hey all, new around here although i frequent the hockey boards. relatively new to fantasy ball. huge baseball fan but i\'ve only been in one pool. needless to say i\'m looking for ideas on the best draft strategy.

i have the first overall pick this year and will likely take hanley ramirez, but after that i dont really have any sort of plan, like where to draft certain positions. in hockey i generally try and draft a forward or two and then a top goalie, so im sorta unsure as to what positions are most important. i know catcher and ss are a little shallow, same with 2b it seems. not too sure about pitching but it seems pretty important.

thoughts?

cheers guys

My advice to you, seriously, is to by the Dobber Baseball Draft Guide. It\'s $4. You can find that in your couch or return all your beer empties. CBS Sports also has valuable fantasy baseball tools as does MLB. Enjoy and have fun!

There is a column on the ideal team and a piece on pitching vs. hitting and other pieces and then of course a cheat sheet and team-by-team projections. It is over 100 pages. I\'m sure it would help you.

Appreciate the recommendation 2legit.

__________________
08-09 (Before Ownership): DHL Stars
Fisher, Fehr, Hagman, Stoll, Dubinsky, Zubrus, Brule, Boyd, Stempniak, Bergeron, HIggins, Nylander, Langkow, Bourque, Burrows, Pyatt, Crombeen, Hunwick Ohlund, Salo, Bergeron, Thomas, Quick, Ersberg, LaBarbera, Raycroft

12-13 (Present): DHL Capitals
Heatley, Semin, Vanek, Roy, Ribeiro, Kessel, Couture, Turris, Kopitar, Marleau, Hossa, Pominville, Conacher, Nyquist, Silfverberg, Rajala, Arcobello, Karlsson, Green, Enstrom, Wisniewski, Ellis, Elliott, Murphy, Brennan, Benoit, Fleury, Bryzgalov, Elliott, Nabakov, Lehner

If you\'re new to fantasy baseball, then the dobber guide would be a great tool to start with.

SS/2B/C are all relatively thin positions, but that doesn\'t mean you reach too much just for the sake of drafting those positions.

Just like fantasy hockey, you should be going for the best available player.

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Keeper League:

F) N.Backstrom, E.Malkin, V.Lecavalier, P.Mueller, A.Mcdonald, B.Boyes, A.Hemsky, S.Horcoff, K.Turris, D.Jeffrey, M.Perreault, C.O'Reilly, S.Upshall, M.Erat, S.Gagne, D.Legwand D) S.Souray, M.Streit, A.Babchuk, T.Gilbert, I.Cole, J.Hillen, M.Methot G) B.Elliott, S.Varlamov, C.Ward, J.Reimer P) N.Kadri, E.Kuznetsov, S.Shirokov, V.Tarasenko, J.Blum, OEL, J.Moore, O.Pavelec

What djkiang said is bang on!

After you take Han-Ram it would be nice to snag a premiere 2B or maybe 3B. Don\'t reach too much for C because there isn\'t a lot of difference in the numbers of the top 6 or 7.

Wait on 1B & OF as long as you can as they are the easiest to fill.

Look for the start of the RP run then grab one or two during that run!

SP\'s you don\'t need to even really think about until rd 6 or 7 maybe?

There are obviously as many draft strategies as there are poolies but a few of my rules of thumb are:

1)Don\'t reach for pitching:
-There are too many variables involved in a pitchers success.
-There have been very few pitchers worth taking early in the first round but the 2nd is a good time to grab a proven ace workhorse
-don\'t get caught up in the hype of a good pitcher getting traded to a great team

2) 2b, SS and C are consistently shallow positions so it\'s nice to grab a stud there early if one exists but don\'t get caught reaching after they\'re gone

3) Grab a stud closer before the run starts:
-I know many will disagree but I\'ve been playing baseball pools for a long time and have been burned by the SV stat too many times to mention. That being said, the closer position tends to change hands more than any other so once I\'ve got a proven workhorse in my stable I wait a long time before grabbing another because I know I\'ll be able to grab a newly crowned closer at some point within the first 6 weeks.

My last bit of advice is not to play it safe in the late rounds. These are the rounds where pools are won or lost, I\'d much rather gamble on a guy with a nice upside or a star coming back from an injury than take the safe bet.

Hope this helps!

On the other hand, last year in my keeper roto, 15 team league, I had the opportunity to protect BJ Ryan, and opted not too.

I started the draft with no closers, and ended up with guys like George Sherill, Jensen Lewis, and Brad Ziegler to name a few. I finished first last year, and maybe in the top 6 in the saves category. These guys all were on the waiver wire when the season started, and all ended up with double digit saves.

Saves are always introduced throughout the year. As long as you check everyday, you have a chance to grab these guys.

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Keeper League:

F) N.Backstrom, E.Malkin, V.Lecavalier, P.Mueller, A.Mcdonald, B.Boyes, A.Hemsky, S.Horcoff, K.Turris, D.Jeffrey, M.Perreault, C.O'Reilly, S.Upshall, M.Erat, S.Gagne, D.Legwand D) S.Souray, M.Streit, A.Babchuk, T.Gilbert, I.Cole, J.Hillen, M.Methot G) B.Elliott, S.Varlamov, C.Ward, J.Reimer P) N.Kadri, E.Kuznetsov, S.Shirokov, V.Tarasenko, J.Blum, OEL, J.Moore, O.Pavelec