One Day to Opening Day: Last Minute Fantasy Tips & Resouces

Our season is longest and, save four days in the middle, prepare to be working for one half year straight (at least as an MLB Fantasy Analyst - hopefully we do the work for you). This is because every day a game is played and if you miss the highlights, then you will be ill-prepared for the next day. If you go on a weeklong fantasy vacation and come back, you have no clue...Don't play on your own. In the trend business, you need to have all gaps in time filled. While you can let the stats talk, there is really no substitute for watching 3 scorching line drives that are mere outs in a box score or an ump squeezing a pitcher and some ks (& maybe a win). So this business is pretty much all in or nothing. 162 games is a marathon season. That's 4860 games to study (not counting playoffs). So how do you prepare for the long haul? Here's what I do:

1. Subscribe to an MLB stats service: There is no excuse to having stats. Some are free, the best cost $. You can subscribe to a decent site for about $15/month. Just make sure to cancel in October. So figure around $100 to spend on stat services. Choose what features suit you best. I won my stats service on RotoQL (finishing 1st in a 20k-person $1 FD special contest, lucky me). It is a good site, it suits all my needs. I recommend them, but there are many sites out there. For a good free stats version, check out rotoguru2.com. I still use it today from time to time.

2. Gets your "Odds" & Ends Together: Make sure you have access to a good Vegas Odds, Reference Stats, Daily Lineup, & Weather sites. 

(a) Vegas Odds: I goto vegasinsider.com - it has all i need.

(b) Reference Stats: bbref.com - particularly for pitcher vs. team. most of your paid programs will have a repertoire of useful stats as well, but bbref has everything (sometimes you gotta goto minor leagues).

(c) Daily Lineups: Fan Duel & Draft Kings now provide this info, but you may want to check the free Daily Line-Up sites, such as RotoWire, RotoGrinders, & mlb.com. I prefer RotoWire, but that's just me. Just make sure to check line-ups right before a game...sometimes there are late scratches. 

(d) Choose a decent weather site. This is what sux about forecasting baseball (those basketball analysts are wimps!). One can ruin a whole day with a rainout! I use the vegasinsider.com weather link, but when in any question I goto weather.com. when in question, I watch the weather.com future radar map. Of course your more expensive stat services have decent weather prediction features as well. Pick one.

3. Watch as many games as you can, ask others to do the same. Query them...There is no substitute for being there. At least watch the highlights show on MLBNetwork (preferred to ESPN). Also the MLB Package costs arond $165 on TV. I just get AtBat premium on my iPhone, it's $20/year...the best deal. You can go for 5 months for $15. For those old schoolers, read the newspaper box scores, just make sure it has all the late games as well...this could skew your data. Don't stress out if you can't see all the games, but it will help in choosing players, particularly on coin flips. 

In conclusion, this seems like a lot of resources to start, but figure a good stats site can provide most of the above features necessary for an MLB Fantasy Analyst. It's pretty much just maintaining a regular method (and not missing a day). It can be a lot of work, but prepping yourself for a daily ritual makes it much less stressful (you watch). In the end document the steps you perform and list them so someone else can fill in if you can't be there. Good Luck, no one said MLB was easy, but at least you can say you were prepared. ;)