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Fantasy Baseball UK

by Matt Smith

Although the MLB season may be nearing the end of its fifth week, we are only just coming to the end of the first week of this season’s Fantasy Baseball UK (FBUK) competition proper, after the traditional April “extended spring training” period.

FBUK serves an important role in the development of British baseball fans. Participation in fantasy competitions is a great way to build up your knowledge of the players and to give you extra reason to follow all of the results; however delving into a world of fantasy drafts can be pretty intimidating for a newcomer, as well as being a bit too much hassle for some baseball fans (including myself). FBUK is designed to be user-friendly and to appeal to all different levels of fantasy players. There is no pre-season draft, no limit on how many people can get involved, and there are also plenty of prizes on offer even if you don’t start competing until part-way through the season. Each monthly winner will receive a signed baseball this season for example (Johnny Gould read out the list a few weeks ago on Five – I think there were a few Phillies and Mets players for you NL East fans).

So far 3877 teams have been entered for this season, closing in on last year’s total of 4022. Anyone who doesn’t think there is a blossoming baseball scene in the U.K. would do well to take note: that’s a decent number of Brits playing in one online fantasy competition if you ask me. Great credit goes to FBUK for creating (and continuing to improve) a very user-friendly competition and to Five for their support.

I’m hoping for a decent run this year with my team, Norfolk Oak, although my concentration and interest will probably play a large part in how I get on. Fantasy baseball probably takes fourth place in my list of baseball priorities after watching, reading, and writing. So it’s easy for me to lose track of my fantasy fortunes, particularly during the middle section of the season. And as I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t get too worked-up over how my team does. It’s only a bit of fun to me, but the fun makes it more than worthwhile.

Last year there were plenty of great opportunities to pick up players during the season for relative peanuts before they started rising in price (e.g. the likes of Liriano and Jered Weaver) which I missed out on simply due to losing a bit of interest. Picking up (and discarding) players at the right time is one of the main skills of the game and fantasy owners who are on the ball in this respect will reap the rewards.

So far I’ve been the kiss of death for my picks, many of whom have missed time due to injury so far this season, the latest victim being Akinori Iwamura. FBUK is much more adaptable than many fantasy competitions so an injured player can simply be replaced on a Sunday or by a bench player if you’ve allocated some of your budget in this way. I’ve been able to juggle my budget to replace the fallen with what looks like a solid team, but we shall see. The key is to adapt your side throughout the season by picking up bargains, allowing you to invest in some blue-chip players who (subject to injuries) will bring you big points to justify their bigger price tags. That’s been my approach anyway: set yourself up with six or seven solid players and then use your remaining budget to find some cheaper players who can chip-in, hoping that you stumble along some real bargains along the way (Papelbon was a steal last year, for example, as I picked him up very early in the season at a low price). I’ve currently got players like Sizemore, Hafner, Howard, Santana, and Halladay in my team, combined with cheaper options such as Delmon Young and John Maine. I finished ninth in 2005 and 217th last year, so I haven’t done badly but there was a fair amount of luck involved!

Entering the competition is completely free (unless you want more than one team) and picking your initial team is very straightforward. Just use the drop-down menus to pick players at each position. Click the update button at the bottom of the screen to see how much of your $12 million budget you have left (or by how much you have overspent!) and adjust as necessary. You will be entered into the main league, but also have the option of being part of one of the thirty sub-leagues named after each MLB team (I’m in the Athletics league). Rosters are updated for the new week at 18.00 every Sunday and you can change as many players as you like (e.g. if all else fails, get rid of the lot of ’em and start again).

The one thing to remember is the four-day rest rule for starting pitchers. This means that if you replace a starting pitcher, the new pitcher cannot start scoring points for you until four days after the previous one last pitched. So my top tip (which like all top tips is just common sense) is to check the probable pitching match-ups on MLB.com for the day (or day after) on which the replacement will start picking up points and select the best fit from there.

As always, read through the rules and make a note of how the scoring works. In particular note that stolen bases score relatively highly and wins are the key source of points for starting pitchers (so a guy who strikes out plenty but plays on a mediocre team is probably less useful than a mediocre strikeout man who’s on a top team and is therefore more likely to get credited with wins).

Another reason to spend more time concentrating on baseball (and boring friends/workmates with the details!) can only be a good thing, so if you haven’t signed up already, head over to FBUK and get involved.

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