Preparing for the Draft

   So the big day has arrived. You are meeting up with the other owners in someone’s house, a bar or maybe on-line. The big question is… Are you ready?

It seems like every year there is one owner who shows up to the draft thinking he can do it all off the top of his head. By mid draft that owner is always scrambling to come up with names or asking to see other owner’s lists. If its on-line its not so bad, most fantasy leagues will supply some sort of list so he can choose a player, but more often than not, those lists are not ranked very well. In the end, that "know-it-all" owner has only upset the other owners because he takes so long between each pick and he has drafted a mediocre team at best. Usually with at least one player who is injured. Don’t be this owner.

   If you don’t have a lot of time to investigate the players, then you should at least go to one good site and print off their top-200 list. Of the major sites out there, I have found ESPN to have the most accurate list. Many of the other site have too many players who are ranked much higher or lower than they should be. The list I offer here at Kenja’s Fantasy Sports is a comparison of five different sites. My list took the rankings of each player and figured out their average rank. In some cases, one site would have a player ranked much higher or lower than the others. In this case, I have eliminated the anomaly so the list gets a truer ranking. But whether you take my list or some other sites list, one needs to still use judgment.

   For instance, Catcher Joe Mauer is ranked on average at 28^th. In my opinion this is way too high. McCann who is ranked 57^th had nearly twice as many HR’s as Mauer and hit for nearly as good an average. Maybe Mauer is expected to have a big year but until a player has had two consecutive great years, I would not rank them so high.

   Another thing to keep in mind is you should put your heart aside for those few precious hours. We have a tendency to believe players from our favorite teams will be better than they are. Don’t pick players from your hearts desire as much as from their stats. If two players are equal statistically and one of them is on your favorite team, then by all means draft him. Just don’t draft a decent player over a proven star just because he is on your favorite team and you think he will be good.

   Don’t be afraid to draft a bench player when you have positions to fill yet. If there is a star first baseman available but 1B is filled on your team, you would be better to draft him than fill another position with an average player. Remember that ever star player you have on your team is one less on your competitions team. Also star players can make some great trade bait later when someone is desperate.

   If possible, the day of the draft, you should check the injury reports. The last thing you want to do is draft a player who just got injured.

   If nothing else though, please print off somebody’s list to take with you. The more prepared you are, the better you will draft. The better you draft the better chance you have of winning the championship.

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