Fantasy Baseball Is Too Damn Hard, But I Love It

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There is nothing more infuriatingly difficult than maintaining a team of dominant players over six months. Fantasy Baseball is just too damn hard, but I love it!

 

Fantasy sports are so much fun because competing against your friends with a rag-tag group of professional athletes is absurdly unique. Pick players from any team you want, slap them together, and try to beat your buddy. Put some money on the table and the fireworks begin.

Do this one week at a time in fantasy football over four months, or do it daily over six months in fantasy baseball. Those are my two fantasy sports. One I’m great at, while the other is just too damn hard. How the heck does anyone maintain a top-tier fantasy baseball team over six straight months? The players are so streaky, they get hurt for unknown amounts of time, and the team you begin with in April can’t be the team you finish with in September. Your core needs to be the same, otherwise you suck at drafting, but if you don’t change 60% of your team then you are probably going to lose.

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I love the challenge of fantasy baseball, but I absolutely hate how convoluted the entire undertaking becomes almost immediately. Data is something I understand and enjoy. Numbers make sense to me and I can analyze a trend over one week, two weeks, and a month of games. Pre-season projections for baseball are notoriously bad, which hurts me immensely. But I’m great at picking up guys off waivers. The issue is that no one can maintain their production.

Here is my fantasy football philosophy. Draft a slam-dunk quarterback, two running backs, two wide receivers, and a tight end. Take chances on the rest and snatch up players for weeks three to five that are dominating, but are currently available. Ditch guys who are bad two weeks in a row and never keep player loyalty. Never. This works really well. You need to draft well, but no duh. You also need to be quick on waivers and read the numbers.

 

 

Here is my fantasy baseball philosophy, which attempts to apply the same approach but to a larger and more drawn out sample size. Draft a few slam-dunk hitters, ideally at positions where few exist so you get the best guys. Also grab two sworn-in closers and starters who will get you wins and strikeouts. Give the rest of your team a month or so to start the season, then add and drop continuously to ensure no one on the roster is bad. Outside of streaming pitchers and doing advanced math to know which position deserves an “all steals” player, I believe this philosophy should work. Balancing fun with an eye on winning, this makes sense.

It is not sustainable. Perhaps I’m trying to have too much fun, because I keep finding myself with too many injured players, or very few guys on waivers who are actually better than my team. Last year I kept myself in the top three until late June. This season my injuries hit early and I’m fighting up the standings, but can’t ditch my guys just yet because they could/should/may become the players I drafted. Who knows?!

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Two great weeks in baseball are just that. A big nothing in terms of context for future success. I take chances on guys who are playing well, only for them to barely keep it going. Its too damn hard to keep up with the constant swings from high to low of literally every player on my team. Some players like Aaron Judge are locks on my roster, but great games and great weeks don’t consistently equal great months or a great season.

It always feels like the “haves” and “have-nots” with baseball. The same two or three owners win our league every year and I rarely make a dent in the standings. They have teams of guys I hardly know, making the entire undertaking that much more frustrating. I can read the numbers, but I’m left to assume that I’m reading the wrong ones. My analysis works in football, but is suspect in baseball. Playing is a lot of fun and one day I’ll get over this hump. I’ll pitch my perfect game.

 

Meet Our Writer:

Dan Salem is Lead Editor, Writer, and Co-owner of BuzzChomp. He’s a published author, as well as an award winning Actor, Director and Producer. Visit M Square Productions for his film work, or get lost in his old-school comedy on Pillow Talk TV. You can follow him on X and Instagram.

Photo Credits To: MLB.com (2022) and MLB.com (2023)

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