Investing & Maybe Fantasy Baseball

My fantasy guide is 100% free. I provide strategies, rankings and positional summaries, but the majority of the guide is devoted to 355 player profiles, which will honestly provide the most value to fantasy owners; I spent last summer in the meth-den known as the Cal League watching High-A baseball and trying to learn the nuances of scouting from other scouts. My player profiles attempt to provide a unique perspective to analysis by combing scouting and statistical perspectives. Forewarning, I wrote this myself and despite my best attempts to catch every grammatical error, there will still be a few sprinkled in the piece. Lastly, this is the first version; I’ll provide an updated version March 18. Check it out and let me know what you think!

2013 Fantasy Baseball Guide
Excel Cheat Sheet with Rankings

Not every team can have elite players at every position. As a draft progress it’s inevitable every fantasy team is going to have holes somewhere in starting lineups. The goal of every fantasy owner at the end of drafts is to try to fill those holes with players who can provide superior value or at least provide a positive return on their draft position.

One way to do that is to find breakout candidates (Fernando Rodney for example). Another way is to draft a pair of players to act as one player who can provide great value in the aggregate. This strategy involves taking players with dramatic home-road splits who play their home games in extremely favorable hitter’s parks. According to StatCorner.com the top five hitter’s parks are: Colorado, Cincinnati, Chicago White Sox, Texas, Milwaukee and Arizona.

I propose where you draft two hitter’s from one of the six aforementioned teams and start them only when they play at home. The reason why you start them only at home is because they’re home-road splits indicate they’re greatly benefiting from playing in their home ballpark. This strategy works best in daily leagues or leagues where you can set your lineup twice a week. Below are some players that would perfect fit for this strategy:

Suppose a fantasy owner only started Murphy and Ross at home last year. What kind of player did that owner receive?

What about if someone owned Fowler and Murphy?

In both scenarios that fantasy owner would have had a top 30 outfielder. Now, what about if both players are at home? Play the “best” of the two. The problem with the strategy is there’s more risk because the fantasy owner is relying on two players to stay healthy compared to only one. This strategy is even more high risk in auction leagues fantasy owners will have to get multiple players.

Today I’m watching my first Spring Training A’s game with great anticipation and excitement. I’m curious to see how every looks after a long off season; whose in shape? whose lost weight? who got fat? The biggest surprise I saw was Daric Barton. Check out his new beard. He looks as if he could be the fifth member of ZZ Top.