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The Draft
Home » Fantasy Sports » Fantasy Sports: Baseball » The DraftPosted by Your Guide on May 2, 2006 8:31 PM
The fantasy baseball draft is one of the most anticipated days for players in every league! Leagues can have their draft whenever they would like, and they can choose from all different kinds of drafts. Some leagues prefer to get each member together and hold the draft in person. If every player in a league doesn’t live close together, though, this is difficult. Leagues like this can go with an online draft, offered by most web sites which offer fantasy baseball. In an online draft, players log onto any computer and go to the “virtual draft room,” usually a Java applet which keeps track of the drafted players on each team for you. An offline draft is also an option, in which each fantasy owner sends their player rankings electronically to the league, the draft order is randomized, and teams are selected based on the owners’ rankings.
There are also other variations in drafts. The most common drafts are standard drafts, in which each fantasy owner has the responsibility to fill a roster of players. When their turn comes to draft, they can take any player available. These drafts are usually serpentine in nature, meaning that the player who gets the last pick in the first round will get the first pick in the second round, and so forth. This is called a serpentine draft because the rounds “crawl” back and forth like a snake.
Another type of draft is the auction draft. In an auction draft, each fantasy owner is given a fictional “allowance” with which to pay the “salaries” of their players. Owners then bid on the players available, understanding that they have to fill their entire roster within their allotted amount of money. If they run out of money, they are no longer allowed to draft any more players. The auction draft provides an interesting twist but is usually only for experienced fantasy players.
There are a number of different draft strategies, and you can read all about them at any of the web sites or in any of the magazines that cover fantasy baseball. Most experts agree that fantasy owners should simply take the “best player available” approach, meaning they should select their highest rated player who is still available on the draft board when their turn comes to pick.
Other draft strategies include the “positional rarity” strategy. Using this strategy, the fantasy owner makes their selections based on how difficult it is to find a productive player at each position. So, using this strategy in fantasy baseball, an owner may use an early pick on a catcher, because it is very difficult to find a productive player at the catcher position. This sometimes causes a phenomenon known as “draft runs,” in which one owner’s selection using the positional rarity strategy causes other owners to panic and draft players at these positions much earlier than they probably should. Experts agree that you should avoid these “draft runs,” unless you happen to be fortunate enough to be the one to start them. Otherwise, wait it out, use the best player available strategy, and allow your competitors to misuse their early picks. Catcher and relief pitcher are the positions most susceptible to draft runs.
Another strategy is the “offense first” strategy. Using this strategy, fantasy owners are encouraged to take as many offensive players as they can early in the draft because pitchers are usually easier to come by later in the year. Your offensive players are the players who play every day, while your starting pitchers play only every fifth day and your relief pitchers will pitch three or four days a week at the most. Clearly offensive players provide the most consistent production, but, again, don’t completely neglect pitchers, as most leagues equally weigh offense and pitching.
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