This article is part of our The Saber's Edge series.
Most fantasy baseball owners have moved onto that other sport. The change can be seen even with the experts. In my Tout Wars league, only three of the 12 teams made a move this week. Those three teams are ranked first, second and third. With owners abandoning their teams, a little work can still be done to wrap up the season. Today, I am going to look some end of fantasy baseball season items that should be done as the season ends.
2017 Leagues
First, take a long hard look at the number and types of leagues you are in this year. I think most owners wish they were in fewer leagues, but it could go the other way. Figure out the number of leagues you feel comfortable with and really try to stick with that number next year. I know it is hard to say no when the newest coolest league pops up, so maybe give yourself a little bit of cushion. Say the number of leagues you would like to be in is six, so plan on going with four to five leagues, giving you room for a new league or two.
Additionally, I find I pay more attention to and perform better when I limit the number of leagues. The main difference is having more time to concentrate on each of the other teams, not just mine. I have been cutting down on the number of leagues I am in over the years and find I enjoy
Most fantasy baseball owners have moved onto that other sport. The change can be seen even with the experts. In my Tout Wars league, only three of the 12 teams made a move this week. Those three teams are ranked first, second and third. With owners abandoning their teams, a little work can still be done to wrap up the season. Today, I am going to look some end of fantasy baseball season items that should be done as the season ends.
2017 Leagues
First, take a long hard look at the number and types of leagues you are in this year. I think most owners wish they were in fewer leagues, but it could go the other way. Figure out the number of leagues you feel comfortable with and really try to stick with that number next year. I know it is hard to say no when the newest coolest league pops up, so maybe give yourself a little bit of cushion. Say the number of leagues you would like to be in is six, so plan on going with four to five leagues, giving you room for a new league or two.
Additionally, I find I pay more attention to and perform better when I limit the number of leagues. The main difference is having more time to concentrate on each of the other teams, not just mine. I have been cutting down on the number of leagues I am in over the years and find I enjoy and perform better as the number drops.
Also, an owner may look at the type of leagues he is in. After playing fantasy baseball for more than 20 years, my league tastes have changed and it will for other owners.
Just this week, I informed two keeper leagues I would not be returning for next season and to find a new owner. The issue I had with both leagues was daily lineup changes and transactions. As much as I like baseball, I like to take breaks from the game with several days going by before I catch up on baseball news and set my lineups.
In these cut-throat daily leagues, I just put myself at a huge disadvantage. Instead, I made a vow to not join any league without weekly transactions and lineups. This change leaves me with only three leagues I plan on being in next season, but I can gladly handle twice that many.
Another change I made a few years back was to deepen the depth of the leagues I was participating in and expand my knowledge past the top 250 players in the game, so I joined a dynasty league. An owner may also want to look at adding a keeper or a dynasty league. Or maybe getting rid of keeper leagues so your teams have a fresh start each season.
One simple rule to follow is "Did I have fun in the league." If yes, stay in it again. If no, move on. Fantasy baseball is not supposed to feel like work.
Team Deficiencies
I think most owners get into a general pattern of what worked for them and stay with it. Go through each league and figure out where you missed. Did you ignore stolen bases, too? Or was it saves? Did you put too much stock in hitters and your pitching suffered? Did you acquire too much up-and-coming talent or injury prone older players? This is a good time to take a hard look at your team and see where you could improve next season.
One long time AL-only league I am in has both WHIP and Batting Average Against as two pitching categories. I am last in both because I normally concentrate on pitchers with good K%-BB% and high groundball rates, like Marcus Stroman and Corey Kluber. While groundballs are usually desired, they go for hits 30 percent of the time and can really put a damper on the standings when looking at both WHIP and AVG. Next season, I need to look at getting some high-flyball pitchers like Drew Smyly, Justin Verlander or Marco Estrada for my team.
Another item to remember is what works in one league may not work in another. I know one owner I have been with in the same league several times who will have a loaded lineup on every team and piece together a pitching staff as the season progress. He recently joined a deeper league with great owners and the midseason bargains are harder to come by. In that deeper league, he is always struggling for pitching as he tries to dig himself out of a hole. He should change his tactics and put a little more emphasis on some top end pitching in the draft.
Knowledge Increase
With some of the above changes, it may be time to look into some gaining some player knowledge for next season. The additional knowledge could be from how to create auction values or prospect knowledge past the top 100 list.
When I first started playing in a super deep keeper leagues (850 players owned) with industry experts, I was always behind evaluating players. Whenever I found out about a new shiny prospect, I would find out the player was already owned. Many times the owner picked up the player a week or so before the reporting publication he works for mentioned the player. I needed to find my own advantage.
While I don't recommend it for most owners, I created my program, which evaluates prospects midseason. Instead of reading a ton of chats or articles on prospects, I run the program and it immediately spits out the players I need to target. Then, I can go to various sources and find out more about those players.
Maybe you don't need to write a program, but you can read up on the subject and find the clues for a possible breakout. Give yourself a list of one to three items to improve on during the offseason to help during the season.
Enhancements
I love competing in Tout Wars (especially since I am likely to win my league), but I find it painful every week to use OnRoto's interface, especially when it comes to finding available players. There is no way Tout Wars is going to change the interface, so I need to adapt. For next season, I am going to add all the rosters into some roster tracker software or create a fake league on another website like Yahoo to track the players in the league.
Again, most owners don't need to go to this extreme. Most of the time the league can change hosts, but sometimes, this change is not possible.
Winnings
Unless you are one of the few players who play to feed your family (good luck), take the small winnings you get and spend on your friends and family. Some flowers for your wife saying thanks for putting up with your fantasy baseball obsession. If you feel you have to spend some on yourself go out together for a nice meal. If you won a nice chunk, go on a trip. Or even invite all you league mates over for some wings and beers and watch that other sport. I think the winning are to be shared and with those you annoyed during the season.
