Well, we’ve come to the end of the line my friends, as we head into the weekend (or Monday!) to wrap up another 162 games of major league baseball. Anyone who played in even a single fantasy league no doubt had a long six months full of both highs and lows. Here’s to hoping there were more of the former, and that many of you have wrapped up a league title or have a chance to over the next few days. The first week after the season ends is always a challenging time for me regardless of how my teams fared, as I tend to feel a little out of sorts without lineups to set, injuries to fear, and box scores to peruse. I’ve found that, while it’s not necessarily a bad idea to give your mind a complete break from the grind of a challenging season, for me it’s often an even better idea to get some thoughts together while they are fresh in my head. It can be a win-win, getting some closure on the current fantasy season as well as providing an early boost in preparation for next year. With that in mind, this week I’ll throw out a few thoughts I’ve had recently about where things went right and wrong in my 2024 fantasy season. Hopefully getting these on paper (okay, computer screen) now, and having them rattling around in my brain over the coming months, will help me tweak my pre-season preparation and be the first step towards successful drafts next year. So, here are five things that I’m already thinking about for 2025 as we watch this season draw to a close:
- Never Underestimate the Importance of Time Management. This one isn’t just a reminder to myself to work on in-season scheduling, it’s a reminder that I need to start thinking now about not only how many leagues I agree to participate in next year, but how their format will affect the level of commitment I need to give them. (And don’t get me started on how god-among-RCL-men MattTruss can possibly not only keep on top of and often dominate several RCL leagues, but run the whole RCL show all season as well… I’m really beginning to think he may have developed secret self-replication powers at some point). Best ball leagues are fun to draft, but I’m not particularly good at them and really don’t enjoy them, so I need to keep that in mind when I’m getting the itch to create rosters in a couple of months. Also, the biggest mistake on the time front I made this year was underestimating how much attention draft and hold leagues need in-season, particularly those with bi-weekly changes. Since there is no free agent pool, waiver wire, or trading in these leagues, I always think of them as no-maintenance, but they are at the very least low-maintenance. If you tune out even a little bit during the season when it comes to lineup setting, the fallout can be harsh. Forgetting to check last minute injury updates and leaving hurt players in your active lineup, missing a minor league hitter being called up and not getting him into your lineup for a big week, forgetting to double check pitching schedules and missing a couple starts in July that would have made a different in the standings come September… it takes time every week to avoid these kinds of mistakes, even when you have a 50-man roster that’s locked for the duration of the season.
- Sometimes You Get What You Pay For. No one loves a good deal more than I do, and obviously getting a great bargain or two for a player who ends up being a surprise fantasy stud can be a league-winning move. But when you have something that is important enough to you know that you are willing to pay full or even an inflated price for, whether it’s a pair of shoes or a #3 fantasy outfielder, there are times when it makes sense to go ahead and do it. Two players who I thought would be on many if not most of my teams this year were Tarik Skubal and Jarren Duran. As soon as I started drafting, though, I realized that the rest of the fantasy community, unfortunately, was not only valuing them just as highly as I was but was usually willing to pay the extra cost in auction dollars or draft round upgrades that it would take to get them. I ended up with Skubal in just one league, and somehow didn’t end up rostering Duran at all. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but if I’d been less worried about getting them at “fair cost” and more worried about just getting them on to my teams, it would have been a very different season for me overall.
- Deep Leagues Are Called Deep Leagues For a Reason. (Also: Never Underestimate the Importance of Roster Construction. And: Depth is a Good Thing in Any League). If you can’t swim you wouldn’t jump into the ocean without a life preserver, and in an NL-only, AL-only, or a draft and hold type league with no in-season additions, you shouldn’t jump in without, say, a good third baseman. I would say this ties in with positional scarcity, which may not be an actual thing in a standard league or an RCL-style league, but is something to at least think about in deep formats (with when and how much to pay for folks at which positions being a whole different series of conversations). Sometimes the wrong series of injuries and demotions can leave you helpless no matter how well you’ve prepared. I, however, am going to make an extra effort to avoid such situations next year after somehow getting to the point by mid-season where the only active player I had on a 50 man draft and hold roster that qualified at third base was Ryan McMahon. It’s been painful over the last few months to see a bunch of useful outfielders and middle infielders on my bench that I couldn’t fit into my lineup while I watched McMahon flailing away, usually doing more harm than good to my mixed-league team at what should be a crucial fantasy position. This ties in with one other thought that I’ve gone back and forth on in the past: namely, how big a boost should we give players with multi-position flexibility? The answer varies with each individual league and each individual player, but I don’t think it’s wrong to bump a player who you are targeting anyway and who qualifies at multiple positions up in your rankings, sometimes fairly significantly.
- End of Draft/Cheap Gambles Are Usually Good Gambles. No, they don’t always work out, but when the price is right and you already have a full roster with positional depth and a breadth of category contributors, why not take a few shots? I’m going to combine this entry with another notion: I, who acknowledge that I am not as interested in minor leaguers as many fantasy baseball folk are, need to do better research as to which MiLB guys I might want to target late in re-draft leagues. This is particularly true for anyone drafting early, which I am wont to do… last year, I did an NFBC draft in October and two more in November. Just as an example, in that first draft, Jackson Merrill was taken in the 48th round (of 50 in a draft and hold league, and not by me, sadly). While not even most ‘perts predicted just how big a breakout Merrill would have, he’s the kind of guy we all should have been targeting late — in my opinion the majority of those last 10 picks should have been high-upside lottery ticket type guys, not players like Brandon Belt (who was drafted in the same round as Merrill in that league). Post-hype prospects usually make more sense than washed-up veterans at this stage, as I did grab Victor Robles in the 45th round of a similar league. Grant, it felt like a useless “give up” pick at the time — but instead he’s been instrumental in my team making a recent push to what looks like it will be a third place money finish. And yes, there are several players that I and others drafted in the same range that never made an active lineup all year… but it only takes one such low-risk gamble to pay off to make a huge difference in your season. And back to Merrill — by the time I drafted by last NFBC league in early March, he had enough heat on him that he was drafted in the 17th round, making me realize that the earlier I draft, the more sense it makes in stocking up on as many of those potential breakout rookies late — at least once I have what I feel is a solid lineup with plenty of low-risk depth options.
- Don’t Draft An Injured Pitcher. Just Don’t. Will I be able to stick with this one next year? Hard to say, but I’m repeating the “don’t” part twice in an attempt to convince myself what a bad idea this is. Guys like Jacob deGrom, Shane Baz, Jeffrey Springs, and later Kodai Senga looked so, so tempting at their 2024 prices, and it was hard not to have visions of one or more of them patiently sitting on my bench all season to hit my active lineup at the end of the year with a few solid outings that would carry me to a first place finish. Instead, they clogged my rosters, and proved mediocre at best when it comes to fantasy production, and harmful at worst, when they did pitch. In my deepest leagues and draft and hold leagues, I had much more success grabbing hopefully-solid middle relievers. Some didn’t have good seasons and were wasted picks, but others like Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg, have been valuable fill-ins throughout the season when my starters got hurt or had terrible-looking matchups, or even turned into closers.
Thank you for reading, and the happiest of off-seasons to all!
