Draft research

[UrbanatorNation]

I'm starting to prep for our draft next month, and would like some opinions on the methods I've been using the past couple years. Granted, I've finished 1st and 2nd the last two years, but it never hurts to see if there are things people are doing differently.

- For each position I need, I look at season projections for the players I'm targeting from about 5-6 sources (ESPN, Rotoworld, etc) and average all those projections to get one projection for that player. Takes a while, but I feel like its better than trusing just one or two sites.

- I use the projections because I look at each of the 10 categories in our league and find out what the 3 year avg. is for 1st, 3rd, and 6th in each one. That way I can get a good idea of where I stand in each if I draft player A vs. player B

- I look at the 3 past years of statistics for those same players (really easy with FanGraphs.com), paying close attention to:

Hitting
OPS
K%
BABIP strong trend in either direction
ABs

Pitching
FIP/xFIP
SIERA
K/BB
GB% > 50
IP

These are the first things I go to if a few players are close and I can't decide, although I have more stats than listed.

Those are all things used on draft day, plus reading articles on sleepers, rookies, etc.

Any suggestions on how you personally prep? Anything I can get rid of or add?

[kaiser]

You mentioned reading articles on sleepers. I always try to have a "sleepers" list handy, with several guys at each position that I like. If I ever get into a bind late in the draft, I can grab one and not feel like a pick has been blindly wasted. It is a little thing, but it helps take some of the pressure off, and makes the very latest rounds feel more productive to me.