Kershaw (15-day DL) will hope to dominate again 2014

Many of you are preparing for your first week of fantasy baseball and for those of you that are brand new to the game, don’t worry. If you’re wondering what it is you might need to consider for your first week, how about things like how many games are your players playing this week (this isn’t football). When it comes to your pitchers, is your ace taking the mound twice?

If your rosters aren’t locked yet, now is the time get players moved around before it is too late to pull your player that is on the 15-Day DL. Again, don’t worry if you haven’t thought of these things, just take a look below to cover all your bases.

ESPN: Fantasy Forecaster: Week 1

As many of you are aware, stars like Clayton Kershaw and Yu Darvish are missing week 1. Other guys such as Mat Latos, Mike Minor, Doug Fister and Hisashi Iwakuma are also likely to miss Week 1. Right off the bat, starting pitching for fantasy teams is already cloudy. That’s not all that Tristan Cockcroft (ESPN) is covering in his article. To guide you through week 1, he’s hitting all the topics including lineup deadlines, interleague impact, projected starting pitchers, pitching scuttlebutt, week 1 pitcher rankings, pitching advantages, hitting ratings and hitting advantages. Now that we’ve plowed through that list of topics, you’re probably wondering what’s discussed within each one. I won’t take you through them all, but lets talk two-start options for AL-/NL- only leagues. Just jot these names down, you may want to consider starting them. Brandon McCarthy, Ricky Nolasco, Erasmo Ramirez, Tanner Scheppers and Chris Tillman. For the rest of the article, head on over to ESPN and give it a read.

Sports Illustrated: Weekly Planner: The closer countdown, plus young arms to watch

Michael Beller (SI) takes us through what will be his weekly article which is accurately titled “Weekly Planner”. In this weeks edition, it is all about pitching. That doesn’t mean there isn’t any other advice in here, particularly the part where he advises you not to be that owner who is locked in to the roster they drafted and unwilling to make early season trades. Evaluating your roster early on to recognize deficiencies is key. That being said, the closer position is one place where you’ll need to be patient and watchful according to Beller. The reliever carousel is a normal part of baseball these days, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any guys you can depend on. Beller’s Top 5 closers for the first week are Craig Kimbrel, Greg Holland, Kenley Jansen, Koji Uehara and Trevor Rosenthal. For the rest of his releivers and list of top two-start pitchers, give his article a read.

The Fantasy Fix: Week 1 Pitching Preview

Andrew Miller (The Fantasy Fix) will be updating his guide throughout the season to look purely at pitching lineups for each and every week. To make it easy on the eyes, he’s gone ahead and provided us a  list of two-Start pitchers which are color coded by what he considers borderline start/sit options. Also listed are one-start player rankings, updated to include the most recent injuries, and streaming starters for the week. Some of his recommendations include passing on Matt Moore, Bartolo Colon and Tim Lincecum in the first week. For the rest of his recommendations, take a look at Miller’s Week 1 pitching review.

SportingNews: Get ready for Week 1 with Fantasy Source Baseball

This spring has made fantasy baseball a little more difficult for week 1. The top two pitchers aren’t available, the season started in Australia and some may have had their league lineups locked in (raises my hand), and some other key players are questionable for their season starts. All of this leads to headaches when trying to set your lineup, but this is baseball and some of you may punt in certain categories anyway, so that means you still have a chance! Matt Lutovsky (Sporting News) is bringing us his week ahead look spotlighting a few streaming pitchers that may help you get off to a nice start. Names such as Tyler Skaggs and Felipe Paulino are brought up, take a look at the article to see who else may be a good streaming option.

Fantasy CPR: How to Use Streaming Starters to Win Your Fantasy Baseball Championship

Since we mentioned streaming starters above, it may help some of you who are unfamiliar with the term to give this article a read. Zachary Thompson (Fantasy CPR) talks about the strategy of streaming starters to help you win categories throughout the season. The basic idea of streaming starters has to do with changing out one designated player on your team regularly and adding a pitcher who will be starting the next day. That pitcher ideally would contribute to your stats such as wins, strikeouts, innings pitched, and etc. For a greater explanation on how to use streaming starters as a strategy, give Thompson’s article a read.

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