In the last 10 years, Fantasy Baseball has evolved and changed in many ways. Going mainstream is probably the single biggest factor. These days, everybody that plays gets the same information as everybody else. If your league is hosted on ESPN or Yahoo, every member in your league is able to see the same player updates, recent call ups, hot hitters, slumping pitchers, matchups, stats, trends, etc etc. It's nearly impossible to have "advanced knowledge" of players that you can use to your advantage. Fantasy Baseball now has more to do with luck than skill.
This isn't to say the game is trending in the wrong direction. Fantasy Baseball is an industry, and industries make money. Any industry that wants to improve their profits has to improve their product. Fantasy Baseball has adapted to the mainstream feel, and anybody can join a league with their friends or complete strangers.
Unfortunately, with the way things are, many Fantasy Baseball veterans have been turned off, and probably aren't as enthusiastic as they once were. Why bother playing in a league when the teams you are competing with get the exact same information as you via Fantasy Websites, podcasts or blogs. It's very difficult these days to gain the upper hand.
This got me thinking. How can we restore the game to it's former glory, while still hanging on to it's mainstream feel? I have a few suggestions to make the game more fun for vets and newcomers alike.
Out with the Snake Draft, all hail the Auction!
With all of the available player ranking systems there are today, how could one possibly gain an advantage during a draft? In snake drafts, it's often easy to predict rounds a head of time who a team might draft, based strictly on draft order and need. How is that fun? Where is the competition or opportunity to gain an advantage and bragging right?
This is where the Auction comes in. No longer will Albert Pujols and Hanly Ramirez go to the guys who just happen to draw the Aces from the deck. You have to bid on these players, and if you want them bad enough, give up a significant portion of your budget. Sleepers won't get swiped out from under you before you get a chance to draft them, but rather you get a chance to bid $1 on them and see if anyone else has the same feeling as you. You can build your team exactly the way you want it, and the added strategy makes it that much more fun. I have yet to find a person that prefers a Snake Draft to an Auction.
Forget the Waiver Wire, we want FAAB
What is FAAB you ask? FAAB stands for "Free Agent Acquisition Budget." Basically you get some predetermined amount of money for the entire season (typically $100) and you have that money and that money alone to spend on any and all additions to your team from the free agent pool. The league manager also has the option to allow $0 bids as well, which is a great idea in my opinion.
This will completely replace the need for the silly Waiver Wire system. Think of it this way. You're in an AL-only keeper league with the current Waiver Wire system. Dan Haren just got traded to the LA Angels, and you want him bad! But alas, a team that is in last place and basically hasn't been playing all season, has the top Waiver order, and being a keeper league, jumps at the opportunity to take Haren, right out from under you. How is that fair? Shouldn't you be allowed to bid, auction style for this guy? Player goes to the highest bidder, and that player sacrifices that amount of money for the remainder of the season, and likely will miss out on other top name free agents when they enter the pool.
In my opinion, FAAB is the only way to go. It's very annoying when the news that Carlos Santana has gotten called up comes out in the middle of the night, and the guy that can't sleep and is online at 4 am is the lucky guy that gets him. It's frustrating, and unnecessary. FAAB erases this downside, and adds even more strategy to the game.
Keepers, keepers and more keepers!
You need to join a keeper league. In an auction style league, keepers are exponentially more valuable. Let's say last season you got Jason Heyward for $1, and stashed him on your bench. The idea of having him for a small mark up (or in some cases the same price) is amazing! The possibilities are infinite, and this makes for much more competitive leagues.
Keepers leauges also tend to keep you more involved. Example, let's say your in a keeper league, and you just used $5 of your FAAB to snag Carlos Santana the week before he came up. How happy are you after his first month of the season? He's doing rediculously well, and his future is bright. Then Ryan Kalish comes along, and Santana's season is over in an instant. You are genuinely worried about the guy, who plays for a team your not even a fan of. You want to hear that it's not career threatening (and trust me, it looked like it was). When the news comes out that he avoided major damage and is having a relatively safe, albiet season ending, surgery, you breath a little bit easier. You still get him for cheap next year, and assuming he's healthy, he's a steal.
Play with friends who you now wont bail even when they are losing
You need to join an active league. There is nothing more annoying than joining a league with complete strangers and finding that halfway through the season, you're the only one paying attention. What is the fun in that? I would rather finish dead last in a league with active members than finish first in a league with 9 teams that don't play.
If you impliment all the suggestions I just made, even last place teams have incentives to be active in your league on a daily basis. Who knows when the next Drew Storen or Mike Stanton is going to get called up and you could loock him into your lineup for years to come for very cheap.
Fantasy Baseball can be a very fun game when played right, or it can be a boring competition against yourself. Taking the advice from this post will make your fantasy league more fun and enjoyable. Who doesn't like a little trash talking?
