Major League Baseball News

It’s almost March. Spring Training is around the corner. You already have an account with Yahoo Fantasy Baseball. Your draft is in weeks. I know your type, because I am your type. You want to win the league…

So what is the winning strategy? Well, you knew this was coming. It depends. In my fantasy baseball career, I have grown into two winning molds for the two most popular Fantasy Baseball leagues, points leagues and roto leagues.

For points leagues, I have three key points that I consider while I draft to win. The first is that power pitching is always undervalued!! It is the main reason why I dominate points leagues. 5 High K pitchers with lots of W’s (like Johan Santana) will win it for you, just watch and see. The second is to avoid batters with tendencies to strike out a lot, ala Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard. Yes, I said Ryan Howard. Face it, each strike out is worth -1 and in the end you might have been better off with a different pick. My final advice in a points league is to hop on position scarcity early. 3B, SS, and 2B are so incredibly shallow after the studs. I am looking to end up with either Wright, Arod, Braun, or Cabrera at 3B. After that, the point delta gets steep. For SS, snag Hanley Ramirez or Jose Reyes in the first round and you’ll be happy, or come away with Derek Jeter or Troy Tulowitzki in the 4th round. For 2B, I would go to leaps and bounds to somehow get Chase Utley, but don’t be too disappointed with B.J. Upton, Brian Roberts, or Chone Figgins.

For roto leagues, I really think it makes sense to take Hanley Ramirez or Jose Reyes with the first pick. This follows the general strategy that I have used to win roto leagues. The strategy? Hunt for 5-category contributors and settle for nothing less! Hanley and Jose will have a high batting average, many SBs, many HRs, lots of runs, and even a fair share of RBIs. My other strategy that I use is I try to dominate the Saves category. The way I see it, coming away with 9 or 10 points in the saves category gets you one step ahead of everyone else. Also, closers tend to have pretty low ERAs with high Ks. For this reason, it is even more enticing to pay high for a J.J. Putz or Takashi Saito who will guarantee a high conversion rate and many strikeouts for your team.

Whether you’re in fantasy points or roto leagues, these free fantasy baseball tips should help you in your quest to win the league!