20 February 2012
How do you know if your team will win? Simply put, you want the best players on your team, and having the best team will win (most of the time). It is the joy and pain of sports in general. Fantasy sports are no different in this case. The better your team is, the better chance you have to win.
The first thing you have to accept when looking at your fantasy baseball team is that it is NOT perfect. With 10 teams, you are going to have a few positions on your team where you don’t have great players and you are going to have to get lucky or attempt a trade .
Hit the title/read more to take a look at each stat categories and the players that get them...
What a typical fantasy baseball lineup will look like
Roster
For the sake of conversation, let’s use the following basic roster settings: C, 1b, 2b, 3b, SS, OF, OF, OF, Util and SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P, with BN, BN, BN.
I’ll assume that if you are playing fantasy baseball then you know what each position’s abbreviation is, but for the sake of rookies let’s clarify a little. Util is a utility batter. Similar to a Designated Hitter in baseball, they don’t have to have any specific fielding position, just any batter will do. Next up SP= Starting Pitcher, RP = Relief Pitcher, BN = Bench player (can be a batter or a pitcher).
Batters
So let’s take a quick look at the positions to give you a basic of idea of the expectations you should have for your team.
Catcher (C) is vital on any real baseball team, they are ones relaying the calls for the coach to the pitcher and calling the shots. In fantasy baseball, the are one of the least important positions. You have already drafted, but if you don’t have a top C, don’t worry, b/c very few Catchers play as well as the rest of the batters. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make sure you have the best C as possible, but if they bat .275 or better, then you are getting all you need out of them.
Generally speaking, 1b and 3b are considered Power Positions. You look to get players that hit 30+ HRs and have around 100 RBI at your first base and third base positions.
Oppositely, 2b and SS are less power and more R, AVG, SB positions. Again, you want to aim to have the best players possible, and if you have a HR/RBI SS like Troy Tulowitzki you are just ahead of the curve with your team.
Now lets look quickly at OF and Util. For these positions, you really want to have a good mix of power and speed. Most teams will get their SB stats from their OF.
There are typically 3 types of batters in fantasy baseball: Speed guys, power guys, and combo guys. Speed guys give you a lot more SB, R, and hopefully a high AVG (think Ichicro Suzuki). Power guys are going to give you a lot more HR, RBI, and hopefully a high AVG (think Albert Pujols). If you find a rare player like Matt Kemp, who can give your team 30 HR & 30 SB, then you have a combo guy.
The last roster spot is BN, which stands for bench. These spots, usually between 3-7 depending on your leagues roster settings, are for back up batters or pitchers. I highly recommend filling the majority of your BN spots on SP. Why? Because 1-2 day’s worth of SP stats per week holds much more value than 1-2 days of back up batter stats.
That doesn’t mean you don’t want any bench batters. Try and have 1 OF on your BN, and maybe a quality multiple positional player (ex: 2b, SS, 3b, OF) like Omar Infante. That way you really don’t have a bunch of bench batters wasting roster spots.
Never, ever ever ever use a BN spot on a backup C. They are the weakest batter position, so you never need 2. But remember, BN spots are better used if they are used on SP.
Pitchers
Many teams make the mistake of mis-judging the value of pitching.
Remember, it is a 5x5 scoring system. So half of your stats come from pitchers, which means they are an equally important part of your team.
Most important thing to know about pitchers in fantasy baseball: SP typically pitch 6+ innings per game, one or 2 games a week. RP will pitch 1 inning per game and maybe 3 or 4 times a week. So that automatically makes SP more important as RP. Why? Because SP will give you more IP, thus more stats, every season.
Another way to compare: the best SP typically has 200+ IP per season, compared to the best RP typically have 70 IP per season. So that makes them almost 3 times as valuable than RP. But, RP contribute Saves, and SP does NOT! So that means they hold the S category all on their own. You should NOT ignore Saves; try to win every category you can.
[what a typical pitching roster looks like-clearly needs help]
Starting Pitchers, SP
The first think you should now be asking of yourself is “what are you looking for from pitchers?”
The ideal SP has a low ERA (think anywhere from 2.00 - 3.25), a low WHIP (think anywhere from 1.00 – 1.20), and as many strikeouts as IP (this stat is called K/9, which means total strikeouts / IP, the ideal SP has 8+ k/9 rate).
A mistake fantasy players make with SP is searching for Wins. No one can predict a Win, b/c no matter how well a SP pitches, his team still has to score runs, more runs than he allows.
Because this stat is so unpredictable; you’ll want your SP’s to be on a better team. Meaning if you are comparing 2 identical SPs, then the one on the winning team has a slight edge over the one on the losing team.
A great example of this is looking at Roy Halladay vs. Felix Hernandez. In real baseball, these 2 are 2 of the best SP, just as they are in fantasy. But if you asked me which one I want on my team, I would choose Roy Halladay because he has a greater opportunity to win on the Phillies whereas Hernandez doesn’t have as great of an opportunity to win b/c the Mariners just don’t win a lot of games (sorry Seattle).
Relief Pitchers, RP
In a 10-team league, every RP you have on your team should be a closer (relief pitchers who pitch at the end of games to protect their team’s lead till the end, thus the title of “closer”).
The difficult thing about closers is that you never know when or how often they are gona pitch. The other annoying attribute of closers is inconsistency. We only expect 1 thing from them: Saves.
And when they blow a save (lose the lead for their team), it is infuriating.
Plus when your RP gives up 1 run, it really looks bad b/c they only pitch 1 inning per game (most of the time). To show you the math, 1 run in 1 IP is a 9.00 ERA. Do not let their high ERA or WHIP scare you, 1 bad outing doesn’t affect your stats anywhere near as much as a bad SP outing.
Optimize your Pitching roster spots
Quickly, let’s look at your roster settings again. For example, if we use the SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, P, P, P format we discussed earlier you have 3 SP, 2 RP, and then 3 P spots on your team.
I would advise that you try to fill the P position filled with RP’s (closers) so you can maximize the amount of saves you get. RP are fairly easy to find on your Free Agent (FA) or Waiver Wire b/c closers lose their job fairly often and then get replaced by someone else.
But you still want to have as many SP as your roster would allow you to have (remember to use BN spots for extra SP). But let me say that quality is just as, if not more important than quantity when it comes to SP. So if you are looking at your team, try to have 2 top 20 SP, another 2 consistent guys (top 40), and then anywhere from 2-5 closers on your team.
If you can get lucky enough to have more quality SP, then by all means do so.
Streaming SP’s
If you just don’t have quality SP, then you can utilize a strategy called “streaming”. Streaming SP’s is when you have a few SP on your team that you pick up and swap in and out of your team from the FA or Waiver Wire.
This strategy is only advisable if you are willing to spend around10 minutes a day looking for the next day’s best SP matchups. And a lot of times you find the best match up but the SP lets you down b/c they aren’t the best quality SP.
It’s a hit or miss method of succeeding in the Pitching categories for fantasy baseball. It takes time, and a whole lot of patience (something I do not possess), so try “streaming” at your own risk. Most leagues allow it, but sometimes you will find that people frown upon it because it is a loophole to having quality players on your team. But, it is a game, so do what you have to do to have fun and win.
Let’s recap…
- Learn your league’s scoring format and your roster make up…
- Maximize your roster…Try to have the best players in each of your batting positions…
- Don’t worry if your Catcher isn’t great, and let the rest of your team make up for it…
- Make sure your team is balanced with HR/RBI batters, and AVG, SB, R batters…
- Make sure you have a solid SP staff…
- Don’t be afraid to stream SP if you do not have good SP’s, just make sure that you have a great batting team if you are going to stream SP…
- Try to get 5 reliable closers for your RP and P roster slots…
Now you have all the basics. I gave you all the details I could while not boring myself along the way. If you have any questions, please comment and I will get back to you.
