Draft day is almost here again, boys and girls. Before you know which players you want to draft on draft day you have to go in with a strategy. Going into your draft without a set plan is like wearing a sign on your butt saying, “Kick me.” You are asking for trouble without planning ahead.

People often ask me what strategy is right. Theoretically, it is right if it works and it is wrong if it does not. Yeah, I know, that did not answer the question. The bottom line is that there is no right or wrong strategy. The only wrong strategy is to not making one.

The purpose of this little article is to tell you different strategies, some old and some new, and you can decide for yourself which strategy is best. Some are easy, some are complicated. Some may work for you, some may not. Not every strategy will work for every person. Experiment with these in mock drafts with your buddies and then find out which one (or several) is right for you.

Dumping

This is the oldest trick in the book, and there remains a huge controversy other whether it should be used. Dumping is used in 4x4 or 5x5 rotisserie scoring. The drafting team will “dump” a category and focus on other categories. The category dumped most often is saves since closers tend to be expensive, but stolen bases, power and wins are also often dumped. This strategy is risky, but it does work if you know what you are doing. The old adage that practice makes perfect is all I am going to say about it.

All Hitting, No Pitching and Vice Versa

I have rarely ever seen an owner go for all pitching, but it certainly is a strategy at your disposal. All hitting is very popular since expensive pitchers are usually more risky due to injuries, and for many people the sleepers are easier to predict. Therefore, owners go with drafting most of their dollars on hitting or spending the first several rounds on hitting. In an auction, an 80/20 hitting to pitching split is usually considered to be this category. I DEFINITELY recommend this strategy in any mixed league, where there is so much pitching depth.

Drafting On Scarcity

Basically, this strategy is simply paying extra attention to the scarce positions (catcher, closer, second base) and making sure good players go into each of those positions. Shortstop was also once involved in this category, but over the past few years the shortstop position has turned much more offensive minded. While this is not a bad strategy, I certainly would not dwell on scarcity to the point where you do nothing else. Think about it, in a mixed league in the first three rounds would you rather have Mike Piazza, Jose Vidro and Robb Nen or Vladimir Guerrero, Roy Oswalt and Carlos Delgado? Enough said.

Balance

With this strategy, you want to spend equally with both your hitting and pitcher and pay equal attention to both. This strategy is usually efficient, but it is also sometimes difficult to pull off. I am yet to see a “perfectly balanced team,” except in free leagues when 9 out of 10 owners did not show up for the draft.

All Playing Time All the Time

This is a single league strategy, but the idea is to get position players with starting roles and pitchers that have jobs rather than looking at potential upside. I have gotten burned more than once by using this strategy (2002 FSIC NL-only), but it still may work in some league scenarios.

Superstar

This might be the easiest strategy to explain, but it really does not apply for snake-drafts. Simply put, bid whatever you need to for that superstar (Soriano, Vlad, A-Rod, Pedro, Randy). Then just try to put together a decent team with the rest of your dollars. I have seen this strategy many times, but the only times I have ever seen it work is when it is with the all hitting, no pitching strategy. Obviously, the superstar was a hitter as well.

Bribing Other League Owners…

… Not a “real” strategy (at least I hope not). Just seeing if you were listening.

Go After Closers

Only when there is no league minimum would I even think of recommending this strategy. What you are doing with this strategy, in effect, is winning saves, ERA and WHIP while doing mediocre in strikeouts in 5x5 and punting wins. This is more a 4x4 strategy, as dumping two categories turns it into a sticky situation. The innings and starts minimum was put into place to prevent this strategy, so it is unlikely that you will ever even get a chance to use this one.

Draft Rookies and/or Keepers

When I said that there were no bad strategies, I lied. Even the most respected prospect evaluators in the business are wrong 50% of the time, and that is what you are becoming if you try to use this strategy. The strategy only applies to keeper leagues, and the idea is to become better later on. There are simply too many bad things that can happen if you use this strategy. Just think where you would be now if you drafted Steve Avery and Todd Van Poppel in the early 90’s.

Control the Draft

Controlling the draft only applies to auction leagues, and it means holding off on major spending until the end. When most other owners are out of money then you can outbid anyone for any player remaining. There are times when this strategy works, but the last thing you want to do is have money left on the table. That can happen if you use this strategy. I would actually recommend this strategy more for football than I would baseball, but I am not the football guy, so who cares what I recommend.

There are other strategies out there, but the strategies listed above are the most popular. As mentioned, no one strategy is right. What you want to do is get familiarized with one or two this year before going into your draft if you are not already. If that strategy does not work for you, go onto a different one. Certain people are better with certain strategies, and you have to find what works for you. Good luck!

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