Draft Best Player?

[fantasyvet]

In a roto lg..do you draft the best player availabe ?? OR the player who gives the stats you need to fill out your team.
examble..You need sb ..do you take Figgens over Texiera and wait got laRoche Garko, Kornerko Delgado?

[horatio]

Figgins over Teixeria - NO.

Take what you consider to be the best player at every pick and then fine tune your team with trades and waiver wire guys.

[Amatter32]

It depends where in the draft you are talking about. I go with best player available the first couple rounds, but go on need rest of the way

[Dan Charette]

It's easy to say draft the best player. I never understood this kind of thinking. Who's to say who the best available player is ? Those who say that, do you go by last year's stats ? Or by projections ? Differant people will think differant players are the best.
In my opinion there's no clear cut best player. Even in the first round, you'll get much debate over the order of picks. Sure at some point of the draft a player will slip a few rounds and be a great value pick. He may be the best player. But does he fit your team's needs ?
I draft by position scarcity in combination with drafting by scoring categories. I always end up with a balanced team. I don't want to have to depend on making a trade while I have a good player that I can't even get into my lineup. It may take weeks to get a good trade. Meanwhile your team may be lacking strength at a certain category.
I wouldn't say take Figgins over Teixeira, since Tex should be drafted by the third round.
At that stage of the draft there's still plenty of time to fill the categories.
When saying draft the best player, it should mean draft the best player for your team's needs.

[quicksilver8]

Early in drafts when you have all your spots open, taking the best available makes sense. What doesn't make sense is taking another 1b after you already have your 1b and ut/corner filled and you still need like 10 other offensive players...after the first 2-3 rounds, concentrate on your team's needs!

[blubombers]

When saying draft the best player, it should mean draft the best player for your team's needs.

I could not have said it any better. Brilliant!

[jlm53089]

Value exceeds need by far.
Teixeira>Figgins

But I understand what you are saying, but bad example.

[ChipaDub]

Part of drafting by positional scarcity is understanding what the other players of that position will do during the year. That's quite a task. I would only invest in this strategy if I had throughly investigated a given position and was very confident in my conclusions because even if you reach for a catcher like Victor Martinez and he has a great year, you still might not get the bang for your buck if several other catchers perform well also.

[duckbillgates]

I don't think it is really necessary to be overly concerned with your team's specific category needs in the early rounds of a roto draft. Take the "best available" guys. If you have a deficiency in a category like steals, you can address it with mid-season trades. Don't reach in the draft.

[pangbones]

I think you should always draft the best player available. Sure you'll need to fill out your roster, but I'd almost always draft the better player in the first half of the draft, and after that, when it won't matter as much, I'd start filling in needs.