The baseball season is winding down and I have an unbeatable lead. So I can now celebrate that I have completed the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports Triple Crown, with consecutive league titles in football, basketball, and baseball. These leagues are very competitive, so this no small feat. In this article I will share some tips of how I pulled this off. You will notice that all of these tips have one common thread — use common sense, this is not rocket science.
The first and most important tip is that the use of the Yahoo! Fantasy app for your smart phone has become a prerequisite for success. As a recent example, on the opening day of the NFL season this year, there was considerable doubt if Arian Foster would be playing. He said that he would play, but he was listed as questionable. I went to church with my family and even after the service at around 11:30, I still could not find out for sure if he would be playing, and we were headed to brunch with some friends. Eventually I found out that Foster was out, but I had him handcuffed with Ben Tate, so using the mobile app I was able to change my lineup shortly before game time to insert Tate.
The second tip is to pay attention during the draft. This sounds trite, but it is really important. In the baseball league we have a live draft, complete with the commissioner’s gourmet cooking of shrimp cakes. There is always a rumor that pizza is on the way but that never seems to materialize. Each of the 12 managers is given a spreadsheet so that they can write down each draft selection as it is made. The first rows are filled in with the six keepers for each team. Inevitably, around the fifth or six round, someone tries to draft another manager’s keeper. I don’t know if that is when the beer starts to kick in, but this is clearly an example of not paying attention. We had a big argument this year whether such a move would merit receipt of the “J. J. Putz” award,” a trophy I had made up for the worst draft pick each year. The name originates from a manager making Putz his first draft pick one year.
The third tip is to pay attention when rookies get called up. In this year’s baseball league, in mid year, I was able to pick up Vance Worley, Brett Lawrie, and Desmond Jennings from the free agent list. When you consider that one of the keepers for next year needs to be a rookie, you can see that somebody was not paying attention.
The fourth tip is to remember to set your lineup in daily baseball and basketball leagues. In the baseball league, my games-played total was more than 100 above another manager. That doesn’t sound like a lot until you consider that the average game played produces approximately a half of a run and a half of an RBI, so those 100 games could add up to 50 RBIs and 50 runs. This could make a big swing in your standings.
The fifth and final tip is to avoid being a “homer” and loading up on players from your home team. Since I am a Mets fan, I know that I would be too optimistic about a Met player’s value, so I try to avoid drafting any of them. However, I must admit that the Triple Crown run did start last fall when I snagged Michael Vick off of the wire early in the season just as soon as Kevin Kolb got hurt, and I am a diehard Eagles fan. That move certainly won me the football league. How can one person be both a Philadelphia Eagles fan and a New York Mets fan? That’s a long story for another day.
Good luck in fantasy football this year. I will be hard pressed to do a two-peat this season, but the Triple Crown streak was fun while it lasted. If you ever need one more manager to round out your league, send me an email. I’m in.