Tips for winning your fantasy baseball draft

Yahoo Fantasy analyst Andy Behrens offers some draft advice for managers ahead of the 2024 MLB season.

Video Transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

ANDY BEHRENS: Welcome to Yahoo fantasy baseball, the 2024 edition. I have been charged with giving you strategy tips to make it a championship season. Don't worry. No one else is seeing this. It's just me and you talking. Let's get to it.

The biggest detail by far for fantasy managers is that stolen bases took off in a huge way last season following the sweeping rule changes. It was like the 1980s all over again. An average team last season stole 34 more bags than the year before. That's an increase of over 40%.

What I need you to remember is that you need to think about steals in every round and at every roster spot. There are no free squares with this stat. Get your steals early. Get them late. Get a couple steals from your first baseman, your catcher, everybody. You can afford maybe one big, beefy slugger with zero speed, but no more than that.

And if we're talking about steals, let's also have a word about saves. People have been telling me for years they don't want to mess around with closers on sketchy teams. Not enough winning. Not enough save opportunities. Well, I'll direct your attention to the fact that last year the guys who led both leagues in saves were on teams that won 70-something games, non-playoff teams. There's barely a relationship between dominant teams and the top fantasy closers.

That's it. That's all you need to go crush this draft.