Position Scarcity

Fantasy baseball is right around the corner and about to begin. Like myself I'm sure that many of you are excited for the upcoming season to finally begin so we may not only waste hours upon hours watching baseball, but also do so by playing fantasy baseball. I've been a baseball fan my whole life, but truly started understanding the game 8 years ago and this will be my second year doing fantasy baseball. I'm only giving you this insight about me so you can understand where I'm coming from. Sorry if I'm boring you at this point. This blog is to get some understanding and maybe some input on the whole position scarcity situation that plays into effect when looking at this topic. My first year I had put very little thought into the idea. I ended up winning my league though, but it probably had a lot to do with luck. I had drafted Dustin Pedroia 77th, Kevin Youkilis 97th, Jhonny Peralta 164, and at catcher I had drafted Ivan Rodriguez whom I dropped later to pick up Geovany Soto from the FA and a few other great players that aren't regarding this topic.

So this leads me to wonder how important position scarcity really is if you can grab players in such late rounds whom end up having great years. Last year our draft was done by the computer, but this year it was a live draft. It happened on February 21 and so that may have been why people were drafted at the places where they were, so keep that in mind. This year I completely went the other way around though in my thinking of position scarcity. My first pick was Josh Hamilton at #11, I needed the best hitter I could get for my first pick not so much regarding position. Mind you if I had a higher pick I might have thought differently. Next I went with a risky pick at #18 with Chase Utley. Ian Kinsler had been taken, but I still would have went with Utley. I could have had any pitcher at this point, but I may have been paying attention to position scarcity too much. Still not a bad pick. And with my 3rd pick at number 39 I went with Russel Martin. Sorry if I'm boring you, but I figured I would let you know whom I went with this year.

I tend to be obsessed with the idea. You look at the drop off after Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, and Jimmy Rollins and it's quite big. Just like with Chase Utley and Ian Kinsler. I mean all these guys you could legitimately pick in the first round. While you can pick up so many first basemen or outfielders in the later rounds and certainly pitchers with the thinking that you never know who will do well there. Look who came out as the best pitchers last season, Cliff Lee and Tim Lincecum. I mean who would have thought Cliff Lee would be the best pitcher in the AL last season? While Jake Peavy was chosen in the 2nd round of my draft last year. Here is another interesting thing about my draft last season regarding Lee, he wasn't even drafted out of 190 players. Right there should tell you how important pitching is when doing a draft. My opinion on this whole situation here is that you should worry about position more so than not. The only thing I can say to oppose this idea is to not pick someone simply because you lost out on someone else, wait till it's the appropriate time to pick that person. Last season there were 12 first basemen who hit 29 home runs and in the outfield there were 23 players who had 25 or more. While at catcher nobody hit more then 23, at second base you had two people who hit above 21, and at shortstop you had four hitters who had above 16. I'm using home runs because it can contribute in four different areas and is a category in which I think is the most important of all. At least when it comes to fantasy value in head to head leagues. Hoping I changed some minds or at least made you maybe rethink about the question regarding position scarcity.

Corey Sobel - Talkin Baseball