Configuring Your League Draft

What factors should I consider when choosing a website to host my fantasy baseball league?

Go for a reliable fantasy baseball service that's been around for a while. I like to use a service where you can also get your news from that site. That way, you're not hopping around from your fantasy baseball site to your regular baseball site. There are a lot of good sites that provide player news along with their fantasy information, like Fox Sports, CBS, ESPN, all the big ones; just pick the one that you like best. I think the ones that have the best information in terms of fantasy columnists or content are the ones you want to play with. You also go for the free fantasy baseball sites, and then if you have any questions, you can always go to the fantasy baseball message boards and ask who they think has the best service. It tends to change every year; some years will be good years for some companies.

What factors should I consider when selecting the draft options for my fantasy baseball league?

First decide if everyone can meet in person, because that's the coolest way to do the fantasy baseball draft. It's also the hardest way to do it, and it's not going to happen if you're just joining a league by yourself or you only have one friend to join with. If you're doing a fantasy baseball league online, you just want to make sure that everyone in your league can meet up at a specific time; if you're doing it online with a bunch of people you don't know, I think just find a time that's good for you - that's probably the main factor in terms of when to look for the draft.

What is a 'live' draft in fantasy baseball?

A live draft is when owners meet online, they're all at their computers and everyone meets there at a specific time. You go through the entire fantasy baseball draft and everyone picks their team. There's a time limit for the draft, maybe one minute per pick or something like that, and you go through all 23 rounds. Don't do the draft unless you have a couple hours to kill. That's pretty much a live draft, everyone picking their teams at the same time. That's the way to go: it's a more exciting way for everyone to pick their fantasy baseball team.

What is an 'auto-pick' draft in fantasy baseball?

An auto-pick draft would basically be if you have the computer draft for you. If you can't be at the fantasy baseball draft live, you'll either set some player rankings and the computer will pick the team based on those rankings, or the computer will just pick the team for you based on their own rankings. It's just a way of doing it if you don't show up for the draft or maybe even if you just leave the draft for an hour or something and then come back to it, the auto-draft will take the picks for you. That way you end up with a full roster on your fantasy baseball team.

What is an 'offline' draft in fantasy baseball?

An offline draft is a draft in fantasy baseball where every fantasy baseball owner gets together in person and does the draft in person. It's the way to go. It's going to take some time, but it's a lot more fun. You can drink if you want to, you can trash talk everyone. It's just a good time to get together with your friends. Obviously, you can also do it at work, so you can do it after work sometimes with work people. Basically, an offline draft is doing it in person instead of on a computer, and then your commissioner will input all the teams into the computer.

What is an 'online auction' draft in fantasy baseball?

An online fantasy baseball auction draft would be something where you're getting together, just like you would for a normal draft, all the owners for the league at the exact same time, except you're going to auction them off in a bidding style. Almost all fantasy baseball leagues use a system where its $260 per team, and basically you just go through every single player that's going to be drafted, until all the teams in your league has a player. In this format, there's a lot more strategy involved. No-one's going to go for more than $40. A really great player, like Alex Rodriguez, will maybe go for $40. You also have some players that only go for $1 at the end of their drafts. Fantasy baseball auction drafts take a lot longer, especially online; you're going to be in front of your computer for a long time. But it is a lot more fun, I think, if you're really into baseball.