FantasyPros Staff | Thu, Mar 21st 2019, 2:02pm EDT

Bobby Sylvester’s Cheat Sheet for Family and Friends (Fantasy Baseball)

When I took this job three years ago, friends and family members alike commonly expected me to sit down and talk about their draft prep for two hours. While I would love to do that, the lead up to fantasy baseball season is a mad rush with over 100,000 words written in the past two months and over 20 podcasts. There just isn’t enough time in the day so I started building this cheat sheet and just giving it to them when they asked for advice. Last football season, I decided to make it a public article and so here we are again in baseball season. I hope you all enjoy!

For any more specific questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter.

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My Favorite Targets by Position

Catcher (J.T. Realmuto 5th round, Wilson Ramos 12th, Yadier Molina 13th)
1st Base (Miguel Cabrera 12th round, Joey Gallo 9th, Cody Bellinger 5th)
2nd Base (Daniel Murphy 6th round, Robinson Cano 9th, Rougned Odor 12th)
Shortstop (Adalberto Mondesi 4th round, Paul DeJong 14th, Jonathan Villar 8th)
3rd Base (Maikel Franco 21st Round, Josh Donaldson 9th, Rafael Devers 12th)
Outfield (Andrew McCutchen 11th Round, Matt Kemp 22nd, Tommy Pham 6th, A.J. Pollock 9th, Ryan Braun 16th, Yasiel Puig 8th, Starling Marte 4th, Byron Buxton 14th, Domingo Santana 20th)
Utility (Any of the guys above and Shohei Ohtani 14th)
Starting Pitchers (Ross Stripling 16th Round, Rich Hill 14th, Blake Snell 3rd, Walker Buehler 4th, Chris Paddack 21st, Matt Strahm 25th, Robbie Ray 11th, Yu Darvish 12th, Jesus Luzardo 24th, Jack Flaherty 7th, Zack Greinke 6th, Michael Pineda 25th, Jimmy Nelson 24th, Forrest Whitley 23rd)
Relief Pitchers (Trevor May 20th Round, Jordan Hicks 18th, Josh Hader 10th, Jose LeClerc 11th, Kirby Yates 11th, Seranthony Dominguez 20th, Ryan Pressly 25th, Chad Green 25th, Ryan Braiser 24th)

My Favorite Targets by Round

1st (Ronald Acuna, Max Scherzer)
2nd (Manny Machado, Aaron Judge)
3rd (Blake Snell, Whit Merrifield)
4th-5th (Adalberto Mondesi, Walker Buehler, J.T. Realmuto, Starling Marte, Cody Bellinger)
6th-7th (Daniel Murphy, Zack Greinke, Tommy Pham, Jack Flaherty,
8th-9th (Jonathan Villar, A.J. Pollock, Robinson Cano, Josh Donaldson, Yasiel Puig)
10th-12th (Robbie Ray, Andrew McCutchen, Josh Hader, Wilson Ramos, Yu Darvish, Jose LeClerc, Rougned Odor, Rafael Devers, Kirby Yates
13th-15th (Miguel Cabrera, Rich Hill, Shohei Ohtani, Paul DeJong, Byron Buxton, Billy Hamilton, Ryan Braun, Yadier Molina)
16th-18th (Ross Stripling, Jordan Hicks, Shane Bieber, Pedro Strop, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Domingo Santana, Garrett Hampson, Archie Bradley)
19th-23rd (Trevor May, Maikel Franco, Matt Kemp, Chris Paddack, Seranthony Dominguez, Forrest Whitley, Ryan Brasier, Miguel Sano, Dellin Betances,
ADP 300+ (Matt Strahm, Jimmy Nelson, Jesus Luzardo, Will Smith, Michael Pineda, Chad Green, Evan Longoria, Freddy Peralta, Jorge Soler, Ryan Pressly, Steven Souza Jr., Carl Edwards Jr.)

Players I’m Avoiding Near ADP

Jesus Aguilar (1B – MIL)
Matt Carpenter (1B/3B – STL)
Jose Ramirez (2B/3B – CLE)
Ozzie Albies (2B – ATL)
Kris Bryant (3B – CHC)
Miguel Andujar (3B – NYY)
Javier Baez (SS – CHC)
Amed Rosario (SS – NYM)
Juan Soto (OF – WAS)
Rhys Hoskins (1B/OF – PHI)
Aaron Hicks (OF – NYY)
Jose Martinez (1B/OF – STL)
James Paxton (SP – NYY)
Clayton Kershaw (SP – LAD)
Jameson Taillon (SP – PIT)
Madison Bumgarner (SP – SFG)
German Marquez (SP – COL)
Edwin Diaz (RP – NYM)
Kenley Jansen (RP – LAD)
Roberto Osuna (RP – HOU)
Raisel Iglesias (RP – CIN)

General Strategy

Get one of the top 7 catchers
Don’t worry about reaching at any other position
Load your league settings into our auction calculator and use it for rankings
Practice from your spot in the draft using our 5-minute mock draft tool
Know your league settings and adjust your rankings/targets accordingly
Decide if you are using a strategy (see below) and stick to your guns
Don’t drink too much at your draft
Don’t shy away from boring players or those who have burned you in the past
Be careful in auctions to avoid bidding wars or bidding someone up
Get your guys. It is more fun that way.
Make sure to draft Miguel Cabrera