What advice would you give to a new person playing fantasy baseball?

Stay active the entire season. Fantasy baseball is one of the hardest fantasy leagues to play because you have to set your lineups every day. The managers that didn't stay active in the league that I was in, didn't do so well. When you stay active, if there's a position you need badly, you have a better shot to pick up a player that's doing great.For example, last year, I needed a catcher. Then all of a sudden, Carlos Ruiz comes along hitting like crazy. He was a huge offensive boost to my team before he got injured.

When you stay active the entire season, you also know which players your managers will drop and if you should pick them up. A couple of seasons ago, someone in my league dropped Adrian Beltre when he landed on the DL. The injury wasn't serious, which is why I picked him up and he helped me win a championship. Then last year, someone dropped Giancarlo Stanton when he got injured. I picked him up right away and stashed him on my DL. As soon as he came back, he went on a power surge hitting home runs that helped my team.So, to sum this all up, if you see a big time player get dropped because of a slump, pick him up right away. If he's injured but will be back soon, still pick him up, then just stash him on your DL. You never know. That player could help you win a championship.

Don't get too heavy on pitchers during your draft. There are plenty of good pitchers out there, and there will be a lot more as the season goes along its way. Kris Medlen's stats in the second half were unbelievable.There was also Chris Sale last year who didn't get much attention in drafts being was at first in the bullpen then moved into the rotation. Fernando Rodney was one of the best closers last year with a 0.60 ERA and a 0.78 WHIP with 48 saves. I picked up all of these pitchers via free agency and they all helped me win a championship. If you don't draft a Verlander, Kershaw, or Strasburg in the first/second rounds, DON'T worry. There will be other pitchers that could put up similar--or better--stats. You should still draft great pitchers in your draft, but I wouldn't focus on Verlander, Kershaw, or Strasburg in the first two rounds.

First base is such a deep position in fantasy baseball. Try NOT to waste an early pick on a first baseman. In a normal 12 team league,I would say you shouldn't draft a first baseman if you have a 7th overall pick or higher. If you have the first overall pick, don't waste it on Prince Fielder. There's many more options after him such as Billy Butler, Paul Goldschmidt, Adrian Gonzalez, and Mark Trumbo.

Craig Kimbrel is the best closer in baseball followed by Aroldis Chapman, but you should try and target some closers later in the draft. There's so many options for closers out there. None are better than Kimbrel and Chapman, but they will give you saves. You have others such as Jason Motte, Joe Nathan, Chris Perez, etc. Several closers also lose their jobs as the season goes on. You have an opportunity to pick one up then if one does lose their role. Last year I picked up Kenley Jansen and he was right behind Kimbrel and Chapman in strikeouts last year. I know that Brandon League is set to be the closer, but if he struggles, be prepared to pick up Jansen as he can be a dominant closer.There's plenty of others out there to waste a pick early on Kimbrel and Chapman.

Some more advice I would give is to pay attention to rookie players. I always like to take a look at the rookies and put them on my watch list. As soon as they get called up, I wait awhile to see what they do. If they are fantasy relevant and if I have some extra room on my roster, I picked them up. That's how I got Mike Trout. If you see a rookie performing well, pick him up. One rookie pitcher I think will have a great/good season is Julio Teheran.Even though he hasn't pitched too well in the big leagues or last season in the minors, he is a top pitching prospect, and he's having a great spring training. Another rookie to keep an eye on is Wil Myers. One of the top prospects and could be a difference maker for the Rays.

Some benefits of playing fantasy baseball is that you get to play with some nice managers. I've yet to come across a manager that's mean and one that cheats. All managers seem friendly. Fantasy baseball will also get you more familiar with how baseball is played and you will know more about the players. Playing fantasy baseball has driven me to watch MLB Network.I can't wait to see updates for the players on my teams to see how they are doing.

I wish the best of luck to the new fantasy baseball managers.

I love playing Fantasy Baseball. Yahoo makes it really easy to play, especially for beginners. My best advice is when looking for a league to join, go for one that says beginners welcome. Usually the people that are in these leagues are more than happy to help new players. Be careful though, because some will try to take advantage during trades. Fortunately, other players will usually stop an unfair trade.

With games being played everyday, it can be a little intimidating for newbies, but Yahoo has made this easy as well. On your team page, you are able to look at the upcoming days and set your roster accordingly. I usually look at least 5 days in advance and make sure I don't have players that are not playing taking up roster slots. It's very easy to edit them also. Just a drag and drop. Also always use the help section if you are confused over anything.

If you have a smart phone or tablet, running your team is even easier! There are great free and paid apps that will allow you to look at all of your teams and edit them from one place. The yahoo app actually has warning notifications if you have players on your team that have no game that day. That wy you can easily change your roster so you're not missing out on any valuable points.

The best thing to do is relax and have fun! It's a game after all, and its meant to be enjoyable not stressful!

ok, there's more than one question here, so

1. What advice would you give to a new person playing fantasy baseball?

answer: find another worthwhile hobby.

2. (paraphrased) What methods can be used to keep track of these statistics and variables

answer: sorry, I don't care one bit, but am sure there's many techniques to manage this "game"

3. What are the benefits of playing?

answer: there would be a ton more benefit from the millions of more worthwhile hobbies and games, or even just reading a book. But, any such game is beneficial if you need an activity to take up some time and have no other way of occupying yourself or exercising your mind.

note: I'm aware that I'm being a bit of a hypocrite; I mean, look, I'm answering questions on Yahoooooo.

First thing is the draft and that will be a big part of how you do for the season. I usually draft mostly hitters with high HR's for the first 3-5 rounds. HR's I feel is the most important stat because it effects 4 of the 5 cats in hitting. But you have to get some players that can get steals so you can be well-rounded in all 5 cats in hitting. The pitchers I grab early in the draft consist of 1 ace and usually 2 closers, you should get at least 3 closers on your team and try to get more throughout the season because saves are way easier to get than wins. I hardly ever trade, if you are on point with checking the waiver wire several times a day, you will catch other managers slipping when they put a good player on the waiver wire! Picking up good players on the waiver wire will prevent you from wanting to trade with another team. Always look at rankings for not just your team but for the whole league so you know who is hot and who is in a slump. Stay away from injury prone players, i don't care how good their stats are. If they have a history of being injured, they could get hurt right before the first round of the playoffs or a crucial time in the regular season and then you could be in trouble! I can't give up all of my secrets but the more you play, the more you will learn. Fantasy sports brings me back to my youth, when I first started watching sports. I say that because when one of my players does good, I get so excited like when I was a child. I am so grateful and I hope I have helped somebody out who is curious. Peace and love.

Well, I am a girl, so may be its very amazing to u all that i am answering it. actually i like to play any game. so, let me give the answer:

1 - Respect Your Fellow Owner

I know there is a segment of fantasy baseball owners who feel they should start with a low ball offer. Personally, if you're in a competitive league I don't see how you can expect a low ball offer to be accepted or close to being accepted. Furthermore, a vast majority of owners get very upset and insulted when you present them with a low ball offer. Also, not only will they not accept the offer, but most likely they will not counter back with a dialogue. In the future they will remember your poor offer and say to themselves ... :why am I going to contact that owner?" Knowing this, always send an offer that you can honestly say is at least fair.

2 - Interest Level

Has another owner communicated to you in the past ... "I really like so and so." Or has the owner had the player you are offering in the past ... and did that player do well for that owner? If you got the player in the most recent draft, was that owner involved in the bidding towards the end? The reason I am asking these questions is because if we can establish the other owners on a specific player or players, you are heading in the right direction to get a deal done.

3 - The Smell Test

Before sending an offer over to that particular owner, review it one final time and ask yourself ... Does it pass the smell test? The trade works for me but how does it work for the other owner? Now everyone has different values on players and opinions and different philosophies on putting their team together. If you can look at the offer and honestly say this is a fair offer, then it passed the smell test.

4 - Communication

When the owner gets back to you and let's say declines the offer, try to establish a dialogue and find out why he turned down the deal and see if it's possible to change some of the parameters around to get a deal done. You need to effectively communicate to get deals done.

5 - Strike When the Iron is Hot

If a deal is close and the difference is slight, do everything you can to get that deal over the finish line. Also if you are close and sense that other owner is ready to make a deal do not sit and wait keep the communication going and get the trade talks over the finish line. Many owners sometimes become inflexible when it's 1st and goal to get a deal done. Do not fall into that trap. Also, you allow the opportunity for other owners to communicate with the person you are close to a deal with and that other owner can swoop in and make a deal with the other owner you are trying to finalize a deal with. Again when you are close do everything you can to get it done.

6 - To Quite Patrick Swayze in Roadhouse "Always Be Nice"

Always keep it friendly and positive. Good attitude and camaraderie help get deals done in my experience.

Final Point

Even if you cannot get a deal done and if you followed these points, the next go around with that same owner on a possible trade could work to your advantage. You have established a postive rapport and given yourself a better chance to get a deal done in the future.

I play on CDM sports in the roto league. There you can have any player you want but you have a salary cap and each player is assigned a salary. What I do is scour around to see if any low priced players who have potential have become everyday players. This year I found Valdespin of the Mets, Belt of the Giants and Gyorko of the Padres. This enables me to take a few more high price players in my lineup. My league allows changes once a week so I make sure any pitchers I have that have 2 starts from the Monday thru the Sunday are active. Also diversify your team! In my roto league there are 5 batting catagories and 5 pitching catagories. In batting do not forget to get basestealers they also score a lot of runs and hit for a decent average and those are 3 catagories. The benefits in my league is there is a $50,000 grand prize, $2,000 division and if you can beat just 24 other teams in your assigned league there is a $1,000 prize for that.

Aside from all the obvious things like stay active and know the league settings, the biggest piece of advice I have is to not always go after the big name player. You will get the same amount of points from 2 guys that get 20 HR's and 20 SB's as you will for a guy that gets 40 HR and another who gets 40 SB. Plus the 20-20 guys will be available much later in the draft.

I tried filling my team with 5 tool players and pitchers that get more than 1 strikeout per inning and won my league 7 out of 8 years.

When fantasy baseball began back within the late 1970s and therefore the pc was simply obtaining off the bottom, the task of adding up monthly or maybe weekly stats by hand was overwhelming. To stay it straightforward, early versions of fantasy baseball featured solely a number of classes and one normal format.

If you've got ne'er compete fantasy baseball before it is time to review a number of basics. If you've got compete fantasy baseball before, take a glance at the various other ways to play you'll ne'er have thought of before.

First the fundamental principle: in fantasy baseball you build a team and rack up points supported your players' real-life performances. Your ability to identify the players WHO can have sturdy applied mathematics seasons can earn you praise - and presumably even a number of bucks.

There square measure 2 basic formats to enjoying fantasy baseball: A league or contest.

whoa! great draft i assume! Okay ive been doing this for a while and i found two flaws: You need to start the right people. Start Robbie Cano at second base. Hes been doing well in spring training, and was torrid at the end of last year. Also, Byrnes is coming off a career season. Dont expect him to match those stats in '08. Seems like a one time deal: Start Granderson: Power, speed, contact=wins. You have a lot of power, thats good, remember scott kazmir is injured, so he might get lots of K's, but his win loss and WHIP are projected to be high. I Like your choice of getting lots of relief pitchers who are preetty much every day. That will lower your WHIP a lot, especially wit papelbon and street. You can get a bit better staff with a trade or so, recommend replaceng kazmir once again, and also brett myers looks good. Lots of run support in philly this year. Overall i give this an 8.5/10, and i hope you have a good season!

You have to do your homework before the season starts. Get players who are consistent, and look for players on the rise/rookies who will make an impact. Use tools available to assist you on the website hosting the league and there are fantasy baseball magazines available to assist you. Also, get advice from friends who are veterans of fantasy baseball teams.

Craig Kimbrel is the best closer in baseball followed by Aroldis Chapman, but you should try and target some closers later in the draft. There's so many options for closers out there. None are better than Kimbrel and Chapman, but they will give you saves. You have others such as Jason Motte, Joe Nathan, Chris Perez, etc. Several closers also lose their jobs as the season goes on. You have an opportunity to pick one up then if one does lose their role. Last year I picked up Kenley Jansen and he was right behind Kimbrel and Chapman in strikeouts last year. I know that Brandon League is set to be the closer, but if he struggles, be prepared to pick up Jansen as he can be a dominant closer.There's plenty of others out there to waste a pick early on Kimbrel and Chapman.