Fantasy Sports: Drive yourself crazy with Fantasy Baseball

As spring training winds down, fantasy baseball season is in full swing. Here is some advice from one grizzled veteran of fantasy sports leagues.

1. Join as many separate fantasy baseball leagues as you can. If you are lucky, at least one league will use "rotisserie" scoring, while others will involve "head-to-head" scoring. As a result, you can look at a player halfway through the season and decide he is a perfect fit for one or two of your teams, but not for all of them. This will enhance your critical thinking skills by forcing your brain to hold opposing thoughts about one thing simultaneously.

2. Be sure to join at least one league where you know few, if any, of your fellow managers. Maybe one league can be "Friends-Only," but the others should largely include people who are total strangers. That way, you can be totally anonymous and terrible if you choose, without the burden of annoying trash talk from people who can point out similarities between your fantasy baseball ineptitude and your pathetic love life. Joining a "Public League" through one of the fantasy sports web sites is an ideal way to accomplish this goal. If you do not like your team in a league full of strangers, forget about it. Revel in your status as "the manager no one knew who gave up early in the season."

3. Mix up your drafts. Appear personally ("Live") for one or two drafts, but let the computer pick at least one of your teams (with or without your pre-rankings). If you choose to pick all your players personally, you will lack the necessary excuses if your team is a failure. For the sake of avoiding trash talk, perhaps it is best to let the computer draft your players in a "Friends-Only" league.

4. During a "Live" draft, make sure you know what the other managers are doing. If, for example, you draft sixth in the first round, and the first five players taken in the first round are Roy Halladay, Curt Schilling, Mark Prior, Pedro Martinez and Tim Hudson, do not even consider drafting anything but a starting pitcher. If you draft a position player, the "ace" of your staff might end up being the tenth to twentieth-best pitcher in baseball. Sure, you'll have the best position player in the league, but you were due to get a top-flight position player in the next round, anyway. You will spend the rest of the season looking for that elusive ace.

5. If you have the last pick in the first round, most leagues will give you the first pick in the second round. Again, pay attention to what others are doing. Your back-to-back picks might set the tone for the next round.

6. It helps to draft at different stages of the pre-season. Have at least one draft in late February or early March, so you can use the time-honored excuse, "Some of the guys I drafted got injured in spring training, and I couldn't find viable replacements." If you have a draft within a week of Opening Day, be sure you are up to date on injuries and player moves. Otherwise, you risk drafting an injured player and face a summer of reminders about your wasted pick.

7. After the draft, trades and free agent signings begin. Depending on your league, you may have a waiver process that requires every manager to approve your acquisitions of recently released players. Perhaps others will be mean and block everything you try to accomplish. If that happens, return the favor.

8. Trying to undersell a trade is dangerous. At times, another manager will declare that so-and-so is on the trading block. At that point, you are probably in trouble. Everyone will propose a trade for that player, and you have to craft a deal that wins the bidding war, helps the other manager, and keeps your team's strengths intact. Easier said than done.

9. Never accept a trade of draft picks.

10. Selecting 10 players from your favorite team is not "cute," "funny," or "neat." It is a recipe for disaster. Except when George Steinbrenner owns your favorite team. Then it is merely a shame.

11. Making 30 roster moves a week is not helpful. Unless, of course, your entire team is on the injured list, then you have no choice.

12. Finally, pay attention. In fact, pay too much attention, especially if money is involved. Let your fantasy leagues dominate your personal life, your work life, and (literally) your fantasy life. This stuff is important!