Great British Fantasy Baseball Superleague: Novice tips

Everyone has to start somewhere. One of the compelling reasons to set up the Superleague was to encourage more Brits to fall in love with fantasy baseball.

This is not an all-encompassing document; it is simply designed to offer a few pointers. There is a near-never-ending range of formats of fantasy baseball available, but below, we are only concerned with the format/settings/rules of the Great British Fantasy Baseball Superleague. 

Format: Hosted by Fantrax. This is a 12-team division with end-of-season promotion and relegation. Head-to-head points with weekly lineups

What does that mean? You are one of 12 teams in your division, and you play a matchup against another team each week. Whichever of the pairing scores the most points, gets the win. There are 22 weekly matchups in the regular season – each team plays every other team twice – so, the best possible regular season finish is 22-0.

Roster 23 players (20 players active, 3-player bench)
Positions: 6 x SP, 3 x RP, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 4 x OF, DH, and UT (El Capitan)

What does that mean? You have a squad of 23 players, and then each week, you select 20 for your active lineup. It is those 20 that will score points. You can only use players in the position in which they are eligible. Many players have multi-position eligibility.

Many factors might influence your decisions: 

1. It might be based on which players have the most scheduled games that week (a player with seven games has more points-scoring opportunities than one playing five)
2. Perhaps one of your starting pitchers has an uninviting trip to Colorado, whereas another is facing an easier matchup with the Marlins in Miami
3. Maybe you are concerned that your infielder will imminently hit the IL, or your closer will soon be out of a job.
4. You might see that your lefty-masher has a stack of southpaw starters on the schedule
5. The most common reason for a lineup change is if one of your pitchers is scheduled for two starts. Two-start weeks are hugely valuable in points leagues. 

IMPORTANT: You must set your lineup at least 10 minutes before first pitch of the first game on Saturday. This is your lineup for the duration of your matchup.

DRAFT

To get your initial roster of 23 players, you will participate in a draft. It is either a slow (1 hour per pick) or fast (1 min per pick) draft, depending upon your division.

You will get allocated a draft position (let’s say 10th for this example), and then all division members take turns picking a player. As the league operates a “snake” draft, the order is reversed in even-numbered rounds.

Round 1: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12
Round 2: 12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
So, you would get the 10th pick and the 15th pick

It is important to get familiar with Fantrax’s Draft Room. You can re-order the players, exclude ones you don’t want, and set a positional strategy. For instance, you could remove Frankie Montas, Walker Buehler and other injured pitchers from the list. 

Whether you are in a fast or slow draft, setting a queue is always a good idea. This will need to be continually replenished when players get taken by other teams. The idea is that (1) when it comes to your turn to pick, you have your preferred players easily accessible, and you are not wasting valuable seconds scrolling through a list – 60 seconds goes very quickly, and (2) if you lose connection/suffer a power cut, you want the Fantrax system to pick one of your preferred players.

Ideally, you should try a mock draft before the real one. Try the Fantrax Mock Draft Lobby to get used to the software. Also recommended is the Fantasy Pros Draft Simulator, which although doesn’t help with the layout of the draft room, it is quick and very useful to help devise a draft strategy. For instance, what happens if I don’t take one of the elite third basemen? Or what will my roster look like if I wait until the fifth round to take my first starter?

IN-SEASON MANAGEMENT

So, you have your roster of 23 players, and you have selected your lineup of 20 for the first matchup. What’s next?

Injuries and the IL: Injuries are an unavoidable part of baseball. If one of your players hits the IL, you can move them to the IL on Fantrax. Your team has five IL slots. 

Acquiring new players: You can dump your underperforming players and fill in the gaps left by IL-bound players by picking up new players from free agency. You have a budget of $100 to last the whole season, so spend it wisely. Bids for free agents can be made at any time, but new players are only distributed once a week, at midnight on Friday, to the highest bidders.

In the event of a tied bid, the player is awarded to whoever made the earliest bid.

Remember to make sure you put your newly acquired players in your lineup ahead of Saturday’s lock.

Important: You can make a maximum of two acquisitions per week.

Remember: Unless you have a free roster slot opened up by moving an injured player to the IL, you will need to drop a player in the transaction. Be aware that other teams can pick up your discarded player.

Scoring

El Capitan rule: The player in your UT slot scores 5 points for each run, home run, or stolen base (as well as all of the usual points).

STRATEGY TIPS

Draft: If you use the rankings or ADP on the Fantrax Draft Room, it is almost impossible to ruin your team during the draft. Obviously, drafting lots of injury-risk players like Jacob deGrom, Fernando Tatis Jr., Byron Buxton, Luis Robert, and Bryce Harper is a high-risk strategy that probably won’t pay off. The key to success is maximising at-bats (for hitters) and strikeouts & innings (for pitchers).

Multi-position-eligible players are useful: Thairo Estrada is 2B, SF, and OF eligible. It might be useful to have a Swiss Army knife player on the roster to give flexibility to change the lineup if a last-minute injury hits or a player that is too good to drop continues to slump.

Utilise your bench: Maybe you will put a versatile player on your bench (DJ LeMahieu is 1B, 2B & 3B eligible). Maybe you will stash a couple of extra starters ahead of their two-start weeks. Perhaps you will speculatively roster the next-in-line for the closer job. You could even have an exciting prospect due to be promoted. Whatever you do, don’t just fill your bench with mediocre players that you could easily pick up from free agency.

Maximise your starts: Starters accumulate points quickly by staying in the game for multiple innings, and then have the opportunity for a Quality Start (3 points) and/or a Win (5 points). It is tough to compete if your opponent has two or three extra starts that week.

SPARPS: This is a cheat code for points leagues. “Starting Pitchers As Relief Pitchers” basically means pitchers with RP-eligibility who are starters. It is possible that the Red Sox give a rotation spot to Garrett Whitlock. If so, he will likely score more points during an average week than a similarly tiered relief pitcher.

In-season position eligibility: After 10 games at a position, the player gains eligibility for the rest of the season. Gavin Lux is 2B/OF eligible but will likely gain SS eligibility before the end of the first fortnight of the season if the Dodgers stick with their plan to make him the primary shortstop.

Designated hitter: Based on last year’s statistics, of the Top-50 hitters, only 17 had DH-eligibility. And if you play your stud 1B or slugging 3B in the DH slot, then you will need someone to replace them in their usual position. This could mean that you give greater importance to someone like 1B/DH Josh Bell rather than 1B-only Anthony Rizzo. It’s your choice.

Shohei Ohtani: The Angels’ phenom is only SP eligible on Fantrax, but as a two-way player, he should accumulate hitting points for you as well. I say “should” because this is a Beta setting on Fantrax, so there could still be some issues that arise with it. Personally, I would take Ohtani with the first overall pick of the draft.

El Capitan rule: You can play any hitter in your UT slot. This player will score five points for every run, every home run, and every stolen base (as well as all of the other usual points). Maybe you want a base-stealing speedster, or a run-scoring leadoff hitter, or your best slugger. If you do choose your star player, then you will need to be mindful of who replaces him in his usual position.