Most of us have-
1. Gone through the progression of learning everything we can about fantasy baseball.
2. Reading everything we can about fantasy baseball
3. Honing our skills in fantasy baseball.
At our level, learning more about the game itself is probably a done deal. Learning about the players will be an ever-evolving process, but the game itself does not change much.
The 'reading everything we can', is now limited. We can pass over any stories that contain these quotes-
"Mike Trout is for real! "
"Derek Norris is a sleeper"
"I would trade Matt Kemp for Mike Trout"
"Albert Pujols, a strong second rounder"
We disregard the Trout comment because, sure, Trout is for real THIS year.
Will he be next year?
He could. He could not.
The Hosmer touters were wrong last year (I slowly raise my hand), just as the Braun touters were right after he came up and had a big year.
Headlines like this will be around all off season.
Derek Norris could be good or not good.....But simple fact is, there are no sleepers in the NFBC.
There just isn't.
Trade mentions are an automatic move on and find another article for me.
Pujols in the second round suggests that the writer plays in an eight or ten team league or that he traded him early in the season and has bad feelings toward him....Or that this is just a gimmick headline I'll expound on later...
Any which way, not readable.
And I just realized that the word 'tout' rhymes with Trout, this is gonna be a long off season of T(r)outing.
So, what can we read for our edification during the upcoming season?
I would suggest getting a subscription to Mastersball.com
Todd and the gang have great numerish and the writings, while not 100% aimed at the NFBC, are closer than any other site.
I'd also suggest anything that Shawn Childs writes.
For those new to the NFBC, Shawn is a Hall of Famer here and his analysis is tops for off season reading.
Shawn is the 'Punch'....most others are the 'judy'
I've forgotten the site name that Shawn writes for and am hoping that somebody can respond and remind me.
There are a lot of folks who read Shandler's Forecaster.
I went from not knowing about it when starting fantasy baseball to being overly engrossed in it, to only buying it to see what the competition may lean towards, to now, not buying it at all.
I know, I know, a lot of folks consider it the Bible of fantasy baseball and all that, but for me personally, I find the more that I distance myself from the book, the better year I have.
Said another way, me buying the Forecaster would be like having that annoying fantasy partner who disagrees with every selection we're about to make.
I don't need the aggravation. We just don't gibe.
This is just a personal thing. By all means, if you like the Forecaster for any reason, buy it. I have nothing bad to say about his book at all (except for the part on the back cover that says that the book comes from 'real experts'....as if 'phony experts' write most everything else)
I love the Bill James Handbook. It is of absolutely little use when it comes to fantasy baseball.
His predictions are WAY slanted towards the young, unestablished player (Mike Trout may be a 60-60 player this coming year, I can't wait!).
The Handbook is more for the baseball fan who just enjoys any kind of stat (not necessarily of fantasy) they can get. It also is the first baseball book published after the season, so the wait is short.
I've resolved not to buy any magazines this year. Sorry magazine folks, but the internet has up to date news and the reasons why a player was picked in the first round in December could change before the magazine goes to press.
I know that a lot of work goes into producing a magazine, but until they invent an instant printing press and distributorship, magazines are relics in a time-stamped society.
Pick internet sites wisely. Some sites want to lure you to read any story. So, when the off-season begins, you may see headlines like, 'Why Andrew McCutchen will fall on his face in 2013!' or 'Picking any Red Sox for your team is Fantasy Suicide!'
We know both comments are probably untrue, as does the writer and site itself, but if the headline lured you to their site, they've won. If using tactics like this, they probably know less about these players than we do. Don't waste your time.
I am preparing and studying for the Annual Pre-Mature draft this weekend. The draft will be starting as the last pitch of this season is thrown.
No publications can help the 15 drafters. We're drafting naked (note to self- Invite Jules for the Pre-Mature draft).
It is one of the best facets of the draft. We know that we're drafting players, because WE like them and we're unencumbered by what somebody else thinks.
Total freedom.
By the time we see our team in April, we may already have players on the dl or not even in the Majors.
It's all part of the fun.
But, they'll be OUR players.
If Shandler or others touts these players, then they will have agreed with us, not the other way around
