Draft Strategy Help

[KELLYLEAK]

Relatively new to fantasy baseball and could use some expert advice. I'm in a Redraft league



When would you start taking starting pitching, relief pitching, filling out your infield positions etc. ?
I've never heard of total bases allowed- does that favor relievers?

***What draft strategy would you guys advise?

Any help appreciated

[CyboNinja]

My advice would be to find a new league. I hate leagues that count doubles, triples, and walks. That's what OPS measures. And total bases aloud...? That's what WHIP measures! Well sort of...

I'm not trying to be difficult but for someone new to fantasy baseball I think you will enjoy it more in a different league.. 2c

[ayebatter]

I'd punt average, sb, triples and buy all of the power I could get early looking to win 5-3 with
HR-RBI-R-Walks-Doubles and only 4 active arms is stupid but I'd draft the 4 best closers and a couple of starters that don't ever pitch an inning looking to take saves-era-whip-runs allowed-and losses looking to win the week 5-3 giving me a good chance of 10-6 each week.

[fast dogs]

certainly you've picked a little bit of an odd league to enter. $5 for each transaction isn't in most of the fantasy leagues. I'd think you'd want to play in some transaction "no cost" leagues as well
I wouldn't worry about avg. You can bump up some doubles guys a little bit in your draft order like B Butler but I also wouldn't put too much into considering doubles and especially triples into your draft strategy.
Total bases allowed is an odd catagory in a $5 transaction league, it seems like a prevent streaming SP tactic with losses but you won't find many owners streaming at $5 a pop for a weekly win. I'd try to draft guys with multiple positions and worry less about drafting OF early with only 3 starting spots. SP I'd look for WHIP specialists with total bases and whip both counting
Hopefully it is a great league you really enjoy the managers involved, it just appears a different league for someone fairly new to fantasy

[sdieckhaus]

In your league that counts walks, you can afford to draft low average guys IF they walk quite a bit. Looks at the .OBP.

[jonboy418]

This league is really odd. I'd love to hear the discussion why those categories were picked...

Batters: look solely at OPS. Nothing else. Punt stolen bases. You'll probably get a few scattered, but a player whose value is locked up in stolen bases is USELESS in this type of league.

Pitchers: There's a reason why there is a 40 inning limit. SP are extremely devalued in this league. Throw out a SP vs. several RP and there's a chance he'll rack up a loss and compile a higher total bases allowed, have a higher ERA and WHIP. You're already at 4-0. Complete games is the biggest farce in fantasy sports. I hate that stat more than anything else. Verlander led the league last year with 6. SIX! How can you plan for that in a head to head league?

I would use your first 3-4 picks to get high HR, high OPS players (think .900+). Then get a couple elite pitchers with high k/9 (8.5+) and low WHIP sub-1.10), since you'll have to throw out some SP. Then load up on a couple elite RP, and more high OPS guys. If the OPS is lower than .800, I'd stay away.

[ayebatter]

note (must have a minimum of 40 innings pitched each week otherwise you lose all pitching categories)

I missed that part last night, boy this kind of league will make you rethink ever playing this game again. So now with only 2 SP spots active you need at least 6 and probably 8 starters available in case game days are overlapped just to cover the innings limit unless you want to be hitting the WW for innings each week at $5 a pop.

Bats - I'd punt average, sb, triples and buy all of the power I could get early looking to win 5-3 with HR-RBI-R-Walks-Doubles (get high OPS players only)

Arms - I'm drafting 3-4 starters that could/should toss 200 innings minimum with high K ratios and low whip, at least 3 decent closers, and filling out the rest of the staff with low whip starters hoping for a lucky h2h week of 4-4.