is it better to focus on pitchers or batters in a fantasy draft. and why?

Id say the overall quality and balance of your team is important. If you target pitching you will lack in hitting and lose half of your scoring categories...and vice versa. I like to see who's available position by position as each pick goes through, and see what positions I can wait on (IE if Utley's already gone, dont draft a 2B until much late, but if everyone is grabbing up 1B in a round and there isnt much talent left, you might have to reach for a 1B) Each draft is an animal of its own, based on the knowledge level and participation of its members.

The best way to do this, is to take a big time hitter like a Pujols or A-Rod in the first round, and begin to secure all your hitting stats, as more of these usualy exist then the pitching stats. If possible, look even to round 2 to get another great hitter to compliment the one said above. Then your next concern should be to get great closing pitching. This will alswys win you the ERA WHIP and Save categories. With it , you may not even need solid starting pitching, conceding Ks and wins for the other 3 categories.

But if you feel starters are nessecary, there are always more then enough to go around for you to get the late round sleepers, or FA aquisitions.

it really all depends. you should have a good line up with hr hitters, good rbi, avg, and so on but the pitchers can get you a lot of points with just one start. just say if your pitcher wins and goes about 7 innings giving up one or two runs and having several k's...you'll get about 25 pts or so with just that one game and what if that pitcher pitches twice in that week then you have a chance to get double points. but it can also come back to haunt you if they don't do well in that week. closers are good to have as long as they are on a good team that wins more than not. they'll get you 10 pts per save plus whatever pts they pick up during the game. i don't know what your scoring is but im on sportsline.com. i think its good to have a few aces that you can count on every week and also a good closer or two. pick up avg pitchers that pitch twice in a week so that it gives you a good chance to pick up extra points. when that week is over do it again and drop them and pick up others. make sure you look at the match up that they're going up against. you probably don't want some no named rookie going up against boston and curt schilling.