10 Suggestions To Make Your Fantasy Baseball Season Fun
By Todd Farino, Fantasy Baseball Search
I've been playing fantasy baseball since 1990. It has been a blast to play the game that has brought so many people back to baseball. The initial fun of playing fantasy baseball really came when it allowed people to watch the ESPN Sunday night game just for their fantasy players. All of sudden so many games became relevant. More and probably the bulk of fun came from being able to pick and manage your own team and watch your work be successful. The best part of course is winning against your friends. Since you've started playing fantasy baseball, how many times have you called your buddy and chatted about your players, upcoming games, or just baseball in general. More of the enjoyable aspects of fantasy baseball is you not only have the games to watch, but now you have sports news and baseball tonight. The entertainment fantasy baseball brings to your life has a tremendous impact and believe it or not can improve your quality of life. Over the past 6-8 years fantasy baseball has evolved and changed from being a simple rotisserie 5x5 to having all sorts of different league systems from rotisserie to points, to including new stats to head-to-head leagues. It has expanded and with that the enjoyment and fun has expanded. Even drafts have evolved with auction style drafts and keeper leagues have expanded to new types and rules. Everything has been going great for fantasy baseball, but recently over the past couple of years with the advent of fantasy baseball web sites has come fantasy baseball advice. Obviously, we will support managers using advice to help their teams win, but some of the advice takes away the fun and that isn't good.
Over the past several seasons baseball has evolved so fast that allot of the fun has been lost. We aren't talking about most of the fun we mentioned above. We are talking about the most basic loving fun that we all expect from fantasy baseball. The fun that originates the first moment fantasy baseball season starts. The pure kid like joy you expect and if you don't get it you lose everything. We will give you our top 10 ways that you can make sure you will have fun this season and continue to enjoy the game that you've always had fun playing.
1. Stay Away From Sabermetrics - Whoever adapted this statistical method of projecting your players performance for fantasy baseball was insane. Sabermetrics was originally developed as a tool to assist scouting in MLB, but not to replace it. What sabermetrics guys have done in fantasy baseball is removed the scouting portion and just left the numbers, formulas, and statistics. It's a known fact that most sabermetrics guys hardly even watch baseball and base everything on wild formulas and repetitious statistics like batting average and batting average balls in play (???HUH???). I will admit that some basic sabermetric stats like OBP (On Base Percentage), OPS (on base and slugging, Strikeouts Per 9 Innings, WHIP (Walks-Hits Per Inning), and a few other pitching stats are very useful for fantasy baseball. However, sabermetrics guys just turn fantasy baseball into a calculus class and your fantasy baseball homework really is homework! Here are some amazing and crazy formulas and calculations for you to consider courtesy of sabermetrics: line drive rate, batted balls in play, and BsR(Base Runs). Now the true crazy sabermetric measurements used in fantasy baseball and these are freaky; LIPS (Late Inning Pressure Situations, DIPS (defensive Independent Pitching Statistics), and the best one Equivalent Average (EqA). If you think I'm making it up, here is the formula for EqA:
Now I will agree that sabermetrics is an incredible asset for MLB, but for fantasy baseball it sucks the fun out of the game, unless you like equations like the one above. Avoid using most of sabermetrics and stick to the formulas you see in the statistical categories in a players stats and you will have much more fun than a sabermetrics manager. To identify a sabermetrics manager, they probably drink lots of coffee, wear glasses (because of some much reading), and have dark circles under their eyes. They are also probably going bald because they pull their hair out from insanity of doing so many calculations just to decide to pick up Garrett Anderson and most likely they have a MIT degree!
2. Smack Talk Or Post In Your League - In order to truly have fun in your fantasy league, you have to smack talk. Leagues that don't chat and don't have money on the line don't exist for very long. Communication in a league is just as important as running your team. So smack talk with the other managers. Just remember to keep it clean and never make it personal. If you are uncomfortable with smack talk, just post. League members love articles about the league like power rankings, matchups, funny league news, etc... You can have allot of fun with it.
3. Play Head-To-Head Leagues - If you play in multiple leagues this season, try a head-to-head league. Its much different then playing the standard rotisserie or points leagues and it carries with it more fun, excitement, and drama. In a H2H league, each week you will take on a different manager and score wins according to your matchup. This allows for strategies to not only be season long, but weekly as well. Overall you will have the fun and excitement of real baseball because each week you will face a team with 10 or more wins on the line. It allows you to play more short term, rather than the drawn out long-term version that 5x5 rotisserie offers.
4. Try Auction Style Drafts - Auction style drafts are not for the weak at heart or for the rookies. However, at some point you have to give them a try. They combine the excitement of a draft with the anxiety of an auction. They require advance study of your budget and how you will spend your allotted money. Its a much more exciting way to draft fantasy baseball.
5. Keeper Leagues - Keeper League rock for one main reason. They allow you to build a franchise and do it in a league that will exist for along time. If you play in multiple leagues, make one a keeper league. Keeper leagues carry a different flavor then the standard yearly leagues and you will get to know you opponents very well. Furthermore, it allows you to get credit for your outstanding draft picks and free agents because you get to keep them for years.
6. Listen To Podcasts and Read Blogs - Fantasy baseball podcasts are full of great information and can be very entertaining as well. Now, there are some awful ones were the information can be deadly to your team and I know of some. There are many were you will get outstanding information every week and podcasts that you can learn from. We highly recommend you listen to at least one per week. We favor The Fantasy Baseball Gurus Show and The Fantasy Baseball Scouting Report. If you are reading this article, you probably already read blogs. Its good to find 2-4 blogs and to read them regularly. You can find great thoughts, strategies and breaking news in good blogs.
7. Prepare For Your Draft - This one sounds weird when we are talking about having fun, but if you don't prepare for your draft I promise you will have no fun drafting or playing the season. In order to prepare we recommend buying one magazine and reading on breaks at work, on the toilet, or before you go to bed. Then as we mentioned in #6, listen to podcasts. Good draft preparation makes the draft very exciting and therefore fun.
8. Don't Worry About The Score Early - Allot of us will fall behind early as other teams have a fast start out of the gate. You shouldn't worry about this one bit or allow it to bother you that you are in last place at the end of April. Just like in real Major League Baseball it just doesn't matter. Managers who make moves and trade away studs in September make the rest of their season stressful and sad. Imagine the managers who traded CC Sabathia last May. Exactly. Their season probably wasn't a happy one.
9. Go With Your Gut - This is critical. Nobody will be more upset if they make a decision that went AGAINST their gut and their gut ended up being right. Most of us trust ourselves and if our gut is wrong we are OK with that. The whole reason we get into this game is for the excitement of winning based on your own strategies and making your own decisions. Sure reading blogs and listening to podcasts help, but in the end you must make your own decisions and therefore go with your gut. Your gut might be wrong more than right, but if you don't win, at least you did it your way.
10. Break Up The Season By Months - The last piece of the puzzle to having a fun and exciting fantasy baseball season is developing a timeline for it. Obviously you have to play your team nearly everyday, but you don't have to strategize daily. We recommend breaking up your season by the month. Build a strategy for victory month by month and not only will your season feel shorter or even quicker, but you will always have something to play for and most of all hope. For example, in April strategize to have a strong start. After April ends, evaluate where you stand and based on those numbers, stratagize what you have to do in May. If you examine your team and score in detail every month you will get a much better picture then if you do it daily or weekly.
I hope our 10 suggestions for making your fantasy baseball season more fun will actually work for you. Even know we take the game very serious and in some cases lots of money rides on them, the bottom-line is its a game we play for fun and in the spirit of competition. We don't have the skills to play Major League Baseball or the chance to manage a MLB team, but we can fantasize about drafting a team and winning a championship. That is the excitement and fun and fantasy baseball and everything else is a cherry on top. Have fun in the 2009 season. If you have comments or questions about this article, email me at Toddf@fantasybaseballsearch.com.
I've been playing fantasy baseball since 1990. It has been a blast to play the game that has brought so many people back to baseball. The initial fun of playing fantasy baseball really came when it allowed people to watch the ESPN Sunday night game just for their fantasy players. All of sudden so many games became relevant. More and probably the bulk of fun came from being able to pick and manage your own team and watch your work be successful. The best part of course is winning against your friends. Since you've started playing fantasy baseball, how many times have you called your buddy and chatted about your players, upcoming games, or just baseball in general. More of the enjoyable aspects of fantasy baseball is you not only have the games to watch, but now you have sports news and baseball tonight. The entertainment fantasy baseball brings to your life has a tremendous impact and believe it or not can improve your quality of life. Over the past 6-8 years fantasy baseball has evolved and changed from being a simple rotisserie 5x5 to having all sorts of different league systems from rotisserie to points, to including new stats to head-to-head leagues. It has expanded and with that the enjoyment and fun has expanded. Even drafts have evolved with auction style drafts and keeper leagues have expanded to new types and rules. Everything has been going great for fantasy baseball, but recently over the past couple of years with the advent of fantasy baseball web sites has come fantasy baseball advice. Obviously, we will support managers using advice to help their teams win, but some of the advice takes away the fun and that isn't good.
Over the past several seasons baseball has evolved so fast that allot of the fun has been lost. We aren't talking about most of the fun we mentioned above. We are talking about the most basic loving fun that we all expect from fantasy baseball. The fun that originates the first moment fantasy baseball season starts. The pure kid like joy you expect and if you don't get it you lose everything. We will give you our top 10 ways that you can make sure you will have fun this season and continue to enjoy the game that you've always had fun playing.
1. Stay Away From Sabermetrics - Whoever adapted this statistical method of projecting your players performance for fantasy baseball was insane. Sabermetrics was originally developed as a tool to assist scouting in MLB, but not to replace it. What sabermetrics guys have done in fantasy baseball is removed the scouting portion and just left the numbers, formulas, and statistics. It's a known fact that most sabermetrics guys hardly even watch baseball and base everything on wild formulas and repetitious statistics like batting average and batting average balls in play (???HUH???). I will admit that some basic sabermetric stats like OBP (On Base Percentage), OPS (on base and slugging, Strikeouts Per 9 Innings, WHIP (Walks-Hits Per Inning), and a few other pitching stats are very useful for fantasy baseball. However, sabermetrics guys just turn fantasy baseball into a calculus class and your fantasy baseball homework really is homework! Here are some amazing and crazy formulas and calculations for you to consider courtesy of sabermetrics: line drive rate, batted balls in play, and BsR(Base Runs). Now the true crazy sabermetric measurements used in fantasy baseball and these are freaky; LIPS (Late Inning Pressure Situations, DIPS (defensive Independent Pitching Statistics), and the best one Equivalent Average (EqA). If you think I'm making it up, here is the formula for EqA:
Now I will agree that sabermetrics is an incredible asset for MLB, but for fantasy baseball it sucks the fun out of the game, unless you like equations like the one above. Avoid using most of sabermetrics and stick to the formulas you see in the statistical categories in a players stats and you will have much more fun than a sabermetrics manager. To identify a sabermetrics manager, they probably drink lots of coffee, wear glasses (because of some much reading), and have dark circles under their eyes. They are also probably going bald because they pull their hair out from insanity of doing so many calculations just to decide to pick up Garrett Anderson and most likely they have a MIT degree!
2. Smack Talk Or Post In Your League - In order to truly have fun in your fantasy league, you have to smack talk. Leagues that don't chat and don't have money on the line don't exist for very long. Communication in a league is just as important as running your team. So smack talk with the other managers. Just remember to keep it clean and never make it personal. If you are uncomfortable with smack talk, just post. League members love articles about the league like power rankings, matchups, funny league news, etc... You can have allot of fun with it.
3. Play Head-To-Head Leagues - If you play in multiple leagues this season, try a head-to-head league. Its much different then playing the standard rotisserie or points leagues and it carries with it more fun, excitement, and drama. In a H2H league, each week you will take on a different manager and score wins according to your matchup. This allows for strategies to not only be season long, but weekly as well. Overall you will have the fun and excitement of real baseball because each week you will face a team with 10 or more wins on the line. It allows you to play more short term, rather than the drawn out long-term version that 5x5 rotisserie offers.
4. Try Auction Style Drafts - Auction style drafts are not for the weak at heart or for the rookies. However, at some point you have to give them a try. They combine the excitement of a draft with the anxiety of an auction. They require advance study of your budget and how you will spend your allotted money. Its a much more exciting way to draft fantasy baseball.
5. Keeper Leagues - Keeper League rock for one main reason. They allow you to build a franchise and do it in a league that will exist for along time. If you play in multiple leagues, make one a keeper league. Keeper leagues carry a different flavor then the standard yearly leagues and you will get to know you opponents very well. Furthermore, it allows you to get credit for your outstanding draft picks and free agents because you get to keep them for years.
6. Listen To Podcasts and Read Blogs - Fantasy baseball podcasts are full of great information and can be very entertaining as well. Now, there are some awful ones were the information can be deadly to your team and I know of some. There are many were you will get outstanding information every week and podcasts that you can learn from. We highly recommend you listen to at least one per week. We favor The Fantasy Baseball Gurus Show and The Fantasy Baseball Scouting Report. If you are reading this article, you probably already read blogs. Its good to find 2-4 blogs and to read them regularly. You can find great thoughts, strategies and breaking news in good blogs.
7. Prepare For Your Draft - This one sounds weird when we are talking about having fun, but if you don't prepare for your draft I promise you will have no fun drafting or playing the season. In order to prepare we recommend buying one magazine and reading on breaks at work, on the toilet, or before you go to bed. Then as we mentioned in #6, listen to podcasts. Good draft preparation makes the draft very exciting and therefore fun.
8. Don't Worry About The Score Early - Allot of us will fall behind early as other teams have a fast start out of the gate. You shouldn't worry about this one bit or allow it to bother you that you are in last place at the end of April. Just like in real Major League Baseball it just doesn't matter. Managers who make moves and trade away studs in September make the rest of their season stressful and sad. Imagine the managers who traded CC Sabathia last May. Exactly. Their season probably wasn't a happy one.
9. Go With Your Gut - This is critical. Nobody will be more upset if they make a decision that went AGAINST their gut and their gut ended up being right. Most of us trust ourselves and if our gut is wrong we are OK with that. The whole reason we get into this game is for the excitement of winning based on your own strategies and making your own decisions. Sure reading blogs and listening to podcasts help, but in the end you must make your own decisions and therefore go with your gut. Your gut might be wrong more than right, but if you don't win, at least you did it your way.
10. Break Up The Season By Months - The last piece of the puzzle to having a fun and exciting fantasy baseball season is developing a timeline for it. Obviously you have to play your team nearly everyday, but you don't have to strategize daily. We recommend breaking up your season by the month. Build a strategy for victory month by month and not only will your season feel shorter or even quicker, but you will always have something to play for and most of all hope. For example, in April strategize to have a strong start. After April ends, evaluate where you stand and based on those numbers, stratagize what you have to do in May. If you examine your team and score in detail every month you will get a much better picture then if you do it daily or weekly.
I hope our 10 suggestions for making your fantasy baseball season more fun will actually work for you. Even know we take the game very serious and in some cases lots of money rides on them, the bottom-line is its a game we play for fun and in the spirit of competition. We don't have the skills to play Major League Baseball or the chance to manage a MLB team, but we can fantasize about drafting a team and winning a championship. That is the excitement and fun and fantasy baseball and everything else is a cherry on top. Have fun in the 2009 season. If you have comments or questions about this article, email me at Toddf@fantasybaseballsearch.com.
posted by The True GURU at
Monday, December 29, 2008
2 Comments:
What a great article. I agree with the smack talk and the Sabermetrics. Forget that stuff! Its gone too far.
Jim
Absolutely spot on. Great article. Sabermetrics suck!
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