Fantasy Drafts
By:
Published: July 13, 2006
It might be the most exciting day of your fantasy season. Owners spend weeks anticipating it and when it finally arrives, everyone in the league gathers and assembles the parts of their teams in hopes of winning the championship. This day, is draft day. Fantasy drafts are a big reason why fantasy sports are so popular.
There are 2 methods of fantasy drafts: snake drafts and auction drafts. The snake draft is where the draft order is randomly picked by the computer and the owner with the first overall pick of the draft will then get the final pick of the second round. The owner with the last pick in the first round will pick first in the second round. The auction format means that every owner has a set budget and auctions for players with the player going to the highest bidder. The entire roster must be filled while keeping it under the salary cap.
In baseball, with so many players to choose from, either draft system could work. Snake drafts are always a winner and all the teams come out pretty fair if done right. In auction drafts, it is a mind game and it is all about money management. In the snake draft, the best pick is the best available player but in the auction draft, the best pick is the best bargain for a solid player. In terms of fantasy drafts, baseball is the most time consuming and complex because of the size of the teams, the length of season, and the fact there are so many vital statistics to take into account.
With football, drafting a team is risky because injuries in football are as common as ice in Antarctica. When selecting teams, many talented players with injury history are picked lower than less talented players with healthy track records.
Basketball is maybe the easiest sport to predict. Fantasy drafts in basketball are easy because there are players on every team who will score 25 points just about every night and there are guys who will pull down 12 rebounds just about every night.
In fantasy drafts, strategic planning is a must because you never know what player will go where in the draft and what positions you might need to fill while there are serviceable players still available. One must be aware of players with injuries because no matter how talented the player is, he is no help if he is a medical disaster. Also, what is the player's contract situation? A lot of players explode in the final year of their contract in order to get a hefty payday at season's end; it's a good way to find a sleeper. If there is a player who had a breakout season last year in a contract year after 6 years of disappointment, forget about him. Another thing to make note of in fantasy drafts is what kind of teams does every player play on. For instance in football, you might like a wide receiver who had a great season last year in a pass happy offense, but now he moved on to another team that loves to run the ball, decreasing his value.
Fantasy drafts are a great way to build camaraderie and fun competition for the season ahead. Much like professional teams, owners spend a lot of time researching players they think can put their team on top. Drafts make fantasy sports more exciting for everyone and is a fantastic way to kick off the season.
