Losing my Virginity

[Guest]

I am drafting my first Fantasy Baseball team tonight.
I'm doing a live draft on the sportingnews draft and trade pool.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Vancouver Red Sox]

I have the same need.
Can anyone help a couple guys out

[Absolutely Adequate]

Pick the best player available for the first 7 rounds or so. Draft hitters more than pitchers (they're more predictable). Make fun of the other people's drafting. Have fun. Get a pizza. Avoid guys who are injured or flukes (injuries- the whole San Diego Squad. Flukes - R. Lopez, David Wells, etc). Watch for potential bargains (Prior, Beckett, Aramis Ramirez). Do yr research.
Hank

[John Bonzo]

In my opinion the best strategy is balance. Dont overstock on one position (within reason, if jeter is still available in round 5 and you already have tejada, go for him) or stat.

Make sure you know who is injured (dont take Nevin). There seems to be more players than usual who are starting this season a little banged up.

Take chances on some guys coming off bad years in the later rounds (Griffey, Juan Gonzalez, R Alomar, Aramis Ramirez, J. Beckett, etc) but dont take too many of them.

[Amnorix]

Here's a nice set of "globally useful" tips for folks starting out:

1. If you don't feel very confident in your own abilities to grade out players, then simply use the ESPN LiveDraft as your draft board. Here's the link:

http://games.espn.go.com/cgi/flb/livedraftresults

2. Go for balance. Balance as between hitter and pitchers, and balance among the various stat. categories. Don't completely ignore categories if you can possibly help it.

3. Unless you see a pitcher sliding, don't hesitate to spend your top 3-4 picks on hitters. Hitters tend to be somewhat more consistent, and less injury prone, than pitchers.

4. Conversely, don't let all the good pitchers go elsewhere. You want at least one top 12 pitcher, and a couple solid guys you feel good about behind them. You need a workable group of pitchers. If at least one of your pitchers isn't named Unit/Pedro/Schilling/Zito/
Prior/Maddux/Hudson/Mulder/Morris/Lowe/Mussina/Colon/Wood/
Oswalt or Halladay, then you are really, really going to be bumming. If you only get one of the above group, then be sure to spend at least two more picks on quality starting pitching as soon as possible.

5. Have fun. Relax. Mock other people's selections and don't take your own too seriously.

6. When the draft is over, assess how you did. Look at your team as a whole. Does it have enough backup depth at the various positions? Are you overstocked at one or two positions or stat categories, and need to think about trading to strengthen other positions that are weak?

7. Did anyone who went undrafted offer better chances of helping your team than any of the guys currently on your team? Alex Gonzalez as a backup SS might have seemed like a decent pick with your final pick in the final round cuz you needed the depth, but if Josh Beckett went undrafted... If you can pick up Hoffman and stash him on the DL as soon as the season starts...

[Guest]

Also, don't draft anyone with a severe injury.

Phil Nevin is probably out for the season
Eric Milton will be out 4-6 months (I think)
Trevor Hoffman will be out the first half of the season

I avoided all 3 of these guys, but Hoffman might be worth a pick in one of the last couple rounds. Someone who doesn't realize he's injured will probably take him much sooner though.

[metsfan1969]

Many people draft hitting first, that opens up the best pitching for you to choose from. I always take pitching first (unless the points are mostly given for better hitting). It does depend on the points system. If you can get a really nice staff, you can always trade for some better hitting later. I'm in an 8 team league and I ended up with these players

Mike Piazza
Mike Sweeney
Roberto Alomar
Eric Chavez
David Eckstein
Jim Edmonds
Ken Griffey Jr.
Steve Finley
Frank Thomas
Shannon Stewart
Richie Sexson
Derek Lee
Christian Guzman
Mark Kotsay
Todd Walker

Unit
Oswalt
Halladay
Colon
Buehrle
Guardado
Mike Williams
Reuter
Remlinger
Nunez

Trades I made:

Batista, Tony
Posada, Jorge
Weaver, Jeff
for
Chavez, Eric
Guardado, Eddie
Marrero, Eli

and then

Pedro Martinez
Eli Marrero
for
Mike Piazza
Frank Thomas

Now I just need to see how I will do...lol