Fantasy Baseball Draft Day Checklist

Gear up for your fantasy baseball draft with RotoWire's fantasy baseball draft day checklist! See all that goes into the prep for you to dominate the day.
Fantasy Baseball Draft Day Checklist

There's a lot to do before draft day if you're a manager who's serious about competing for a championship. RotoWire's comprehensive fantasy baseball draft kit has dozens of tools that can help managers make sure they're ready to draft a balanced team while extracting the most value out of their selections or bids.

Winning always requires a little bit of luck, but fantasy managers can put themselves in a better position to get lucky if they do their homework. The result of hard work in the winter means entering draft day with a plan (and a back-up plan), a list of players you want to target, and the categories you'll focus on each time you're on the clock.

Preparing Your Rankings and Tiers Before Draft Day

Customizing and preparing your fantasy baseball rankings is the most important task you'll need to finish before draft day. It acts as a single source to compare multiple players at once when it's time to make a selection or bid on a player. No matter the format, you can customize your rankings to your league settings using RotoWire's tools, ensuring you get the most value out of each of the players you add to your team.

Beyond player rankings, fantasy baseball managers can also filter players by tier. This can also help in the draft selection process as you compare MLB projections to see where value drops off at certain points in the draft. However managers want to sort their lists, it's critical that

There's a lot to do before draft day if you're a manager who's serious about competing for a championship. RotoWire's comprehensive fantasy baseball draft kit has dozens of tools that can help managers make sure they're ready to draft a balanced team while extracting the most value out of their selections or bids.

Winning always requires a little bit of luck, but fantasy managers can put themselves in a better position to get lucky if they do their homework. The result of hard work in the winter means entering draft day with a plan (and a back-up plan), a list of players you want to target, and the categories you'll focus on each time you're on the clock.

Preparing Your Rankings and Tiers Before Draft Day

Customizing and preparing your fantasy baseball rankings is the most important task you'll need to finish before draft day. It acts as a single source to compare multiple players at once when it's time to make a selection or bid on a player. No matter the format, you can customize your rankings to your league settings using RotoWire's tools, ensuring you get the most value out of each of the players you add to your team.

Beyond player rankings, fantasy baseball managers can also filter players by tier. This can also help in the draft selection process as you compare MLB projections to see where value drops off at certain points in the draft. However managers want to sort their lists, it's critical that they go into draft day with a solid list that they've curated themselves.

Understanding Your League Rules, Scoring and Roster Settings

Leagues can use various MLB player stats to determine winners and losers. The difference between batting average and on-base percentage can tilt the scales considerably on certain players. Similarly, roster settings can influence how managers attack the draft. A league that allows multiple IL spots means managers can draft and stash injured players who will return later in the season. If a league has no bench spots, an injured player is going to rack up crippling zeros in your lineup.

Managers need to study the ins and outs of their fantasy baseball league rules and scoring. It's why RotoWire's customizable fantasy baseball rankings are so important. You won't need to do the work yourself, RotoWire can sort players based on your specific league settings. If you're in a league with abnormal scoring, fantasy baseball ADP and standard auction values won't do you much good.

Creating a Draft Plan and Budget (If Applicable)

Fantasy baseball drafts never go fully according to plan, no matter how many fantasy baseball mock drafts you participate in. Still, the best managers have a strategy going in. It could be as simple as taking the best player available, regardless of position, for the first few rounds, or as intricate as making sure you leave the draft with a top-100 player at every position. In head-to-head leagues, strategy may involve "punting" stolen bases and going after home run hitters to tilt the scales in your favor there.

For auction leagues, managers will want to map out fantasy baseball auction values for all players. But also strategize that you can go over-budget on a few players you really like, knowing you'll likely need to sacrifice later in the draft with players at the end of your roster. We like budgeting by position and making adjustments to other spots as we win bids on players.

Tools, Resources and Technology to Have Ready

Having RotoWire's fantasy baseball draft assistant is critical to success on draft day. It will suggest players based on your rankings, show how your team stacks up against others, and projects future picks so you have an idea of which players will be waiting for you when it's time to pick. It's the ultimate resource for draft day.

Beyond that, it can be helpful to have RotoWire's fantasy baseball news up on draft day if you need to check on the status (health, playing time, etc.) of a player before you select him. Have your rankings handy and use the fantasy baseball cheat sheet to check out projections, last year's stats, and more, so you can make the most informed decision possible when it's time to build your team.

Final Draft-Day Reminders and In-Draft Best Practices

The draft is the first significant day of the fantasy baseball season, but it's hardly the last. Remember that your team will change dozens of times over the course of the season, and one bad draft pick doesn't spoil the whole year. Some players will go way too early, a certain player you really wanted to target will go way over budget, and a player you thought you had no chance of being available will fall to you.

It's a marathon with ups and downs, but the preparation you do leading up to the draft will allow you to deal with the roller coaster of draft day much better. You just need to subscribe to RotoWire to be prepared. RotoWire has all the resources you'll need before and leading up to draft day so you enter the big day as the smartest, most prepared manager.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Strotman is a veteran sports journalist who has covered the Chicago Bulls and the NBA for NBC Sports Chicago for about 8 years. His work has also appeared on ESPN.com, FoxSports.com, The Chicago Tribune, Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports. He covered the NBA Playoffs in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 as well as Team USA Basketball in 2014 and 2016. He has also covered high school football and was nominated for a Midwest Emmy in 2016 for his work on a documentary featuring local Chicago product and NFL prospect Miles Boykin.
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