Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year

A New Season. A New Year to Dominate … MOTY-Style

February 12, 2009 — Welcome to the 2009 edition of Fantasy Baseball Manager of the Year! We’re glad to have you join us. And if you’re a returning subscriber, we’re stoked to have you back! You’ll find the same great MOTY tools. At the same great price … just $9.99.

Now, if you already stopped by this year, you likely saw that we had posted “Early Bird” projections for 950+ players. That number is now up to 1,450+ players, reflected in updated rankings, ComboCats and Talent Tiers. We'll continue updating them throughout the spring, but go ahead and dig in, check ’em out and start getting ready for your 2009 drafts.

Before you do, though, want to talk about … football.

We know, we know. Pitchers and catchers report through the weekend, starting today with the Indians and Red Sox. And football’s over. But watching that Super Bowl, we couldn’t help but think about the upcoming 2009 fantasy baseball drafts. (BTW, congrats to the Steelers, and one hell of an effort by the Cardinals, too). Seriously. SB XLIII unleashed a lot of pent-up excitement, was a lot of fun to watch, and offered a lot of unexpected twists and turns. But in the end, it all came down to 2 minutes. Give or take. In a rapid-fire succession of gut-check action.

Just like every pick you make in every round of your draft.

Point being, if you’re not prepared for those 2 minutes, you ain’t gonna win. Simple as that. So, as we do every year, we’re kicking off 2009 with an updated version of our annual, two-part “Dominate Your Draft” MOTY Talks. Below, Part 1 lists some broad-stroke tips about drafting. A great starting place for fantasy baseball newcomers. While Dominate Your 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Part 2, coming Saturday, offers tips on how to specifically use the MOTY site to prep for your draft. Excellent for everyone to get up to speed on MOTY’s research tools.

Dominate Your 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Part 1

Things to remember and consider (in a 5x5 league) as you prepare for your the most exciting, most critical day of your 2009 fantasy baseball season:

• Every home run = 3 fantasy points (run, hr, rbi). Every stolen base = 1 fantasy point (stolen base). That’s not to say you should punt stolen bases. Far from it. sb’s are very valuable … just not as valuable as hr’s. (In 4x4, every home run = 2 pts. In SABR, ixnay on the omerunhay.)
• In the entire history of baseball, no player has ever stolen a base or scored a run without first getting on base. Translation: “Beware the low obp guys!”
• You’re not drafting your “final” team, you’re drafting the “foundation” of your team, a strong mix of players fitting your strategy, a solid core that will give you flexibility to maneuver in trade talks and free agency moves once the season starts.
• Injuries WILL happen (Carpenter, V. Martinez, Furcal and Byrnes in ’08) and Studs WILL bust (Big Papi, Peavy, Rollins, Verlander last year). Happens every season, it’ll happen this season. Draft with this in mind — no matter what strategy you take, try to have more than one solid guy eligible at each position, because predicting injuries is tricky at best.
• Like it or not, luck plays a major role throughout the fantasy season. There’s an adage that essentially says you make good fortune shine on you by being in the right place. In fantasy baseball, nothing puts you in the right place like the MOTY System. You’ll hear other managers say how lucky you are to draft all the right guys. It’ll be less luck and more MOTY than they’ll ever know.
• In ESPN and Yahoo! leagues, pay NO attention to post-draft league standings — more often than not, they’re based on last year’s final stats. Of course, if you really think Brad Ziegler will post a 1.06 era in 59 2/3 innings again, B.J. Upton will only hit 9 hr and Justin Verlander lose 17 games in ’09, by all means, put credence in your post-draft, pre-season league standings … then panic, thinking you have to make dramatic changes to your roster and make stupid pre-season trades.
• “Drafting While Drinking” can be disastrous, unless everyone in the draft is DWD. Might be fun (if you’re of age). But probably gonna make for an ugggggly team — the next morning. And then you have to live with “her” for 162 games. Not pretty. And, come to think of it, in the end, not much fun either.
• Pay attention to other managers' draft picks. “Really? You think?” Hey, it’s easy to get caught up and not notice if someone is trying to corner a position or scoring category. If another manager is trying to corner, say saves, and you haven’t drafted any closers, or maybe only one at that point, consider going deep in a position you’re already strong at, like shortstop or 3b (which the “closer” team is also weak at), to set yourself up to make a deal with that other team after the draft for – you guessed it – a closer.
• After you print our master lists for your draft, save and print some My Roster shortlists for each position, including “back up picks,” so that if someone takes the guy you really want just before you pull the trigger, you have one or two guys you can immediately fall back to. Trying to find a “replacement” pick can be very distracting and throw off the flow of your entire draft. (In more harsh terms, this is known as “panicking.”)
• EVERY SINGLE DRAFT IS DIFFERENT. Expect the unexpected. For nearly every guy in your league, there's a different strategy. Some guys try to corner steals, no matter what, picking players way ahead of where their overall value predicts. Others skip starters and load up on closers till the end of the draft. Some are hardcore Yankee fans and, literally, draft every guy in pinstripes they can. Some stack their roster with thin, middle-infielders with an eye on trading after the draft. You just don't know till the draft begins. Which leads to …
• In a 10-team league, you only directly control your picks — or 10% of the draft. Similarly, in an 8-team league, only 12.5% of the draft. And a mere 8.25% of the draft in a 12-team league.

Ten percent of the draft. Hmmm. Not the sort of odds you want strolling into the OK Corral. But then again, in a 10-team league, every owner only controls 10% of the draft. Either way you look at it, what you’re left with is a compelling argument for preparation.

Dominate Your 2009 Fantasy Baseball Draft, Part 2

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