Success in your Fantasy Baseball league

If you play in a Fantasy Baseball league, but can't seem to make any real headway to compete despite your efforts, there are steps you can take to make your team competitive.

Before the draft:

- It may take a bit of time to do this, but make sure you rank enough players that you'll assure yourself of at least 2 players at every position your fantasy team has a slot for. For example, if you are in a 12 team Fantasy Baseball league, you'll want to rank the top 24 catchers. Do enough research so that you can do this with some degree of confidence. Know if certain top players are injured, and know who stands to replace them on their respective teams. Having a handle on the talent out there will allow you to make productive draft picks, or if your league autodrafts, allow the CPU to make good picks for you.

- Certain stats are more in a player's control than others. In baseball, a pitcher can't totally control the number of wins he gets or hits he allows, but he can control the walks he allows and has a lot of control over the number of strikeouts he gets. A hitter's batting average can fluctuate for reasons beyond his control, and he can't necessarily control the number of runs or RBI he amasses... but he can control the number of walks he draws and the amount of power he hits for.

Focus on judging players by controllable, centralized stats, as these will trickle down and correlate positively with the stats you can't control. Select hitters based on their on base percentage and slugging. Hitters with good OBP get on base more, tend to hit for higher average, tend to hit higher in the lineup and get more opportunities to score runs. Hitters with good SLG tend to hit home runs, hit in the middle of the order and get more chances to drive guys in for more RBI.

- Be wary of last year's top rookies, or anyone who had a huge year last season. Many players have a great rookie year only to hit what is called a 'sophomore slump'. Their 2nd year is often a letdown for various reasons, not the least of which is becoming a known quantity: teams have scouting reports developed on these players, and develop more sophisiticated approaches to play back at them. This slows almost any newcomer down.

Players do buck this trend, though, so there's no reason to rate 2nd year stars too low. Don't bank your draft on them, however. Also, players will often have breakout years, often coinciding with the expiration of their contract, that belie their true performance level. Rate these players on their average production, not on the outlying big season.

- In fact, don't bank your draft on a particular subset of players. Don't draft all young players, all veterans, bunches of guys from your favorite team, all East Coast players, all Latinos or any gimmick approaches to drafting. This includes statistical gimmicks like all home run hitters or all base stealers. Draft a good mix of productive players from different environments and ages.

- Be wary of aging players who just had a letdown season. Sure, it might have been bad luck, but the end of players' careers usually features a statistical letdown as their bodies slow and their age catches up with them. Players often continue playing despite a down year, hoping to keep it going. But don't fall for the trap. If you see players in their 30s who just had a down year, rank these players low on your draft board.

- After you set your draft board, look at where the host site for the league typically ranks them, and figure out where they will probably go in the draft. The most likely picks for your team will likely be players you rate higher than others.

- Try to draft one or two players that excel at each stat scored in your league. Make sure you have two good stolen base guys. Make sure you have a couple of big sluggers. Make sure you select a solid strikeout pitcher to help your K's. Make sure you get a couple closers for saves. When in doubt, revert back to picking guys by the solid, controllable stats, like OBP and SLG for hitters, and strikeouts and walks for pitchers. These guys will often provide a quality boost in several of your needed categories.

- Pick pitchers you can trust to be consistent. You'll need to use most, if not all of your starting pitchers and definitely all of your relievers, so tend to avoid guys who are inconsistent and get hit a lot, even if they bolster strikeout and win totals. Let your opponents battle with those players to compensate for their bloated team ERAs and WHIP.

- When in doubt between two players, opt for the player who:

1) Fills a position you have a need to fill.

2) Can slot in at several positions. This gives you roster flexibility.

- On that note, try not to compile too many set position players, guys who only play 3B, or are only eligible at 1B. try to get guys who are eligible at multiple positions, like LF/CF/RF, 2B/SS, 1B/3B, C/1B. This will allow you to mix and match players better so that you can play all your hottest or best hitters at once. The flexibility is important: If you have three guys, for example, that can only play 1B, and all are hitting well, you'll have to bench at least one of them, maybe two if your lineup doesn't allow for a utility player. That's not efficient.

After the draft, during the season:

- If, after the draft, the waiver wire allows you to upgrade any positions, or has players available at a position you need to fill, make corresponding moves immediately to set your roster.

After that, tend to avoid making too many roster moves during the first 2-3 weeks, aside from replacing players who are injured or benched. Give players enough time to build a large enough statistical sample that you can better judge who can help your team and who can't.

- Adjust your roster every day, every week or every period your league allows you to. Most leagues have an unlimited number of innings and at-bats allowed, and roster moves can be made anytime up to game time. If a player is idle on a given day, replace him with a player that is active at that position for that day. Make sure every position possible is filled every day to accumulate stats. Make sure pitchers scheduled to start on a certain day are active that day.

- When deciding who to play and bench, filter stats to show the previous week's performances. These are often effective barometers of how a player is currently doing, regardless of his overall performance level. Side with starting players who are posting higher numbers over a week, and try to bench players who are struggling. Also consider other factors, like who is pitching for their opponents, the lineups pitchers are facing, what teams they're up against and where the game is being played.

If you can't decide between two struggling hitters, you may want to pick the one facing the team with a bad pitching staff or playing in the hitter friendly stadium. Baseball Reference has a helpful listing of each team and their park factors, which can tell you which parks are friendlier to hitters and which ones for pitchers.

- Each week, try to go to the waiver wire and pick up at least one hitter and one pitcher that is an upgrade over a current player on your team. Filter by performance over the past month if you can, to give a better idea of who has performed well lately. Stick generally with sorting players by controllable stats and upgrading according to those, though if your team has a glaring need in one category, obviously give precedence to players that improve upon that category.

If you find you can upgrade several positions at once, that's fine. Make every move you can to improve your team whenever you can.

From here, it's up to you to make judgment calls and decipher which players can help your team win. I wish you the best of luck.