Fantasy Baseball Draft Strategy By Round

Fantasy baseball draft position order strategy is all about finding the right player for the right position to balance your squad.

Analyzing the fantasy baseball draft, here are some of the things to get noted while you are in the draft:

1. Who to Pick First for your team
2. Positions to Avoid
3. Who Not to Draft 

Certain factors should be noted while picking players from the draft in fantasy baseball. Every manager or draft picker comes with a plan to pick their targeted ones. 

Depending on the draft format, you should structure your team on how you will build your team being influenced by the league structure. 

 Here are the things you can apply as a strategy when in the draft process:

Starting Your Draft

Analyzing the player stats, and planning on how you will structure your team, you should be either ready for taking risks or passive in the first rounds of the fantasy draft.

If you aim to create an aggressive team, you should take a risk in the first few rounds and go for a strong starter in the team whose projection can be either 600 plate appearances or 200 strikeouts in 162 games.

Injury-prone players are to be ignored analyzing their past performances so that risk would be low compared to picking inform starters for the team.

One thing to be noted for the first few rounds is that the only trustworthy players will be picked in the starting draft rounds if possible.

Middle Rounds: Prepare for the "Dead Rounds"

The Dead Rounds usually fall between Rounds 7 and Round 10, which include certain types of players from the pool.

During the middle rounds, you should be aware of the dead rounds incoming to surpass those rounds.

Here are some of the players who might exist in these ranges:

1. The oft-injured, could-be superstars
2. The already injured but “imagine getting his top production back midseason” players
3. The high-ceiling, sophomore-slump threats
4. The boring-but-gets-the-job-done players

In these rounds, you should analyze your targets on your power-focused strategy and go for those targets who can step up in the big time to play big innings for the team in the upcoming games.

Get a Better Ending in the Last Rounds

As you reached the tail end of the draft, you should be going for the prospects for the season where they can step up huge when the team needs them. 

One prime example is Joey Votto back in 2021, who was picked in the middle round, as he struck 36 home runs, 99 RBI, and had a .266/.376/.563 in the season. The manager who drafted him named him a genius.

The last round will always make people clumsy as you should use that as an advantage and search for the missing pieces for the squad.

Fantasy baseball draft strategy 2023 is to target 3-4 starters in the first few rounds including the starting pitchers with more gaining value.

As we prepare for the draft, some might follow the projections and rankings of the players from several sources. Following the predictions and odds to bring any player for the last rounds might not work as you expected.

Some points that should be considered while in a fantasy baseball draft:

1. Focus on hitting early in the draft
2. Draft a pitcher, select one that can get strikeouts.
3. Don't overpay for position scarcity
4. Have a list ready of sleepers and their selection round or place 
5. Load up on young players with upside late in the draft
6. Don't be the guy who starts and ends the closer run

1. Focus on hitting early in the draft: 

It would help if you were going for an early hit in the draft targeting some top picks starters and pitchers for gaining more value. 

If you go for an early hitting with targeting your top prospects available it will boost you for the further rounds to make the team around the starters and which style you should be playing. 

Starters should be picked depending on your team's defensive or aggressive approach to play.

2. You should draft a Pitcher who can get more strikeouts:

While drafting a pitcher for your team, you can go for a pitcher, who can give you more strikeouts than runs. 

Those pitchers are key for your team and can get you to win for your team. Players like Mark Buehrle can be considered valuable while selecting pitchers.

There is a wave of talented pitchers who can get drafted into your team between the eighth and 12 rounds.

3. Load up on Young Players with Upside Late in the draft

With the risk minimized, loading up young prospects with the likes of Evan Longoria, Edinson Volquez or Jon Danks might benefit.

Focus on the young prospects with at least MLB experience under the belt and can go for players like Philip Hughes and Alex Gordon.

The upside moves regarding the young prospects might be massive if implied successfully.

4. Dont overpay for Position Scarcity

This strategy is riskier as compared to other leagues. You have to keep a close eye on the positional players if mistaken, you can end up with highly suspected players at high pay.

For example: if there are three players in several positions available:

Player 1: 87 R, 13 HR, 69 RBI, 18 SB, .280 BA (C)

Player 2: 85 R, 21 HR, 78 RBI, 19 SB, .278 BA (OF)

Player 3: 71 R, 15 HR, 69 RBI, 2 SB, .318 BA (2B)

Don't overpay for a player who will be available later at a low price because he has a C or 2B in his position or achievements.

Make your priority first, as you should not go for first baseman or outfielders early. Ensure you have a guy who can give you the same results as the other players available.

5. Have a list ready of sleepers and their selection round

To prevent panicking picks for your draft, some outfielders and sleeper players might get available in the later half of the round.

You should make a list targeting your round when you will approach those players.

6. Dont be the guy who starts and ends the closer run

Quick fixes can be made for the closer position player if it is unsettled in your draft. Panicking might cost you badly while choosing a closer and you might start and end with getting the closer.

Talented closers like Jonathan Broxton or Carlos Marmol might get fruitful in closer positions if you have them at the correct time.

You can have one or two closers in your team as you may have a steal on your hands if any closer got injured or is out of performance.

Fantasy Baseball draft strategy 2022 depends upon how you gonna build your team either aggressively or defensively. 

The fundamental strategy in the draft is to focus on the elite starter early from round 1 to the beginner rounds.

You can get the best hitters or the starting players in the first, followed by the in-form pitchers in the second and other starting rounds.

Players like Gerrit Cole, and Corbin Burnes were available in the middle of the eighth or ninth round. If you aim to target the starters in the 7, 8, or 9 rounds, players like Bryce Harper and Freedie Freeman were available who can give you more value to the team.

Don't go for the closers too quickly. They might be available at a lower price and high team value later. Going for the closers early might hamper the team balance in the early stages but can go for them later.

You should find value in the catchers in the later rounds as players like Salvador Perez, J.T Realmuto, and Will Smith provide a unique touch to the squad in the catcher's position in the last rounds.

There are some late-round sleepers available in the draft whom you can get your focus on during the end rounds.

You can make a list of sleepers for the late rounds to target, as they might provide a positive value to your fantasy team despite having normal stats in the games. Some sleepers include Joe Ryan, Jo Adell, Enrique Hernandez, and Andrew Vaughn.