Fantasy

Two weeks from now, MLB will return in all its glory, leaving precious time for fantasy baseball players to draft a winning squad.

Let's hope you didn't jump the gun on draft day. If so, most of your starting pitchers are already headed to the disabled list, or worse—undergoing Tommy John surgery. 

The start of baseball season not only indicates the beginning of warm weather across the country, it also means there is another sport to compete in daily fantasy.

With competitions just about every day of the regular season, Major League Baseball represents a fun way to compete and potentially make money on a consistent basis.

Of course, it takes a lot of work to be successful in this sport. Even the top hitters and pitchers can have bad games, so you have to figure out how to find players with the best chances to succeed while staying within your budget.

Baseball has finally returned. With actual games—albeit ones that don't count—in the books, it's time for fantasy baseball players to buckle down for draft day.

While spring training shouldn't drastically change anybody's predraft outlook, ignoring the exhibition clashes altogether is also ill-advised. If you're searching for the right things, March happenings can help in small doses.

Here's the first look at the 2015 Lester's Legends Starting Pitcher Rankings.


1. Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers

Clayton Kershaw remains the best pitcher in baseball, as he won his third Cy Young in the past four seasons. In 2014, he went 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA, a 0.86 WHIP and 239 strikeouts. Since 2011, Kershaw is 72-26 with 237 strikeouts per season, a 2.11 ERA and a 0.95 WHIP.


2. Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners

If you're one of those fantasy baseballers who enjoys waiting until a few weeks into spring training to start drafting, then you're going to want to continue down the page.

What's to follow is every fantasy players' dream—an easily digestible, in-depth, position-by-position ranking of every position owners need to fill on draft day.

With the 2015 baseball season nearing—pitchers and catchers report next week!—the fantasy version of the sport needs all kinds of attention. Like, right now. Because we fantasy folk can be an insecure lot, and we'll spend the next few weeks poring over names, statistics and information to prepare for drafts.

With that in mind, it's time to focus on stacking up players based on their value going forward. That's where the first big board of the year comes into play.

Here’s the first look at the 2015 Lester’s Legends designated hitter rankings.

1. Edwin Encarnacion, Toronto Blue Jays

Edwin Encarnacion has averaged 86 runs, 37.3 home runs and 104 RBI over the past three seasons. He’s a great bet for power, but as a .265 career hitter, he could hurt you in the batting-average category. Encarnacion also has first base eligibility.

With the top 150 fantasy baseball players all ordered and ranked on the initial 2015 Big Board, the individual position rankings are well underway. All told, there will be (count 'em) 300 players ranked.

With the top 150 fantasy baseball players all ordered and ranked on the initial 2015 Big Board, it's time to get into the individual position rankings. All told, there will be (count 'em) 300 players ranked.

Spring training is underway, which means two things above all: One, the weather is bound to warm up (eventually); and two, fantasy baseball owners are prepping for their drafts and warming to the idea of another long, challenging, daunting—and yet oh-so-fun—season of player selection, trade talk and lineup decisions.

While we unfortunately can't do anything about the weather, we can make your fantasy baseball planning and picking a heck of a lot easier.