What is 5 v 5 Fantasy Baseball?
 

My 10 yr old has been bugging me to let him try fantasy baseball. While I am a legend in the Fantasy Football world, I know nothing about Fantasy Baseball. I did sign him up to play at cbs sportsline, and I am going to help him out. draft tomorrow at 5:30, free if you'd like to join....

- CBSSports.com

League I signed him up for is 5v5...

Can anyone tell me, what that is? Is there a draft strategy you can recommend for us? thank you....

Its a standard league with 5 pitching and 5 batting categories

Runs, HomeRuns, RBI, SB and AVG

W, Saves, ERA, WHIP, K's

You can use ESPN or CBS rankings, they are based on a 5x5 league.

/some sites also let you do mock drafts, I know yahoo and espn do.

quick advice would be don't take a closer to early they are unpredictable, but once someone breaks the seal grab one because there will be a run.

Be careful of guys who just put up HR's like Dunn, Reynolds, etc...they can single handedly destroy your batting average.

Try to get some speed guys early, it can make a huge difference.

Be careful of guys who are injury prone like Carpenter, Santana, etc...

Don't stretch at positions that have no depth, for example catcher. If you can get Mauer great, but once the top 3-4 guys go don't panic and reach to grab a second tier guy, I suggest finding a position with more production.

cool, thanks

Catcher, Second Base, and Shortstop are very thin positions hitting wise because in the real game so much emphasis is put on their defense. If you can grab one of the top tier guys at these positions, do it. If you can't, like Lathum said, wait a bit.

On the flip side, first base and left field are full of power hitters. There are a few standouts (Pujols) but a lot of these guys are very similar. You can also afford to wait these guys because the 4th first baseman taken is only going to be marginally better than the 9th first baseman taken (just an example).

thanks, jetsin06....

looks like we have the third pick. my son is a 10 yr old phillies fan.....

can a case be made to pick any phillie at that spot?

is there a consensus first and second pick?

who should i take at 3?

You could maybe get away with Halladay or Utley with the third pick. Both would be stretches for that much value though in my opinion. Pujols, ARod, Hanley Ramirez, or Matt Kemp would be who I would be hoping to get with the third pick.

Utleys average draft position is right around 3rd in a lot of leagues and is listed 4th in Yahoos pre draft rankings so taking him is no stretch.

Pujols is the clear number 1. I wouldn't take a pitcher that early.

The other thing I failed to mention is it is supposed to be fun. If your boy is a Phillies fan ( poor kid) than by all means take some phillies, even if it is a stretch. He will have fun having an added rooting interest in his favorite players.

Just in case it might be handy for you, here's a quick skim of the ESPN Live Draft results for various Phillies & their average draft position (basically every 10th pick is a round, so under 10 typically goes in the first round 11-20 in the second round, etc). Might help you with slotting whether a Phillie is too early or about right.

Here are the ones that avg in the top 200 (i.e. typically taken in a 20 round draft)
Utley 5.8
Halladay 12.5
Howard 13.6
Rollins 28.9
Werth 42.8
Victorino 76.5
Hamels 95.5
Ibanez 104.5
Happ 183.9
Polanco 184.6

nice, thanks jon...

No problem, my son had his first teams last year at about the same age although if that experience is any indication I should warn you that daily maintenance might end up being yours to deal with instead of his ;)

i know in football drafts, i try and avoid having too many players from the same team on my squad. only so many points to go around in an NFL game...

should i have the same concern in a baseball draft?
or is it ok to have Utley, Halladay, and Rollins?

i've been wanting to try it anyway, so it's something i'm somewhat looking forward to. i just started watching baseball a couple of years ago. i'd like to give a pay league a shot at work, and this will help me learn the ropes....

It can be an issue in head-to-head leagues (which is my son's preference) but in standard leagues like your 5x5 it all evens out over time.

If you're playing in one of the free sites, I'd suggest drafting a team of your own as well, just stick it in a different league & you're good to go. You'll double your learning curve and it isn't actually that much more work since you're likely to end up with at least some duplication in players & things like FA pickups as the season goes along you're already familiar with who you might want to grab from looking through the options the first time around.

it is a head-to-head league.....