As I sit here on a crisp fall evening in late September, it’s impossible to believe that another fantasy baseball season is about to fade to black. While it might seem like the season flew by, the reality is quite the opposite.
There were thousands of start/sit decisions, countless free-agent acquisitions, streamers, drops, benchings, trades, you name it. Winning a fantasy baseball league title, without a doubt, is the most fulfilling accomplishment in the fantasy realm. Yes, it’s more fulfilling than winning a fantasy football championship. Trust me, I’ve won both in my lifetime. Fantasy baseball is a longer grind. It takes more patience. It’s a day-to-day affair.
You physically, mentally and emotionally need to outlast your opponents. And when you do, it was well-earned. How’d you do this year? I’ll briefly recap my fantasy baseball season before getting into the final Small Ball topic of the season. I joined four NFBC Online Championships this year. I am on pace to win a league title, finished in the bottom half in two others and inside the top five in the final contest. That means I was 1-for-4 in terms of making money. So you know, like a typical Anthony Volpe day at the dish for the Yankees.
It ended up being a small profit. Considering this was the most challenging year for me to date, I’ll take that every time. I was also fortunate enough to win a pair of home-league head-to-head points league titles. There was plenty of good, but also plenty of disappointment. In this final article, I’m going to walk you through the “perfect” fantasy baseball draft. A draft Pablo Picasso would be proud of. I’m using NFBC ADP from the month of March so it most accurately reflects preseason data. I’ll go round by round and identify the best possible selections. I’ll highlight a few honorable mentions and include the top “fade(s)” of the round.
How should you have drafted if you could see the future? Stay tuned to find out.
For this exercise, I’m not being draft-slot specific, but I’ll try to keep it realistic. I will also keep positions in mind. If I already have two catchers by Round 8, I won’t “draft” another the rest of the way.
Round 1