Filling a newbie's roster

[cards_fan_8537]

Hey, painful newbie questions coming. I've never played fantasy baseball before (played football couple times, very badly too) but I am a real big baseball fan in general and I was just wondering how I should fill out my fantasy team. I know that the better players are quick to go and in my experience with football I usually have too many of the big names in my draft list and get stuck with the lower level players as my only options. So I guess I'm asking what are the types of players to go for that are not the upper echelon (Pujols, A-Rod, etc) players but still good enough to keep me near the top of my league? I'm in a 10 team rotisserie Yahoo league by the way. Sorry such a long post for a simple question.

[shortsavage]

You may be best off if you just read a lot of baseball articles and look at projections.

You want to be in a position where you can tell when someone is sleeping. Not as much where you know what type of player you should be taking in each round.

If you check up on the posts that interest you here at the Cafe a few times a day you will be in pretty good shape.

When is your draft (so we know what kind of intensity we should run you through) ?

[cards_fan_8537]

March 7 is our draft date. I try to read the stuff on ESPN.com catch Baseball Tonight, browse the forums, and the like. Thanks for the advice on the draft though. Philosophy is probably what hurt me in the past.

[kev921]

I'll go against my better judgement and still give a Cardinals fan some advice. A common mistake in first timers is to fall into the homer sydrome. Don't make the mistake of too many guys off your teams (Cardinals) roster (although most of your hitters are pretty good). Do some homework and make a list of 10 to 15 guys for each position and rank them how you like them best. Keep it simple and have fun.

[Big Blue]

a great starting place for rank lists is right here in the cafe the guys that did the cheat sheets here did nice work, some rankings could be argueed but couldn't most. keep in mind that a good baseball player and good fantasy player can be two different animals.

[Fumbler]

Here's some quick links to check out:

ESPN Live Draft Rankings

Cafe Player Rankings

ESPN Live Draft Monitor (watch live drafts taking place)

Good luck fellow Cards Fan!

[ramble2]

a great starting place for rank lists is right here in the cafe the guys that did the cheat sheets here did nice work, some rankings could be argueed but couldn't most. keep in mind that a good baseball player and good fantasy player can be two different animals.

Definitely good advice. Using the cafe cheat sheets is a great way to give yourself a fighting chance. Then keep coming around and checking out posts (especially here and in the trade, waiver, keeper forum).