Fantasy Draft Strategy?

[DJ]

Thinking about starting up a Fantasy Draft Franchise (no legends) to switch things up a little, and was curious how those that do fantasy drafts approach them? Do you go after the best player available? Do you draft by potential? Do you try and build a specific team (speed, power, pitching, etc.)?

[Caulfield]

I dont do one every year but when I do I begin with starting pitchers, left side infield (SS & 3B), centerfield and catcher. Last is relievers, right side infield and leftfield. the only thing that has really evolved over the years for me is I used to want to build a middle infield before I swapped to starting with the left side first. I dont draft by potential because this another one of my many one-&-done seasons I run. when it comes to hitting I prefer contact to power & power before speed. I dont always get the absolute best player available because I have to somewhat like the guy as much as possible IRL so no Bryce Harper's on my team lol

[bacon96]

Quote: Originally Posted by Caulfield

I dont do one every year but when I do I begin with starting pitchers, left side infield (SS & 3B), centerfield and catcher. Last is relievers, right side infield and leftfield. the only thing that has really evolved over the years for me is I used to want to build a middle infield before I swapped to starting with the left side first. I dont draft by potential because this another one of my many one-&-done seasons I run. when it comes to hitting I prefer contact to power & power before speed. I dont always get the absolute best player available because I have to somewhat like the guy as much as possible IRL so no Bryce Harper's on my team lol

I usually go one-&-done as well so my draft strategy may be skewed a bit too.

Whenever I draft it goes something like this:
Rounds 1-3 - best available.
Rounds 4-8 - fill in some position players and get 1-2 starting pitchers.
Rounds 9-10 - best relievers I can get.
Rounds 11-25 - fill out the rest of my team, get a couple nice platoons because there are some players who mash against the opposite hand.
Then I just let the CPU finish the draft.

NOTE: I'm generally not super into playing these too long and enjoy the drafting aspect more than playing with the team I drafted.

[FSanchez12]

I rolled through ALL 90 rounds yesterday morning. Finally drafted a team that I liked. Here's what I did as the Pirates, and I picked 15th

1st Round: Best Player Available - Yelich
2nd Round: Best Pitcher Availible * With an AAV under $10MM - Kluber
3rd Round: Top Prospect that can start Day 1: I actually picked myself, so CAP 3B
4th Round: Top Pitching Prospect that can slot in as 2 or 3 in your rotation: Max Fried
5th Round: 3 or 4 hitter with an AAV less than $10M - Domingo Santana

From there on out, I alternated between future, and right now, and built a team that could easily win 82 games, but could also f*** around and win the division. My main idea was to keep my salaries low, so that I could lock up key players through their age 29-30 season with long term deals (they'll get a morale boost with the pay raise too). I really like the identity of my team, 5 Pittsburgh Natives on the roster, with two more in the system. So far, I'm 10-3 to start the season (played 4 games). I also have guys waiting in the wings in the minors so that when Kluber and Yelich ride out their contacts, I can slot in a MiLB Top Prospect replacement, and use those two to replenish the pool if you will.

Of course, I am playing with my custom rosters built off of the draft OSFM. I downgraded a lot of potentials, and upgraded a few players who deserved it. All Closers got converted to RP to level the playing field too. I expected the RP run in Rd 9 to be far different than what the game went with. It chose age/affordability over skill, which I thought was a nice, realistic touch.

*note, I drafted so that I can port my team over to MLBTS2020, multiple seasons.

[KomicJ]

I tend to go crazy with planning when I do a Fantasy Draft. Here's my two cents for what's it's worth.

a) I usually identify a core of 4 players I'd like to build my franchise around. 1 or 2 SPs and the middle of my line-up. To do that, I start a lot of drafts, from different ranks, to get a sense of which available combination I'm more comfortable with. It's cheating a bit, but it's the only way I've found to really like the team to a point where I'll continue playing the franchise for awhile.

b) I'm very big on potential. Or at least, younger players that can develop nicely. Before any draft, I usually make a list of all the B-potential or better players...because unfortunately, there's no filter options during the draft. A simple list with Position, Name, Potential and Overall does the tricks, and it's becomes easier to find the low-rated B-players that the CPU tends to draft before I'm even aware they're on the board.

c) MLB The Show does a better job at selecting different players during each drafts. That wasn't the case a couple of years back. One thing didn't change though; the CPU never draft a RP before the 9th round. That's the one advantage you have. So what I'll usually do is try to find a RP I'm comfortable using as a CP, and select him in the 8th round. I also scout RPs for quality starting pitchers that are currently used as long reliever. For example, in the roster I'm using (forgot which version of OSFM, I think it's end of the year) pitchers like Ohtani and Urias are listed as RPs. You can now focus on position players, knowing that they'll be available in the 7th round, whereas they would probably picked in the first 4 rounds had they been listed as SPs. Quality arm, for good value.

d) There's another big round of RPs selected by the CPU in the 14th round. So I usually get a jump start on them, selecting good bullpen arms in the 12th and/or 13th round.

e) Don't be afraid to scroll down the list...and sometimes pretty far (at least if you're planning for more than one season). The players at the top aren't the best available most of the time. And surely not the youngest.

f) I tend to go with a good mix of contact, power and speed. The one thing I don't pay attention to as much as I probably should are batting sides. This caused me to start over a lot, after realizing I had a RH-batter heavy line-up, but only after the first 25 players have been picked. So you might want to keep an eye on that.

g) Don't be afraid to scroll through every positions, even if you're looking to fill a specific one. Say you need a 2nd baseman...take a look at SS or even CF before making your pick, you might find someone there who would be a better fit.

h) If you're having a hard time sticking to your Fantasy Draft franchise, my advice would be...take your time. I've had draft that took multiple days personally. But if you're taking your time, really planning things out, you'll eventually draft a team you'll just love and be excited to play with every time.

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I'm doing a Cleveland Indians Fantasy Draft as we speak. Started about 4 hours ago, and I'm still only in the 16th round. So yeah, it's time consuming. But I can already tell that this team will be a keeper. Had the 7th pick overall, here's a breakdown so far.

01 - LF - Ronald Acuna Jr. (drafted as CF)
02 - SP - Luis Castillo
03 - 1B - Pete Alonso
04 - 3B - Rafael Devers
05 - SP - Carlos Martinez (drafted as a CP)
06 - SP - Reynaldo Lopez
07 - SP - Julio Urias (drafted as a RP)
08 - CP - Jordan Hicks (drafted as a RP)
09 - RP - Diego Castillo
10 - CF - George Springer
11 - 2B - Jorge Polanco (drafted as a SS)
12 - DH - Jose Abreu
13 - RP - Jose Castillo
14 - SS - Orlando Arcia
15 - SP - Robert Stephenson (drafted as a RP)

As you can see, in the first 15th round, I was able to secure a complete rotation (although I might put Stephenson back in the bullpen as a long reliever depending on SPs I draft later on). I also have my closer, with two setup-men (RH & LH). I also have most of my starting line-up complete, including a DH, only missing my C and RF (which probably will be my next pick, I'm just unsure about who to draft for the moment, so I stepped away to give it a fresh look later). I've got power and contact...decent amount of speed. Best of all, all my players are B-potential or better, with Jose Abreu being the only one over 30-years old.

[Caulfield]

Not really pertinent but maybe it is, but I wont hesitate to completely skip having any ''true'' LF'ers on my team; only position I'll do that way. my CF'er needs speed & range & my RF'er needs a cannon arm. the only thing my LF'er needs is a pulse.

[No.27]

In case you haven’t seen it there are some interesting ideas in this thread.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...aft-order.html

[thawkprime 21]

Im just hopeful that in mlb 20 they remove the relife pitcher round in fantasy drafts. I am a huge fantasy draft guy but hate that i can get the best relife pitcher just by drafting 1 round early. Relife pitchers are an important part of baseball and should be drafted as so.