Ten Fantasy Baseball Mistakes to Avoid

The walkways of history are littered with men known only by the mistakes they have made. In 1812, there was Napoleon's planning of an ill timed invasion of Russia, which saw the French army get thoroughly defeated. In 1951, there was Charlie Dressen calling on Ralph Branca in the ninth inning of the final game of the National League playoffs (the year of the "Shot Heard Round the World"). And in 2007, there was Bret Michaels picking Jess over Heather in season one of his hit reality show Rock of Love.

However in 2007, other people that were not members of 1980's hair bands also made mistakes. What I am referring to is just one of the fantasy leagues that I play in. Yes, I will admit that I accounted for my fair share of those mistakes. So I guess what I am saying is please don't be like me and others like me and do not make these ten mistakes:

1. Do not draft a team full of players over 30
No I did not make this mistake last year, but my 2005 draft was comparable to Britney Spears' mothering skills; In a nutshell, it was horrible. That year I drafted Jim Thome and Scott Rolen in the first few rounds. Mark Loretta and Nomar Garciaparra came later. My first two starting pitchers drafted were Mark Prior and Ben Sheets. My team resembled the 1962 Mets in terms of mediocrity.

Now, I am not saying that you shouldn't draft anybody over 30 on your fantasy team, what I am saying is that you should mix it up in order to have all your bases covered. Have a good mix of guys in their mid 20's to go along with your over 30 veterans. Mix that in with high upside youngsters for your bench and if you can, hold off on taking those injury prone pitchers. Trust me, you can never have too much talent on your team (which is one point that I will get to later on in this article).

2. Do not draft players just based on name value
Don't be that guy. Please just don't be that guy. He is the guy at your draft who doesn't put in the necessary research. He will draft Todd Helton because he was a top player in 2004. He will be like the guy in one of my leagues that drafts Luis Castillo as his starting second baseman every year. And he often times will finish at the middle to the bottom of the pack in your league. So case in point, do your research, know who the good young prospects are, know which guys have the potential to break out and well don't be that guy.

3. When you can, draft players with multi-positional eligibility
No, I'm not going out and telling you to draft Alex Gordon over Miguel Cabrera, but multi-positional eligibility is gold in fantasy leagues. Throughout the season players will get hurt and they will go through slumps. Isn't it definitely nice to know that instead of drafting Brandon Philips that you can get BJ Upton and play him not only at second base, but also in the outfield? Or drafting that sleeper 1st baseman knowing that if he turns out as good as you think he will, that you can slot Lance Berkman into the outfield? And in some leagues, it seems like you can play Chone Figgins anywhere but at pitcher. Just remember, don't make the mistake of passing up these multi-positional gems on draft day.

4. Pay Attention to your scoring settings
This is one of the most common mistakes that fantasy owners make during the course of a draft and of a season. I once assumed that when playing a league on Yahoo that its rankings took into account my custom league settings. I then looked at another league I was doing with different settings and realized that much to my chagrin, the rankings are the same. Most fantasy baseball hosts and fantasy baseball articles only base their projections and rankings on standard 5x5 leagues. So it is up to you as a fantasy owner to take that into account when drafting and ranking your players. Some leagues count strikeouts as negative points and in that format Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn are not as valuable. I play in one league where most people don't take into account that we count walks as a category. In a league like that, a walk is just as valuable as a stolen base. And yes in a league that counts walks, Dunn and Howard are very valuable. So the moral of the story is to know your settings and take that into account when ranking your players during the season.