Yahoo Fantasy Baseball tips for new managers

Redmen82 wrote:

As this is my first season my aim is not to be last in my division. Can any of the experienced players provide any advise to drafting to in season strategy?

Although I run the league, I am definitely not an expert and certainly not at drafting!  😳 You might want to check out the recent Episode 2 of the Behind Home Plate podcast that had some beginner tips for drafting.

Make sure you’ve read the league rules so you are familiar with the roster size and available positions, what stats the scoring values and any restrictions on trading or picking up free agents (basically, in our main game there are virtually no restrictions). As our divisions are fairly big this season (around 15 teams in each), the free agent pool to choose from in each division, after the initial draft, will a bit smaller than it was last year.

It’s useful to have a few utility players who are eligible to play in more than one position on your roster as it provides flexibility.

Depending on how much time you have or want to pay attention to your daily roster during the season, the Yahoo fantasy baseball website and app are generally good at providing up-to-date player news and highlighting days off, injuries, good/bad form and things like that. They have various tools for comparing stats between different players. If you are checking in on your roster pretty regularly I think that will give you a good chance of your primary aim of not finishing last.

And remember, it is meant to be fun! If there are certain MLB players you like or follow, even if they may not be fantasy stars, and you can pick one or two of them up, it gives some added interest to your team even if you’re not flying high at the top of the league. As long as they are playing!

Tim

Redbaron 07 wrote:

How is the “Draft pick order” determined for any given Division?

It will likely just be randomised, particularly as every division has at least a few managers who weren’t involved last season. The draft order can be set once I close the divisions this week (there’s the last few registered managers who haven’t yet accepted their invites and joined their division, so I’m leaving it as long as possible).

Jane W

On that same Yahoo fantasy baseball website, to the right of the page are a list of options, which starts with “create team”……the 2nd to last option is titled “MOCK DRAFT NOW”

You can actually play this Mock draft to provide the experience you require. It lasts about an hour….but is a worthwhile investment. At the end of the draft…Yahoo grades your draft pick and gives you an overall mark (A+ to F-)…..and also show how you compare to the other contestants participating. I only tried it once….and got a C+

I might play it today one more time….

Rene’

Jane W wrote:

Can anyone please explain in simple terms how the Pre Draft Rankings works? I keep looking at the list of 24 players (presumably the first round choices?) but don’t know what difference it will make if I move them around, especially as we don’t know which turn we will be taking.

Hi Jane, my understanding is that list of players is basically the preference order in which the system will draft your team if you leave it to auto-draft for you, round by round, position by position. But as other managers also draft their players in each round, players will be removed from that list as the draft goes on.

If you are manually drafting players, the pre-draft rankings is less useful but I think you can see the pre-draft rankings list so it might help you decide who you want to pick next. Or if you don’t pick someone within the one minute allowed, auto-draft kicks in for that round using the rankings.

So, say you stuck with the default list, you were the first to draft in round one and you just leave it to auto-draft, Yahoo will pick Juan Soto for one of your outfield spots as he is first on the list. Say you were second to draft and the first manager already picked Soto, Yahoo would pick Mookie Betts for you as he is the next ranked player on the list. Yahoo will ignore players in the pre-draft rankings that are for a position you have already filled (until it gets to the bench, which can hold players of any position).

So, yes, it is difficult to know in advance who will be left available to pick from your pre-draft rankings in each round but I suppose it gives you a better shot of getting some of your preferred players.

At least, that’s how I think it works!  😕

I’ve never edited pre-draft rankings before as I’ve always been able to draft live and have used rankings & ADP to inform my pick. Yahoo loads the first 24, you can then add them to your list in whatever your preferred order, then save and refresh the list and it should load the next group of players. It’s quite a bit of work, but if you aren’t able to make the draft then it might be worth it.

Generally in points leagues like this position scarcity becomes more important than category’s. For instance, the 15th best 1B is going to score a lot more points than the 15th best 2B. Something to keep in mind

Redbaron 07 wrote:

1) How do you drop a player for a Bench player on any given day?

On your roster page click on the position button to the left of the player’s name that you wish to drop to the bench. The available positions that the player can move to are highlighted (or, rather, all ineligible positions greyed out) and that will include an empty bench spot or a bench player. Then click on the position button of the bench player you want to swap in… and the two players will swap rosters spots.

Redbaron 07 wrote:

2) When can you start acquiring Free Agent players….and how to do it?

After the draft finishes all remaining free agents are on waivers for two days. To see the list of free agents either click the Add Player button at the top of your roster page or go to Players List in the Players menu. In the list of free agents there is a green + button to add a player to your roster. If your roster is already full, it will prompt you to choose someone to drop from your roster and be replaced by the new player.

Redbaron 07 wrote:

3) Waivers….how does work?. I read the FBUK instructions sheet…I’m just looking for the menu button on the yahoo website, where I could bid for a waived player

That’s the Players List mentioned above. You can filter that list to show all free agents, just those that are on waivers, those that are rostered to other fantasy teams, etc. If a player is on waivers, there is a ‘W’ in the Status column and the date at which they come off waivers is displayed.

You can use that same + button to request a waivered player and then it will depend on whether another manager higher up in the waiver order also requests the player. If not, you’ll get the player once he comes off waivers.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by FBUK.