Hi all - I'm playing in a fantasy baseball league this year for the first time, and our draft is tonight. Can anyone give me a primer on the strategy/approach when drafting? Go pitching early or hitting? I don't really know how to build the team. Its an 8-team league, scoring is Head-to-head points, with a roster of 22 players - 16 starters and 6 bench players. Thanks in advance for any replies.

Always start out with Hitters. Starting pitchers usually only pitch every 4 or 5 days so they don't effect your numbers as much as your everyday players plus even the mediocre pitcher usually has a pretty good game now and then which may be all you need to win that week. I usually go Hitters with my first 4 picks at least.

Wait on pitchers.

Thanks Dawg66 and CFRS15 for the help. I picked 2nd and I tried a strategy I read about online after I didn't get Mike Trout. I immediately took Clay Kershaw to anchor my staff, and then just took hitters for the next 7 or 8 picks. I missed out on some big boppers like Miggy, Bautista, McCutcheon, Goldschmidt, Stanton, but still put together a pretty decent (I *think*) team ...

C Evan Gattis
1B Adrian Gonzalez
2B Brian Dozier
SS Troy Tulowitski
3B Pablo Sandoval
OF Adam Jones
OF Ryan Braun
OF Yoenis Cespedes
DH/Util Joey Votto / Jay Bruce / Brandon Belt / Oswaldo Arcia / David Wright

SP Clay Kershaw
SP Adam Wainwright
SP Doug Fister
SP Rick Porcello
SP Anibel Sanchez

RP Aroldis Chapman

I goofed up and forgot a backup Catcher, so I'm eyeballing the Waiver list for that. Thanks again.

That was dumb, but in a eight team league you should be fine.

Ha! The article I read called it "The Anchor Strategy". Part of it is that, supposedly, you'll start an early mini-run on SP's, and 6 pitchers were then taken in the next two rounds, which gave me a shot at a lot of second tier power. Not sure I caused the run, but two guys told me later that they were planning to take Kershaw too. Five other guys probably thought I was an idiot, but maybe they'll be singing a different tune after Kershaw has two complete game victories with double-digit K's in the first week of the season. That's the theory, anyway.

C - Carlos Santana
1B - Miguel Cabrera
2B - Ian Kinsler
SS - Ian Desmond
3B - Adrian Beltre
OF - Andrew McCutchen
OF - Jacoby Ellsbury
OF - Ryan Braun
UT - David Ortiz

SP - Chris Sale
SP - Madison Bumgarner
SP - Corey Kluber
SP - Johnny Cueto

RP - Aroldis Chapman
RP - David Robertson

Nice lineup, really nice pitching staff. In our ESPN league, Santana was classified as 1B/3B/DH, but not as a Catcher.

For the record.... Carrying a backup catcher is a waste of a roster spot.

Especially in an eight team league.