Bloomberg Sports' Front Office 2011

Bloomberg Sports’ Front Office 2011 is the must-have tool for fantasy baseball players. After attending the product’s launch event, I am entirely convinced that this tool will take as much of the guess work as possible out of the fantasy equation.

They have developed a very intricate individual player projection system which is really the basis of the entire operation. Building upon that though, is the ability to sync with Yahoo, ESPN and CBS Sports leagues, and therefore have the entire player ranking system made specifically to the categories used in your league. Why would you want to follow Yahoo’s ranking system when they have a broad system which only focuses on 5x5 leagues, when your league uses OBP, or OPS, or an entirely different set of statistics? The specificity is absolutely invaluable, and is a huge game-changer for fantasy players. However, as great as that feature is, it is only made better by what Bloomberg Sports has built on top of that.

A free agent pick up analyzer will take a look at all of the available free agents, determine who will help you the most in the categories you need the most help in, and recommend players for you to add. Working from that same wavelength is the trade analyzer, which will take a look at your team, the other teams in your league and tell you what trades will be the most beneficial for you to propose, so as long as they are fair for both parties. Anyone can tell you to offer Melky Cabrera for Albert Pujols, but the trade analyzer will tell you who you would need to give up for Albert Pujols, so that the trade works out for you, and is feasible for the other team as well. Additionally, if you have an idea for a specific trade, you can enter that into the system, and it will tell you whether or not it works for you and the other team. As if that was not enough, it explains to you exactly why the trade works for both parties. Finally, the program will make recommendations on who you should start and who you should sit in your lineup on a daily basis.

In summary, the tool helps you draft with the ranking system, improve your team externally with the free agent and trade analyzers and help your team internally with the lineup recommendation system. This tool looks to change the face of fantasy baseball, one championship at a time.

#1 Rule of Fantasy Baseball: Honor the home run ball

Every category in a fantasy league is important, make no mistake. However, in typical 5x5 leagues and generally in leagues with more categories, certain stats have a wider ranging impact. For example, in a 5x5 league, a double will help you in one category (AVG) with the potential to help in two others (RBI and R). A stolen base, meanwhile, contributes in one category for sure with a very small likelihood of helping out in one other (R). By this logic, home runs, which contribute to four stat categories (AVG, HR, R, RBI) are the #1 stat to target when drafting players. Obviously, the percentage of how much more important home runs are than other categories depends on the league and which stats are counted, but almost universally, home runs are far more important than everything else. This gives us the #1 rule of fantasy baseball, which is to NEVER overlook how valuable home runs really are. As an added bonus, because most of the fantasy baseball scene undervalues home runs, drafting players with a particular gift for putting balls in the seats is even easier, and gives you more flexibility to cherry pick the players you want, without worrying as much about someone jumping on one of your targets just before your pick. For example, if you look at the home run totals, you might see Dan Uggla as an extremely valuable player at second base, while almost everyone else will value guys like Utley and Cano more, giving you a great opportunity to draft Uggla without using a very high pick.
All this being said, you should not draft players blindly based on their HR total, but instead, you should weight everything appropriately before deciding to choose a player.