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The Counselor is IN:

As The Fantasy Sports Counselor, I like to experience new and unique fantasy leagues. I am currently in the middle of a unique fantasy baseball draft. Most fantasy baseball leagues will not start drafting until very late January through early April but this one starts early. This will help me get prepared for the rest of the fantasy baseball drafts by forcing me to examine players now.

The league I am participating in is a a MLB Fantasy Dynasty Draft over at Talk-Baseball.com, a fun baseball centric forum. The draft preparation started with each team selecting a roster of a current MLB team (set on Jan 1, 2010). Not only do you have that team’s roster as a base but their salary total for last season as your salary cap. You use last season’s salaries for players and have to stay under that cap. Here are their categories: OFFENSE: OBP, HR, R, RBI, SB and PITCHING: W, S+H (saves plus holds), SO, ERA, WHIP.

After selecting your team, you take the 40 man roster and cut it down to 10-25 players. You need to be conscience of last year’s salaries and the fantasy value of these players. You could take the full expected 25 man roster for a team but it should depend on the team you select.

After submitting keep roster, they have a 15 round draft of available free agents but you take on their salaries from last season. There is a lot of strategy to this. You have to weigh the fantasy potential of the player against their salaries and your team needs. Since you are not going in empty handed, you may or may not have specific positions of need that may need to be filled first. A small market team will be looking for more value and potential of a player over a fantasy stud that has a huge salary.

After the draft, you can have a roster up to 40 players until late in March where you have to set your 25 man roster. You must have your team lineup meet (Active-C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, IF, LF, CF, RF, [yes you have to have 20 games at an outfield position to qualify] OF, U, SP, SP, SP, SP, RP, RP, RP, RP- and 6 bench spots and one spot for a DL) and be under your salary cap. You also need to leave enough room to pick up other players for injuries and replacements.

I selected the Texas Rangers, since they are my favorite team and were still available. There are some benefits to picking the Rangers and some challenges. The big benefit is this team is loaded with young talent at the position players which have low salaries. They have a solid starter in Josh Feldman, who is young, talented, with #1 pitcher potential for #5 starter salary. They also have a solid closer and set up guy. The challenges I face in selecting the Rangers stem from their lack of quality starting pitching beyond Feldman and some of their young talent has not produced on the field yet such as Chris Davis at 1st base.

My first two picks were the high salaried stud pitcher - Roy Halladay and then the more moderate salaried Cy Young winner Zack Greinke to shore up my pitching staff. I then picked up 1B Kendry Morales, who has a fairly low salary, so I can let Chris Davis sit on the bench and develop as a prospect.

This is a fun experience and different than any other fantasy league I have been a part of. If you are looking for a new fantasy baseball challenge, let me encourage you to check out a MLB Fantasy Dynasty Draft. It will bring a lot of new wrinkles to your fantasy baseball season.

As the draft continues, I will try to update FSC on the status of my team and the challenges I face.

The Counselor is OUT:

More… __________________
Larry Bud
The Fantasy Sports Counselor