Fantasy Baseball strategy

[soccer10k]

My team is generally terrible - best regular season finish is third, this year, and I've never won a playoff round in seven years (this is the eighth) - so I was thinking of trying something different next year. Those of you who play more fantasy baseball, please tell me how crazy/dumb this is.

 

I play in a regular H2H league with R, HR, RBI, K, SB, OPS for hitters and QS, SV, TB, K, ERA, WHIP for pitchers. 1 position for each infielder plus MI and CI, 4 OF, 1 Util for hitters and 3 SP, 3 RP, 3 P for pitchers. I was thinking of just drafting hitters with my first 8 or 9 picks and load up there, grab 5 closers (and hopefully pick one up as a FA for a team that decides late) and then take pitchers. Chapman and Kimbrel went 5th round, Holland 6th, and Robertson 7th. Nothing else until the 9th round. I'd then stream pitchers all year and make sure I won QS, SV, K every week. I'd end up getting at least 21 starts per week so getting 7-8 QS each week would win me that every time (the only guy who had more than 5 this week streamed pitchers). Drafting all hitters early, I'd hopefully have the advantage on offense each week.

 

I realize this wouldn't mean I'd sweep the hitting categories each week and win 9-3. But I feel that this can't possibly be worse than what I've been doing. So is this an ok strategy at all?

[PosterToBeNamedLater]

I have always been in favor of drafting hitters for my first 8 or 9 picks. Great hitters are more reliable and usually get you all of the hitting categories (I don't go out of my way to go for SB's unless the player is a great hitter besides the SB's). I feel like there are always pitchers that come out of no where to have good seasons and you can pick them up later. And like you are thinking, you could pick pitchers up to rack up counting stats like K's. Although the league may have a limit on how many transactions you can make in a given week. In the past, I played in a league where you got points for various things (4 points for a HR, 3 for a triple, etc) and it really helped to have great hitters. In the league I am in this year, you just face head to head categories and sometimes it is annoying because I will quadruple the guy I am facing in HR's, double or triple their walks and then they can beat me by like 1 pitching win and those count the same. Or what is really annoying is when I lose by 1 hit, but have like 23 more walks. But I do generally win 6 of the 7 offensive categories.

 

This week, I won my playoff matchup by winning all 7 hitting categories and saves for pitchers. I lost the other 5 pitching categories. I tried to pick up players to rack up K's and wins but my opponent realized it and then did the same thing. His pitchers had much better games than usual but it didn't matter because of my offense.

[Cubswin11]

My team is generally terrible - best regular season finish is third, this year, and I've never won a playoff round in seven years (this is the eighth) - so I was thinking of trying something different next year. Those of you who play more fantasy baseball, please tell me how crazy/dumb this is.

 

I play in a regular H2H league with R, HR, RBI, K, SB, OPS for hitters and QS, SV, TB, K, ERA, WHIP for pitchers. 1 position for each infielder plus MI and CI, 4 OF, 1 Util for hitters and 3 SP, 3 RP, 3 P for pitchers. I was thinking of just drafting hitters with my first 8 or 9 picks and load up there, grab 5 closers (and hopefully pick one up as a FA for a team that decides late) and then take pitchers. Chapman and Kimbrel went 5th round, Holland 6th, and Robertson 7th. Nothing else until the 9th round. I'd then stream pitchers all year and make sure I won QS, SV, K every week. I'd end up getting at least 21 starts per week so getting 7-8 QS each week would win me that every time (the only guy who had more than 5 this week streamed pitchers). Drafting all hitters early, I'd hopefully have the advantage on offense each week.

 

I realize this wouldn't mean I'd sweep the hitting categories each week and win 9-3. But I feel that this can't possibly be worse than what I've been doing. So is this an ok strategy at all?

This has typically always been roughly my strategy as well. I have been pretty successful with it, usually finish near the top of my leagues. Screw pitchers, draft hitters early and often. Take some lottery ticket picks late on a SP or two who may start on the DL (ex Jose Fernandez this year) or big prospects who may start in the minors for a chunk of the year and go from there playing matches on pitchers all year and maybe getting lucky and picking up a FA who has a really good.

[squally1313]

The thing you need to look out for is an innings limit. Honestly, I didn't read close enough to see how big your rosters are, but my league has a 1400 innings cap. At 21 starts a week, you're looking at probably at least 100 innings a week. Something to think about when you're going that strategy.

 

We had a guy who essentially tried to do the same thing. He's been in first place the whole year, ran out of innings a week or so ago, and has been slowly dropping points. This is just full year roto as opposed to head to head, so again, might be different.

[Guest]

There's no innings limit at all in the league. Two weeks ago I had deGrom get blown up on Monday by the Phillies and streamed all week. I racked up over 150 innings but I made sure I won two categories.

[ARCubsFan]

I'm always looking at K/9 and FIP for pitchers when it comes to fantasy. FIP comes in handy especially in the middle of the season to see what pitchers are over and underperforming and I make trades based on that potential.

[ChiCubsFan]

Razzball.com

 

Never finished lower than top 3 in a league following the advice of Grey and Rudy. Their general strategy is to not draft pitchers early. Don't draft top tier closers. Don't draft hitters early for steals. Usually ignore the early MIs (exact strategy varies year to year). Draft power. Draft more power. Draft pitchers with high K/9. Punt catcher. In H2H load up your bench with SP.

 

A few more things, but generally if you follow them and stay active, you will win your league.