THIS ARTICLE WAS SUBMITTED BY GUNKDOG AS PART OF THE 2004 MEMBER ARTICLE CONTEST.
*****Hang with me … I wanted to be different than the other articles*****
I admit it … I love fantasy sports. My team, the Desert Center Wolfpac, is whipping up my fantasy football league (Thanks T.O., Tiki, and Curtis!). But the real players, the real fantasy sports owners with all the skillz, are in fantasy baseball.
I left New Jersey in ’99 and I was in a very competitive league. Last season, I took over a team, in that same league, back home. Some people call me crazy. Why would you fly all the way across country for a fantasy baseball league? I figure it gives me a reason to go home and visit the family and take some time off from work. More importantly, it is just one of the highest competition leagues I have ever seen. It is an auction style with a salary cap, 3 year keeper rule, and a 17 player minor league team. Why is it that 12 guys, sitting around, talking baseball for a whole weekend is so exciting?
Fantasy baseball brings fans close to the games. Owners learn what it takes to win. For people who are teachers, plumbers, engineers, or police officers, fantasy baseball puts one in a place where every sports fan dreams, general manager.
A general manager is involved in all aspects of the game: the power, the control, the passion. Your fantasy team keeps you going even when your die-hard favorite pro team sucks it up!
Fantasy baseball puts average people in the dream world of sports management. Bragging about your championship in the fantasy world is like bragging on Saturday morning about scoring with that hot blonde from the bar in the black mini-skirt and knee high leather boots!
But as the calendar pages turn and spring training gets closer, the brains are spinning faster and faster. If I hold onto J.D. Drew, will he get hurt again or have another solid season? Do Maddux and Glavine have enough to come back? Budgets are getting set up: 70/30 or 60/40 or do I got wild with an 80/20. Stats are being memorized: who went 30/30 or 20/20? , who had the most holds? Minor league players are getting evaluated. To steal a phrase from a popular song (sing it with me!), “it’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
Everybody has their own strategies. Everybody has their own players they want. For everybody who says they have won a league not picking a pitcher until the fourth round, there are owners who have won without picking a hitter until the fourth round. So it is hard for me to write about strategies … heck, I think a single owner can compete in two different leagues, use two different strategies and still win both. So I decided to list a whole bunch of advice for an auction.
- Don’t party too hard the night before the auction. No headaches or hangovers.
- More like1b. Don’t drink during the draft. Alcohol can only cloud your thoughts about players! Kind of like that time at the bar that Friday night where I saw this hottie in a leather mini-skirt and leather boots... those weren't leather boots, that was thick hair!
- In an auction, set a budget and stick to it. And remember ... "Come big or don’t come at all. "
- Watch the World Poker Tour. Being a successful player sin an auction is like being a successful poker player. You just have to know when to hold ‘em or when to fold ‘em. (i.e. You have to know when to throw your money in there after the player or let him go to somebody else!)
- Don’t overbid just to get you favorite players. Darin Erstad for 20 bucks please!! DAMMIT!! Why did I do that! A statement like that will hurt your budget. Not too mention that other owners in the league will expect you to be bidding on players you like and they will want to set you up. I actually walked outside when Mike Sweeney was put up for auction.
- You cannot go wrong getting a player from your girl’s favorite team (but make sure to follow 5. as well). This can only help your chances at checking box scores online at night instead of watching the O.C. or Desperate Housewives!
- Read, read, read. Visit websites like RotoChamps.com to get the latest news, injuries, transactions, and rumors.
- It never hurts to look back at previous years for your league. Average it out to see how many overall points will be needed to place in the top three. Look at others owners and their trends. I figure out the budget for every other owner in my league from the year before (i.e. 60/40 or 50/50 of 70/30). I know if an owner goes after power hitters or avg./runs/sb. guys or even all pitchers. I know that one of my owners goes after the middle of the diamond (SS, 2B, C, P). It really helps because in the late hours of the auction, you can tell where somebody is going to put their money.
If you are in auction, I hope this helps. As free agency starts rolling, hopefully I get the chance to pound out more articles for RotoChamps! Good luck!
~Dog