Empty the Bench

That magical time of year approaches yet again. Fantasy baseball draft season. A time when the trash talk flows and every owner has a legitimate claim to the elusive league crown. The bold, threatening, vaguely homoerotic posts from longtime friends and bitter enemies have started to fill the league message boards. Sleepers and pseudo-sleepers are being pronounced. It’s time to get serious. It’s time to get started on the research that will supply you with enough ammunition to crush, kill and destroy.

As Mr. Burns said, “I’ll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendship. These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business. When opportunity knocks, you don’t want to be driving to a maternity hospital or sitting in some phony-baloney church, or synagogue.” This sage wisdom also applies to fantasy baseball, so set aside all distractions and put your nose the the grindstone. There’s no time to waste. Fortunately, you’re not alone. Empty the Bench is here to help. Without further ado, here are the recent fantasy baseball articles you need to read in order to dominate your league:

Mock Drafts

Let’s face it: We’re all addicted to mock drafts. Especially this time of year. We can’t get enough of them. We read as many as we can find, vainly searching for that one draft that has some incredible sleepers right where they need to be; that draft where we can print it up, use it at a guide during our draft, and laugh all the way to the fantasy title. But of course, when we try to find them, we get the dreaded, ‘Register to access premium content’ page over and over. Well, here are three drafts that could put you over the top and make you look like a genius to your friends.

They’re all quality and they’re all relatively current. Best of all, they’re all free.

Experts Mock at Mock Draft Central
Auction at Sports Fanatics
Mock at Fantasy Baseball Cafe

Fanball’s On First, Brad Evans Gets to Second

Fanball has the pitcher situations in the American League and National League on notice. They’ve broken down all the rotation situations of note and made the relevant fantasy conclusions. Fanball.com also covers the position battles around the league at first base, detailing the situations in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Cleveland and elsewhere. While this is interesting, it probably will only have a lot of significance for those in deeper leagues as there are few big names involved and, well, you want a big name at first. Meanwhile, over at Yahoo!, Brad Evans has rounded second and is on his way to third. The following articles are about the various position battles around the league that you need to know about in order to make the right picks in the latter rounds of your draft.

Fanball: NL Pitchers
Fanball: AL Pitchers
Yahoo!: First Base
Yahoo!: Second Base

Eric Mack’s Take

In general, CBS puts out a pretty weak product in terms of
online fantasy analysis. However, I troll the site now and then
hoping to uncover a few tidbits that could give me an edge. Here are two articles from Sportsline fantasy columnist Eric Mack that could be very useful. The first takes a look at second-year players who should not be ignored, and the second link takes you to his updated rankings. The rankings are decent, but what’s more helpful is they are done positionally in addition to overall. That’s a nice thing to have in your back pocket on draft day when you’ve filled the rest of your infield and all you need is the best value at a given position. Nice work, Mack. Now turn that hat back around, son. You look like a damn fool.

Sophomores Not to be Ignored
Mack’s Ranks: Overall, and By Positions

250 is a Magic Number

The following two links will take you to rankings of the top 250 players in fantasy baseball. They’re extremely useful resources if you’re just starting to build that cheat sheet, but also helpful if you’re putting the final touches on the one you started the last day of the 2006 season. Again, positional and overall rankings are available. The first is from the folks over at CNNSI.com, and the second from the excellent Tristan Cockroft at ESPN.com. Hopefully you’ve got the latest security and pop-up blocking software, because ESPN.com can be a pain in the ass to view.

Top 250 on CNNSI
Cockroft’s top 250

Pitchers I Have a Draft-Crush On

These are two specific articles on two pitchers I intend to draft in my leagues. The first is a breakdown of “Dice-K” Matsuzaka, the new Boston Red Sox import. It probably won’t impact your draft strategy too much, but it’s fun to get informed and excited about this hitherto unknown MLB pitcher. The second is a site that I’ve been a fan of for some time, and it is devoted to facts about the Phillies young pitcher Mr. Cole Hamels. The gist of it is: you better get Cole on your team.

A few little-known tidbits about Cole are revealed, including:

6. Pedro Martinez keeps a picture of Cole Hamels under his hat for inspiration.
8. Jack Bauer calls Cole Hamels for advice.
11. For Halloween, Chuck Norris went as Cole Hamels.
37. Cole Hamels only pitches left handed because it was too easy pitching with his right

And

72. By law, Cole is forbidden to work at any company that has a softball team.

Seven Things: Dike-K Breakdown
Cole Hamels FACTS

Random Shit

We’ve got a little of everything in here, we didn’t know where to put it, but it’s all good stuff. We’ve got an article on the kings of fantasy consistency, who will be key to your head-to-head championship drive. We’ve got some analysis of the Colorado Rockies, who are sporting multiple players that could play a key role on your fantasy squad, from Todd Helton on down. We’ve got a mailbag of fantasy MLB FAQs. Finally, we’ve got an analysis of ADP (Average Draft Position) and how you can make it work for you.

Consistency Kings

Helton No Longer King? Rockies Breakdown

Fantasy MLB Mailbag
Analyzing ADP

Fanball’s Fantasy MLB Newsfeed

Our last entry could be the most important. I’ve mentioned it before, by my favorite Minnesota-based fantasy website is a tremendous resource. The articles have become increasingly Owner’s Edge only, but the newsfeeds are fantastic and free. They are almost always a few hours ahead of the major sports news outlets, so check back often.

Make this a daily ritual. Learn it, know it, use it (religiously), learn to love it.

Possibly Related Content:

1. Fantasy MLB: Some Resources


2. ETB’s Official MLB Fantasy Rankings


3. Fantasy MLB: Sleeper Pitchers


4. Fantasy MLB: Sleeper Hitters


5. ETB’s 2007 MLB Predictions