Fantasy

The regular season is about to begin, so all the fantasy baseball owners have to get their teams in order leading up to Opening Day.

If you are a fantasy baseball fan, I've got news for you: Fantasy football is better.

Yes, even with a lockout, the NFL rears its more powerful head to once again prove its dominance in all things sports-related.

Fantasy baseball is a great sport, but fantasy football is better, and here are 10 reasons why.

This week, we take a look at our second "September Star" pitcher: Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner made only one start in 2009, but wound up getting 18 in 2010. His season was a little up-and-down by month, but he was stellar in July and September.

Let's focus on his September stat line to try and discover if he can continue his effectiveness into 2011.

How many baseball fans know that the Minnesota Twins won one less game than the Yankees last year? Not many, I am sure. This is fantasy land though where wins in real life don't necessarily translate into fantasy points.

You will not find many Twins going as high as you might think. One thing that is perfectly clear though is that Target Field is holding back many Twins from decent power numbers.

Rickie Weeks dominated in 2010. His final stats of 112/29/83/11 and triple slash line of .269/.366/.464 were impressive to say the least.

Chris Davis leads the majors with 15 RBI this spring.

He’s hitting .409 with an OPS of 1.247. Davis has seven doubles and four home runs in 44 at bats.

He destroyed Triple-A pitching last year hitting .327 with 14 HR and 80 RBI in 398 at bats. He tore up Triple-A pitching in 2009, also hitting .327 with six home runs and 30 RBI in 165 at bats.

If you are in a 12 team mixed league, after 20 rounds, 240 players have been selected.

At this point in your draft, you suddenly realize that you have three to eight rounds left, you have not filled several positions, your draft sheet has no one left on it that is still undrafted and your sleeper picks are also gone. 

Is it time to panic? 

No, it is time to take a breath and analyze your current team. 

ADP data can be one of the most useful items of information you can have at your draft.

Not only will you afford yourself the knowledge of knowing who you can and can't grab later, but you'll also find hidden gems that the rest of the fantasy baseball community are letting slip too far.

It is these gems we will focus on in this article as I lay out my All Forgotten Team.

To combat my ignorance the first time I played fantasy baseball, I did what anyone does when they need answers: consulted the Internet. This was 2005—the Industrial Age for the web—so fantasy commentary was just starting to percolate “back then”; it wasn’t as obvious where to go for information.

What I couldn’t get my head around was a concept I kept reading about—this concept of Value. Only experience could help answer questions like:  

Some closers are safe bets to perform on a year-in, year-out basis.  We all know who they are, and depending on your strategy when it comes to closers, most of us want to own them. 

For those who like waiting until the late rounds to fill the spot, you must realize that all closers are not created equal.  Just because someone appears to be a lock to close games out, it does not make him an option worth targeting.

Auction drafts are becoming more and more popular in fantasy baseball and I can see why. It is by far my favorite way to draft. Everyone has a chance at any player they would like as long as they're willing to pay enough to get him. There is so much more strategy involved and you are more rewarded for knowing your stuff than you are in a conventional snake draft.