What an MLB: The Show Fantasy Draft Can Do For You (Part 1) - BenGerman's Blog

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What an MLB: The Show Fantasy Draft Can Do For You (Part 1) Stuck

Posted on May 7, 2013 at 02:05 PM.

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I've always been a HUGE fan of fantasy drafts. I never thought MLB: The Show did them particularly well (I would love it if next gen they went all out into making it a immerse experience with trading picks, players, having specific draft needs and wants, and re-worked logic) but I found that with a set of house rules, it was easy to really get into it.

The best thing about fantasy drafts, is they extrapolate everything that is great about baseball, and then give a feel of total randomness that spices things up a little bit. Drafting these players specifically gives a feeling of ownership that might be hard to find in a regular franchise, and adds a whole new level of strategy.

It's one of those things that you can really go about it anyway that you want to, so I thought I'd give two separate guides -- depending on how into it you want to get -- to help get some of you started. Here's the first of two parts.

Simple Fantasy Draft:

A simple fantasy draft is just picking a team, getting your draft pick, and going with it. As I mentioned about, the drafting is far from perfect, but a few house rules/tips can go a long way into making your fantasy draft a more complex experience. Here are a few you might give a shot:

- Do a few mock drafts to get a feel for where positions begin to get picked, and who goes where. Unfortunately, there are a few rounds where a specific position will just fly off the board and leave you with nothing, so unless you want to have a couple of black holes in your lineup, it's important you get in there and scout.

HOUSE RULE #1: Don't allow yourself to pick more than four A-potential prospects that aren't already an 86 or above, and 26 years or younger. This rule only exists for the first thirty rounds. The CPU probably doesn't weigh potential enough in the draft (it is better than before), but instead seems to focus more on positional need and age. This leaves a plethora of A-Potential prospects on the board, and causes the user to over-draft for a lot of them. This changes things completely, and forces you to draft more for now and less for the future. Now, the CPU will actual be able to draft some talent and spread things out a little bit.

HOUSE RULE #2: Draft at least two veterans on your team. It's easy to take a bunch of guys that are under 30-years-old, but almost every ball-club in real life has at least of couple of veterans to round out their roster. Define the term however you want, but don't forget the Alfonso Soriano's of the world. I usually draft at least one to my pitching staff, and one to my lineup.

- Don't forget to draft relief pitching! My rule is to draft at least one in the first 8 rounds, and then another shortly after. A lot of times -- at least in my early mock drafts -- I'd end up with a few older guys who just sat there. Sure, it's a temporary solution. But what happens when those guy's skills inevitably have fall off the table?

- Always draft one or two picks ahead. It's important to plan everything out carefully, and know who you are going with next. This will go a long way in helping you draft a well-balanced team.

HOUSE RULE #3: Do not take Bryce Harper unless it is in the first round. For whatever reason, Bryce Harper just sits there for three or four rounds just about every fantasy draft, when in reality, he would probably be a top ten pick. In one of my mock drafts, I had Stanton/J. Upton/Harper. As great as that would be, try and leave a little for the CPU.

HOUSE RULE #4: Only take one big name prospect. If you're well versed in Major League Baseball, you'll know your Profar's, your Taveras', your Wheeler's, etc. Try and just take one of them.

- Don't forget to your basic bench needs. Usually it consists of an outfielder, a utility guy, a big 1st base bat, and then a player of your choice.

- Make sure to even out your lineup in terms of which side they hit from. In a couple of my mock drafts, I'd end up with a bunch of lefties, or a bunch of right-handers. Usually, that doesn't work out very well and can create some major issues later in games.

- Pitching is important, so don't forget about it. It's easy to go after big bats early and worry about pitching later, especially because the talent goes so deep into the draft. But make no mistake, those younger guys are going to have issues the first couple of years.

Hopefully this helps a few of you who were having trouble getting a fantasy franchise going. I was originally going to do another portion of this, but this one went a lot longer than I initially thought it would. So keep an eye out for part two, where I'll talk about doing a 30-team user controlled draft!

Comments

# 1 Sportzfan0290 @ May 7

I've already used these pointers in my draft without even looking at this. I did a fantasy draft the other day I drafted 1st Prince for 1B, Wright for 3rd, Catcher McCann, 2nd Uggla, LF Upton, CF and Right forget but my SP's are pretty good leading the way are Hudson then Bellingsly forget the rest CP Valverde so I'm set for years later. Experience I have Damon and a couple other old timers. RF I think is Reddick of the A's. I have a pretty good lineup 1-9 and a pretty good pitching staff I also drafted some rookies I know of that should progress. I will probably end up doing a fantasy draft but like yourself I'm always a fan of drafts very disappointed M13 took theirs out hopefully M25 will have it and I'm not the only international fan disappointed in that feature.

# 2 BiggestKJ @ May 7

@Sportzfan

Madden 13 has the fantasy draft in there. Upon setting up your CCM and pressing start your league, you're presented with the option to fantasy draft.

The draft logic is a lot better too in Madden. My buddy and I did one not too long ago and the teams are even spread out.

# 3 BiggestKJ @ May 7

Sorry, I realize that this isn't available for offline users. I normally play all my CCM's, even single player, in online mode to take advantage of Autosaving.

# 4 legacyme3 @ May 8

Whenever I do a fantasy draft, it's under 30 team control, and I have a fun time trying to make all the teams equally balanced.

Of course, this goes horribly wrong, and I end up eventually with one super power team, and one horribad team with a ton of average teams.

At least the horribad team is the Yankees.

# 5 14straight @ May 24

Thanks for these guidelines. I would add another if you really want to change things up: take away the DH option.

# 6 BenGerman @ May 24

No problem 14. I have actually both added the DH, and taken it away. As a hardcore Phils fan, I love the strategy involved in the NL, so I'll typically play with it off.