how do you draft in fantasy baseball?

[Pharmcat]

hello

just wondering what strategy people use in a standard yahoo league?

stack up on hitters first? pitchers first?

or try to mix it up?

[TyCobb]

I draft hitters early, because for me it is a lot easier to identify potential pitching breakout candidates.

[Pharmcat]

I draft hitters early, because for me it is a lot easier to identify potential pitching breakout candidates.

let me guess, phil hughes

[TyCobb]

I'll take Nick Adenhart's corpse over Phil Hughes any day. Doh!

[Apathy]

first of all, do an auction draft and not a snake draft

it's a blast, the most fun day of the year, and ensures equal opportunity for all. the best owner wins, no question

snakes are absurdly broken because they're heavily weighted toward BPA (i.e. the first pick, second pick, and so on).

to answer your question 8 out of my 10 first picks are hitters

catcher isn't taken until double-digit rounds at the earliest

4th, 5th and 6th starters, and closers aren't taken until ~rounds 12-13

i take a strong bench bat over my first closer, no question

basically you just can't wait on MI, 1B, 3B, and one OF.

[yanksknicks101]

i have ever only done a snake draft but i believe you always go for the bats in the beginning. If at all possible, i try to save drafting my catcher towards the end of drafts since there are decent ones at the end that get no recognition and because im not going to spend a higher pick for a catcher who gets 15 homers and 60 rbis when you can get that from a bad 1b.

With that said, you can always wait on a 1b, waiting on 2b this year is doable and you should always wait on pitching as long as you get one stud. My opinion on closers are you either take them early and make sure it is a great pick, ie kimbral or get a few middle of the line closers. He will get you very good strikeouts to make it justifiable to have someone like last years jurrjens on your team or kimbral will also make it justifiable to take brandon morrow because of kimbrals good era and whip. You can always punt saves as well cause closers pop up left and right, ala brett myers just recently.

Unless i know one of my batters are injured, i almost never draft a positional bench player. Position players play almost every day so where would you play them? also, if you drafted a good offense, a good bench player is going to be just that, a good bench player that won't accumulate any counting stats for you. I would save those spots for either starters with upside/risk, (liriano, johan santana, henderson alvarez etc) setup men that dominate and/or could end up getting saves (david roberston, that guy from the dodgers not named guerra...jenssen?). A pitcher does not play every day so it makes sense to be able to have a bench for them to rotate them in.

[Dirty Water]

First 2 rounds I usually go with best available. Big power bat that can hit for average. Rounds 3--7 I just draft stud starting pitchers. Maybe even until round 10. Then just find flier guys who may break out value speed and stolen bases a lot on later rounds, category is always available with guys liek michael bourn etc. First couple months of season there is always a stud bat that pops out of nowhere on the waiver wire. Really need to be on your toes and scour the waiver wire. If I feel I have an overstock of pitching I'll usually trade one at the deadline for a bat.

This strategy always works for me and I'm consistently in the playoffs in my league every year, if not #1 or #2 seed.

[Dirty Water]

If I remember correctly in 2010 I had Pujols with first round pick then drafted pitchers for 7 or 8 rounds. Jose Bautista came out of nowhere, best FA pickup of all time. Good god was my team stacked that year.