player.
posted by shannonigans at 9:59 PM on February 26

Two good strategy websites are Rotoworld and Rotoauthority. They're mostly free and have lots of information, stats, and advice. Hardballtimes is another, but it's more statty.

I also have a couple pieces of advice.

Don't fall in love with a guy just because he's a known guy. Garrett Anderson or Edgar Renteria might be around, but you can easily do better with someone like a Travis Snider or Elvus Andrews.

Getting multi-stat players is good, too, particularly outfielders.

Always look for new talent.

Don't be afraid to cut someone marginal if he's not producing and someone probably better is around. At the end of the year last year I cut Pat Burrell for Shin Soo Choo and it paid off nicely.

A huge element is luck. I won my league last year by getting lots of good unknowns, but for large portions of the year I didn't have a steady shortstop.

And yeah, have fun.
posted by world b free at 10:01 PM on February 26

I know that on Yahoo Sports, they'll indicate whenever a player on your roster has a newsworthy event. Making sure you log in each day and track those kinds of things is important to make sure that you're getting players in and out of the DL, or making sure you've got the right pitcher starting.
posted by saffry at 4:09 AM on February 27

Nth-ing Baseball Prospectus. It's a pretty good read. Also, have heard good things about the website Fangraphs and The Book.

I've played both fantasy baseball and football for years, but had to stop with baseball. I find baseball fantasy leagues a bit too time consuming. Remember: they play EVERYDAY from April to the end of September. It's a lot to follow.

I have some advice if you're not a regular fantasy sports player: Playing fantasy sports for the first time is like going to a gym the first time. You go in, and you might be intimidated that everyone in the gym seems bigger or more in shape than you. You have to keep in mind that everyone had to start somewhere and they probably weren't always that in-shape. You have to ignore your doubts and just go in and do your workout.

Same with fantasy sports. Everyone has been a fantasy n00b at one point, whether it was with football, baseball, or whatever. Alot of the stats, even in the sources I cited, don't mean a darn thing. What an athlete has accomplished in the past is not necessarily a guarentee they'll do that again. In the beginning, go with what you already know and move on from there. You have to start somewhere, and if you happen to make a mistake or a bad trade, then so be it. Experience is a great teacher. Just enjoy being in the league and do the best you can. Even if you're losing, the best part of being in a fantasy sports league is the trash talk with the guys you are playing with.

Have fun!
posted by PsuDab93 at 6:33 AM on February 27